Handicapped people needing a guest room have to look off-campus until the health center moves out of the Holmes Student Center.

During the summer, University Health Services moved from its normal location next to the University Police station to the student center’s second floor until asbestos is removed from the building.

The problem is two rooms on the second floor usually serve as the only wheelchair-accessible guest rooms in the student center.

At least two people have called requesting wheelchair-accessible rooms and have had to find other accommodations, said Donetta Domina, director of guest room reservations at the student center.

These two requests represent only the ones made over the phone to the student center.

Linn Sorge, coordinator of Services for the Handicapped, said she was aware of two handicapped room requests.

The first request came last semester from a prospective student who wanted to stay on campus to be close to her friends who attend NIU, Sorge said. “The mother and daughter made other arrangements,” she said.

The other request occurred this semester, Sorge said. A prospective journalism professor visiting NIU for a job interview had to arrange for other accommodations as well, she said.

Journalism Department Chairman Donald Brod said the professor interviewed was John Clogosten, currently at Michigan State University.

Brod said that Clogosten was in DeKalb from Jan. 21-23 for his interview.

“It (the lodging problem) was a minor inconvenience,” he said. Brod added that Clogosten stayed at the Oxford Inn, 2675 Sycamore Road.

Domina was unable to verify these were the two requests she received. Domina said she did not get the names of the two people who called to make reservations.

Sorge said she spoke with Gary Gresholdt, the assistant vice president for Student Affairs, and was told that because the health service was only temporarily located in the guest rooms that NIU legally does not have to provide alternative access.

However, Gresholdt told The Northern Star he wasn’t sure on the legal aspect of the question, but that the rooms will return to their former use as soon as the asbestos removal is complete.

Greshholdt added the guest reservations employees have been attempting to help the handicapped find rooms elsewhere.

The health service was originally scheduled to return to its own building by fall of 1991, but a delay in funding has pushed back the move-in date.