An evacuation chair, a device to assist disabled students descend stairs in the event of a fire, was stolen from the seventh floor stairwell of the geology department in the Natural Science Complex this weekend, according to University Police.
The theft of the fire safety equipment, valued at $2,600, has left students as well as administrators appalled. The case has also illuminated some deficiency in the university's methods of dealing with disabled students.
"It really disgusts me that someone would steal such a device. It wasn't locked up, but do we lock up other safety equipment such as fire hydrants, hoses or fire extinguishers," said Alison Lagowski, assistant to the chair of the geology department.
John Grela, director of Public Safety at UB, said there are no leads at this time.
Travis Nelson, support technician for the geology department and a driving force behind the recent acquisition of the chair, said he called University Police as soon as he noticed it was missing on Sunday. He said he had seen the green and purple chair in the stairwell on Friday.
The chair was purchased in August by the geology department after a fire evacuation in NSC revealed that there was no safe way for a person in a wheelchair to swiftly exit the building.
Cherri Drechsel, a student in the geology department who uses a wheelchair, said that during the evacuation she just took the elevator down the seven floors from her lab to the ground floor, a move that during a real emergency she knows would not be safe.
"The geology department was amazing in purchasing the chair. They made me feel really safe and secure," said Drechsel.
According to Nelson, purchasing the chair quickly was the top priority of the department. Instead of waiting and hoping the university would offset the cost of the expensive chair, Nelson said that the department bought the chair out of their its budget with the hope of getting reimbursed later.
"The university's position was that they didn't feel it was their responsibility to equip us with (an evacuation chair)," said Nelson. "So without further delay, the department went out and purchased it."
Joseph Gardella, professor of chemistry and associate dean with College of Arts and Sciences, agrees with Nelson that an aggressive petition to the university for the funds to buy the chair would have been futile.
"There doesn't seem to be a clear mechanism as what to do," said Gardella. "It makes it very difficult for disabled students to deal with it."
Gardella said that most universities, including UB, are largely unfamiliar with the needs of disabled students. UB, in fact, recently settled a lawsuit with disabled students about the handicapped inaccessibility of buildings on campus, vowing up to $1 million in improvements.
But if a wheelchair-bound student has a problem with access in the residence halls, then that student addresses it with the administrators of the residence halls, not the university itself, according to Gardella.
So when an academic department needs help servicing a disabled student, there is no clear place to turn or defined avenue to pursue, according to Gardella.
Randall Borst, director of the university's Disability Services, said he was not personally contacted by the Geology Department about the purchase of the chair. Borst also said he usually does not recommend devices like the evacuation chair because of the potential harm the chair poses to the person riding in it.
For now, the Geology Department hopes it will be able to retrieve the stolen chair, but department members know the item, which requires one person to operate, needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
"Now it's like, what the heck do we do," said Drechsel, the student who uses a wheelchair. "Someone would have to carry me down now (in the event of a fire)."
Nelson said as soon as the chair is found or a new one replaces it, there will be security measures taken to ensure it is never stolen again.
A possible security measure, according to Nelson, is to lock up the chair in the seventh floor stairwell and disperse keys for it throughout the building. Nelson admits that solution might not always work because in an emergency, someone without a key may be the only person available to operate the chair.
Grela urges anyone with knowledge of the crime to contact University Police at 645-2222.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
