Students ask Edinboro U. to reconsider decision on care for those with disabilities
An Edinboro University student who has muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair is asking the school’s interim president to rescind a decision to replace a university staff of care attendants with private service providers from off campus.
Alyssa Briglio, 20, who studies biology and wants to pursue a career in pediatric neurology, told interim president Michael Hannan she has required extensive personal care all her life, a need she said will continue as her disease progresses.
Ms. Briglio said the program’s elimination, decided without input from either students or senior program staff, will adversely impact her and almost three dozen other Edinboro students with physical disabilities who count on 24/7 care from a program that was established three decades ago.
She sent the remarks in an email to him and copied them to an online petition launched Friday that, as of late Monday, had gathered more than 2,500 signatures. “I live with 35 students who fear that their degrees will never be completed because of this change,” said Ms. Briglio, who came to Edinboro from Lisbon, Maine.
“Edinboro University should realize that taking this program away is equivalent to taking the students’ independence away,” she wrote. “They should realize that there is no correlation between the functionality of our legs and the functionality of our brains.
“They should realize that although we may need to be lifted out of bed, or need help picking something up off the floor, or need medication placed on our tongues because we simply can’t reach our mouths, we deserve a fair chance at getting an education in a place where we feel safe.”
Mr. Hannan, who became interim president in the spring, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday, nor could a university spokeswoman. Edinboro is a state-
owned university with 5,600 students and a member of the State System of Higher Education.
The school last week blamed the decision to switch to off-campus providers on revised federal rules regarding reimbursement.
Angela Burrows, an Edinboro spokeswoman, said Thursday that the university traditionally has been reimbursed for the $1 million-plus cost of the program from outside sources, including the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. Since Edinboro is not a medical facility, it no longer is eligible under new rules for reimbursement because other providers are available, she explained.
She said Edinboro has continued to receive reimbursement under a grace period that runs out next spring. Ms. Burrows did not know when the federal regulation change occurred.
Mr. Hannan, in an email to campus on Wednesday announcing the change, said it will be fully implemented by fall 2019.
Nearly all of the 36 students using the service rely on wheelchairs, and the few who are ambulatory use walkers, Mary FetznerJensen, a registered nurse and the program’s supervisor, told the Pittsburgh PostGazette last week. They get help, day and night, from a campus staff of attendants, some of whom have worked with Edinboro students for more than 20 years.
Edinboro is known nationally within the disability community for its 24/7 university-run program, described as rare if not unique on a college campus. Echoing comments from others opposed to the switch, Ms. Briglio doubted that attendants coming from off campus can respond as efficiently as those already there, even if Edinboro offers work space for them.
Those on campus crowded into a meeting last week where the change was discussed and have organized on Facebook under #savetheattendantcareprogram.
Ms. Briglio urged Mr. Hannan to help students with disabilities “go to college without worry of being stranded in bed.”
She said, “I know Edinboro is better than this, and I will not give up until my voice and all of the other affected voices are heard.”
Asked what drove the decision, Ms. Burrows on Thursday cited a chapter within federal Title 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations, as it pertains to state plans for vocational rehabilitation services. It requires consideration of whether the same services are provided elsewhere before an entity offers them.
Ms. Burrows said others in the area provide attendant care and a contact with the Erie office of the U.S. Education Department’s Office on Vocational Rehabilitation confirmed that Edinboro no longer will be eligible for reimbursement under recently revised rules.
An official from that office did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
However, an official with a national organization involved in disability issues — when told of the Edinboro situation — was puzzled by the school’s interpretation and said she would seek legal guidance on the matter.
Wendy Harbour, associate executive director for Programs and Development with the Association of Higher Education and Disability, said she wondered who advised Edinboro on the matter and pointed to exemptions in the rule.
“From reading this, it looks like the State (or at least the University) could argue that eliminating the campus-based program would delay the students’ progress toward finding a job,’’ she wrote Friday in an email to the Post-Gazette. “You could also call getting a degree ‘job-related.’ I am not reading this the same way as the campus.”
Edinboro has 350 students who interact with the university’s Office for Accessibility Services, formerly the Office for Students with Disabilities, Ms. Burrows said. About 10 percent use the attendant care program.