19th President Kayse Shrum of Oklahoma State University

8/03/2021

President Kayse Shrum

c/o Office of the President

Oklahoma State University 

107 Whitehurst Hall

Stillwater, OK 74078

Dear President Shrum,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history, social justice, environment, health care reform, diversity, and education reform. In these subjects, I like to learn the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, expand on health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford health care get the care they need, improve education reform to make learning a better tool, have diversity to accept people who are different or who come from a different background or who have different skills, strong importance of social justice to improve communities, and many others. President Shrum, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work when you served as President of OSU Center of Health Sciences, as Secretary of Science and Innovation, and as current 19th President of Oklahoma State University to be very inspiring to me. 

When you had served as President of OSU Center of Health Sciences, I really like on how you work on expanding research into medicine to help combat against different diseases, working to expand OSU Center of Health Science resources to help people who are low income, people with pre-existing conditions, and people who live in rural areas to help help on different medical needs, and pushing for better programs to help people who struggle with mental health including people with disabilities to get treatment. In your role as Secretary of Science and Innovation from 2019-2020, I really liked on how you were a strong supporter of civil rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights including supporting grants to women including minorities businesses to help them compete in the economy, work to expand PPE supplies to rural areas including all over state of Oklahoma to help citizens including Native American reservations get help or better protection from the COVID-19 spread,  and implement more research labs to find ways to help combat against COVID-19. Also what I like about your work as Secretary of Science and Innovation was how you supported projects into renewable energy resources to reduce addiction to oil with gas, push for more drug treatment or recovery programs to help drug users or people with addiction to alcohol get treatment, and heavily push for more social services including mental health services to help people who struggle with mental health or people with disabilities who have challenges in society get help. In July 2021, I was amazed on how you made history on becoming the first woman to become President of Oklahoma State University.  In your current role as 19th President of Oklahoma State University, how you are a strong supporter and advocate for civil rights by advocating for people with disabilities’ rights and expressing the need to make civil rights stronger to reduce discrimination in order to protect women, minorities, and people with disabilities. Also to improve civil rights, I liked on how you work to expand on rules to combat against bullying and harassment.  On people with disabilities; rights, I like on how you work to expand courses for people with disabilities to learn different subjects including basic introductory courses to help them learn. Supporting accommodations to help students with disabilities like extra time on exams or use educational software to help improve comprehension, expanding tutoring services to provide students with help on their assignments from tutors, and implementing more liberal arts, arts, humanities, history, and basic classes to make education diverse along with make more opportunities for students to find subjects that they want to learn are great ways to improve education reform. Also on education reform I like on how you support literacy programs to help students including adults improve on their comprehension skills or gain literacy skills.  On diversity, I like on how you work on hiring women, minorities, and people with disabilities to work for the college and expand on programs to help educate staff members and students about different cultures along with the need for diversity to accept people who are different or come from a different background. Also to improve diversity in education I like on how you expanded more basic or introductory classes to different subjects, expand on arts, history, and humanities to help accept students with different skills to learn different subjects or assist students to explore different courses to their degree.  Another thing that I like about your work as President of Oklahoma State University is how expand on more research programs to help students get engage to learn how different topics can make a great difference for society, work to expand on research into medicine to combat against different diseases, implement mental health services to help students who struggle with mental health to get the care they need, push for more scholarships to help low income students or minorities get assistance on getting into college or affording supplies, and work with OSU including medical places to expand services to help people who are low income, who struggle with homeless, and who can’t afford health insurance get help. Besides your work as President of OSU,  I like on how you are how you are a continuous strong supporter of civil rights causes, advocate for environmental protection to reduce pollution, emphasize the need for more liberal arts in colleges, heavily advocate for the need for arts, history, and literature to be more present in society,  heavily advocate for better health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford health care,  importance of having diversity play a role in education, and express the need for immigration reform to help protect immigrants, dreamers, and refugees from being oppressed.

President Shrum, I have autism with a learning disability, Having a disability is hard for me because I have trouble comprehending on learning different advance subjects, sometimes I struggle to communicate my thoughts, and get teased. . Also with a disability I have struggles on trying to understand how society works and I get bullied by people including women about having a disability, sometimes I face discrimination in life, and I struggle to get assistance on my disability due to health insurance getting expensive or how it is hard to navigate.  Your continuous support and advocacy for civil rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability and it helps give me a voice when the system or politics aren’t advocates for people with disabilities’ rights. Your work on health care reform and some of your articles including videos of ideas on reforming health care reform helps give me motivation to learn the importance of health care reform in society, how research into medicine plays a role in society, a better need for health care equity to help people afford health care, and many others. Also on Youtube I enjoy watching you talk about the need for diversity,  how people with disabilities’ rights are important, better improvements in education including social justice. Your role in public service and  as 19th President of OSU helps give me motivation to continue to learn history, social justice, environment, health care reform, diversity, and education reform. My future goal is to someday work in these areas to need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, expand on health care reform to help people with pre-existing conditions or who can’t afford health care get the care they need, improve education reform to make learning a better tool, have diversity to accept people who are different or who come from a different background or who have different skills, strong importance of social justice to improve communities, and many others.     

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference for society. I’m very proud on how are working hard to support civil rights, work to improve health care, expand on diversity, improvements of education reform, and many others. You truly inspire me to work hard on my disability, learn more about your work, try my best to understand the world when it gets difficult, and be motivated to learn subjects. You are a great role model and inspiration to me. I was wondering if you could share with me how you got interested in health care reform, some of your work on diversity, and what it is like being President of OSU.  Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. Please continue to work hard to make a great difference and advocate for common sense ideas to help improve society.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick