Well-being and wellness checks at the University are often called to residence halls and frequently concern individual students facing either mental or behavioral health problems, or both. Circulating this information to the entire student body harms students who are already struggling. The Daily Tar Heel should not contribute to a climate of stigmatizing mental health, associating mental health incidents with criminality and prying into the personal lives of fellow students.
Ferguson had originally intended to double major in neuroscience and studio art at UNC and minor in biology. She later switched to majors in neuroscience and biology and a minor in studio art — not because her interests had changed, but because she said spending long hours in Hanes Art Center, a building without an accessible bathroom, became difficult.
When UNC reopened Wednesday after a winter storm had laid a mix of sleet and snow on campus, students expressed their concerns about slipping and hurting themselves on the ice that remained. For some disabled students, the ice meant they could not go to class at all.
“The accessibility here is kind of atrocious,” Dickens said. “And it’s not just the elevators. It’s also the lay of the land, where there are stairs versus where there are ramps. It’s a mess.”
During graduate school, Cox was also diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects the body’s connective tissues. It helped Cox understand why it was sometimes hard to be on her feet for long periods of time and why certain movements were difficult.
“Every single day was a hard day. I was just suffering to get out of bed,” Taylor said. But when Taylor reached out to his department and asked if he could file for medical leave in August 2024, his request was denied. Taylor also learned that if he took a leave of absence from being an enrolled student and an employee at the University, he would lose his health insurance.
June 9, 2019. Ali Stroker wins Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards. An actor, singer, and wheelchair user, Ali Stroker has been a trailblazer for disability representation on the stage. She was the first wheelchair user to graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts Drama Department at New York University. In 2015, she was the first wheelchair user to appear on Broadway, starring as Anna in the musical, Spring Awakening. For her performance as Ado Annie Carnes in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma!, Stroker became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony Award in 2019.
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