An NIU faculty member says the need for a learning disabilities specialist is urgent and only will grow in coming months.

Linn Sorge, team coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities, said her office is overburdened by juggling services for mobility-impaired and visually-impaired students as well as those with learning disabilities.

“NIU is in desperate need of a learning disabilities specialist,” Sorge said. “We’ve asked for it for over two years.”

Sorge said the specialist, if hired, could arrange study skills workshops, teach organization skills and enhance tutoring programs—things Sorge’s office doesn’t have time to handle now, she said.

Along with Sue Reinhardt, coordinator of Services for Students with Disabilities, Sorge’s office helps with better parking, adaptable equipment, exams, accessibility projects like lifts and elevators, books read aloud and works with the admissions staff calling students, parents, counselors and teachers.

“Sue and I have too many places to be at and too many fights to win,” Sorge said.

However, the chances of getting a specialist seem dim, Sorge said. Primarily, NIU is in the midst of a hiring freeze, she said.

“It’s a very sad part of our goal,” Sorge said. “It’s very frustrating.”

Also, a proposal suggesting the specialist was sent to NIU President John La Tourette’s desk, but Sorge hasn’t heard an answer, she said.

The need is swelling to desperate proportions, Sorge said, because the war in the Persian Gulf will bring home numbers of disabled veterans.

“People say ‘I don’t want to think about it,’ but it will happen. We need to get our programs ready,” Sorge said. “Part of the support (of the troops) is getting us ready to receive them. They won’t all be totally healthy or just dead. It’s one of the horrors of the war.”

Sorge’s office serves between 80 and 100 disabled people each semester, although there are more disabled students and faculty who either make it on their own or hide their disabilities, she said.