Temple's recent gift is named after Jeanne Zweig, a former business student who was disabled.
In early February, Temple University put out a press release in which the Philadelphia-based school announced a “landmark gift” for its physically disabled students. The $10.9 million donation will “create an endowed fund to help students with physical disabilities pursue an education and earn their degree.” The fund will “generate approximately $450,000 every year in perpetuity to benefit Jeanne Zweig scholarship recipients,” according to Temple’s announcement.
The gift will support the Jeanne Zweig Endowment, named for former Temple alum Jeanne Zweig. Zweig, a business student, had cerebral palsy and later would go on to launch an accounting firm that proved a very successful business.
“The donation from the Zweig estate is among the largest gifts awarded to a university in support of students with disabilities,” the university said about the donation in the press release. “Details related to the gift and subsequent scholarship were finalized at the end of last year, and Temple plans to begin awarding the scholarship to eligible students this fall.”
For Rachael Stark, the ginormous donation is bound to make a ginormous impact.
“We will be able to provide direct scholarships to students who are registered with DRS. This will be the first-of-its-kind scholarship that can truly cover full tuition for students which can be a barrier to attendance,” Stark said of the Zweig gift in an interview with me over email early last month. “The endowment will also be able to cover assistance technology for students should they need accommodations above and beyond what we currently have available for students.”
Am 11-year member of the the school’s faculty, Stark is Temple’s senior associate dean of students. One of the many things under her purview is the so-called Disability Resources and Services office. She also oversees the Cherry Pantry, which, in another form of accessibility, is an on-campus pantry that stocks goods free of charge for students facing food insecurity. In addition to disability resources and the Cherry Pantry, Stark is in charge of case management as well.
As for the Zweig gift, Stark described it as the “largest single endowment” the school has received during her tenure. “We are so excited about what this will mean for students with disabilities on our campus,” she said.
Every college has a Disability Resources and Services office, although the actual name for it may differ from place to place. In my time taking early childhood development classes at my then-local community college a decade-and-a-half ago, I was registered with the school’s disability services department. In a nutshell, whether at Temple or here in the Bay Area, disability services are designed to support students with disabilities in excelling at their educational pursuits. This can include receiving extra time for exams, textbooks and other materials in Braille and large print, and much more. Technologically speaking, there is access to computers and other assistive devices such as CCTVs, which enlarges and inverts color contrast (typically to white-on-black) on paper and other reading.
Besides a college’s bespoke disability services office, there exists a relatively new and unknown entity in the National Center for College Students with Disabilities (NCCSD). One of the three main jobs of the NCCSD, founded in 2015 and funded by the US Department of Education, aims to “provide technical assistance and information to anyone needing information about disability and higher education, including college students, their families, faculty, college administrators and staff, disability services professionals, researchers, and policymakers.” In sum, the NCCSD is a resource for disabled people—and their allies, for that matter—to gather information on how higher education serves the disability community.
For Temple’s part, Stark told me the school services 3,500 disabled students. The Disability Resources and Services office, she told me, helps students with things like scholarships, housing, and any academic accommodations. Moreover, the office also assists students with disabilities in connecting with one another via the school’s SHOUT peer support group. They also help facilitate career development and employment opportunities through the university’s career center.
“It is important for all students to have the support and resources that they need to be successful,” Stark said of the importance of embracing accessibility.
Stark elaborated on what Temple’s work in servicing the disabled contingent of the student body special. She believes the school “leads” in this regard because they look at students holistically. They are empathetic to students’ financial and social needs, which include involvement in the various clubs and peer groups on campus. As well, the Disability Resources and Services office collaborates with the myriad schools and colleges within the university, including the Fox School of Business, of which Zweig was a graduate in 1953. “Academic programs are why the students are here, but Temple is recognized as a disability friendly campus due to our approach as we know there is more to college than what is learned in the classroom, similarly there is more to the students we serve. Temple looks to serve all student needs, be they academic, financial, social, [or] emotional,” Stark said.
Broadly speaking, Stark’s work matters so much because, as she said, college isn’t cheap. It can be difficult, if not downright impossible, for a disabled person to budget for school-related expenses on top of needing to account for doctor’s appointments, medication, and even technology like a laptop or tablet. Stark astutely noted insurance doesn’t pay for everything, so the weight of additional strain can well be too much for a cash-strapped disabled person to bear.
To that end, she explained the sizable Zweig donation is expected to be so beneficial because the funds will go a long ways towards continuing to “ensure student success now and in the future,” Stark said.
