It has been more than 34 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. Yet it is an open secret that the SUNY Oswego campus is not very accessible for people with or without disabilities. When you are a busy college student, you are likely hurrying across campus to catch a class and it feels like the scheduling makes no sense. Accessibility matters and it is the campus administration’s duty and legal responsibility to ensure that all students, faculty and staff can safely and effectively work, regardless of ability and visible or invisible disability. I write this as an update to 2022–2023 editor-in-chief Annika Wickham’s column on campus accessibility and to inform new Lakers of these challenges.
Exhibit A: Mahar Hall
If you are a faculty member working in or student majoring in a social science (anthropology, criminal justice, economics, human development, politics, psychology, sociology) or if you are a history major like myself, welcome toprison… again! For some people, this experience will be worse than others because unfortunately their department cannot relocate their office, labs (e.g., archaeology dig site, psychology lab, human development lab, etc.) or classrooms.
In my first year, the Mahar elevator was closed for almost a whole calendar year (beginning in 2021 and continuing into 2022) before it was eventually fixed. On online forums, discussion boards and social media, both students and faculty were commiserating together over how this was another sign of Mahar’s decrepit and rotting state. A wall of printed memes and a condolence book full of signatures soon began popping up on the fourth floor (where most faculty offices are located) as we pondered our elevator-less future. The Registrar’s Office did not pay us any mind. Both students and faculty alike had to skirt the rules by “squatting” in empty offices to host meetings or potentially endangering themselves by forcing themselves up multiple flights of stairs to get to class. For many of Mahar’s faculty and students, they either do not like to or cannot walk up the stairs.
Now come to the first few weeks of fall 2024 and we are back where we started. The elevator broke just before the start of classes, but was fixed promptly. Then on the first week of classes, it broke again. So we are still in a painful limbo: When will it be out of service again? The Registrar has moved some classes out, but many classes are still in Mahar. In history’s case, our classes are on Mahar’s first floor. However, our department has relocated across campus to Park Hall and Wilbur Hall. This is somewhat fitting, considering a good number of our students are social studies teacher candidates, but the faculty must hate walking across campus back and forth. At least they have got a bit more space and freshened-up offices without the ceiling going to collapse. They have traded away the precious lake view though.
Exhibit B: Outside Mahar, Hewitt Quad is a campus eyesore/slow improvement
Compared with the eastern quad (Park/Sheldon/Rich) and the Marano lawn, Hewitt Quad is not doing too great. As reported by Ben Grieco, the 2019 ARTSwego floor mural for the Grand Challenges project “Fresh Water for All” transformed Hewitt Quad into a blue and yellow Moses-inspired parting of Lake Ontario’s waves. But now it is 2024 and you can barely see any color as the quad’s cement pit keeps cracking and exposing old steel. That is not even mentioning the costly delays involved with the gutting and renovation of Hewitt Hall, which will be a home for communications studies and art and design students. Last year saw the addition of new plants, a bike rack, picnic tables and USB charger ports around Hewitt. However, no one was using them because it is next to a messy, closed-off construction zone. The plants even died trying to survive the winter!
lacehoIn conclusion, campus still needs improving and it is going to be a slow bumpy ride to getting better.
