All too often at this university, administrators and student leaders alike spend more time talking about and calling attention to problems than they do trying to solve them. Such is the case with Unity in Diversity Week’s physical awareness day.

Yesterday, Jon Dalton, NIU vice president for Student Affairs, Student Association President Paula Radtke and SA Treasurer Diana Turowski all got into wheelchairs and spent the day getting an idea of what it is like to be physically disabled at NIU.

Dalton said their simulation “calls attention to this kind of diversity on this campus.”

But when the day was over, they put away their wheelchairs and resumed lives as people who can walk and who don’t need special services and considerations.

There are, however, many students here on campus who are not lucky enough to be able to simulate a physical disabilty. They lead lives that most people only can begin to contemplate.

And they do need special services and considerations which NIU does a poor job of providing.

There are about 16 students here who pay fees just like everybody else but cannot ride the Huskie Bus Line because the buses do not accommodate wheelchairs. They instead must rely on a special transportation service which only operates between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and during limited hours on weekends.

But even then, no disabled student is ever guaranteed a ride. The service operates on a first call, first serve basis.

Simple accommodations, like having tables for students with wheelchairs to use during classes, are too often overlooked by people with other things higher on their lists of priorities. The university has the tables. It’s just a matter of caring enough to make the effort.

Dalton wants to call attention to the diversity here on campus. Perhaps instead, he should spend more time with physically disabled students and the SA to remedy the lacking services and considerations NIU provides.

Maybe when improvements are made in this area, NIU will find it no longer suffers from an image problem.