When Lee Bagan arrived at the University, there was little representation for students with disabilities.
About three years later, the Student Government's Students with Disabilities Agency has raised more than $30,000 in endowments to benefit University students.
Under Bagan's leadership, the Students with Disabilities Accountability Task Force was created to help prevent discrimination against disabled students by providing a platform to hear and settle cases of prejudice.
In the same year, the agency created the Students with Disabilities Council, which provides disabled students an opportunity to voice any issues or concerns they face at the University. This council provides an open forum for students to discuss and share how they manage with their disability on campus.
"There was no active representation of disabled students whatsoever when I first took on the job of director," Bagan said, who graduated from UT in May 2007. "Over the past few years, we have done everything in our power to change this."
Though he is no longer the director, he is still associated with the Austin Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities.
In November, the agency worked with the UT Services for Students with Disabilities to create the Lee H. Bagan Endowed scholarship. This $30,000 permanent endowment helps to subsidize the costs of testing for cognitive psycho-educational learning disabilities for students who cannot afford it.
"This testing is very expensive, and very important, as without it, students with serious learning disabilities cannot receive University-sanctioned services and accommodations," Bagan said.
Bagan said the agency director Liam O'Rourke has continued the hard work and persistence in ensuring adequate benefits for disabled students on campus.
O'Rourke assisted in the creation of a program that would help update UT accessibility maps, which won the 2007 Social Innovation Competition at the University.
The University's Services for Students with Disabilities has made a proposal to the Student Services Budget Committee to update accessibility maps on campus. The proposal will be voted on sometime in March or April.
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