URGENT: SDS Compliance William R. LaCourse To: Jacob Kogan, Jacob Kogan, mathumbc@yahoo.com Cc: Rous Philip, Animikh Biswas, Tawny L McManus, Brad Peercy Wed, Apr 8 at 12:54 PM Dear Dr. Kogan, Dr. Biswas forwarded your April 3, 2020 email to me. At your request, I have provided you with the below statutory and regulatory bases for the University's - and by extension - your obligations under federal law to provide the accommodation due the student as provided in the communication from the office of Student Disabilities Services. The absence of a specific policy in the faculty handbook does not negate your obligation to provide the directed accommodations. These policies or the lack of any policy will not preempt the federal law that applies. The confidential memoranda dated February 4, and February 21, 2020, you received from the SDS office informed you that you had two students in your Math 221 course that required accommodations pursuant to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, is codified at Title 29 United State Code ยง 794. Section 504, as it is known, is a federal law designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education (ED). Section 504 provides: "No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . ." The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces Section 504 in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the Department of Education. Recipients of this Federal financial assistance include institutions of higher education, among other entities. UMBC is one such institution of higher education receiving federal financial assistance. The regulations implementing Section 504 in the context of educational institutions appear at 34 C.F.R. Part 104. These regulations apply to UMBC. The statute and the implementing regulations are civil rights laws, and these laws are similar to Title IV and VII preventing other forms of discrimination. Yet they also differ in some of the means used in achieving the nondiscrimination. The differences were explained in the Federal Register more than forty years ago (42 Fed. Reg. 22676 (May 4, 1977)) wherein it explained that "different or special treatment of handicapped persons, because of their handicaps, may be necessary in a number of contexts in order to ensure equal opportunity". As you can see, these laws have been in effect for more than 40 years. There is a long-standing obligation and practice to provide accommodations. These accommodations are reviewed and approved by the SDS office. These obligations should not come as a surprise to a long serving member of the faculty. In fact, the SDS office records show there have been 36 other students just since 2016 for whom you have received accommodation notices, each with a specific reference to Section 504. The history of these notices is broken down by academic year below: 2016: 8 student letters sent in Fall semester 2017: 8 sent in Fall, 4 in Spring 2018: 5 sent in Spring 2019: 2 sent in Fall, 2 Spring 2020: 6 sent in Spring Clearly, the concept of providing authorized accommodations pursuant to Section 504 is not a newly introduced principle or practice to you. The basis established, you may research whatever aspects of the law may interest you, but this action is not subject to further discussion or delay. The needs of the students are established, the legal basis for the accommodation is established and provided, and you do a disservice to the students by further delaying action in scheduling and providing the make-up assignment/test that were missed due to disability-related reasons. You are hereby directed to contact the students within 24 hours to schedule a time for the makeup work/tests, and to provide the make-up work/tests within the next 4 business days after receipt of this letter at time mutually convenient to you and the student. Failure to do so will be considered willful neglect of duty and professional misconduct. In addition, UMBC will take whatever immediate action it deems necessary to protect the rights of the students and comply with federal law. Please notify Dr. Biswas immediately when you have contacted each of the two students and provide him with the dates and times set for the make-up tests. ____________________________________________ William R. LaCourse, Ph.D. Dean, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences