Google “Purdue Exponent Students with disability accommodations will no longer be guaranteed housing” – can’t include the link here.
Any parents who want to join in a petition to Purdue Housing and DRC?
What prevents you from including this link?
Thank you for providing the link! I tried but the system keeps saying “link not allowed”. I will try to update it.
New user. First post. Cuts down on spam.
2 Likes
It may be a limitation of a new user… some features are not allowed until achieving status.
Edit: cross post 
First post indeed. This situation prompted me to take action.
I hope the university rethinks this policy.
1 Like
Some useful info.
Some colleges that do not guarantee students with disabilities housing start transportation services for students with disabilities (it can be anything including ADHD etc) on demand within certain distance from campus.
We know that GaTech does it now. Basically you can a week in advance request transportation at certain time. That transportation special bus like uber will stop in front of your place (regular apartments or your rental place) and will drop you were you need.
I would strongly recommend to inquire about something like that especially for students who can’t get in and out of campus due to disabilities. School needs to provide accessibility for all students.
Thanks for the info! However, this option is not provided by Purdue. GaTech sounds like a truly caring institution.
Purdue, somehow, thinks they are providing “equal access” by letting disabled students participate in the lottery. From Purdue DRC: “Students with disabilities have the same opportunity to participate in the lottery”. This is how Purdue interprets “equal access”.
Then you need to point to school what
I described. Lottery is great but students wIth disability need access to campus. It either has to be done through housing or through special transportation, otherwise disabled students are discriminated since they have no acces to education. Can a student on a wheel chair get from apartment to campus? What about a student with depression get back and forth several times a day with schedule with gaps? I am sure that school will not want to end up in court.
I think both a school and students need to stay flexible but open to finding appropriate solutions. Someone can point how other schools address the situation.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts – all great points but it seems that Purdue is not considering any of them. The make matters worse, if disabled students lose out in the lottery, not only do they have to find an off-campus residence, but can not participate in meal plans that are only available to on-campus residents. Imagine a student with mobility issues (such as needing a wheelchair) has to live off campus (no, no school-provided transportation) and can’t have meals at the dining halls. Whoever is in charge of DRC at Purdue seems to have little experience with disabled students.
I do not think meal plans is a valid point. Sorry. Anybody can eat on campus. Just sign up for meal plan or pay with a credit card. Accessibility to campus is a different story. BTW students with mobility issues need to eat somehow after graduation too… So sorry this argument doesn’t fly for me.
You need to focus on ability to get to campus one way or the other.
2 Likes
For context, what is the off-campus housing situation at Purdue like, in terms of closeness to campus, cost, competitiveness to find housing, and availability of disability accommodations?
Our D’s experience was off campus housing leases happen in October/November for the following year, which is why the housing lottery was moved up. My d had no issues securing housing but she wasn’t picky.
There are all kinds of off campus options, from basic college apartments to luxury buildings. Both options are available adjacent to campus and further away. Further away complexes have bus stops that go to multiple campus locations.
My D lived off campus her last two years in regular college apartments . Much less expensive than in the dorms. Luxury buildings are more expensive.
It is not possibly to get a meal plan if living off campus, just dining dollars or using cash. My D was happy to pack a lunch.
What I can’t speak to are disability accommodations and hope that impact students will escalate concerns to the disability office and to the dean of students.
1 Like
If students don’t live on campus, they are not eligible to sign up for a meal plan. With a meal plan, each meal costs around $5. There are two limited versions of “meal plan” available to off-campus students, each meal costs about $25 and one can have 2-4 meals a week on average (two options: “50 meal swipes per semester” or “80 meal swipes per semester”). The rest they have to pay by credit card each time entering a dining hall. In terms of mobility, since disabled students can’t cook if living off campus, they have to stay on campus for lunch and dinner to avoid traveling back and forth from the campus, but they need to take breaks in the afternoon when there is no class. Currently, since they live in a dorm, they can access meals with minimal travel and get rest when possible. Living off campus means they have to stay on campus between meals.
I don’t know all the vagaries of the law wrt accessibility housing, but how do other schools handle this? Are schools legally required to provide four years of housing for those with disability accommodations (for schools that don’t require four years of living on-campus for all students?)
If there is off-campus housing adjacent or very close to campus, couldn’t those places be an option?
Seems like if this plan is against the law, lawsuits will be coming.
The 80 block meal plan looks like it’s ~$13/meal (80 meals per semester/160 per year at a cost of $2,366 per academic year, also includes $500 in dining dollars). Obviously ~5 meals per week over 16 weeks of the semester isn’t enough…has any asked if expanded commuter plans will be available? Meal Plans
[quote]
Are schools legally required to provide four years of housing for those with disability accommodations (for schools that don’t require four years of living on-campus for all students?)[/quote]
I’m not an expert but from what I see, universities are only required to give equal access to dorming. There is no guaranteed housing at Purdue after freshman year so I don’t think they are running afoul legally.
Where I do think the argument can be made is if students with disabilities expected to be able to stay in their dorm room and the lottery was an unannounced change.
[quote]If there is off-campus housing adjacent or very close to campus, couldn’t those places be an option?
[/quote]. Yes.
1 Like
Agreed, there could have been some type of grandfather situation/transition. Probably not illegal, but bad optics to be sure. Especially if students have already been leasing places for next year.
1 Like
100% terrible optics.
My hope is that Purdue will be responsive to individual situations.
OP - One year my D lived a bus ride from campus. (All the buses are ADA compliant.) She would make/bring her lunch with ice packs. Staff in her department also had fridges/freezers that she could put stuff if necessary and there were microwaves for re-heating. She also couldn’t logistically go back and forth so she used the time between classes to find an empty study lounge and do her work or rest. She found that she was more productive that year and that she could get more work done before going home after her last class. It’s an adjustment, but one that many students manage.
I hope you circle back and let us know the response from the university once you escalate your concerns.
2 Likes
Interesting, all of my kids colleges offered meal plans off campus, but with the average meal swipe costing $16 or so (dinner $18+), cash was usually the best option. Apartment leases were signed in September/october, on campus housing around March, so a gamble. I suspect many disabled students are able to cook.