Excitedly rushing into her dorm on move-in day, English and political science freshman Shital Patel was crushed when she saw a large metal structure blocking her first taste of collegiate freedom.
The electric wheelchair lift that should easily have taken her up the four stairs to her new room was broken. Her parents had to carry her.
“I didn’t expect any of this,” said Patel, who moves around in a wheelchair. “Everything in my junior high and high school was accessible.”
When she came to the University from Texas last semester, she had no idea the campus would be as inaccessible as it is — there are few elevators, ramps, easily openable doors and wide bathrooms.
While the University is compliant with most of the disability laws that require equal access to faculty, staff and classes, disabled students say most of the University’s campus is shut off to them. University officials maintain they are doing the best they can with limited funds, but physically disabled students complain that although recent improvements make getting around easier, most campus buildings are still inaccessible.
University Chancellor Sean O’Keefe said making the campus compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a law prohibiting discrimination based on disability, is a legal and social responsibility that demands high priority.
“The attention level to this is very high and needs to be very high,” O’Keefe said. He also vowed to look into the lack of state funding that holds the University back from making the campus more accessible and to post updates about it on his Web site.
But Patel said that when she has told administrators about her problems in the past, her complaints have gotten lost in the shuffle, and she continues to struggle getting around.
 
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into federal law the Americans with Disabilities Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability and to outline the rights of people with disabilities.
Under Title II of ADA, the University is required to provide equal program access to students with disabilities. This means the University must make all “programs” — including classes, field trips, professors or guidance counselors — available to all students, whatever their ability.
Students with disabilities get priority class registration so that their classes can be moved into accessible classrooms.
But the law does not require the University to renovate existing buildings, such as older ones in the Quad, that are not up to code or even accessible to students with disabilities.
Benjamin Cornwell, director of the Office of Disability Services, said accessibility is as simple as having ramps and doors wide enough so wheelchairs can fit through them. For a building to be up to code, it must meet a long list of requirements from elevators to handicapped-accessible door handles.
The only buildings on campus that fully meet ADA compliance are buildings that have undergone extensive renovations since 1990, such as the Journalism Building, Hodges Hall and the soon-to-be renovated Music and Dramatic Arts Building.
Cornwell repeatedly has said that there just is not enough money, and though he did not provide a solid number, he said it would cost millions of dollars to make the whole University meet ADA code.
Cornwell said trying to get funding from the state for building renovations and access-oriented improvements is difficult because the state does not give any extra money to fund disability access.
“Funding is a constant struggle,” he said. “The state’s mentality is called ‘program access.’ Not every pathway has to be accessible; every program has to be accessible.”
Cornwell said a perfect example of program access is when a student in a wheelchair may need to visit a counselor in the financial aid office that is on the second floor of Himes. There is no elevator in Himes, so students have to set up a meeting ahead of time and an employee will come down to the first floor to meet them.
But Cornwell said the employee may not have his computer or resources from his office that could help the student. He said the disabled student also could miss helpful signs or scholarships posted for students in the office.
Cornwell, who is also in a wheelchair, said he has “harsh feelings about those legal requirements.”
“[The law] sets up a whole new separate-but-equal system,” he said. “It’s absolutely not an equal system,” he said. “It doesn’t come anywhere near being equal.”
Cornwell said every university suffers with problems like this, but it is particularly bad at LSU where the campus also has an additional $150 million in building maintenance that has been put off over the years.
CAMPUS HARDSHIPS
Patel, who came to the University because of the Honors College, was disappointed when she found out she would not be able to live in West or East Laville, the Honors College residence halls.
Isolated from the other students in the Honors College, she said she cannot join the study groups in the study rooms on the second floor of East Laville because there is no elevator.
“The last [study group] I went to, someone carried me up the stairs,” she said, adding that living and studying together is her picture of how the Honors College is designed to be.
Because there are no handicapped-accessible rooms in East Laville, Residential Life officials told her Evangeline Hall would best suit her. She lives by herself, where she has to pay more for a two-person room.
A wheelchair lift is designed to get her up the four or five steps from the lobby to the first floor, but it has already broken a handful of times this semester, leaving her stranded.
“It is not a lift — it’s not reliable,” she said. “And when it’s broken, the only option I have is to be carried down — and I don’t like that.”
When the lift was broken earlier in the year, she had to wait for someone to carry her down for her Monday class. She told the resident advisors in Evangeline that her class started at 8:30 a.m., so she would need someone to come earlier. No one showed up until 8:30 a.m. and she missed her class.
Patel and her suite-mate, Amanda Turner, a senior in psychology who gets around in a wheelchair, also said they have a big problem with the lack of fire safety plan in their dorm.
Both said in the case of a fire, they fear getting stuck in their rooms because, for Patel, the wheelchair lift would automatically shut down in a fire. Turner, who can walk short distances slowly if she uses handrails, said she fears getting trampled by other residents fleeing the fire.
“If anyone touches me, I fall down,” Turner said.
They said the only way both of them will be able to get out is if someone carries them.
Patel said she has told several campus administrators about her problems, but often feels shut out.
She said she spoke with former student senator Stephen Wright, who told her he would propose a bill to put a ramp in the Laville Food Emporium so Patel would not have to go across campus to the Mini-Mart to buy groceries. But after Wright wrote down her name and e-mail address, she said she never heard from him again.
Wright said he spoke to Senate Speaker Brandon Smith about it, but resigned from the Senate this semester before he got anything done. He said Smith may be planning some disability-related legislation.
Patel also said she spoke with LSU System President William Jenkins when he was interim chancellor. She said he told her he knew that the University was not up to ADA code, but that the state does not have enough money to make the campus compliant.
“With all do respect to this University, people sound encouraging, but that’s about it,” Patel said.
Turner and Patel also said other little things such as parking on sidewalks and parking bicycles in the entrance to the Quad make getting around even harder.
“I call the tow truck on cop cars,” Turner said of police officers who often park on sidewalks, making it impossible for her to get around.
 
