University of Denver Winter 2023

TRADITIONS The DU community comes out for Homecoming 2022

been “tremendously helpful” as she has navigated college and prepared for life after graduation. She learned about the LEP from her high school tutor in Connecticut and says that it was a factor in her decision to enroll at DU. “Without the LEP, the beginning of college would have been really difficult and would have set me behind,” she says. “It was so helpful to meet with the same person every week who tracked my progress and kept me in check. I can’t really imagine what it would have been like without it.” Looking ahead, Bailey says the program remains focused on helping students like Greenberg and prospective students from other states. “We’re really thinking about, how do we expand our reach? How do we support neurodiverse and learning- different students, not just at DU, but across the country?” This includes supporting DU students who aren’t part of the LEP, reaching out to the K–12 sector locally, and holding college-readiness camps for incoming students outside Colorado. Another focus involves working with the Office of Teaching and Learning to stage neurodiversity institutes that train DU faculty members to support neurodiverse education in their classrooms and implement techniques such as Universal Design for Learning into their lessons. This work, Bailey says, “allows more neurodiverse students—actually, it allows everybody—to access the curriculum better.” DU’s signature Homecoming event, HocktoberFEST, took place the next day on Campus Green, where more than 1,200 people enjoyed music, food trucks and a beer garden featuring alumni-owned businesses. “Homecoming is one of DU’s longest-running traditions,” said Chancellor Jeremy Haefner. “It energizes the entire community to see students, alumni, faculty, staff—and even those living in the community around DU’s campus—come out in full force to participate in Homecoming’s many fun events and share their DU pride.” Hocktoberfest lived up to its name, as DU fans packed Magness Arena to watch the Pioneer hockey team, then ranked No. 4, defeat the No. 11-ranked Providence Friars 4-1 on Friday night and then 3-2 on Saturday. Before Saturday’s game, DU capped its national championship celebration by raising the 2021–2022 championship banner to the rafters for the ninth time in school history. Other winners during Homecoming Week were the women’s volleyball team, who defeated South Dakota State 3-0, and men’s soccer, who took down Southern Indiana by a score of 6-0.

In 1982, in response to the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, two faculty members and seven students founded the University of Denver’s Learning Effec tiveness Program (LEP). Forty years later, it remains one of the few college programs for students with learning differences in the U.S. and quite possibly the most comprehensive. “Back in the early 80s, some DU faculty noticed some of the students coming in could handle school, brain power wise, but they lacked executive functioning skills, or they needed supports in reading,” says Jim Bailey (BS ’83), a former high school principal and the current director of the LEP. “So, they proposed opening what became the LEP. They looked at students’ neuro-psych evaluations and started awarding accommodations before accommodations were even a thing.” Today, the program has 25 staff members—most of whom are academic counselors—and serves about 360 students, including individuals on the autism spectrum and those with diagnosed learning disabilities, ADHD and dyslexia. The program offers everything from college transition support, academic counseling and tutoring to help with organization and planning, as well as social skills and events. LEP is student-driven, meaning students are responsi ble for applying the skills they learn and advocating for themselves with their professors in terms of getting such accommodations as extended test time, access to recorded lectures or help from a peer note-taker. Tori Greenberg, a junior hospitality management major who is in her third year with the LEP, says the program has Under bluebird Colorado skies and trees turned appro priately red and gold, DU students, staff, faculty, alumni and community members came out in force the third week of October to celebrate Homecoming 2022. It was the first open-campus Homecoming since 2019, and visitors were treated to tours of the new Community Commons and the Burwell Center for Career Achievement, which opened during the pandemic, and a walking tour of DU’s Chester M Alter Arboretum. Current students enjoyed festivities all week long, includ ing a campus-wide capture-the-flag contest, ice cream sundaes and a DU drive-in movie experience featuring “Top Gun: Maverick.” These were just some of the many events hosted by Student Affairs and Inclusive Excellence. In addition to tents filled with food and drink, Carnegie Green was abuzz with music, stretching and dancing as participants gathered for the 10th annual Crimson Classic 5K run/1.5-mile walk. More than 800 people registered for the event. The top male finisher was law student Stephen May, and the female with the best time was Molly Smith, who works at University College.

Celebrating 40 years of work with neurodiverse students LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS PROGRAM

Photo by Connor Mokrzycki

WINTER 2023 • UNIVERSITY of DENVER MAGAZINE | 7