Students with Disabilities and Greek life acceptance and access

[skylark]

Originally Posted by bejazd

Should we make all our chapter houses peanut-free? Would we have to accomodate scholarship requirements for PNMs with ADHD or dyslexia?

This makes me think of something I read the other day about a law school that had to go "peanut-free." (here is a link to a discussion on another site: http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/11/d...ating_witc.php)

Apparently, since many things are cooked in peanut oil, it isn't just about not eating peanuts. There are a lot of things off-limits, and even being in the same room as some of that stuff can send some people with severe allergies into a reaction.

I would never encourage discrimination, but I get the impression from many posters here that they are assuming most chapters could reasonably accommodate nearly every disability. The fact of the matter is that many chapters are simply not financially/practically able to accommodate for every specific disability that PNMs might potentially have. If chapters can accommodate, that is great. But any kind of blanket "we should accommodate any disability" statement is simply naive.

[ForeverRoses]

I think there is a difference between the chapter HOUSE accomidating someone with a disability and the CHAPTER accomidating someone.

At least for my school, if you couldn't go upstairs in the chapter house, so what? then you didn't see the bedrooms. All of the main stuff for people who didn't live in was on the first floor anyway. And our chapter meetings were held in classrooms, and those buildings were accessible.

As for why someone in a wheelchair was cut, we will never know since we were not in MS. But I have seen girls cut for all kinds of things that seemed stupid or petty.

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

Originally Posted by skylark

This makes me think of something I read the other day about a law school that had to go "peanut-free." (here is a link to a discussion on another site: http://www.abovethelaw.com/2007/11/d...ating_witc.php)

Apparently, since many things are cooked in peanut oil, it isn't just about not eating peanuts. There are a lot of things off-limits, and even being in the same room as some of that stuff can send some people with severe allergies into a reaction.

I would never encourage discrimination, but I get the impression from many posters here that they are assuming most chapters could reasonably accommodate nearly every disability. The fact of the matter is that many chapters are simply not financially/practically able to accommodate for every specific disability that PNMs might potentially have. If chapters can accommodate, that is great. But any kind of blanket "we should accommodate any disability" statement is simply naive.

I agree. My campus does not have seperate Greek housing for women. Because we're in the dorms, we're at the mercy of the school. Sure, seperate housing would be cool, and we've talked about it, but our chapters just don't have the resources on our hands, currently, to do that. There are girls with disabilities in our chapters, but I can think of at least two chapters that are housed in dorms without elevators. That's not their fault. It would be very hard on both the new member and the chapter to accomodate a woman in a wheelchair for instance. They would not be able to have chapter functions in chapter housing unless someone could carry the woman upstairs. The woman wouldn't ever be able to live on the hall, as her day to day life would be too difficult without an elevator. She would have a hard time participating in recruitment on both sides, as our campus is difficult to navigate even with all your abilities. This is a mutual selection process as well and it's just not fair to assume that is the only reason she did not get a bid. I'm not blind to the faults of the system, and it could very well have been a factor, but I strongly doubt it was the only one.