UNM lacks respect for students with disabilities

Editor,

The New Mexico Division of Vocational Rehabilitation required me to take a psychology class at UNM this summer, which I did and passed with a B-plus. Still, I am unable to register for the classes I paid for and was forced to withdraw as a result of being struck by a skateboarder as I was leaving the social psychology class and trying to access the disability ramp in the spring.

I also had to pay for the class I was required to take by DVR. I tried to get the division to pay for the class and finally had to rush down to the UNM financial aid office to get help to pay for the class, because I could not get help from the division. Yet the division

required me to take the class.

I have a $40,000 bill at UNM with more than $20,000 associated with withdrawals for lack of services at DVR and UNM, and also for unsafe conditions at UNM. I have a 3.2 GPA.

I have been in a virtual boxing ring at the University, which has no respect for the disabled or financially less-able students, slugging it out year after year with a much larger opponent that never follows the rules and uses its overbearing bureaucracy to force students who complain off the campus.

I am tired of getting fleeced. It is time to give UNM the Golden Fleece Award for transferring the debt of failed postsecondary educational policies to its less-able students.

Frank Martin

UNM student