UNK’s student support services have moved to a new home this fall. The Loper Success Hub, which is on the second floor of the Calvin T. Ryan Library, unifies several campus resources by bringing them together in one combined location.
Academic Advising and Career Development, Disability Services for Students, TRIO Student Support Services, Kearney Bound Scholars, First-Gen Lopers and Tutoring and Academic Support can all be found in the Hub.
This move was intended to create easier collaboration and accessibility, essentially creating a one-stop shop for students.
But we are questioning the decision for one office to be part of this second floor hub.
We are concerned about the accessibility issues this creates for the Disability Services for Students Office.
According to the office’s website, “A disability is a physical, medical, intellectual, psychological or other type of impairment that significantly impacts or substantially limits one or more major life activities.” The office helps a wide range of students, so placing its services on the second floor seems problematic.
This creates more of a challenge for students with a physical disability to access the services meant to specifically help them.
UNK offers a lot of support through Disability Services, so they should be as easily accessible as possible. Placing them on the second floor of a building does not do that.
We recognize that there is an elevator. But just because they can use an elevator, doesn’t mean they should have to. Steps should be taken to make students’ lives easier, not harder.
While some services of the office can be offered virtually, an in-person meeting is sometimes required. On the “How to Register and Request Accommodations Page,” the outlined steps include meeting with DSS staff.
Disability Services for Students said they have the ability to meet with students elsewhere and have accommodations in their space for all students. Still, if the office had remained at ground level, students wouldn’t need to make preventable plans to make sure they could get where they needed to go.
Plus, the elevator is at the front entrance of the library, which sits lower than the main level. There are steps leading up to this main level but some physical disabilities prevent individuals from using stairs. For example, someone using a wheelchair would have two options: use the elevator to go up a mere five or six feet in elevation or go around the library to use the ramp entrance in the back.
Neither of these options is sufficient.
There should be a ramp at the front entrance like there previously was. It seems it was left out of the renovation plans.
We ask that the library’s accessibility and the location of the Disability Services for Students office be reexamined.
The goal was to make things easier for students by moving the student support services to one joint location. We can’t say it’s doing that by moving Disability Services for Students to the second floor of the library.
