The double swipe system recently installed in Letts Hall was installed to keep bad people out of residence halls. Instead, it only kept a few students with physical disabilities from getting to their rooms. The students, unable to swipe their AU identification cards at the second swipe terminal in Letts, would have been forced to wait for assistance to get through the locked doors.
In response, Housing and Dining Executive Director Chris Moody made the right choice to keep the doors open all the time until a special swipe system can be installed.
It is unfortunate that this inconvenience ever existed for any Letts resident. Students with physical disabilities deserve to be treated with the same dignity and respect as all other students. It is important that AU take all of its students into account when they make changes to university buildings.
Despite the small lapse in logic that caused the original problem, Moody deserves credit for his swift realization that security needs to take a backseat to accessibility until fixes are made that do not compromise handicap accessibility.
But for some buildings, no amount of assistance will change the fact that they are not at all accessible. Many buildings on AU's campuses were built before the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted in 1990. Despite this, between 80 and 90 percent of the campus is now handicap accessible. Other than the School of International Service building, the Hamilton Building and the President's Building, all other buildings are at least semi-accessible. This is encouraging, but as with anything, there is room for improvement. In many buildings - Hurst Hall included - only the first floors are accessible. Continued work should be done to improve these accommodations. Hurst could use a renovation anyway.
