About Us > A Note About the Director
Jim Marks serves as the Director of Disability Services for Students at the University of Montana. In November 2006, he will be starting his 19th year. The job evolved considerably under Jim's administration. In 1988, the position was halftime. He supervised only a three-hour per week work-study student worker, and managed a budget of about $13,000. The office served a mere 120 students.
By 1990, the office began developing into the well-respected office it is today. Now Jim administers the same office under much improved circumstances. Disability Services serves about 900 students --- nearly 7 percent of the entire student body --- through an office consisting of a budget of about $500,000 annually. About 12 permanent staff, 40 student employees, and 80 volunteers make up Disability Services.
Disability Services focuses heavily on full and equitable access to University programs, but it does it with a twist. Disability Services expects its students to take on full responsibility in their education. So, for instance, the office refrains from doing for students what they can do for themselves. Disability Services sees its job as that of a facilitator rather than a provider of equal access. The office shows students how to fend for themselves.
The key to self-determination by the student is a strong partnership with vocational rehabilitation. The University has the responsibility to educate, Disability Services has the responsibility to assure equal access to University programs, and vocational rehabilitation has the responsibility to prepare the student for the education.
The end result of this approach is one of the highest graduation rates of students with disabilities in the country for a university of its size. One mid-1990s survey, the Disability Services Directors Data Bank from the University of Maryland-College Park, ranked the University of Montana in the 94 percentile for the number of graduates with disabilities. Students with disabilities at the University of Montana take control over their own lives and services offered them, which of course stand them in good stead as they acquire and hold on to quality careers.
On a personal level. Jim is blind. He uses a long white cane, reads Braille, and applies the alternative techniques and technologies of the blind. Jim is very active in local, state, and national activity within a variety of organizations.
Jim serves as the Treasurer of AHEAD (Association on Higher Education And Disability) and the Chairman of AHEAD's Special Interest Group on Blindness and Visual Impairments. AHEAD is a professional group comprised of disability services providers in colleges and universities throughout the world.
In addition, Jim serves on the Board of Directors and the National Advocacy and Advisory Council of Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, the Scholarship Committee of the National Federation of the Blind, and is the First Vice-President of the Board of Directors and the President of the Missoula Chapter of the Montana Association for the Blind, which is also known as the National Federation of the Blind of Montana. Jim's writings have been published in a variety of publications, including a monthly column in the Missoulian entitled "In the Mainstream," the Braille Monitor, the Observer, Disability Life, The Montana Professor, and the Alert. Jim sponsored state and national resolutions, and worked on the passage of state and federal laws. Jim received many awards including the 2000 Robert Pantzer Award from the University of Montana for making the University a more open and humane learning environment, the 2004 Fink-Ryan Award for contributions to the Disability Support Services in Higher Education Listserv, and the 2005 Leader of the Year Award from the Montana State University-Billings Center on Disabilities for his advocacy in the passage of the Montana Braille Literacy for Blind and Visually Impaired Children Act.
Before the University, Jim worked at Summit Independent Living Center where he coordinated independent living services for individuals under the Rehabilitation Act. He also worked at Missoula Community Medical Center as an independent living coordinator. Jim holds a BA degree from the University of Montana in elementary education, which was granted in 1986.
Jim is a sixth generation Montanan. He has two teen-aged children, Emily and Neil. He is a volunteer Hunter Education Instructor for Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks.
Jim can be contacted at the address and phone number at the bottom of the page, or by e-mail: jim.marks@umontana.edu