ASI resolves to help disabled students

The Associated Students, Inc. Senate passed a resolution in their meeting Wednesday that will allow the ASI to rent out electrical wheelchairs for student use.

Students facing disabilities, whether temporary or long-term, will be able to rent electric wheelchairs on CSULB campus.

“Now that the resolution has been passed, it will be sent to the President of the ASI, the President of the University and Disabled Student Services for approval,” Senator Marvin Flores said. “We won’t know what steps to take to fund it until it goes through the right people.”

In the Oct. 1 meeting, Senator Flores, author of the resolution, expressed his concern for the students who faced difficulty in traveling to their classes on campus. His concern was regarding those who had classes on both upper and lower campus.

The resolution states, “Students that have leg injuries (being temporary or permanent) or other disabilities that give the limited access to and from upper to lower campus in a safe and timely fashion to get to their classes.”

Meghin Hewitt, Junior Journalism student, was temporarily disabled requiring her to be in a wheel chair for a week. Hewitt said she found it difficult to go from class to class.

“CSULB needs some serious change in being wheelchair accessible,” said Hewitt.

Of the 23 CSU’s in the state, none have electrical wheelchairs available to the students according to Flores.

UC Berkeley is the only college in California that has a resolution in place to help disabled students navigate campus by escorting them on carts to and from class. Colorado State University is the only public college in the west that offers electric wheelchair rentals to students according to the resolution.

“I think that this is a great step for now, I like that this option is being presented,” said sophomore fashion merchandising student Rebecca Jillian. “It’s extremely hard to navigate campus when walking; I can only imagine how hard it is to trek down the hill between classes in a wheelchair.”

The ASI Senate will also be working with Disabled Student Services (DSS) to present the resolution to the California State Student Association (CSSA). The CSSA will further review the resolution in order to possibly have the resolution be adopted by the CSUs as a whole.