By Josh Siatkowski | Staff Writer
Baylor’s Office of Access and Learning Accommodation is set to be relocated from the first floor to the basement of the Sid Richardson Building this fall.
The Office of Access and Learning Accommodation (OALA) exists to create an accommodating environment for individuals with disabilities, according to its website.
Chad Eggleston, assistant vice provost for academic operations and advising, is one of the people within the Office of the Provost who made the decision to relocate OALA. He said the relocation is part of a “larger plan underway at the university” in which Sid Richardson will become “a hub for student-centered services.”
In accordance with this plan, the Center for Global Engagement will relocate from the Hankamer/Cashion building to the space currently occupied by OALA.
With this vision of Sid Richardson as a one-stop shop for student services, Eggleston said it is fitting to bring the Center for Global Engagement to the building. It puts international students an arm’s reach away from other services housed in Sid Richardson, like the Center for Academic Success and Enrichment, the office for Major Exploration and Success Advising, and the offices for College of Arts and Sciences advising, among others.
OALA director Dae Vasek said the students OALA serves have various disabilities.
“The disabilities range from anything from learning disabilities to attention-deficit disorder, autism or developmental disorders, hearing, vision, physical conditions,” Vasek said. “Our goal is to make sure that [students we serve] have the accommodations they need to be successful.”
Amid all the moving around, Eggleston said he is “confident that [the OALA office] will be able to continue to meet Baylor’s standard of excellence at the garden level in the Sid Richardson Building.”
Katy senior Brenna Colihan is one of the students who will be impacted by this change and said she sees OALA’s relocation as a step backward for Baylor’s disability services. Colihan, the director of accessibility in Baylor’s student government and the president of Baylor’s chapter of Delta Alpha Pi, became disabled in high school. After being diagnosed with “a multitude of disabilities,” Colihan said her joint pain often causes her to rely on a cane or her wheelchair, depending on the day.
When she first heard the news of OALA’s relocation through a friend a few weeks ago, Colihan said her reaction was disappointment.
“It feels like a step backward,” Colihan said. “Baylor’s been doing such a good job of trying to push accessibility forward, … but at the same time, moving OALA to the basement makes it feel like [students who use their services] are trying to be hidden.”
Colihan said she was worried about the navigability of the new location for those in wheelchairs, saying there are a number of narrow hallways in the basement. She also said she was worried the new location would not be large enough to meet OALA’s needs.
To address this concern, assistant vice president for media and public relations Lori Fogleman provided The Lariat with some data on the size of OALA’s current and future offices.
One function of OALA, among others, is administering exams to its more than 1,800 students with accommodations in private testing rooms. Vasek estimated that roughly 200 of these students have mobility issues.
Fogleman said the space in the basement is over 300 square feet larger than OALA’s current space — at 6,598 square feet, compared to 6,280 square feet. Fogleman also said OALA’s new office will contain five more testing rooms, bringing the total from 22 to 27.
Furthermore, when asked about the navigability of the space for the roughly 200 students with mobility issues who will be using it, Eggleston said the issues of narrow hallways and tight spaces should be resolved with some construction this summer.
“We are spending significant resources to make sure that construction happens to make that space … an even finer space,” Eggleston said.
Eggleston said the construction is expected to begin May 15 and is on schedule to be completed before the 2024-2025 school year begins.
“I’m certain … [Baylor’s] intention isn’t to say, ‘We don’t care about disabled students,’… but that is how it comes off,” Colihan said. “By putting OALA and disabled kids in the basement, it gives the exact opposite impression of what [Baylor] is trying to do.”
Eggleston said the intention was not at all to hide disabled students. Rather, he said the decision to move OALA to the basement actually comes with its own advantages, like making OALA more private.
“For some students, they would like to come and use all the services and not have to share that with anyone who may be popping by for math class,” Eggleston said.
Colihan said that, through research and talking to others, she knows she is not the only one who is tired of “convincing the able-bodied people in our lives … that we don’t want or need to be hidden from everybody else.”
Colihan estimated that the majority of students who use OALA do not feel any need to hide their disability. And after speaking with many disabled students, Colihan said she has heard a number of different complaints about their treatment as people with disabilities. None of them, however, had anything to do with privacy.
“It’s no longer a point of shame,” Colihan said. “It’s a fact of life.”
Although Colihan was happy to see the issue of space addressed, the concerns did not end there. Colihan said, in her own experience, there are issues with the elevator.
“The [elevator] in Sid Rich — there’s only one in the entire building — I would say is relatively temperamental,” Colihan said. “It’ll go slow or make noise, or it’ll just break down.”
Fogleman said since 2023, the elevator has undergone 65 routine inspections, and the last time the elevator was out of service was March 3, 2023. Eggleston also said Baylor is prepared if the elevator ever does have an issue.
“In the event that there is an elevator outage, we are reserving some space on the first floor for accommodation specialists to meet with students,” Eggleston said.
Although she said she was glad to hear that the elevator has been working well and that Baylor has considered the potential issue of the elevator, Colihan said she was not convinced all of the issues could be resolved.
“I’m glad that there are stats on routine maintenance being done,” Colihan said. “But how much more will [the elevator] be breaking down … if everyone has to use it to get down to the OALA office? And asking people to use the stairs instead is not an option [because some students are disabled].”
Ultimately, Colihan said she has no doubt Baylor has the good of all its students in mind. However, she also said that equity for disabled students is still to be fought for.
“We care deeply about our students who have the need of OALA’s services and want to make sure, wherever they are, that they get served very well,” Eggleston said.
