When over 80 students with disabilities graduate from Cal State San Bernardino, John Chad Sweeney, will be cheering them on as he keynotes the Services to Students with Disabilities graduation celebration on Tuesday, May 9, at 4:30 p.m. on Zoom.

Sweeney, a full professor at CSUSB in the English department, is a valued member of the Services to Students with Disabilities Community Advisory Board, author of eight books of poetry and translation, and the author of the groundbreaking lyric essay on neurodivergence, “Tiny Disasters: Confessions of an Autistic Professor,” in the edited scholarly book on autism inclusion, “Rethinking Perception and Centering the Voices of Unique Individuals: Reframing Autism Inclusion in Praxis,” published in 2022. His talk will be a powerful message of solidarity, hope and inclusion stemming from his own lived experience as a person with autism.  

“As our future leaders complete their degrees, they will be filling leadership roles with representation of our unique population, and so it is my deepest joy to speak with them on such a special day,” Sweeney said. “They are ushering in a new future for people with disabilities.”

Services to Students with Disabilities serves over 2,800 students with unique needs on the CSUSB campus, or 16% of the student population. Only 16% of students with disabilities complete a college degree, as opposed to 35% of the nondisabled population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, underscoring the large disparity this population continues to face.

At the event, those in attendance will include Paz Olivérez, vice president of Student Affairs, Molly Springer, associate vice president of Student Success and Educational Equity, Jess Block Nerren, interim faculty director of Services to Students with Disabilities, members of the Services to Students with Disabilities Community Advisory Board, and members of the WorkAbility Co-op, a group of esteemed industry experts who mentor students with disabilities. In addition, four outstanding graduate and undergraduate students will be recognized.

“The graduation celebration is an amazing opportunity to celebrate disability as not just a diagnosis but rather an identity group that signifies strength, grit and determination,” Springer said.

Accommodation information: There will be captioning and a Zoom interpreter at the event. Please contact ssd@csusb.edu with any additional accommodation requests at least 72 hours in advance.

Media instructions: Media are invited to attend. Please RSVP to Jessica.nerren@csusb.edu with 72 hours or more notice so that a Zoom link and any confidentiality instructions can be given.

About Services to Students With Disabilities
Services to Students with Disabilities empowers students with disabilities by fostering skills of self-advocacy, resourcefulness and independence. The office works collaboratively with the campus community to remove barriers and promote an enriched learning environment where students with disabilities can utilize their skills and pursue their academic and personal development goals. Visit the Services to Students with Disabilities website for more information.

About the Services to Students With Disabilities Community Advisory Board
An advisory group of individuals, advocates, faculty, administrators, students, staff and community members, the board is deeply invested in inclusion, accommodation and the discussion of the rights of people with differences. Through their insight, Services to Students with Disabilities gains a direct understanding from individuals and stakeholders of the best approaches, methods and practices to serve students with differences. For more information, visit the SSD Community Advisory Board website.

About John Chad Sweeney
Chad Sweeney is a professor, poet and translator. He is the author of six books of poetry, “Little Million Doors” (Nightboat Books, winner of Nightboat Prize, 2019), “Parable of Hide and Seek” (Alice James Books), “Arranging the Blaze” (Anhinga Press), “White Martini of the Apocalypse” (Marick Press), “Wolf’s Milk: Lost Notebooks of Juan Sweeney” (Forklift Books, bilingual Spanish/English) and “An Architecture” (BlazeVOX Books), and two books of translation, “The Art of Stepping Through Time,” the selected poems of Iranian dissident poet, H.E. Sayeh (White Pine Press, with Mojdeh Marashi) and Pablo Neruda’s final book, “The Call to Destroy Nixon and to Advance the Chilean Revolution” (Marick Press, 2019). Most recently, he authored a chapter in the autism inclusion edited scholarly book “Rethinking Perception and Centering the Voices of Unique Individuals: Reframing Autism Inclusion in Praxis,” titled “Tiny Disasters: Confessions of an Autistic Professor.” Sweeney holds an MFA from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. from Western Michigan University. He is full professor of English/creative writing at California State University, San Bernardino and lives in Southern California with his partner, Jennifer Kochanek Sweeney, and their two children.