Before Amy Wieliczka’s article was actually printed in The Polytechnic last week, the Office of Residence Life had arranged a room for her in Barton Hall, which is very accessible for anyone with an injury like Wieliczka’s or for students with a permanent disability. The Office of Reisdence Life does a great job of trying to accommodate, on short notice, the housing needs of students who injure themselves and find it difficult to get to their regular room. Most students get quite adept at using crutches after several days of sore armpits and aching shoulders and usually, in the end, prefer to handle staircases (slowly, to be sure!) rather than change rooms. But campus offices do our best to meet their needs, whichever decision they make.

I hope Wieliczka is feeling better and stronger than when we chatted shortly after her injury. I understand that it takes considerable pain and adjustment to get used to moving in a body that is suddenly compromised, and apparently my attempts to cast an optimistic light on the situation didn’t work for her. Several students are currently walking around the campus on crutches from injuries, and surely all are having difficult moments with staircases, bad weather, and other obstacles the world puts in the way. Like all campuses, Rensselaer has spent many thousands of dollars on improvements over the past twenty-five years and we’ve achieved pretty good accessibility by a combination of renovations, new facilities, and flexible scheduling to avoid the older, inaccessible spaces when necessary. It’s not a perfect campus, but since the world isn’t perfectly accessible, it’s a fairly realistic representation of the infrastructure in the United States.

As they make their way around campus, I hope students who experience temporary disabilities are able to gain an appreciation for “universal” design features in our newer buildings. And I hope that as they learn to cope with physical limitations and overcome difficulties that their friends have probably never encountered, they will be surprised and proud of the strength they find within themselves they may not have known was there before.

Debra Hamilton

Assistant Dean of Students