Ball State touts itself as one of the leading universities in accessibility for disabled students. There are ramps and elevators everywhere, and a specially equipped shuttle is available almost all day long.
So, Ball State embraces its population of students with disabilities - as long as they don't want to cross the street.
During Winter Break, the city of Muncie - which controls all the stoplights, including the ones on campus - decreased the time allotted for crossing the street at the Scramble Light from about 30 seconds to about 15 seconds in response to drivers' complaints. Not a problem, until students returned to campus and wanted to cross the street.
It has been tough for able-bodied students to reach the other side of the street before cars revved their engines, but it is even more of a problem for the visually impaired or those unable to walk at a normal pace because of crutches or other obstacles. It has been also a problem for those just not paying attention - in short, for anyone who was used to the 30-second cross time.
But students hurried to get across the street or assisted disabled students in deciding when to cross. Cars were patient. So far, no one has been injured.
And despite the fact that the city "fixed" the cross time at the Scramble LIght, it's still about 10 seconds shorter than it was before break - so the city and university have not completely resolved the situation.
To be respectful of the university, the city of Muncie would have opened up a dialogue with Ball State officials as soon as the driver complaints came in during break, so that the city and university could come to a compromise about the cross signal time frame. Or if the city needed to reduce the cross time, it should have had better communication with the university to give the administration enough time to alert students and offer training to disabled students regarding the shortened cross time. The university, also, has a responsibility to make the city understand that restoring the cross time should have been a higher priority - and that should have been done as soon as the problem was realized.
Instead, the students of Ball State are suffering from another case of town-gown communication breakdown.
When it comes to the safety of Ball State's students, the city and the university cannot continue to get tied up in whose jurisdiction the problem falls within or which set of officials should make the first move. In matters of public safety, the first priority should be fixing the problem.
But that can't happen without better communication. And it won't happen unless both Muncie and Ball State prioritize problem solving over politics.
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