Have you ever been physically impaired to the point where you couldn't walk and needed assisstance with either a wheel chair or crutches? If you do have the luxury good luck getting around campus especially when the weather turns bad. My friend Alicia unfortunately tore her ACL this past fall and has to hike around campus just to keep up with her classes. She is a Physical Education at Cortland and sadly had to withdraw from her activity courses. She lives at the bottom of the hill and all of her classes are at the top. When she told me she had a rough time around campus gettting from building to building, I thought she was just kidding. But, then I thought about it and really it is hard to get around. Just to get into Bowers you can take that long and windy ramp then take the elevator in the building. Have you ever been in that elevator? It is not meant to be for passengers but just the cleaning cart! After this adventure up and around the hill to the front of Old Main back to Dowd and such she has to come back to her dorm. We both live in the Towers and if you have ever been in the Towers the front entrance is not the most friendly building. To get to the elevators you have to go to the back between Casey and Smith then take a elevator to your floor. This process is long and tiring and by the end of the day she doesnt even want to get dinner because it all repeats!
Fortunately, the campus is making renovations to many buildings. The newest remodeled building, Fitzgerald was redone this past year and now is accessible to the handicapp but only on the first floor. Many of you might not know this, but Casey and Smith's front entrances are going to be remodeled also this next spring. So step by step the school will become friendlier to the handicapp, but do not even try going into Park Center for a class, because guess what? An elevator does not exist!
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Very good points you've made here. I am shocked that your friend had to drop out of her activity courses. If her professors made her do this she can fight that. That is for sure. Talk to Dr. Davis. He is the head of the Adapted Phys. Ed. department and is very adamant about that situation. he could be a lot of help. As for park center though, I spend pretty much all day in this building Monday through Thursday and there actually is an elevator, but yea, good luck ginding it. If you are looking at the vending machines, go to the right and just before the stairs there is an elevator. Not a very ideal place for one though. Also, we had a guest speaker come into my Adapted class last week. He is a chair user and had difficulty getting into class because our classroom is E-205 which goes down like 5 steps into the room. There is a little elevator for these purposes, but what do ya know, it was out-of-service and still is. Shocker. Out-of-sight-Out-of-mind I guess. Something really should be done. I'm glad at least some of the buildings are being remodeled.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the difficulty getting around campus. This campus is made of pure hills. That has got to be a big pain in the behind while on crutches, or in a wheel chair. There are not many handicapped accessible dorms here on campus. The only two that I know of are Glass Tower and the newly renovated Fitzgerald. It is about time they are making this campus more handicap accessible, especially since we have a very athletic student body. The winter seems to be the prime time for students to end up on crutches whether it was from athletics or an accident.
ReplyDeletewhaaaat thats insane i cant believe this nonsense what has the world come to?!
ReplyDeleteYes, I completely agree with you based on what your blog. Not only does it effect people that have injuries, but it gets even worse in the winter time. Some of the hills are so bad that it is a obstacles just to walk to class. They are basically ripping down the whole campus so I hope they will draw up a better solution for people who have a tougher time getting around.
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