College Asks Disabled for Fall Courses

Disabled students at Harvard have been asked to submit a list of no more than eight course from which they intend to choose their schedules next fall, and have been warned that due to pleased renovation of Sever Hall-Harvard's largest classroom building-the College will have "very little flexibility" is moving classes to more accessible location.

The College is required by federal law to provide equal access to education to the disabled, which includes moving classes that are inaccessible to disabled students who want to enroll. Several disabled students, however, say administrators have failed in the pat to get some classes moved, and the students fear that the last of eight classes may be used against them if they try to get a class moved that they have not listed.

"We are just trying to get as much information as possible." John B. Fox '59, dean of the College, said yesterday, adding that the College would still try to make every effort to relocate classes not listed. But in a memorandum to disabled students. Thomas, E. Crooks, special assistant to the dean of the Faculty, wrote that "We anticipate very little flexibility in making changes in classroom assignments once the term has begun."

Under the new plan, doubled students are required to draw up a list of courses from galleys of the still incomplete course catalogue at Holyoke Center Crooks said administrators will "do the best we can to contact newly admitted students over the summer, and try to get some sort of a course list form them as well.

Despite official denials, disabled students said they fear that this will amount to enforced pre-registration. "I think in the fall they will say 'we gave you the opportunity to name classes in the spring and this wasn't one of them.' "Rani Kronick '84, president of Advocating a Better Learning Environment (ABLE), said yesterday.

Kronick said that this semester the registrar refused to move a History class she is taking, which meets on the second floor of Harvard Hall, adding that she "went to very few lectures because it was so difficult to get up the stairs."

Even when renovations are not being done "the registrar's office handles a [moving classes] badly." Lisa Cherikov '85 said yesterday, adding that the office left a message with one of her professors that his class would be moved, with no explanation. The class, which meets in the Geological lecture rooms, was not moved, and in order to get there each day, she must go through Tazzer library, the Peabody Museum, the museum shop and then wait for an attendant to unlock the fire door, which often causes her to be late.

But Crooks insists that the College has "done the best at could," and added that sometimes it is simply impossible to move a class, Fine Arts 13. "Introduction to the History of Art," for example, which meets in the Fogg Museum, will never be accessible to people in wheelchairs, he said