Faculty Will Review Ways To Help the Handicapped

Harvard will soon implement a series of recommendations aimed at improving the University environment for disabled students, pending Faculty Council approval.

The list of proposals, presented last Wednesday at a Faculty Council meeting by the Undergraduate Council's Committee on College Life, includes a request that the Dean of the Faculty write a letter to all Faculty members and staff stressing the University's legal responsibility to aid handicapped students.

The recommendations also include establishing a formal procedure to respond to student complaints, making all classes accessible to the disabled, and informing all undergraduate organizations of ways to make their activities available to disabled students.

Classification

"The proposals aren't a new policy about disabled students, but a clarification of current policy," said Jake Stevens '86, a Student-Faculty Committee member who helped formulate the list.

"Faculty members need education [about the handicapped] just as students do," he added.

Lack of accessibility to many classrooms and living quarters has been a major concern voiced by handicapped students.

Citing the inaccessibility of the Fogg-Norton Lecture Hall. where the introductory course Fine Arts 13 is taught, Stevens said. "Right now no one in a wheelchair can concentrate in Fine Arts."

ABLE

The recommendations have been in the making since last spring, compiled by the Undergraduate Council's Task Force on Disabled Students and Advocating a Better Learning Environment (ABLE), a Harvard organization for disabled students.

"I'm glad something's finally being done," said Robert S. Gutierrez '84, an ABLE member, adding. "The faculty has said they're giving their best effort, but there are still classes the disabled can't take."

James A. Chiavelli '84, an Undergraduate Council member who worked on the list, said. "It's a good first step," adding, "Some people would have wanted it stronger, but pushing the faculty now would just make it harder to get approval."

Thomas E. Crooks, Faculty coordinator of services for the handicapped, yesterday called the recommendations "fine" and declined to comment further.

There are approximately 45 self-described disabled students currently at the University as a whole; 30 are enrolled at the College, according to Allen S. Weiner '85, student coordinator of services for disabled students.