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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
the student voice since 1960
Thursday, April 21, 2022 Vol. 75 No. 27
ACCESS requests more funding to improve campus accessibility LIV KRAUS reporter
ACCESS is requesting higher funds to purchase items that will aid students with mental and physical disabilities. Dominic Dorsey, director of ACCESS, said that an increase in funds would help to make SIUE more accessible for all students. “What a lot of people don’t really understand is, while we do get a budget from the university to be able to take care of salaries and things to that nature, The Americans with Disabilities Act is an unfunded mandate,” Dorsey said. Dorsey said, as well as salaries and other services, all funding for ACCESS comes from the university. “Considering that ACCESS operates very much underneath a banner of accessibility versus compliance, a lot of the things that we would like to do, a lot of the things that we try and provide for students isn’t mandated by law. We know that if we do this, it will make life easier. It will level the playing field for students,” Dorsey said. Jim Boyle, assistant director for inclusive compliance, said that if ACCESS had more funds available to them, it would allow for campus to be more accessible to
all students. gency technicians to come in and rescue “Our whole goal is to make campus them or evacuate them,” Dorsey said. as accessible and as friendly as possible. Dorsey said that these chairs cost We believe in the concept of universal around $1,500. He said that more funding design where you wouldn’t need accom- would allow ACCESS to purchase more modations because the campus of these chairs so that one day, there can would already be be an emergency accessible to evevacuation chair erybody,” Boyle on each floor of said. every building. Dorsey said “We wouldn’t one of the main in any other situathings ACCESS tion ask for people is interested in is to be left behind purchasing emerwhen there is a gency evacuation mechanism or a chairs for stuway for everyone dents with physto evacuate safely. ical disabilities We think about who struggle to how much it costs make it out safely to save a life. I by themselves. think $1,500 is a “The evacupretty cheap ask,” ation chairs will Dorsey said. Jim Boyle allow students, Dorsey said Assistant Director for Inclusive Compliance instead of having ACCESS is also to wait in an area trying to get for rescue in the more funding for event of a fire or any type of emergency a note-taking software called Glean. He where we’d be evacuating the building, to said this program is to allow students with use those chairs to safely get them down disabilities the opportunity to take their the stairs as opposed to waiting for emer- own notes.
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We believe in the concept of universal design where you wouldn’t need accommodations because the campus would already be accessible to everybody.”
“Glean allows students to record the lecture, see it visually, color code certain sections, stop recording when the lecturer stops speaking, but then you can go in and add your own notes. It drastically improved the knowledge, the retention, not just in terms of the information that’s received in the classroom, but overall in the institution for wide varieties of colleges and universities who adopted it,” Dorsey said. Boyle said Glean helps students to be independent and learn note-taking skills. “It helps them catch anything they’ve missed. The version we’re trying to get will provide a transcript, which will help with universal design. Ideally, this is something that would be available to everybody, but it’s too expensive,” Boyle said. Dorsey said that by using universal design, SIUE has the potential to be much more welcoming. “I truly believe if we prioritize accessibility, not just compliance but if we really look at universal design, we can truly make SIUE one of the most, not just accessible, but welcoming campuses in the region, if not the country,” Dorsey said. Boyle said any students who notice issues with accessibility on campus can report them using the DART tool online.
Edwardsville officials hope to mend history of inequity reflected in 2021 income study BRANDON WELLS sports editor
Community members and members of local government progress towards affordable housing after last year’s income study revealed the level of inequity in the city, impacting housing affordability. The study showed a clear wealth gap in the city, with the median income between white and Black families in the area having a difference of over $32,000. No data was provided for Hispanic families for the city, but Madison County trends show similar differences.
