As students and faculty with disabilities have an increasing need for their voices to be heard and concerns addressed, SGA is working with campus faculty and staff to make it happen.
At the Oct. 17 SGA meeting, Senator of Innovation Isabella Polombo formed the Disability and Accessibility ad hoc committee, which aims to give students the opportunity to voice their opinions about accessibility and collaborate on issues regarding accessibility.
Polombo said that this committee is the platform that students have been needing for campus accessibility issues.
“There are many students whose needs have been ignored and have slipped through the cracks because of it. This committee and the possibility of a new senator focusing on these challenges is a huge step in the right direction for our community,” Polombo said.
So far, the new committee has met once and has over 30 members including students, faculty and staff. “The reason there are so many members is because there is a major need to address campus accessibility,” Polombo said.
Starting in spring 2025, the committee will hold monthly meetings open to all UCCS affiliates, including alumni, to give people a platform to voice their needs about accessibility.
When Polombo formed the committee, she said one of the primary goals was to monitor the progress of a shuttle tracker that has been in development. After beta testing the application with students who live on campus and receiving positive feedback, the shuttle tracker is now available to the public.
The tracker, created by a service called Samsara, was designed to make navigating campus more accessible, according to Jim Spice, executive director of Parking and Transportation Services. Students can access the shuttle tracker on the Samsara website.
SGA also hopes to add a senator of accessibility and disability by next year, according to Polombo. The senator would be the representative for all students with disabilities.
Since the academic year’s budget has already been established, SGA is planning to find funding for the new senator position at the end of the spring semester. A senator of accessibility and disability could be added to SGA by the beginning of the next academic year if the position is approved by the Senate at the end of spring.
“Adding the position is really important for students to have that representative, especially when a lot of the challenges with navigating our campus have been brought up by students who have disabilities or those who are frustrated with the ongoing negligence of not addressing the issues in a correct way,” Polombo said.
In its current form, this senator position would be required to attend monthly meetings with MOSAIC and the director of disability services, serve on the parking transportation advisory board and create at least two events uplifting disability stories per academic year, according to Polombo.
UCCS members interested in joining the Disability Ad Hoc Committee can reach out to Polombo at [email protected].
A UCCS shuttle waits outside the University Center shuttle stop. Photo by Logan Cole.
2024-12-09