Northwestern has launched a nationwide search for a new director of the Services for Students with Disabilities office, administrators said.
The director will replace Matthew Tominey, who served as director since the office opened in August 1997. Tominey left at the end of Winter Quarter for a position at Cornell University.
“We’re searching the country for good people,” said Mary Desler, who is overseeing the office until a replacement is named in June. “There aren’t a lot of people out there who specialize in this field.”
But Desler, the assistant vice president for student affairs, said several strong candidates have already applied for the position.
“We’re not having trouble getting resumes,” she said.
The deadline to apply is April 17.
The SSD office works to make the campus more accessible to people with mobility impairments and other disabilities. By law, programs and services offered to the public must be accessible, although NU is not required to renovate older buildings.
Most Greek houses, the Music Administration Building and University Police headquarters are among NU’s physically inaccessible buildings. Other buildings, including Harris Hall, Lunt Hall and some dorms, are only accessible on the first floor.
“We’re a historic campus that will never be totally accessible,” Tominey told The Daily in May. “We have buildings that structurally cannot be changed.”
Tominey, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, developed a reputation for solving problems quickly. When one student who used a wheelchair wanted to work for WNUR-FM (89.3) in its inaccessible Annie May Swift Hall offices, SSD soon had a device installed that allowed the student to go up the stairs.
And when winter snow prevented one student from getting around in her wheelchair, Tominey’s office got her a taxi. Tominey also gave students with disabilities work-study positions in his office.
The SSD office has also worked to accommodate students with disabilities by making special housing arrangements, installing wheelchair lifts and ramps for university buildings and resolving other problems as they arise.
“The wonderful part is that there’s a shared vision that everybody has,” said Peggy Barr, vice president for student affairs. “When we know of something and it needs to be responded to, the institution responds very quickly.”
In the interim period before a replacement is named, a small group of interns and post-doctoral students is helping Desler run the office. SSD plans to refer difficult cases to a University of Illinois expert whom NU has retained as a consultant.
Desler said providing effective services to students with disabilities in the interim is a top priority.
“We’re really committed to (making sure) nothing falls through the cracks,” she said. “Students should still come, and we’ll do whatever we can to help them.”
