New elevator to grant access for disabled

Handicapped students will now be able to access the Graduate Student Center with greater ease, thanks to the installation of a new elevator.

The project will be completed by May in order to make the center compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to GSC Director Anita Mastroieni.

"We want to be accessible to all of our graduate and professional students at Penn," Mastroieni said.

The center -- located at 3615 Locust Walk -- was completed in 2001 to aid the development of a graduate community at Penn but was not ADA compliant.

The elevator "was always a part of the vision," Mastroieni said, but there was not enough funding at the time to include it.

Once funding became available, the center decided to add the elevator shaft onto the exterior of the building because an elevator in the main part of the building "would take up more space than we wanted to give up," Mastroieni said.

The center was closed longer than expected over winter break due to the construction, but Mastroieni noted that there should be few additional disturbances.

She noted that some international students may have been affected by the closure but that the center tried to make sure that those students knew what other spaces were still open.

"We've been renovating the building a little at a time," she said, adding that the construction project will also include work to make the bathrooms accessible to the disabled.

The elevator "is going to be a great thing for organizations who use the space," Graduate Student Associations Council Vice President for Publicity Anne Casey said.

Casey also noted that the project will involve adding a terrace to the Graduate Student Center. It will be built in the empty space between the GSC and the office of the Vice Provost for University Life, located at 3611 Locust Walk.

"We're really excited about the terrace," Casey said, adding that the graduate organizations will be able to use the extra space to hold events.

Mastroieni said that the terrace's construction would not begin until the spring. The terrace was originally included in the construction plan but was cut in size due to lack of funds.

The problem was addressed when the Graduate and Professional Student Association and GSAC came together with the Provost's Office to split the cost of the larger terrace plan.

The plan has yet to be finalized, and there is still no concrete cost for the construction.

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