By Gavin Mendoza
Northwestern officials are making improvements around campus with the addition of handicap door openers in high-traffic buildings.
The J.W. Martin Library, the Student Center and the Science Building received new handicap door openers this fall. University officials made the installation plans during the summer. Dr. David Pecha, the university’s executive vice president, said the buildings are older, so the university is trying to make them handicap-accessible.
“We have some very old buildings on campus, so it makes it so we are working from behind in that sense,” Pecha said. “However, we are working hard to get everything improved.”
Pecha said outside contractors came in to replace or rebuild the doors.
“Each door and building was different, but that was OK, and that was our goal we had in the budget this year,” Pecha said. “We try to make as much as we can handicap-accessible, and we have not really done anything with doors in a long time, so that was part of the decision.”
The university will continue to install handicap-accessible equipment in the future.
“I hope someday we are able to make the whole campus handicap-accessible,” Pecha said. “Each spring, our budget cycles, so I am sure that we will continue to look at handicap-accessible elements on campus.”