CHRISTINA FLEMING says she’s still in shock. It’s almost two weeks after her election to the Washtenaw Community College Board of Trustees. Fleming, a Dexter resident and the mom of an elementary student with autism, shakes her head as she speaks.
“I don’t know what happened. I think I got the women’s vote,” she says, still puzzling out how she captured more votes (30,789) than Ann Arbor state representatives Irwin and Zemke, both of whom spent tens of thousands of dollars on their respective re-election campaigns. Trustee-elect Fleming spent a few hundred dollars on her campaign.
“I designed my own website,” she says proudly.
She is wide-eyed, literally, while answering questions about what she hopes to accomplish as a steward of the taxpayers’ $48,000,000 given over annually to the two-year college.
“Student services are suffering. They’ve been cut and we have to see those services restored,” says Fleming. “Every year, Foundation money goes unused. We need to change that.”
The WCC Foundation is a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit run by the college. According to 990 income tax forms filed with the IRS, the organization gives out between 700 and 800 scholarships to WCC students annually. With approximately 12,900 students enrolled, this means that fewer than 10 percent of the students enrolled benefit from the Foundation’s largesse. Christina Fleming wants to see this change.
However, she also understands that while she has a six-year term, there will be a steep learning curve.
“I’m anticipating the first year will be a trial by fire. I need to learn how to do the job,” she says with a smile. “I have no intention of going in there guns blazing. That won’t serve anyone.”
That attitude might settle what could be serious jitters on the part of the college’s president, Dr. Rose Bellanca. President Bellanca has been under fire from her own faculty, WCC’s student newspaper, The Ann Arbor Independent and Ann Arbor News, as well as the candidates who ran for the WCC Board of Trustees and who won, including Ruth Hatcher and David DeVarti.
Fleming expands on her desire to emulate AAPS Superintendent Dr. Swift is starting out by listening and learning.
“I want to go in there and be open,” Fleming explains. “I intend to be receptive. I really need to give everyone a chance to explain themselves and be forthcoming. It’s easy to judge when you don’t have all of the facts.”
One challenge that Fleming wants to see the college rise up to meet is providing services to students on the autism spectrum.
In July 2014, Forbes magazine reported that, “The Harvard Review of Psychiatry recently released summaries of the latest findings in ASD research and highlighted that there is a significant upsurge of people with ASD arriving on college campuses. It is difficult to pinpoint just how great this increase is, however, because many students choose not reveal this disorder according to Jane Brown Thierfeld, Ed.D, co-Director of College Autism Spectrum, an organization of professionals who assist students with ASD and their families and author of “The Parent’s Guide to College for Students on the Autism Spectrum.” For every student receiving special services, there are 1-2 on that same campus who have not identified themselves to anyone, she says. According to Stephanie Pinder-Amaker, lead author of the review, we are only seeing the tip of the ice berg in terms of the number of these students seeking to access higher education.”
From summer transition programs, to individualized assistance, colleges across the U.S. are implementing programs to help autistic students success. For instance, in January 2015 Rutgers University intends to launch a support program for autistic students that focuses on mainstreaming the students.
“We want them to function as Rutgers students because they came here to be Rutgers students,” says Pam Lubbers, coordinator of College Support Program for Students on the Autism Support Spectrum (CAPS) at the university. The fee at Rutgers will be $3,000.
At the Rochester Institute of Technology, The Spectrum Support Program there specializes in job preparation and offers a 15 week program involving in-depth seminars on job interviews, networking, resume building, behavioral based interview questions and body language tips that bolster students’ confidence in the job search process. That programs costs $1,600 per term, on top of tuition.
Christina Fleming thinks not only about her own child’s future needs, but those of the students already enrolled at WCC. She comes back to the need to bolster student support and counseling services repeatedly. WCC students, she points out, are not always typical students, but rather often need additional support to navigate higher education.
When asked about how she thinks her working relationship with the college’s president might look like, the trustee-elect says, “Oh, I’ve met her. I’ll probably drop by her office to say hello.”
As it turns out, neither the Chair of the WCC Board of Trustees, Dr. Stephen Gill, a stout supporter of the college’s embattled president, nor Dr. Bellanca have been in touch with Fleming. If the snub bothers her, it doesn’t show.
“I’ve been elected by the people,” says Fleming, “and I speak for them. WCC is a community service and I’m a volunteer.”
She has been in touch with Ruth Hatcher and David DeVarti, the other two trustee-elects who won seats on the Board on Nov. 5. DeVarti beat incumbent Trustee Mark Freeman by fewer than 60 votes. Freeman, however, indicated that he has no plans to request a recount.
This means that Fleming, Hatcher and DeVarti will join a Board populated by members who have been sharply criticized by faculty for allegedly ignoring complaints about the president’s leadership.
While Christina Fleming says she approaching her job on the Board of Trustees with an open mind, like Ruth Hatcher, she wants to talk to faculty and students about what they see as the college’s strengths and weaknesses.
When asked about Bellanca’s brush with the ACLU at one of her former colleges over an effort to silence a trustee, Fleming’s eyes narrow and she says quietly: “I believe as a trustee I have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech.”