East Quad to pick up new elevator

Elevator to make East Quad more accessible to disabled students.

While students living in residence halls often lose sleep over loud music in the next room,students dwelling in East Quad Residence Hall will soon face another distraction that has been more than five years in the planning - the construction of a new elevator to make the hall more accessible to handicapped students.

The lengthy construction, which began yesterday, "would always coincide with the academic year, so we tried to pick the most convenient times for the student academic calendar," said Patty Griffin, Coordinator of Residence Education for East Quad. "Hopefully most of the noise from demolition will happen during spring break."

Griffin has notified students that the building's empty classrooms are available for studying, and she encouraged them to contact her if they feel the noise is excessive.

This project, funded by the College of Literature, Science and the Arts and University Housing, will bring East Quad in line with federal regulations governing building accessibility for the disabled.

The only existing elevator in the building is small, unreliable and provides limited access, Griffin said.

"I have so many horror stories," said John Targowski, an RC student and wheelchair user who lived in East Quad for two years. "I got stuck for 20 minutes. They've had to call the fire department ... It's a very old elevator and it doesn't feel safe," he said.

Alan Levy, director of Housing public affairs, called the building "at best, marginally accessible ... We have an obligation, legally and ethically, to provide opportunities (to disabled students)."

East Quad is of particular concern to Housing officials because it houses two living-learning programs - the Residential College and Inteflex. The residence requirements and selective admission for these programs make access to East Quad synonymous with access to educational opportunities.

"I expected the University to provide adequate access," Targowski said of his decision to enroll in the RC. "After living there a while, I figured out that it wasn't exactly what it could be."

Targowski brought his grievances to the coordinator of residence education, Services for Students with Disabilities and University President Lee Bollinger. His voice joined more than five years of requests made to LSA and Housing - both of which have been trying to budget funding for the elevator project and were unable to do so until now.

The construction began with the demolition of a stairwell in the south end of East Quad. Since a new elevator shaft and machine room must be constructed before the lift can be installed, the expected date of completion is Oct. 31.

Some residents are skeptical about the project. Students were told the current elevator is difficult to fix, but the issue of access for the disabled was not mentioned.

"I think it's kind of a waste of money. They should just fix the old one," said Kerry Girardin, an RC sophomore.

Other residence halls on campus also present difficulties for the disabled, but the relevant laws only require "program accessibility," a term that applies to living-learning programs but not to traditional residence halls.

For those residence halls, students merely have to be presented with a "reasonable range of options."

In terms of accessibility for the disabled, "West Quad is abysmal," said Sam Goodin, director of Services for Students with Disabilities. This was an important factor in the decision to move the Undergraduate Research Opportunities In-Residence Program from West Quad to Mosher Jordan Residence Hall.

02-19-98