Allegheny Student Government

Hey Francheska! I'm really excited about the outreach you are doing to the student population. I know the campus does a lot to try to diversify the college but something that has always bothered me is the college's lack of wheel chair accessibility. Not only the brick pathways, but also many buildings would be impossible to even enter for someone in a wheelchair. If we're going to have a diversity campaign, we shouldn't leave out any groups of individuals, including the physically handicapped. Thanks Fran!!

I think I should offer the following reservations, which I expect Francheska would find a bit harsh:

My understanding about wheelchair accessibility was that the college looked into it, and for many of the older buildings, the retrofitting would be very costly and basically impossible. Buildings like Oddfellows that have some "historic" value to the college simply could not be retrofitted without compromising the nature of the buildings.

During one of the trustee scholar weekends I was assisting a tour in Steffee to represent Creek Connections (totally unrelated to diversity). A woman asked me about diversity on campus--which I misunderstood as biodiversity given the setting--but once I understood where she was coming from I could only offer two insights. First, I don't notice any lack of diversity, but I'm not looking for one and she was. Second, none of the answers I gave her satisfied her. So something needs to happen, whether it be better publicizing of diversity affairs or better diversity affairs.

I'm with Amanda. Compromising handicap accessibility for "historic value"? What?

By not having basic handicap accessibility, we are automatically discriminating against certain individuals.

People in wheelchairs would not even be able to VISIT many of the buildings on campus.

I understand that handicap accessibility is a costly and timely undertaking, but we should probably start somewhere.