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Northwestern rushes to make KD house wheel-chair friendly
NU hurries to make Greek houses accessible
New KD member who uses wheelchair prompts officials to speed up 5-year renovation
By Jerome C. Pandell
January 15, 2003
Although Northwestern officials will renovate houses in the Greek system within five years to make them accessible to all students, Kappa Delta now might be at the top of the list.
Amy Burger, a Weinberg freshman who uses a wheelchair, accepted a bid from the sorority Tuesday night after participating in Winter Rush.
Before attending Bid Night activities at KD Tuesday, Burger said she was looking forward to joining the sorority and would like to live in the house at some point.
"I just made a real connection with the girls there," Burger said. "I'm really happy to get that house."
During rush, the university installed temporary ramps that allowed Burger to enter the sorority houses.
Burger said she was happy NU made accommodations for her as she visited each sorority house.
"I didn't expect any accommodations," she said. "I was really amazed they were willing to do that for me."
Now that Burger is joining a sorority, the university will have to make more permanent changes to KD so she can participate in activities there.
Ronald Nayler, NU's associate vice president for facilities management, who serves on the university's accessibility committee, said the committee currently is examining design proposals for renovations to Greek houses that would make them accessible.
"I think the fraternities and sororities are individual programs, so they should all be accessible," Nayler said.
Alpha Chi Omega and an unidentified fraternity are the only houses that NU's consultants have completed proposals for as part of the campuswide accessibility audit. However, before Burger received her bid, Nayler said the university would be able to accommodate Burger's needs if she joined a sorority.
"We will be working with the sorority that (Burger will) be joining to make the appropriate improvements," Nayler said.
He added that the university will wait to see whether or not renovations would need to be made to KD for Burger to live in by the start of her sophomore year.
"Even if she did not get to live in, we would work with the sorority to make all of the functions available and accessible," Nayler said. "We will show the Greek units what's been done, what is needed and what the different options are available to them.
"We would encourage the units to make those changes to accommodate the physically disabled," he said.
While she was pleased to hear that KD will be made accessible to her, Burger said she would like all students to be able to participate in rush as she did and gain full access to all of NU's sorority houses.
"They should just make changes to all of the sororities right now," Burger said. "All the houses at Northwestern are nice, but if they did do it permanently, there would be no room for discrimination."
Several members of KD declined to comment Tuesday night about future steps the sorority or the university would take.
Panhellenic Association President Francesca Rodriguez said a plan announced last spring to make the entire Greek system wheelchair-accessible within five years will be accelerated now that Burger has joined a sorority.
"The university is going to work very closely with us to at least get a semi-permanent fixture installed that can be in place by next fall," said Rodriguez, a Communication senior. "We're going to do this as fast as possible."
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