Colorado State University’s student government is making an effort to appreciate disabled veterans on campus.
Sen. Joshua Johnson of the Adult Learner and Veteran Services brought a resolution to the Associated Students of CSU floor that would voice the Senate’s support of the reservation of five parking spots for disabled veterans at CSU’s Military Appreciation Day football game.
The idea for the resolution came after a physically disabled student veteran told Johnson about his difficulties navigating that game, Johnson said.
The resolution would launch a pilot program which recommends to CSU Parking Services that, on Military Appreciation Game Day, five free parking passes be reserved for disabled veterans in Lot 575. Under the current system, all parking passes cost $25, Johnson said.
According to Military Times, Johnson said CSU is ranked as one of the most veteran-friendly Universities in the nation.
Lot 575 is located just south of the South College Parking Garage, across College Avenue from the University Center for the Arts. During game days, this lot is used by the University to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Currently, CSU provides a shuttle between this lot and the stadium on game days, allowing access for people who park there.
It’s not a lot, but it’s something to say ‘we welcome you, and if you have these challenges and these barriers to get to a football game and to experience what college is about that a lot of the traditional students are able to see multiple times, we want to remove those barriers,'”
Joshua Johnson, Senator for the Adult Learner and Veteran Services
While the current resolution only asks for five parking passes, and would only apply to the game for Military Appreciation Day, Johnson said that he would be open to recommending more.
College of Liberal Arts senator Kyle Witter asked Johnson why a closer lot isn’t used to support veterans. Johnson said although CSU Parking is open to this change, the current resolution is intended to start the program with the five free passes.
“It’s not a lot, but it’s something to say ‘we welcome you, and if you have these challenges and these barriers to get to a football game and to experience what college is about that a lot of the traditional students are able to see multiple times, we want to remove those barriers,’” Johnson said.
Ethan Burshek, ASCSU senator from the College of Liberal Arts, voiced his support for the resolution to the Senate Body.
“This is an excellent exploratory measure,” Burshek said. “It seems an excellent way to put out feelers and test to see the viability of such a measure, the usefulness of such a measure, how many students might be impacted, and I think this could be very interesting in terms of data collection and also could potentially yield great results for how we handle our game days in the future.”
The ASCSU Senate will not be meeting next week because of the Gubernatorial Debate held at the same time in the Grand Ballroom of the Lory Student Center. The debate will be hosted by the Coloradoan and 9News.
Stuart Smith can be reached out at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @stuartsmithnews.
