On Mar. 21, a resolution was passed by the student government calling for “more resources, publicity, and increase the overall campus visibility and involvement of the integrative community studies program”–– introducing LSU’s special needs program.
The Integrative Community Studies Program, ICSP, is a two-year special needs program facilitated by LSU’s College of Human Sciences and Education. It allows students with special needs to pursue an education that trains them to be productive in the workforce.
These students are held to a strict daily schedule to ensure they are being cared for. They live in four-person apartments with three ICSP students and one live-in assistant. These living assistants are students who can handle the responsibility of supervising and ensuring the safety of said students.
Believe it or not, any student can be a live-in assistant since the position’s qualifications are far from rigorous. I never knew the program existed and assume most students remain unaware of it, which is why this bill exists.
Student senator and sophomore Jack Miller, a business major, authorized this bill. He saw it as a necessary step to raise awareness for a program that he feels is not being prioritized.
“We wanna have the best football team. We wanna have the best program for people with special needs, too,” he said.
I agree. Why shouldn’t LSU have the best special needs program in the state?
We tend to view people with special needs sympathetically. Depending on where they are along the spectrum, we realize that they don’t experience life as we do. They have separate classrooms, have difficulty finding employment and have social stigmas attached to their foreheads.
Most people realize this and feel bad, forgetting the chore it is to be “normal.”
Instead, we should remember that life is meant to be lived in different ways. Often, people with intellectual disabilities know that they are different. So, it’s up to us to make them feel normal because they are. There’s no script for how humans should be and that includes special needs individuals.
If people with special needs outnumbered non-special needs people, we would feel alienated and weird, so why are we doing it to them?
The show “Family Guy” includes a disabled man named Joe, who often finds himself at the wrong end of a joke. You may find this inconsiderate and offensive to real people with disabilities, but you’re wrong.
Any time a person, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, etc., gets clowned, it is because being human is hard. Being kind or considerate is one thing, but people want to be treated like they are fully functioning human beings.
What is offensive is seeing a celebrity visit a hospital or a sick child with a camera crew tagging along. Commercializing a philanthropy to appeal to the public and appear like a good person is appalling. However, a show like “Family Guy” reminds us that life is a joke; we’re here for a blink of time until we’re lying in a fancy box (if you can afford one).
No matter the reality you’re living in, you will experience the downsides of your existence, and it’s imperative that the people around you instill positivity in you. That positivity isn’t always a pat on the back and a smile. Sometimes, it’s an opportunity, like giving someone a chance to make something of themselves.
LSU needs to raise awareness for students with special needs. That includes lowering its $43,042 tuition cost and incentivizing students to be more involved in the ICSP program.
We need to stop viewing different as weird and accept that life comes in all sorts of packages. We need to prioritize minority groups across the board, starting by embracing our special needs student body.
Mohammad Tantawi is a 24-year-old mass communication senior from Smyrna, Tenn.
