By Michael Freeman, Managing Editor
Bryan Evans could not attend his English class last semester. The classroom door was unlocked, but that did not matter because the building doors were out of his reach.
Evans, freshman youth and family ministries major from Angleton, was born with spine bifida, a spinal cord defect, and because of this he must use a wheelchair. He said some buildings on campus are difficult to enter. The Zona Luce Building does not have an elevator, and Chambers Hall does not have elevators or a wheelchair ramp.
“Chambers is completely inaccessible,” Evans said. “I cannot find a way to get into it at all. I had an English class last semester, and they had to switch me out of Chambers and put me in a different building because it’s inaccessible.”
Evans was able to take his English class last semester, but it was not in Chambers Hall. Moving students to different buildings is nothing new for the English and psychology departments, both of which reside in Chambers Hall. Students and professors who use wheelchairs, motorized scooters or crutches cannot even enter the building because of the stairs leading to the doors.
Last January, one of Dr. Laura Carroll’s students who used a wheelchair sat outside Chambers Hall in chilly weather for more than 20 minutes before someone came by the classroom to deliver her message that she could not get into the building.
The incident motivated Carroll, assistant professor of English, to action. She is now the chairperson of a Faculty Senate-appointed committee that will soon review disability access to buildings on campus, beginning with Chambers Hall. Chambers Hall was built in 1929 and was last renovated in 1970.
“This building needs to have some updates if possible,” said Vickie Smith, instructor of English. “There are some obvious obstacles when you’re dealing with an older building.”
Smith has experienced her own problems with Chambers Hall. She underwent ankle surgery last December and was unable to climb the stairs to her third floor office for more than two months.
“Of course, it’s very traumatic to be away from your office when you’re trying to build a syllabus or do lesson plans,” Smith said.
The English department offers classes to almost 3,500 students every year, including 150 English majors, one of whom uses a wheelchair, said Dr. Nancy Shankle, professor of English and chair of the department. The psychology department has about 200 psychology majors and 45 graduate students.
With so many students taking classes, Shankle said it has become routine for either her or Dr. Richard Beck, associate professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department, to reschedule at least one departmental class each semester to meet student needs.
“It takes time. It inconveniences everyone to do this,” Shankle said. “And if a student is injured during the year, we have to make the adjustment very quickly and then get the message to the students.”
Shankle said renovating Chambers Hall with an elevator has been researched in the past, and the cost of such a project would be at least $150,000.
“It’s very expensive to do it,” Shankle said. “The question I have is: at what point are we going to provide access to educational resources that students deserve in these two departments?”
