Medical Accommodations

Residence Life strives to ensure an equitable, inclusive, and safe living environment for all residential Westminster students. We hold that campus living is an important and invaluable social experience at Westminster. In order to ensure that all students can participate in the campus residence experience, as fully as possible, we provide reasonable housing accommodations to students with disabilities.

Required Documentation
Students requesting housing accommodations must complete two forms (see links below) which will serve as documentation from an appropriately licensed professional (e.g. physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, counselor, etc.) concerning the presence of a diagnosed disability, and information on its medical and/or practical relevance to the requested accommodation (i.e. relative impact, severity of symptoms, degree of impairment, etc.) may be required to satisfy the review criteria.

Prescription notes or medical excuses are not sufficient documentation.  Two forms are available which can be used to complete the above documentation requirements:

• Housing Accommodation Request: Physician Form
• Housing Accommodation Request: Student Form

Review
The Housing Accommodation Review process is intended to ensure that any requested housing accommodation 1) is reasonable and practicable, 2) does not substantially alter the intended goals and provisions of Westminster’s existing residence policies, and 3) serves to resolve, ameliorate, or address one or more significant barriers to accessing a safe, inclusive, and equitable residence housing environment, which are directly associated with a student’s diagnosed disability.

Once BOTH forms are completed and returned to the Office of Disability Resources, they will be reviewed by the Director of Disability Resources who will make a formal recommendation to the Residence Life Staff.  The Residence Life Staff will send a written response to the student indicating whether or not the accommodation will be granted and the details of the accommodation, if applicable.

Timeline and Due Dates
Forms submitted prior to due date (located at the bottom of this form) will be reviewed by the last week of January.  Forms received later than this date will be reviewed in late April.  At this time, the available housing options will be significantly decreased so students are highly encourage to submit material by the stated due date.

On/Off Campus Accommodations
Please note that our priority is to make accommodations within our campus housing stock.  We are able to provide a variety of environments that can meet the needs of many of our students with medical/psychological conditions.  Off campus status is considered a privilege and is used only as a last resort accommodation.

Dietary Needs
If the basis of your request is dietary (desire to be removed from the meal plan), your request should be made through the Office of Disability Services.  While there may be housing implications, these accommodations are not housing accommodations.

Requests for housing accommodations for 2013-2014 are due to Student Affairs no later than January 15, 2013.