Paul Ellertson, online publishing coordinator
Augsburg University is ranked one of the most accessible campuses in the Midwest, and yet we have barely passed our accessibility tests. While Augsburg does excel at providing some accommodations in certain aspects of student life, there is plenty of room for improvement. In order to understand how some students view Augsburg in terms of Accessibility, I talked to Zander Dipaola. They told me, “I wish routine maintenance on campus were a bit more routine, because when things like the elevators stop working, I can’t get to where I need to go.” They go on to point out the elevator in Sverdrup, specifically. “[It is] crucial because it helps connect all the major buildings, Urness and Mortenson, as well as Christensen, the science hall, Sverdrup, the library, and OGC. Augsburg is pretty old, so I’m a little worried something will stop working all of a sudden.”
Dipaola informed me that, while Residence Life overall does a good job with accessibility, “[The] elevators in Mortenson Hall get very crowded. I wish there were more assistive railings in dorm bathrooms by the showers.” When I asked them about the dining commons, they had nothing but praise for the staff.
When I was a freshman living at Urness, I saw both elevators fail so many times throughout both the fall and spring semesters. If someone was in a wheelchair, those elevators were the only way to get them out of Urness to the dining hall, class, etc., safely.
I talked to another student, Finch Pfannenstein, who said that when it came to “the basement of Anderson Residence Hall, there are classrooms that are not accessible by elevator. […] The sidewalks on campus can be a bit tricky for sure, especially on the outer rim of campus. The ramp coming off of Luther Hall is incredibly steep, which means I cannot navigate it on my own.”
On-campus support, such as the CLASS office, has been a very helpful resource, according to both students. While the CLASS office often provides a good support structure for students with varying challenges, there is a lot more Augsburg can do with things like maintaining campus infrastructure and having quick response times when things do end up going down, so no student has to deal with Augsburg’s shortcomings.
While the CLASS office often provides a good support structure for students with varying challenges, there is a lot more Augsburg can do with things like maintaining campus infrastructure and having quick response times when things do end up going down
paul Ellertson
With a good understanding of how expensive college campus infrastructure can be, I was curious to see how Augsburg was spending its money these last few years. To my horror, I saw almost 400,000 dollars only going into Pres. Pribenow’s pocket, as well as close to 300,000 dollars going into the pockets of higher-ups directly under Pres. Pribenow, such as CFO. John Coskran and VP of Strategic Enrollment. Robert Gould, according to projects.propublica.org/Augsburg. Augsburg should spend less time giving Pres. Pribenow and the higher-ups more money and instead use some of that money to finance more and improve mechanisms for accessibility.