Disabilities Support Services (DSS) will be moved into the first floor and basement level of the Bruce Pitman Center by the fall semester as part of an initiative geared toward student success.
Vice President for Infrastructure Dan Ewart said the office portion of DSS will take up the space the old Jazz Festival Office used to occupy in the Pitman Center on the first floor. This is where DSS employees can meet and communicate with students.
The testing center for DSS will be in the basement on the same side of the Pitman Center as the offices, and is accessible by elevator. Dean of Students Blaine Eckles said each component of the new location complies with federal requirements by the American with Disabilities Act.
Ewart said the change was necessary because DSS was encountering major problems with its current location in the Idaho Commons — mainly lack of space.
Several other locations were considered for DSS to move to, Ewart said, but each had other significant problems. The empty offices near the Commons rotunda were already reserved for an ASUI project. The Memorial Gym had issues with accessibility. The Living Learning Communities were too small.
“We looked at the Pitman Center as the right mix,” Ewart said.
University of Idaho administrators held an open forum about the student success initiative to hear opinions from students, faculty and staff — the topic of the DSS move came up. A student said the change in location made it feel like the initiative prioritized the success of students, “but only the important ones.”
Eckles said DSS is definitely important to UI, and especially for him on a personal level.
“I got into higher education because of my family’s history with disabilities,” Eckles said.
DSS would be more accessible in the Pitman Center than it is in the Commons, as disabled students have to take a shuttle bus to get to the building now, Eckles said. There is also no room to expand the offices in the Commons. The university is in need of 28 spaces for DSS testing, he said, and currently there are only eight.
Department of Mathematics lecturer Theresa Allen said she had concerns about getting students to go to the Pitman Center.
“I have a hard enough time getting students to walk from the Polya to the Commons,” Allen said.
Eckles said the Pitman Center was the best option for what they had available. Unfortunately, when the campus was being constructed 100 years ago, accessibility for disabled students was not a topic of conversation, he said. But he said he would love to communicate more with disabled students about what the university could do better.Erin Bamer can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ErinBamer