June 01, 2018

Family Medicine faculty and U-M partners pen a response to the Wall Street Journal

The letter provides a public response to the WSJ article, “Colleges Bend the Rules for More Students, Give Them Extra Help,” published on May 25, 2018

Letter-writing graphic

Below is a letter submitted to the editors of the Wall Street Journal:

A public response to the WSJ article “Colleges Bend the Rules for More Students, Give Them Extra Help” published Friday, May 25, 2018.

We are saddened by Friday’s article, “Colleges Bend the Rules for More Students, Give Them Extra Help “in the Wall Street Journal. As an institution of higher education, we feel the article took multiple liberties in both its portrayal of students with disabilities and the perceptions and attitudes of faculty. Unfortunately, the article also used outdated language to describe students with disabilities and used dismissive terms such as "special accommodations." We believe that the language and tone of this article is biased in a manner that serves to reinforce incorrect assumptions about students with disabilities.