Protest group eyes disability center
Creative Resistance protests against proposed changes in Auraria library
by Tabitha Dahl
The Metropolitan
The student organization Creative Resistance protested plans for the
library's disabled accessibility center Monday, weeks after Metro's administration
said they were considering a new floor plan that addressed students' concerns.
"What we're trying to do is nail down the final floor plan and (we
are) hoping to preserve the lab completely as it is," said Karen
Raforth, interim vice-president of Student Services at Metro.
The floor plan, conceived during an open- forum with students on March
23 and 24, is one of four plans to merge the Disability Services Office
with the center.
"We've had a lot of Creative Resistance members attend the meetings
where they've been releasing these plans, and they haven't changed,"
said Zoe Williams of Creative Resistance.
According to the petition at Monday's rally, the administration's plans
may replace Laverne Donelson, a founder of the center, with an inexperienced
worker, and create "a new, segregated entrance to the CCAC".
Raforth disputes this statement.
"The back-door concept is one of the ideas tossed out at the very
first meeting. (It was) eliminated in the second meeting because that
ramp is not ADA approved," Raforth said.
The space allotted to the accessibility center will not change with the
merger and Donelson's job has never been threatened, Raforth said.
Williams said that the proposal protested in the petition is the most
recent plan, e-mailed to all of the students by the administration.
She also said that Creative Resistance's letter of demands purposely
included outdated material to illustrate that the writers of the proposal
should not be making decisions for students because they had plans to
build a back entrance for disabled students to enter the center.
"In trying to be so open to student input, we keep changing things
and then we get criticized. We are trying to get the best plan and have
the best results possible," Raforth said.
Williams said the administration has been dismissing the pressure they
have felt from students on campus.
Indicating that the center is mostly financially independent from Metro,
Creative Resistance said that it "has been singled out for cutbacks
because the disabled community has been dismissed as invisible, disposable."
Metro senior Nicholas Delmonico, who is blind and has used the center,
disagrees with Creative Resistance. He feels that students oppose the
proposal, afraid of losing the safe haven they have at the center.
Metro junior Jenny Laird is wheelchair- bound and joined Creative Resistance
several months ago, before the remodel issue came to the group's attention.
Laird recognizes that the current plan to combine the Disabled Services
Office with the center will cause more people to use both services, "but
I want to be out on campus; I want to be out and part of the college experience,"
Laird said.
Laird said she does not feel anyone is dead-set against merging DSO and
the center.
"There are some students who use the (center) who are very emotional
about this merger process. They want to keep the (center) a separate entity,"
said Metro Student Trustee Harris Singer, who is blind.
Each speaker at Monday's rally recognized the center's value to the disabled
community.
The current floor plan would extend the center into the library without
costing the center any space, according to Singer. He also said DSO and
the accessibility center will both be easier to find and their union will
allow for cross-training in adaptive technology.
"Creative Resistance has not done much to get fully informed from
both sides. I appreciate on some level that they are willing to be active
with the students and that they want the best possible services, but there
is a lot of emotionalism and a lot of ignorance that is going into this
rhetoric of fear and it's not helping the process at all," said Singer.
Tom Mistnek of Creative Resistance said that the group has not received
any information regarding the accessibility center for the last two weeks.
Around 40 people, half of whom were disabled, attended Monday's rally.
Afterwards, students marched with petitions to Metro Interim President
Ray Kieft's office, and Raforth, who said she attended the rally, received
the petitions.
"For the nay-sayers who say Creative Resistance is getting involved
to create a mess, they're doing it because it's what they believe in,"
Laird said.
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