From the Oakland [Michigan] Press:

Micah Fialka-Feldman, a 24-year-old man with a mild cognitive disability, is challenging a decision by Michigan’s Oakland University that bars him from living in a college dormitory.

Fialka-Feldman has been attending the university since 2003 under the school’s OPTIONS program for students with disabilities, and had been promised a spot in the dorm.

The university later withdrew its approval. A spokesman for the school said he can’t live in the dorm because he is not on a path toward a four-year degree.

Fialka-Feldman has collected about 1,000 signatures on petitions from students saying he should have the right to live in the dorm, and will present them to the OU Board of Trustees next month.

… Attorney Richard Bernstein, vice chairman of the Board of Governors at Wayne State University, said OU is inconsistent in not letting Fialka-Feldman live on campus.

… “What is so hurtful is how universities talk about diversity,” Bernstein said. By that, they mean “race and gender,” he said.

“They never include people with disabilities, such as Micah,” he added. “Diversity needs to include everybody … and that means people with disabilities.”

See also stories in the Oakland Post (OU’s student newspaper):

• Equality in home quarters — Micah Fialka-Feldman is trying to overturn an OU administration policy that prohibits him from living in any of the campus dorms or apartments
• Editorial: OPTIONS a success but needs to take next step

Fialka-Feldman was featured in the documentary ‘Through the same door: Inclusion includes college.

Earlier story from the Detroit News: Student with disabilities blazes trail

This entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 7:45 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, advocacy, college/secondary education, housing, intellectual/developmental disabilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post