STUDENT FEE AT WORK
Although University officials say there is no state money available, there is some student money.
In 2002, Student Government reallocated a $6 sports fee, $2.50 into a fund for disability access improvements, $2.50 to a Student Initiative Fee and $1 toward a one-year recycling program. The next year, the proportion increased, putting $3.50 toward the disability access fund.
Former chancellor Mark Emmert promised to match the student collected fee with University cash, and he even convinced a state committee to match that money.
But for the past two years, the fund has gone untouched. Because of that, the University forgot to keep up its end of the bargain.
The University did not match the account, but Jerry Baudin, vice chancellor for finance and administrative services, said it was just an oversight and as of Monday, they transferred the money into the account.
So now $486,067 sits in the bank, which Cornwell said may be enough to make accessible bathrooms in the Quad and redo some ramps, sidewalks and curb cuts. Whatever gets done Patel and Turner said they are ready for some important campus renovations.
SG President Brad Golson said the Office of Disability Services needs to start planning what to do with the money before all the students that paid into it graduate.
“It’s fine to save, but the students here now pay for it, and they want to see it in action,” Golson said. “If they aren’t using the money or don’t know where to use it, we need to re-think charging the students.”
But Cornwell said he intentionally let the account build up so the University could use the money on bigger projects once the previous projects were finished.
 
CAMPUS ACCESS SITE TEAM
Also in 2002, concerned students and administrators organized a committee to assess problem areas on campus and map out areas in need of improvement. Though still in existence, Campus Access Site Team has not met formally in about a year, Cornwell said.
Although several students sat on CAST when it was formed, Cornwell said, for the most part, the committee is made up of Facility Services employees and himself. He said the committee has not had to have a formal meeting in one year because he and officials are in constant communication.
He also said students on the committee were invited, but often they did not show up to the meetings. The meetings are not open to the public.
Cornwell said CAST will meet Wednesday at 9 a.m., and he will keep in mind student complaints that he has heard, such as few accessible bathrooms in the Quad. But he also said that if students want to get involved or have specific concerns, he said they should contact him directly.
“This is not an open forum,” Cornwell said. “At some point it might be a good idea to have an open forum, but this is to discuss areas of campus that have already been mapped out. The committee doesn’t meet to discuss ideas specifically.”
SG President-elect Michelle Gieg said she would like to see more student input with the Office of Disability Services.
“I’d like to do a student-led assessment of campus, in conjunction with Disability Services,” Gieg said.
She also said she is proposing a new position for her executive staff that would focus solely on disability issues and be a liaison between concerned students, the Office of Disability Services and SG.
For now, Patel said she is so frustrated with the University’s inaccessibility that she may transfer to a school in her home state of Texas that has better disability access.
“I’m still very disappointed,” Patel said. “I really like the Honors College, and my professors are always willing to help, but I don’t know if it’s worth putting up with everything else.”