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December 7, 2007
By Journal Staff Writers
UIS is under fire from students who feel that the administration is not responding adequately to the concerns of the disabled community.
Last week, a piece on WUIS public radio highlighted the problems that students Katelyn Murray, Larry Porter and Rebecca Romberger were experiencing with disability services on campus.
Among their complaints were allegations that the new recreation and athletic center (TRAC) was not designed well for wheelchair bound students and that housing accommodations were not made in a timely manner.
Murray declined to comment on the record about the issue and Porter and Romberger could not be reached by deadline on Tuesday.
The Campus Senate had also discussed problems with the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at a recent meeting, alleging that the office had failed to provide timely assistance to disabled students.
In a phone interview, Campus Senate President Pat Langley said several professors told her they didn’t receive notification that students in their classes needed special accommodations until five to eight weeks into the semester.
Five weeks into the semester, Langley said, is too late.
“By then they’ve done things that have affected students’ grades but didn’t know they needed to make accommodations,” she said.
The office has undergone several organizational changes since this summer. Karla K. Carwile was removed as director of the office and replaced temporarily with Judy Shipp, Executive Director of the UIS Counseling Center and Student Support Services.
Suzanne Woods was then appointed on Sept. 27 as the visiting director of ODS.
Shipp said that many students in need of assistance did not contact the office six weeks prior to the semester like the office requests. Shipp said additional backup occurred because many accommodations for returning students were not processed during the summer.
“It was not done in advance so it got saved until the first week of school,” she said.
Shipp could not say why the information for existing students were not processed during the summer semester, but added that policy changes were put into place to ensure that professors will be notified about returning students with disabilities at the beginning of the semester.
New students needing assistance from the office of disability services are asked to contact the office six weeks prior to the beginning of the semester and provide proof of their disability through a physician or counselor.
After the appropriate forms are filled out, professors are then notified of students in their class who need assistance.
Officials said they have only received six complaints since the beginning of the school year, including four concerned about letters notifying their professors about disabilities.
Following the WUIS piece, Chancellor Richard Ringeisen sent an e-mail to the entire university stating that he is taking the allegations seriously. However, he also called some of the complaints “unfounded” and said that the university consulted with students with disabilities in the layout of the equipment.
In a subsequent interview, he said he is sure there are students who feel disadvantaged.
“I think there are people who sincerely believe they’re not getting the services they need and we’re willing to work with that,” Ringeisen said.
However, university officials said they have only received a handful of complaints, which they said have been dealt with as quickly as they could.
JT Timmons, director of recreational sports, said he was perplexed by the comments made to WUIS, but said he has discussed the recreation center with Murray and other disabled students.
Timmons, who was hired after much of the equipment had been ordered for the center, said nobody has specifically come to him to complain about the fitness center.
Housing director John Ringle also said that complaints are dealt with as quickly as possible and that last year, at Murray’s request, housing officials made alterations to doors in Lincoln Residence Hall so that the doors to wings could be accessed by a key fob from a farther distance.
Many residents swipe an ID card to gain access to the wings, but the machine that swipes their card was located to close to the door, creating problems for residents in wheelchairs who could not back away from the door quickly.
University officials said since the WUIS piece aired they have received a few comments from concerned students and invite more students to contact ODS at 80 Human Resources Building.
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