The North Texan, Volume 35, Number 1, Fall 1985 Page: 8

                                
By Beverly Fletcher
Barbara Jungjohan has campaigned for more than a
decade to raise public consciousness of services needed
for the disabled.
While her steadfast efforts have served to gain such
improvements in the past as citywide permit parking for
the handicapped, Mrs. Jungjohan has not slipped into
neutral. She continues as the driving force behind servic-
es instigated for the disabled in the Denton community
and on the North Texas State University campus.
"She is the catalyst for programs on campus for the
disabled," Dr. Joe Stewart, dean of students, says of
the NTSU employee. "Barbara is a highly motivated,
high energy individual. She operates on all eight cyl-
inders."
Mrs. Jungjohan, assistant dean of students, has tire-
lessly championed the handicapped on and off the job
during the 16 years of her affiliation with the university.
In recognition of her work, in 1981, she received a
prestigious Governor's Citation, awarded by the State
Employment of the Handicapped Awards Committee,
for her outstanding contributions to the disabled. And the
1974 Who's Who of American Women honoree helped to
obtain several grants for the university for funding of
support systems for disabled students. Mrs. Jungjohan was
in on the ground level when the university began compli-
ance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; she designed
the architectural barriers self-study for the university. She
also has set up the annual Handicap Awareness Week on
campus, and assists widely in programming.
Mrs. Jungjohan spends a portion of her working hours
informing possible donors of needs on the campus in
order to obtain funding for the disabled. "The other
part of my time," she relates, "is spent directly with
students on an individual basis, helping to provide for
their needs."
Her services to the disabled range from procuring
employment, housing or personal attendants, to helping
them register for classes aiid buy textbooks.
Such tasks are not menial to the energetic Texan. "I
have been privileged to see a great deal of courage through
my work with these students," she notes. "It's amaz-
ing to me how much a human being can adapt when it's
necessary. Disabled students are such a good example
of what all of us could do more of if we wanted to."
Mrs. Jungjohan's involvement in community and cam-
pus organizations dictates that she does not often spend
leisurely evenings at home in Sanger with husband Gerald,
"with her feet propped up against the fireplace." The
family-oriented mother of one, 14-year-old Elizabeth Ann,
chalks up many hours of volunteer work for the disabled.
Champions
Physically Impaired
A music enthusiast, she also finds time to teach third
grade Sunday school and to visit her family in her home-
town of McKinney.
She has worked extensively on committees including
Services to the Handicapped, The Association of Handi-
capped Student Service Programs in Postsecondary
Education, Disabled Students Organization, National Reha-
bilitation Association and Texas Rehabilitation Association.
She has served on the Governor's Special Committee
on Equal Higher Education Opportunity Planning, NTSU
chapter; and is soon to take office as secretary of the
Denton Mayor's Committee for Disabled Persons.
Mrs. Jungjohan—an efficient powerhouse of energy—
is quick to play down the role she holds in elevating the
status of the disabled. "I don't think I do anything more
than what other people do," she says.
Involvement in community affairs is a natural out-
growth of being an educator, she maintains, and while
she admits that she would, at times, prefer an evening
at home with her family, she feels a responsibility to do
something. "I have a conscience and it doesn't let me
rest very well. With me, responsibility is a motivator."
Known widely in the local community and on cam-
pus for her quick smile and compassionate concern, Mrs.
Jungjohan jumped quickly to the cause of the disabled
through her duties as assistant dean. The program joins
a list of many projects assigned to her throughout the
years, including student employment service, women's
center, cooperative education program, services to return-
ing students and student retention.
It was as director of Services to the Handicapped that
Mrs. Jungjohan realized professional growth. Despite a
background of familiarity with disabled individuals through
family friends and college acquaintances, Mrs. Jungjohan
found that she was "very, very ignorant concerning the
needs of the various disabilities."
"I found that I didn't know what I needed to know in
order to be of any help to a disabled person," she relates,
and thus committed herself to gathering that knowledge.
Her affiliation with services for the disabled began in
1972. By 1983, she was co-author of "College Facili-
ties and Services for the Handicapped," a resource manual
listing accommodations for disabled students at colleges
and universities in the United States, Canada and U.S.
possessions.
A great need existed for the book, according to Mrs.
Jungjohan, because disabled students are limited in their
college selections by the institutions' available facilities.
The collection was compiled from surveys of educa-
tional institutions. According to Dr. Stewart, Mrs.
Jungjohan has donated royalties from the book to the
university for handicap assistance.
"It's not as though I sat down and told the world all
they need to know about disabled persons," she says of
the publication. "I wish it were," she adds. "I hope
someday to write such a book."
Mrs. Jungjohan, a cum laude graduate of Texas
Woman's University and Baylor University, came to
NTSU with bachelor of arts and master's degrees in
English.
The articulate and thoughtful scholar says of her
education, "I think anyone who is taught to write also
learns to organize and to prioritize, learns to meet dead-
lines—and all of that certainly is something that I have to
do everyday in my job."
Her English studies have served her with a broader
perspective in dealing with the variety of students who
call upon her for help.
"I think that my affinity for the English language, a
gift of gab I guess you might say, has served me well,"
she muses. "Perhaps it's just that I can talk myself into
and out of situations!"
The work-hungry programs coordinator administers to
a diversified student population in her daily routine. Ser-
vices she renders call upon her natural gifts of patience
and tolerance, compassion and respect for the ideals of
others.
"The students enrolled here are of all ages, from all
sorts of backgrounds, and hold a variety of attitudes
concerning what they ought to be getting at a university
and how they ought to be treated," she says. "They
want someone to listen . . . and that's what I do."
As a facilitator of solutions to obstacles, Mrs. Jungjohan
seeks to instill a sense of self responsibility in her stu-
dent clients.
In her problem-solving role, she lists alternatives avail-
able to the student, outlines the changeable and the
impermeable, presents a realistic outlook on the situation,
then leaves the choice of options to the student. "I try
to impress upon the students that they are responsible
for themselves and must take charge of their own lives."
"And," she adds, "I pass on advice that I have learned
through experience—courtesy works much better than
anger in getting anything done."
According to Dr. Stewart, Mrs. Jungjohan has a capaci-
ty for finding needs on campus. "She thrives on work.
When a new project comes into the office, we work
together on the outline . . . then I get out of her way," Dr.
Stewart laughs.
The North Texan