Archives: USG wants students included in decisions about disabled access

If the Undergraduate Student Government has its way, students will have a say in the planning and decision-making processes to make University structures accessible to disabled persons.

The USG senate passed a resolution last night calling for the following:

— That Office of Physical Plant allow for students, especially disabled students, to be actively included in the planning process.

— That the USG Senate send a letter to Norm Bedell, OPP Assistant Vice President and the Board of Trustees — notifying each of the resolution.

Ray Winters (graduate-educational theory and policy) addressed the senate about the University’s policies regarding these matters.

He said he believes the administration’s initiative concerning building access for disabled students is inadequate. “There’s an administration in Old Main that doesn’t give a damn,” Winters said.

He alleges that even the existing adaptations of the University’s structures are not up to standards set in the Americans with Disabilities Act. The University has been hiding within a loophole in the law, he said.

“In the middle of this law, it says, that anything that is demanded by the law of the University, in this case, must be reasonable,” Winters said. “Well, you can see what is going to happen right there, can’t you?”

Bedell responded, “The University tries to follow the A.D.A. standards as well as we can.”

The standards are not always 100 percent clear, and do not address all issues, Bedell added.

In other projects, funds play a major role in renovating existing structures, he said.

“It gets expensive with an old building,” Bedell said.

Not all of the issues are as simple as Winters makes them sound, he added.

Relevant projects are sent to the disability services office, where they are reviewed for interests of students with disabilities.

Adam Bender, USG town senator and an author of the legislation, said this legislation recognizes disabled students’ concerns.

“They are really getting a bad, raw deal,” Bender said. “Perhaps (the legislation) can be a starting point.”