Effort to Aid Disabled Is Incomplete; Group Unable to Enter Buildings Here

An MIT service fraternity, attempting to survey Harvard buildings to determine architectural barriers to the disabled, was unable to gain entrance last Saturday to over 75 per cent of the buildings which they wished to inspect.

A spokeswoman for Alpha Phi Omega said yesterday that the fraternity received permission from Harvard's Planning Office the week before to enter Harvard's public and private buildings. The group planned to study the buildings' entrances for potential obstacles to handicapped people, Nomanbhoy Shabbir said.

The fraternity expressed a special interest in 27 Harvard buildings which are used by the general public. Of those 27, only two were closed during the time of the survey, Shabbir said.

However, she said that over 200 other Harvard buildings, most of them academic and administrative, were closed to the fraternity. Harold Goyette, the director of the Planning Office, said yesterday that the problem was a matter of logistics. He said that the week's notice the group gave him did not allow enough time to contact the people necessary to keep the large number of buildings open.

The fraternity contacted the Planning Office again yesterday and were told that a month's notice would be required to open all of the buildings, Goyette said.

Because the fraternity's booklet is due to be published soon, this Saturday is the last day on which the Harvard buildings can be inspected, Shabbin said. She added, "The booklet will come out without Harvard if Harvard will not comply."