The nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities, the Mellon Foundation, gave San Francisco State University a $2 million grant to revitalize the disability studies minor program.
Half of the grant will establish two new tenure-track faculty positions with specific expertise in disability studies, one in the School of Design and one in the College of Ethnic Studies. The schools are currently searching for candidates nationwide to teach courses in the disability studies minor.
Amy Sueyoshi, provost and vice president of academic affairs, said the grant will allow SFSU to uphold their mission to provide inclusive curricula.
“San Francisco State University has a longstanding history of ensuring its academic offerings reflect and represent its diverse student body, including people with disabilities,” Sueyoshi said.
The remaining $1 million will go toward establishing a new faculty director position in collaboration with the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, now located at The Arc San Francisco, a nonprofit that partners with adults with developmental disabilities. All positions are expected to be filled by Fall 2026.
Melissa Crisp-Cooper, associate director of participant experience at The Arc SF, spoke on their collaboration with SFSU.
“Our rich history of disability rights and justice is not always fully accessible to our community,” Crisp-Cooper said. “We would like to partner with the disability studies program at SFSU to ensure more leaders with developmental disabilities are highlighted in the lecture series, develop a plain language standard for all events and design programs with accessibility needs of our community in mind, so advocacy can travel outside the walls of academia.”
The disability studies faculty director will work closely with the Longmore Institute to renew the existing minor in disability studies program through student activities and opportunities.
Reina Howell has been the president of the Disability Rights Education Activism and Mentoring student organization at SFSU since the Fall 2025 semester and has been a member since 2022. Despite graduating next semester, they hope the disability studies program will expand connections and opportunities for future students, including appointing a new faculty director as DREAM’s adviser.
“I’m hoping that the disability studies will help DREAM, though it might not happen while I’m still here,” Howell said. “I just think the more awareness there is about disability studies and DREAM, the better.”
Mari Hulick, director of the School of Design, spoke about her hopes for the new faculty positions in the school. Recent cuts across the College of Liberal and Creative Arts have resulted in fewer faculty, a majority of lecturers, and fewer classes offered.
“We desperately need faculty; we could use another industrial design faculty,” Hulick said. “Right now, in the industrial design course, we don’t have a standalone course in sustainability and disability. I’m also hoping that they will build new courses in universal design.”
Hulick described universal design and accessibility as the cornerstones for the design program, where design for disability is a “conceptual concept that moves beyond making the cane.”
Grace Yoo, dean of the College of Ethnic Studies, said the new position will develop new classes that have “an intersectional approach to race and disability.”
“Ethnic studies is kind of the affirmation of things that aren’t talked about, like a class where we can talk about race, ethnicity and disability,” Yoo said. “There is not enough research and scholarship on it and whoever comes into this position, they will create more space, more discussions and curriculum around this research.”
Yoo said the new ethnic studies hire would teach the race and disability course. According to Hulick, the new design faculty will teach the design and society class, a lower-division general education class introducing contemporary design issues, applications and professions.
“Design in society has a faulty, flexible course description,” Hulick said. “We could turn it into a class about universal design in society, what this means and its impact on the world.”
Yoo is optimistic about the new faculty hire’s impact on the College of Ethnic Studies.
“I do think that this hire will transform the College of Ethnic Studies; not only will they be teaching these courses and contributing to scholarships, but we will have a chance to learn from each other as well,” Yoo said. “Our faculty will benefit, our students will benefit and I hope our communities will benefit too.”
