Travis UCOD Chair Speech June 2024

Good Afternoon Everyone. Let me start by saying that it has been an honor and privilege to a leader of UCOD over the last 5 years. I also want to honor Laura by saying I lost a friend and mentor and UCLA lost one of the strongest advocates for Disabilities. She will alway be remembered by UCOD.
Last year my goals were to 1. Bring disability pride week back to campus and host a successful event. 2. Improve the communications of the disabled community to the campus, 3. Bring mandatory training on accommodations and accessibility to instructors. I lead the organization and implementation of the Disability Pride event in October. I successfully brought the Disability Newsletter to fruition with the help of Carolanne, Quinn, Fang, and Caitlin with over 40,000 downloads and the mandatory training is in the process of being written in the policy.
Vote for me as your top choice and I will continue to bring stability, quality programming and an open and safe place for the entire UCLA disabled community
My Goals this year are to:
1. Support and mentor the future leadership of UCOD. I recognize that leadership should be changed overtime and I will support this change by transitioning responsibilities and goal settings to the next generation of UCOD.
2. Deliver a quality in person Disability Pride Week in October
3. Bring forward and socialize policy IMT-1300 which addresses directly the need for accommodation and accessibility training for all UC instructors. I have already drafted that section and it is under legal review. Those my goals.
I know many of you know that my wife Julie is battling breast cancer. It has been a horrendous year and half. And I think about the mission, to build a UCLA that is accessible and inclusive for all people with disabilities. It’s easy to believe in the mission when times are good but when your back is against the wall and life has crushed you and those you love do you still believe. And I can say I still believe that I am dedicated to those mission and continue to push for change.