Syracuse University’s ADA coordinator, Aaron Hodukavich, left his position at the university Friday to take a new job, SU confirmed Wednesday night.

Information on Hodukavich’s departure was not released campus-wide by SU before The Daily Orange requested confirmation about his position Wednesday afternoon. Hodukavich was also director of the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services.

As part of his role at SU, Hodukavich coordinated the university’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and other federal and state laws and regulations related to people with disabilities.

In a campus-wide email sent Tuesday afternoon, Vice President and Chief Facilities Officer Pete Sala told university community members to direct questions regarding accessibility to Hodukavich. That was four days after Hodukavich left SU. As of Wednesday evening, he was still listed on SU’s website as its ADA coordinator and director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services.

“We are grateful to Aaron for his leadership and insight,” said Andrew Gordon, the university’s senior vice president and chief human resources officer, in a press release sent to The Daily Orange on Wednesday night. In the release, SU confirmed that William N. Myhill has been appointed as the university’s interim ADA coordinator.

Myhill is currently the director of legal research and writing at the Burton Blatt Institute, an organization at SU that aims to advance the “civic, economic, and social participation of people with disabilities.” He has also served on the board of directors for the Disability Rights Bar Association.

Gordon in the release said SU will launch a search for a permanent ADA coordinator following a disability services review this spring.

That review is being conducted by Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly and Dolan Evanovich, senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience.

In a statement to The Daily Orange on Wednesday afternoon, Access Collective, a group of student leaders with disabilities from multiple campus organizations, said SU’s “lack of timely communication” about Hodukavich’s departure was “distressing for disabled students, staff, and faculty who rely on the coordinator to resolve access issues and discrimination faced at the university.”

“This lack of action from the university goes against the ‘nothing about us without us’ motto that Chancellor (Kent) Syverud recently used in an address to the campus community, and it cannot be accepted,” said Access Collective in the statement.

Hodukavich joined the university in July 2015. THE General Body, a campus activist organization, in 2014 called on SU to appoint a new ADA coordinator in a list of grievances and demands as part of an 18-day sit-in.

During his time at SU, Hodukavich was a member of the Council on Diversity and Inclusion and served on the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Diversity and Inclusion.

Hodukavich, before taking his position at SU, served as ADA coordinator and directed the disability services office at Clark College in Vancouver, Washington.

Published on February 7, 2018 at 10:23 pm

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