Belén Yudess ’25
Copy Editor
As housing accommodations were announced by the Academic Resources and Services (ARS) office on April 1, several students whose housing accommodations were previously approved were suddenly denied accommodations for the 2025-26 school year. The email from ARS came exactly two weeks before housing registration begins on April 15, and left students feeling confused and discouraged about the process and the future of their accommodations.
Fiona Portmore ’27, who has received accommodations for the past two years but was denied them for the upcoming year, shared her feelings regarding the situation.
“The mass denials make me feel uncared for by Scripps,” she said. “It makes me feel like they just see me as a way to make more money and not as a person with my own needs. It has made myself and my friends feel anxious and frustrated with the administration.”
An anonymous sophomore, henceforth referred to as Axel, also explained how initially being denied accommodations caused them to doubt their health concerns.
“The denial made me question the validity of my conditions and needs, which was jarring given that my conditions had, until this point, been viewed or at least treated as valid enough to warrant spatial accommodations,” they said. “While I can acknowledge that people’s needs can change, I didn’t feel that I had expressed that to ARS in my application nor in the documentation from my health care provider, so it was confusing for it to suddenly feel as if ARS had decided that my needs changed or should be changed.
Axel was given accommodations after their parents contacted ARS on their behalf.
A second anonymous sophomore, who will be referred to as Carter, also had accommodations that were at first denied but later accepted after they appealed.
“I think that the invalidation of mental illness disabilities is triggering for most people, as I know it was for me,” they said. “With psychological or psychiatric illnesses, it’s a lot of work to get them diagnosed and recognized, so being rejected [by ARS] stings badly.”
Any student can apply for housing accommodations on the basis of physical or mental health conditions through the AIM portal with a letter from a medical professional, such as a doctor, therapist, or psychiatrist.
Many students who followed this protocol were told that their application materials no longer met the requirements for the 2025-2026 school year and were asked to resubmit documentation. This response confused students along with other conditions surrounding the approval process.
“I have spoken with ARS and ResLife and was told that I need[ed] to submit new documentation as their standards for what would be considered adequate documentation of a debilitating condition had recently changed,” Axel said. “Moreover, some people that would usually be a part of the committee that reviewed housing accommodations were not present for this process. Additionally, the committee was composed of primarily new hires who were not personally familiar with many of the applicants.”
ARS is still searching for a replacement director following the resignation of Assistant Dean and Director of ARS Danny Hernandez in fall 2024. Currently, the office consists of Assistant Director of ARS Desiree Ross and Assistant Director of Student Accessibility & Support Bianca Vinci.
Axel was also informed that room availability affected accommodation approvals. “I was told that the primary reason for the changes in what would be considered valid documentation was due to an influx in applications for housing accommodations and the lack of available spaces to accommodate everyone.”
They further touched upon how this situation is characteristic of a larger issue surrounding housing.
“I’m not sure if the lack of available space is due to Scripps’ tendency to over-enroll, the decrease in on-campus housing from the shut down of the 240 House, or if this dilemma already exists independent of those two factors and ARS decided to implement this new ‘solution,” Axel said. “But I wish these changes in expectations and the review process had been explicitly conveyed to the student body. Trying to figure out what happened has felt like an uphill battle.”
Even for students whose accommodations were approved either initially or following an appeal, many of them described how this overall process has perpetuated an unhealthy perspective on ‘valid’ disabilities.
“[Although] I reapplied and my accommodations were accepted, it was much more work than it should have been: several unanswered emails, multiple office visits, and multiple doctor’s notes,” Carter said. “At the advice of an ARS employee, I disclosed a lot of personal information about my disability. It was uncomfortable to do, but I understand that it’s necessary for “prioritizing” placement. However, that made applications feel like a sort of disability Olympics. I hated feeling like I was competing for something I needed.”
Another anonymous sophomore, who will be referred to as Jamie, received accommodations but explained how the differences in this year’s process added unneeded stress.
“This year they did not take into consideration the preferences of students with accommodations,” they said. “People who wanted CCA didn’t get placed in CCA, and people who didn’t want CCA got placed there. I’ve been placed in three different rooms since my accommodation was approved. Honestly, it feels like I would’ve had more options if I had gone the no-accommodation route.”
Aside from its impact on housing, the mass denial of accommodations have placed some students under financial distress. “I think a lot of people don’t have access to letters from therapists and psychiatrists,” said a fourth anonymous sophomore. “I got an additional letter that cost me a lot of money because they charge for letters.”
As many students continue to navigate housing without accommodations, Axel advised them to form support networks in order to find solutions before housing begins.
“I would recommend reaching out to the many other students that have had their housing accommodations denied,” they said. “For some people, this means that their ability to access housing may be uncertain given that we have only found out about the denials two weeks before housing placements.”
Axel also encouraged students to advocate for their needs and continue to push back against decisions that disproportionately affect disabled students.
“This situation sucks and ARS doesn’t seem to be doing much to reach out to the students they’ve denied so I think the best thing we can do is support each other and speak out as much as possible. Regardless of why ARS decided to make these decisions, I believe they should be held accountable,” they said.
Illustration Courtesy of Clara Ann Bagnoli ’28
