13th President Kelly Ryan of Eastern Oregon University

 

9/14/2024

President Kelly Ryan

c/o Office of the President

Eastern Oregon University

Library 209

1 University Blvd.

La Grande, OR  97850

Dear President Ryan,

My name is Matt Winick from Ann Arbor, Michigan and I have a strong interest in learning history, social justice, diversity, environment, 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, have diversity to accept people who are different or who come from a different background or have a different skills, improve education to make learning a better tool, and many others.  President Ryan, the main reason I’m writing you a letter is to explain how I find your work as 13th President of Eastern Oregon University to be very inspiring to me.

In your current role as 13th President of Eastern Oregon University,  I truly appreciate on 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 Eastern Oregon University  is how you expand on more research programs to help students get engage to learn how different topics can make a great difference for society, implement mental health services to help students who struggle with mental health or other people who live in the Oregon area 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, create Equity Task Force to find ways to combat against racial injustice while find ways to expand on making education more accessible to people who come from disadvantage communities along with who come from different communities, and heavily express the need to reduce high tuition cost to help students from paying high costs in order to get a college. On your activism, 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,  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 Ryan, 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 due to my struggle with comprehension and I get bullied by women including adults about having a disability.  Your commitment to be a strong supporter of civil rights including people with disabilities’ rights really inspires me to work hard on my disability. I enjoy watching youtube videos of you talking about how diversity inclusion can play a role at improving society including education.  Also I enjoy reading some of your work on writing some American History, social justice, and civil rights. Your work on these things helps give me motivation to continue my interest in learning history. Also to continue to learn history. I like learning about different influential people of different individuals who work hard to make a great difference for society and  visit museums including historical sites to understand history. Your role as 13th President of Eastern Oregon University helps give me motivation to continue to learn history, social justice, diversity inclusion, and many others. My future goal is to someday work in these areas to emphasize the need for civil rights to be stronger to reduce discrimination, protect the environment from pollution, expand on diversity inclusion to accept people who are different or who have different skills, improve education reform to make learning a better tool, make social justice stronger to improve communities, and many others. 

I strongly believe that you are making a great difference.  I’m very proud on how you are working hard to support civil rights, expand on diversity inclusion, improve education reform, and many others. You truly inspire me to work hard on my disability, learn more about your work, and continue to learn different subjects. I was wondering if you could please take the time to make a short video of you giving me some encouraging words about how to be motivated when I struggle with a disability. Thanks for taking the time to read my letter, working hard to make a great difference, and inspiring me. Please continue to make an impact on society.

Sincerely,

Matt Winick