The Illinois Department of Transportation is proving to be both friend and foe to handicapped students on NIU’s campus.

IDOT has approved a bid by the Student Association Mass Transit Board to purchase five handicapped-accessible vehicles if the state pays for 20 percent of the $800,000 cost of the vehicles. Although the decision regarding that funding has not been voted on in Springfield, Robin Purdy-Lee, transit board graduate assistant, said, “It’s feasible we can have those vehicles on campus by next fall.”

But a 1987 IDOT ruling prohibits IDOT-funded handicapped service that runs from locations on-campus to other on-campus locations. As a result, the day service provided with IDOT funding by the Voluntary Action Center of DeKalb (or TRANSVAC) is only allowed to offer service from on-campus to off-campus locations, and vice-versa. TRANSVAC’s day service is not associated with the transit board.

Purdy-Lee said that under the ruling, NIU’s campus is considered as “one house, and should be treated as such.”

She added that the IDOT ruling does not affect the additional handicapped service provided by the transit board, because the service is funded privately by the SA. The transit board offers handicapped service from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays, 12 noon to 11 p.m. on Saturdays, and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays.

“We can’t be too ingracious to IDOT after they agreed to fund most of the cost for the new vehicles,” Purdy-Lee said. “But TRANSVAC is obliged by IDOT’s ruling.” She added that the ruling “puts (the transit board) in a bind,” because handicapped students might have trouble getting to their classes this winter.

“It’s a tricky situation, because we’ve waited for about five years for the funding (for the five vehicles) to get this far,” she said.

Talks continue between the transit board and TRANSVAC concerning extending the transit board’s hours, and a verbal survey is being taken of the handicapped students to determine alternative ways of moving around campus during the winter, Purdy-Lee said.