The Manhattan College Specialized Resource Center (SRC) serves various students with special needs, including individuals with a temporary disability, by offering academic support in a positive and welcoming learning environment. The SRC strives to ensure equitable educational opportunities for our students by providing access to full participation in all aspects of campus life.
The SRC is a resource for full- and part-time students, including graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and staff. These services are voluntary, strictly confidential, and free of charge. The mission of the Specialized Resource Center is to empower students, enhance equity, and provide a platform for innovation. The SRC works with all aspects of the college to provide opportunities for students with disabilities and enable them to participate in and fully enjoy the benefits of higher education. The SRC achieves individualized assistance by honoring the uniqueness of each student. We promote academic success and self-advocacy skills by providing resources and services. In addition, we collaborate with instructors, staff, and community members to create an inclusive learning environment.
Frequently Asked Questions
- ADA - The Americans with Disabilities Act
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was enacted in 1990 to ensure that people with disabilities are granted equal access to employment, public services, places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunications.
Title II of the ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities by public entities, including publicly funded educational institutions such as our college. The prohibition against discrimination is very broad and encompasses all the programs, activities, and services that the college provides. The Act generally requires that people with disabilities have equal opportunity to benefit from or participate in college services.
The ADA's primary goal is to ensure that people with disabilities gain access to mainstream American society. Access to education is one key to opening the doors of mainstream society to people with disabilities.
Our college strives to ensure equal access by accommodating qualified students with disabilities. Accommodations are a necessary part of meeting the requirements of the ADA. The college's obligation to provide accommodations extends to enrolled students, employees, members of the public who may wish to attend public events or activities sponsored by the college, and to any other individual who is eligible to attend, enroll in, or benefit from the college's programs, services, or activities. The Specialized Resource Center focuses specifically on accommodations for enrolled students with disabilities.
- Syllabus Statement
If you have a documented disability (or disabilities) that require(s) special accommodation(s), please contact the Specialized Resource Center via email at src@manhattan.edu. Use of services is voluntary, strictly confidential, and free of charge. Once you have provided documentation to the SRC, it will be viewed to determine the appropriateness of accommodations. You will receive a completed form to present to each of your professors.
- Faculty Role
- Refer students who request accommodations to the SRC
- Maintain confidentiality of all student information
- Contact the SRC if an approved accommodation might fundamentally alter course objectives
- Only implement accommodations for students who are registered with the SRC
- When arrangements for proctoring are made with the SRC, promptly provide exams to the SRC.
- What is a Reasonable Accommodation?
A reasonable accommodation is a modification or adjustment to a course, program, service, job, activity, or facility that enables a student with a disability to have an equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits, opportunities, and privileges that are available to all students (with or without disabilities) while simultaneously not reducing or eliminating curriculum standards. Reasonable accommodations do not fundamentally alter or eliminate essential course requirements, and any accommodation that would do so is considered unreasonable and would not be recommended or approved. Those accommodations that are approved are not necessarily the students’ preferred accommodations. Consideration of the preference is good practice, but you are not required to yield to it.
- How can I verify the accommodations my students are approved for?
Accommodation letters notify you about the academic accommodations your SRC-registered students will need to mitigate disability-related limitations.
- Academic Adjustment/Auxiliary Aid forms will be emailed directly to you from the Main SRC email: src@manhattan.edu
- You can email src@manhattan.edu to confirm the accommodations
- Automated emails will be sent when students submit their exam requests through AIM (our secure website for students to access and request their accommodations)
- Please contact the SRC if your student is asking for an accommodation that does not appear on the accommodation letter
- How will professors know that my student is eligible for accommodations?
After meeting with the student and reviewing documentation, if the Director of the Specialized Resource Center recommends accommodations, the Specialized Resource Center will include the eligible accommodations on the student's profile. It is the student’s responsibility to request these accommodations each semester. Once the request is received and reviewed, Auxiliary Aid notifications will be sent to the student’s professors. They will also receive a copy of these notifications as proof that it has been sent. These notifications are valid for the current semester only. Every semester, the student should request a new set of letters.
