Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Res colleges, Greeks top priorities for accessibility

Northwestern’s accessibility committee decided at a Friday meeting to prioritize making residential colleges and houses in the university’s Greek system handicap accessible.

Consultants hired by NU in Fall Quarter presented the committee with drafts from a partially completed, campuswide audit that will generate renovation suggestions to make living units on campus accessible to all students.

Committee members chose residential colleges and Greek houses as the university’s next goal because those two types of living units offer the most programming for students, said committee member Ronald Nayler, NU’s associate vice president for facilities management.

“If you’re a student that wants to be in a certain residential college and you have a disability, you should still be able to be in that dormitory and take part in residential college activities,” Nayler said. “Obviously (campuswide accessibility) is a long-term issue that would require substantial expenditures, but in residential colleges, we think it’s a reasonable goal.”

School of Education and Social Policy lecturer Carol Gaetjens, the first faculty member to join the accessibility committee, said making living units accessible is just the beginning of NU’s accessibility issues.

“It’s absolutely necessary to make all of the Greek units and residential college units accessible,” said Gaetjens, who uses a wheelchair. “The audit sketched out several scenarios from the low-cost budget model to the let’s-do-everything scenario.”

Nayler said the consultants provided summaries for the audits of sorority Alpha Chi Omega and Elder Hall.

“The draft of Alpha Chi did not capture all that we wanted,” Nayler said.

Audits of Willard Residential College and an unidentified fraternity also were completed but will be presented at the committee’s next meeting Feb. 14.

The consultants were asked to examine three ways to create a more accessible Greek and residential college system, Nayler said.

First, the auditors considered how to make the living units program-accessible, which means all areas for social events and sleeping are made accessible. The second option focuses on cutting costs by developing ways to move various functions of the building to one level that is accessible, such as the first floor. The third option included designs to make the entire facility accessible — the most costly measure.

“The information to do the third option was there, but it was not part of the analysis (of Alpha Chi),” Nayler said.

No cost estimates of possible renovations to Greek houses and residential colleges were discussed for any of the proposed modifications, Gaetjens said.

She added that the report on Alpha Chi highlighted deficiencies for the building, such as narrow doors and hallways, and possible solutions to make the building more accessible, such as constructing a lift from the basement to the second floor.

Ariel Schwartz, an Education sophomore on the committee, called the audit an important first step toward making the entire campus accessible.

“As they complete an audit, they will hand us a report,” said Schwartz, president of the student group Wheels of Change, which deals with campus accessibility issues. “It will make it a lot easier to come up with a plan and prioritize what we need to do.”

Committee members also split up into three subcommittees designed to examine budget priorities, assess accessibility needs and determine how best to educate the university community about the issues.

Both Schwartz and Gaetjens said they would like the budget priorities subcommittee to lobby for more annual expenditures for accessibility improvements. NU currently spends $500,000 on accessibility improvements each year.

“People just don’t get it as long as they can walk,” Gaetjens said. “If you were a prospective student, then why the hell would you come if it were this difficult to get around?”

But Vice President for Student Affairs William Banis said Thursday that renovations to living units will come from a separate pool of money for housing and food services.

“Every year, (the Office of Student Affairs) tries to put into reserves small pools of money to fund accessibility, furniture replacement and just general building maintenance,” Banis said. “It’s going to be a balancing act trying to get done what we can with the monies that we have.”

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Res colleges, Greeks top priorities for accessibility