Marching band meant the world to Sarah Ferguson. She loved the feeling of marching across the football field with the bright lights of the stadium shining down on her, but she would give it all up after her sophomore year of high school to attend the North Carolina School of Science and Math.
Her stint there would be brief. Shortly after arriving to the school's residential campus, Ferguson had a traumatic brain injury, also known by its acronym TBI, which forever altered the course of her life.
Her TBI made Ferguson more susceptible to conditions she was genetically disposed for, including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (a connective tissue disorder), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), foot drop, and scoliosis.
Ferguson was forced to withdraw from the School of Science and Math and take a year off of high school. After returning to her hometown high school, she would graduate in the Spring of 2020 as valedictorian of her class.
"At that time I didn't really look physically disabled, but I had all these other issues that, you know, with epilepsy, migraines, all kinds of things that you need to have other accommodations for."
She would go on to continue her education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Shortly after, she would become paralyzed and require a wheelchair full-time. Although she was sidelined from the field, Ferguson never let marching band leave her mind. In her first two years as a Tar Heel, she would frequently make remarks about the Pride of the ACC when she saw them perform on campus.
At the suggestion of her roommate, Ferguson sent a long shot email to Jeffrey Fuchs, UNC's band director. At best, she expected a chance to play in the bleachers of Kenan Stadium, but to her astonishment, Fuchs had another idea - putting Sarah on the field.
Marching band gave Ferguson a familiar space on a campus that felt alienating, unwelcoming and at times, inaccessible.
As a neuroscience major, Ferguson struggled to find a lab space where she could work. Due to the height of many lab benches, wheelchair users can struggle to safely deal with hazardous chemicals or fragile lab equipment.
As a studio art minor, she struggled to find a nearby accessible restroom and with accessing her classes in the building. Ferguson would become trapped in the Hanes Art Center for over nine hours when the elevator broke down while on the 3rd floor of the building. Hanes Art Center has no bathrooms which meet the ADA design standard of 60 inches turning diameter for wheelchair users.
Above: A 360 view of a disabled restroom stall inside of the Hanes Art Center in Chapel Hill, NC. Ferguson was forced to crawl across the floor when she was stranded inside the building for nine hours following an elevator breakdown.
As on on-campus resident, she found herself dealing with a campus that was not designed for wheelchair users. Her senior year, Ferguson was initially assigned to Parker Residence Hall, a completely inaccessible building.
Even going to class could be a struggle at times for Ferguson. Many of UNC's sidewalks are made of uneven and loose brick, and stairs can be found all over campus. While ramps and curb cuts do exist in many instances, at times the ramps can simply lead to stairs or even a parking lot.
Above: A 360 view of a staircase and ramp near the middle of UNC's campus in Chapel Hill, NC. Some ramps, like the one pictured above, disperse into parking lots and roads.
"I was stuck in the Hanes Art Center for nine hours because the elevator was broken while I was on the third floor, and there's no accessible restrooms in the Hanes Art Center. So I was put in the position where I had to essentially either use the restroom on myself in my chair or crawl across the floor."
Elevator breakdowns aren't a rare occurrence at UNC. In one day alone, six elevators went offline across campus. Although three of the elevators were back online within around an hour, that short period can be enough to severely disrupt disabled students' schedules.
Outages are so common that UNC has even developed a push-notification system and corresponding dashboard to track when elevators go offline. That system was released a few months after 32 Hours, a protest organized on the one year anniversary of two other wheelchair users being stranded in their residence hall when their elevator broke down.
One reason for UNC's elevator unreliability stems from the school's deferred maintenance backlog. As of Aug. 14, 2023, the school has over $47 million in deferred elevator and escalator maintenance and repair.
Renovating or replacing elevators can be a years-long and expensive process for entities involved. Repair work to three elevators in Dey and Carroll Halls is projected to cost up to $1.8 million, with the project first approved in late 2021. On average the elevators are 63 years old.
In Morrison Residence Hall, a site notorious for its unreliable elevators, a similar project is scheduled. All three of the buildings 59 year old elevators are set to be replaced at a cost of $1.7 million.
UNC isn't alone with its issues of deferred maintenance. Rather, its simply part of a nationwide issue.
The Nation's First Public University
With the opening of Old East in 1795, UNC became the first public university in the United States to hold classes. In the years since, the school has slowly expanded its footprint, and while many turn-of-the-century landmarks such as Wilson Library and the Morehead-Patterson Bell Tower have become icons of the university, many of the campus' buildings, including a significant number of its libraries and academic buildings, were constructed from 1960-1990.
As these buildings reach their end of their intended lifespans, their maintenance costs begin to increase as well. Often times, universities do not have the resources required to address these issues, leading to a growing amount of deferred maintenance.
Deferred maintenance refers to repair work which is delayed by a person or institution, usually due to lack of sufficient funds. As of Aug. 14, 2023, UNC's backlog of deferred maintenance totals over $1 billion.
unc's current deferred maiNtenance backlog - $1,113,147,746
A National Epidemic
UNC's deferred maintenance is not an isolated occurrence. Public schools across the United States are currently dealing with backlogs of their own. Like UNC, the biggest culprit for maintenance backlogs is often buildings built in the 60s and 70s during a nationwide building boom.
That deferred maintenance can stack up and make future repairs cost even more as systems are pushed to their breaking points.
While deferred maintenance is high across the country, universities can employ steps to reduce their own backlogs, such as the case with the University of Virginia.
By many metrics, UNC and UVA are two sides of the same coin. The two have similar ages, academic standings and prestige. The two differ, however, on how they've addressed their maintenance backlogs.
What makes UVA different?
In 2004, the school's Board of Visitors calculated a Facilities Condition Index (FCI) score of .11 and maintenance backlog totaling $150 million. With a goal of achieving a .05 FCI by 2015, the BoV raised their annual reinvestment rate to 2% of the school's property assets. The result? While UVA's deferred maintenance total remains around $150 million, the prevention of further accumulation has allowed the FCI has dropped to 0.05.
Closer to Home
The UNC System has not been as fortunate as UVA in terms of finding funding for repairs. $250 million was initially appropriated towards Repair and Renovation (R & R) for the UNC System in the 2023-2024 fiscal year. That would be around $14.7 million if divided evenly amongst the system's 17 schools. UNC's planned renovations to make Avery Residence Hall ADA compliant could cost upwards of $30 million.
Until funding becomes available to renovate more buildings or rehabilitate more elevators, UNC's march towards accessibility will continue to be a slow one.
Ferguson and her fellow advocates on the Disability Advocacy Committee and Crips in College, a second advocacy group at UNC, have scored some wins in recent years. Since 2021 they've seen the university open two accessible lab spaces in the Morehead Lab complex, and the addition of a ramp to the school's iconic Old Well, a symbol of the university.
Above: A 360 view of the Old Well in Chapel Hill, NC following its accessibility-focused renovations. The renovation was largely funded by private donors.
No college campus can become accessible overnight, and doing so will never be an easy feat. It will take millions of dollars, countless hours of protesting and even more hours of lost time.
UNC will not fix everything anytime soon, but there are slow signs of progress. With any luck, disabled students like Ferguson will get to see these changes slowly pick up speed and occur at a faster and faster pace, a tempo referred to in the musical world as an accelerando.