CITY PLANNER HIRES FIRM TO ANALYZE HOUSING IN EDWARDSVILLE
With this information in mind, the presenter of the study Emily Calderon, the Edwardsville City Planner, said that the city has hired a consulting firm to help gather data for a new housing study. This initiative was voted on and approved last March, as reported by the Intelligencer. “I think it is obvious we need to dig a little deeper and find out a little bit more about housing within Edwardsville, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and that’s why we hired a consultant to help us do that work,” Calderon said. While the progress has been somewhat slow, Calderon said that she is still working with the firm to schedule a Steering Committee meeting for the City of Edwardsville before they start gathering data via listening to community input. “We’re gonna be listening to various groups — maybe it’s a group of renters, maybe it’s a group of property managers, realtors… to talk about their experience with housing in Edwardsville,” Calderon said.
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John Harvey, with the Edwardsville also affected by this trend, but weren’t as Community Housing Alliance, said he felt represented by the study due to not fothe study presented a large amount of data cusing on the age of the demographics that was already there about the racial dis- it drew the median income from. While median incomes parities in the comwere measured munity as well as by race, young income disparities. people, regard“I believe that There’s no representation less of race tend it showed enough to struggle with need that maybe at a city level that can housing a great some of the peodeal. According to ple in city governmake the decisions for an article from Inment who might the people that live in sider, housing has not have quite seen become unaffordthe importance of the city.” able for almost all studying housing Yolanda Crochrell young people. needs went along City of Edwardsvulle Human Relations Committee “People, for with [the study],” example, that go Harvey said. to SIUE and want Harvey said to settle in Edwardsville — well, good luck the results did not shock him, however. “I think it’s pretty obvious if you talk affording a home — and that’s just a fact,” to people who are wage earners that don’t Harvey said. With wealth and equity in mind, Harhave a lot of savings who maybe make $10 to $15 an hour, you’ll find that they expe- vey said he wants to see the goals the city rience all the barriers that even that pre- has promised accomplished. “My interest is in Edwardsville living liminary study showed,” Harvey said. Harvey said the wealth gap also wasn’t up to its stated goals. If Edwardsville has surprising, but still worries him for the fu- stated that it has a goal of being an inture due to the gentrifying nature of the clusive community where people from all walks of life can live and work, then the city potentially becoming a norm. “A lot of the new development is de- housing market doesn’t reflect that value, signed to attract people of wealth. That’s that’s not possible,” Harvey said. With such a large wealth gap shown, what I think the high end developers like to see, they want Edwardsville to be that that gap was also clearly divided in terms kind of place where people with wealth of racial disparities as well. Throughout are happy to live and spend their money,” the years he’s lived in the city, Harvey said he has always seen this lack of equity and Harvey said. hopes the study can reveal that further. HIGH HOUSING COSTS HIT PEOPLE OF “That prejudice against anybody who might need subsidized housing is so strong COLOR, YOUNG PEOPLE HARDEST Young people, especially college-aged — because of race — and the thing that I students who are trying to buy houses are want to be able to do when the study re-
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sults come out is to be able to talk frankly about Edwardsville’s history of residential racial segregation,” Harvey said. Harvey said realtors in Edwardsville have historically steered Black people to the edge of town and away from predominantly white areas. This kind of segregation goes back years, and was highlighted by a story in a news spread from the Intelligencer in 1964. This kind of segregation has been a trend in numerous cities, and even has some roots in global warming. In an article from the New York Times, racial trends in Richmond, Virginia were shown to show racial segregation, with Black residents living in neighborhoods that had little work done to prevent heat buildup and white people living in areas that were cooler from heat trapping. Yolanda Crochrell, a member of the Human Relations Committee for the City of Edwardsville, said she sees this kind of racial disparity reflected in city administration, a view supported by a study done by the Race Relations & Equality Committee in 2020, which she believes hasn’t helped the city in terms of housing. “We talk about inclusion and equity, but there’s no one on [the city hall] board that looks like me, so where is the diversity? Other than another woman being added, [but] she still doesn’t look like me. There’s no representation at a city level that can make the decisions for the people that live in the city,” Crochrell said. The issue of the racial wealth gap is a deeply ingrained issue in the U.S., as highlighted in an article by the Harvard Gazette, and is an issue that Edwardsville see HOUSING on page 3
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