211WNY has been a resource for many years for people needing to connect to services throughout Western New York. Now, they’re starting a new initiative specifically tailored for our military veterans. We speak with Bob James, the team leader for 211Vets, and we’ll hear from former military members Marlene Roll and Edwin Gadson who have been helped by many of the resources that the service pairs up veterans with. Afterward, Christie Cleaver and Christian Holdridge of Peaceprints of WNY are helping raise awareness of the case of Jamele Prichett. Much like the other clients that Peaceprints works with, Jamele went through the justice system and was hoping to enroll at a nearby university. He was accepted and then seemingly denied once he revealed his legal past.
Updated to include Hilbert's response:
We are proud of the work we do as a Franciscan Catholic college to expand access to education, including by creating pathways to ensure justice-involved applicants receive a thorough, compassionate, and impartial evaluation. A diverse Judicial Enrollment Committee assesses the unique circumstances of each application anonymously, without any identifying information. While sometimes we must make difficult decisions in the interest of community safety, this process has also resulted into the successful admission and matriculation of at least two thirds of the applicants who have undergone this type of admission review at Hilbert.
We don't discuss individual admissions decisions. However, in this case, we acknowledge that a technical error led to an automatic, erroneous message about admission before our committee had reached a decision. We understand how deeply upsetting this must have been, and we have adjusted our admissions system to prevent this from happening in the future.
- Aidan M. Ryan, APR
Senior Vice President
