Reflection, Students, and ADA Compliance
December 11, 2025
Congratulations; we have made it to the end of the semester! Almost. I hope you will be relaxing and celebrating soon.With my instructor’s hat on, I offer encouragement to those of us grading. I’m currently eyeing both a final essay and a final reflection on my to-read pile. As you know, this is often the rhythm of the semester: a lot of intense work suddenly appears and has to be completed quickly. You’ve got this!
And as a member of CAS’s Solidarity and Kinship committee, I would like to offer additional encouragement—encouragement to take time to reflect on the fall semester and your plans for the spring. There’s real value in pausing to ask yourself some key questions: what did you hope to accomplish in the fall; what stood out as a highlight for you; and what do you plan to do differently in the new year? These questions grow out of the Ignatian practice of quiet, intentional contemplation.
Why reflection? Primarily, perhaps, because the work of the university is hard. And this hardness is often tied to our deep care for the students—that broad swath of thinking, growing individuals who come to us from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of preparation. The challenges of working with university students warrants taking time to digest. Regardless of your role in the College of Arts and Sciences, we all spend time balancing at least two major efforts: offering the best possible support while simultaneously offering students those challenges that allow them to grow into their best selves.
That kind of balance is always tricky, and it can be particularly challenging when working with a student who comes to us with ADA accommodations (the American Disabilities Act). I suggest that one particularly valuable path of reflection this winter might be thinking about the students who come to us with ADA accommodations. Cassandra Jones, Xavier’s Director of the Office of Accessibility and Disability Resources, works with students to determine their legal rights in terms of accommodations, which then gets communicated to instructors through accommodation letters.
Fortunately, the key points related to ADA Compliance have been outlined in a training video located here. This overview by Xavier Vice President Ivy Banks contains a great deal of useful information, all designed to ensure we are offering the best possible support to our students, and that every instructor understands the fundamentals of our legal responsibilities for student accommodations. You may return to the link as a resource as often as you like.
The Provost also asks that every instructor at the university has either attended one of the in-person trainings in fall 2025 (they took place on Oct. 28, Oct. 30, and Nov. 14, 2025) or watched the training online by the end of the winter break, Jan. 11, 2026. The training offers a great opportunity to reflect on our most vulnerable students and making sure that each student has what they need to succeed.
Stephen Yandell
Dept. of English
Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences