By VALERIE METREJEAN

Staff Writer

Tech's administration is working with the university's disabled students and Student Government Association to offer more push-button handicap accessible doors.

"About seven years ago, SGA provided funds for [push-button] handicap accessible doors in [George T. Madison Hall] and [Woodard Hall]," Jerry Drewett, the vice president for administrative services, said.

Mindy Nunez, an SGA committee member and a senior political science major, said the SGA is glad that students come to them for answers because the organization is a liaison between students and the administration.

"We just have to communicate," Dr. Dee Dee Anderson, adviser to both SGA and the Association of Disabled Students, said. "We do not know what needs to be done on some things until we get complaints."

Anderson, also dean of student development, said she understands the new need.

"I haven't received a lot of complaints previously, so this is a new issue that we are trying to fix," Anderson said.

The question is not whether the administration will install a door, but rather where to put the door.

"We have to choose where the [push-button handicap accessible] door should go because, unfortunately, it is impossible to put [a push button] on all doors," Anderson said.

Drewett reassures Tech students that designs for Tolliver Hall, Davison Professional Aviation Building, Robinson Hall and Hale Hall have all been approved prior to construction and comply with state building code and regulations.

"The American Disabilities Act does not require automatic doors, but it is an option," Drewett said.

Anderson said the Prescott Memorial Library and the Student Center are the most probable choices to install the new push-button handicap accessible door because of their frequent usage.

Nunez said the committee is taking into consideration the traffic patterns of all the buildings on campus to find out where the handicap accessible door would be most practical.

"We have found out that no more than five students are mobility impaired and hope to get comments from them to find out where they would most like to see the door," Anderson said.

Brandon Davis, an SGA committee member and a sophomore engineering major, said the SGA committee overseeing this project met with Anderson to see what the research has shown.

Davis said, "The committee is forming a request to propose to SGA."

He also said it would then be up to the SGA to make the decision.