Provost on Employment Accommodations for Faculty and Staff
SENT VIA E-MAIL, 3/18/04
March 18, 2004
| TO: |
MU Deans, Department Heads, and Chairs |
| FROM: |
Brady J. Deaton |
| |
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs |
| SUBJECT: |
Employment Accommodations for Faculty and Staff with Disabilities |
As you know, MU has a continuing commitment and responsibility to provide equal employment opportunity for people with disabilities. We therefore encourage individual units considering hiring job candidates with disabilities – and individual units making promotion and retention decisions involving incumbent faculty and staff with disabilities – to ask their colleges and the central administration for financial assistance in providing reasonable accommodations, as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), if and when accommodation costs might be beyond the ordinary.
Individual units, of course, are generally responsible for providing accommodations, and most accommodations involve minimal costs. However, there may be extraordinary circumstances in which additional financial assistance is needed.
We do not want you to hesitate in hiring qualified candidates with disabilities because of cost concerns. The ADA requires that we consider the University’s overall financial resources in evaluating accommodation requests. If we purchase adaptive equipment for an employee with a disability – for example, an adjustable height table – the equipment will remain the property of the University if and when the employee leaves MU, and will be inventoried depending upon the campus funding sources used for its purchase.
For assistance in ADA hiring, promotion, and/or accommodations review processes, please contact the Office of the Vice Provost for Minority Affairs, International Programs and Faculty Development (882-9061), or Lee Henson, ADA Coordinator at hensonl@missouri.edu or 884-7278. Review of financial assistance requests will involve the Office of Minority Affairs, International Programs and Faculty Development, deans, department chairs, directors, Human Resource Services, Administrative Services, and Chancellor’s Office, and others as needed.
Thank you for your contributions to equal employment opportunity.
BJD:td
| cc: |
Handy Williamson, Vice Provost for Minority Affairs, International Programs and Faculty Development |
| |
Provost’s Staff |
|
