ASUNM should lobby for disabled students' needs

Editor,

This is regarding the 2007 ASUNM legislative priorities.

Once again, students with disabilities have been left out of the planned platform for lobbying at the 2008 Legislature. Students with disabilities have higher costs of attendance and, in fact, have very few reliable support services at UNM. The grant proposed and approved through the New Mexico Higher Education Department in the 2007 legislative session was not funded. This grant, which is $2,000 per semester, must be increased to $3,500 per semester. Accessibility Services at UNM is grossly underfunded and understaffed. Outreach programs and stigma-reduction programs are nonexistent and are an absolute requirement.

Life Safety Codes must be upgraded, funded and enforced to remove unrestricted and illegal use of vehicles in pedestrian areas that are a lethal threat to all students and specifically to students with disabilities.

Campus sustainability initiatives must address the current gross and deliberate exclusion of students with disabilities from all of the planning processes ongoing at UNM. All sustainability initiatives must address fundamental social inequity that prevails at UNM.

I will be asking the ASUNM president and Senate for 3 percent of all funds awarded by the Legislature in this and all future legislative sessions to provide funds to address the need for access upgrades and program upgrades for students with disabilities at UNM.

Frank Martin

UNM student