Quite the Work Out!

Back when I was choosing my on-campus housing options at Southern Oregon University I took into account the fact that one of the residence halls was in the same building as the cafeteria and one of them was down the hill... I figured, in order to avoid the legendary "Freshman 15" it would be wise to get a room in the hall at the bottom of the hill... forcing me to exercise every time I wanted a meal.

Over the course of my undergrad career I still managed to gain the weight (if not a bit more), AND I seemed to have cursed myself into only attending schools built on the side of mountains! lol.


SFU is located on Burnaby Mountain (about 1200 feet above sea level... SOU, by the way, was about 1800 feet). The entire campus is, pretty much, built as one extended building. You can walk from one end to the other without ever getting wet in the rain.

The problem with this, however, is that the campus is built on quite the incline, and the multiple "buildings" that are interconnected are not interconnected at each level. For instance, I cannot walk straight through the lower level of my building... if I want to get from the coffee place (on the beginning of the lower level) to my office (the end of the lower level), I either have to go up an intimidating flight of stairs and then down another set of stairs, or I have to walk around outside (which is usually what I choose to do).

There are two main bus "terminals" on campus. Both, obviously, are on the street level of the university. However, to walk from the first one to the second one, you must go up 4 or 5 flights of stairs (in a maze like pattern). It's pretty ridiculous.

When I started school this fall and walked up and down all those stairs I started to think about how difficult it would be for a person in a wheelchair to get around the campus. Sure, there are elevators, but they are hidden away. I don't even know where most of them are. Then I started to realize that I don't see any wheelchairs on campus... ever. I wonder if I'm on to something! =)



** P.S. All of this came to mind yesterday when I saw TWO wheelchairs in the student service building... I'm assuming they were on a tour or something **