After more than nine years of working to make Albion College accessible, former Director of Accessibility Services Elizabeth Rudolph left her position – and a legacy of advocacy, on Friday.
Rudolph is currently attending California Southern University, and will be “completing” a doctorate of psychology in December, she wrote in an email to the Pleiad on Wednesday. Following her departure, Success Coach for Accessibility and Case Management Nysha Wallace will be able to “help” students with their “accessibility needs,” Rudolph wrote in an email to students on Feb. 11.
After growing up in Albion, Rudolph graduated from Western Michigan University with a master’s degree in counseling psychology, and said she worked at “almost any place you could name” as a limited-level psychologist with children and teenagers prior to working at Albion College.
Rudolph, at the time of Albion College posting a job opening for a “learning specialist,” had already been working for “about five years” at Jackson College teaching “Intro to Psychology,” which she has continued to do for the last 10 years, she said.
“Since (Albion College) was a college and I had already been working with college students, I was like, ‘This is great,’” Rudolph said. “It just seemed like a good blend of my skills.”
According to Chicago junior Zaliyah Wilson, Rudolph is “always there to help.”
“She’s always there to listen and provide feedback,” Wilson said. “Whenever she’s free, she’s always listening to me.”
Accessibility Over the Years
Rudolph described her start at the college as an “opportunity to really see what the college is about” as an Albion native.
“When we grew up, the college did not seem like a place we felt necessarily welcome,” Rudolph said. “I can’t tell you how surprised I was by the faculty and staff on campus and how I was treated so well.”
According to Rudolph, the college wasn’t what she had always “perceived it to necessarily be.”
“There had been some change,” Rudolph said.
Over the course of her time on campus, Rudolph said she feels as though more students with disabilities now know that they can “come forward and ask for support,” as opposed to when she arrived.
“When I first got here, there were 97 students that were registered with our office,” Rudolph said. “ Right now we’re at about 267. That’s a long way from the 97 we had.”
According to Vero Beach, Florida, senior Wyatt Falardeau, when it comes to accessibility, Rudolph “fights a lot.”
“She has improved the accessibility landscape for all students,” Falardeau said.
While Rudolph has worked with students both with and without disabilities, she said she feels as though students with disabilities “have had to work harder than a lot of students.”
“They work hard, and I just want them to always know they could do whatever they put their minds to,” Rudolph said. “I really want them to believe in their talents, their gifts and their skills.”
‘Proud’ to Care for Students
Rudolph has done “a lot of good things for students with disabilities” at Albion, Farladeau said.
“She not only cares about the students with disabilities, but also the faculty and the staff,” Farladeau said. “Everybody is different.”
Rudolph said she’s “proud” that she has been able to “make accommodations more accessible to more students” during her time at Albion.
“They tell me all the time how helpful it’s been,” Rudolph said.
Wilson said that she’s going to “make sure that nobody forgets” Rudolph.
“Everybody goes to (Rudolph),” Wilson said. “Everybody loves her.”
According to Rudolph, she “hopes” that students know she “genuinely cares about them and wants what’s best for them.”
“I really believe in what Albion College is doing,” Rudolph said. “I love the students; I’ve just had so much fun with them.”
Leave a Reply