ADA Facilities Advisory Committee - Principles & Procedures

Responsible Party

University Facilities Planning Board

Effective date

July 29, 2025

100.00 Introduction and Purpose

The ADA Facilities Advisory Committee is a standing committee of the University Facilities Planning Board (UFPB) and advises UFPB on the University’s work with the Americans with Disabilities Act as it relates to the University’s physical facilities and grounds. The Committee focuses on promoting and enhancing accessibility and universal design across University property for all individuals.

200.00 Principles

The University believes that inherent to its mission and service as the state’s land grant institution is the provision of safe and equitable access for all. Creating a built environment with accessible facilities is integral to that mission. The University’s facilities span over 130 years of design and construction, creating variability in access that presents opportunities for continuous improvement. The committee works to account for and prioritize areas for improvement to ensure continual improvement of facilities is impactful toward expanded accessibility.

300.00 MEMBERSHIP

Committee members who serve in a voting capacity are selected on the basis of one or more of the following:

1. The relevance of specific responsibilities related to their position/department;
2. Their particular expertise, knowledge or interest relating to the responsibilities of the committee and/or the campus in general; or,
3. To represent the interests of a particular constituent group.

In recognition of the importance of MSU’s commitment to shared governance, the Committee will actively solicit input, advice, and perspective from across campus constituencies to inform the institution’s administrative leadership regarding accessibility. Therefore, in addition to the active participation in Committee activities by each member, the responsibilities of Committee members who represent a constituent group, and particularly those who represent an MSU governance body (e.g. ASMSU), include regular, timely reports to their governance body and dissemination of appropriate and relevant information to their constituents, as well as reciprocal solicitation of constituent group input regarding issues before the Committee.

The Committee is comprised of members that represent the campus constituency. All members have voting privilege or may pass that privilege to a proxy with advance notice to the Committee Chair and Staff Support. Official Committee activities require a quorum of seven (7) of the eleven (11) voting members, including proxies.

Voting Members: Voting members of the Committee may choose to designate a regular representative to attend and exercise voting rights in their stead. The voting member may choose to attend any meeting in place of their regular designee and may exercise their own voting right. However, each member shall have only one regular vote. Therefore, if a voting member chooses to designate another member as their regular representative, the person so designated shall exercise only the vote of the designator.

Reports:

UFPB will be provided, on an annual basis, an update of the Committees activity for the year, with specific emphasis on the annual update of the ADA Transition Plan.

Meetings:

The Committee will meet monthly on an as needed basis but will meet no less than two times per year, once in each academic semester.

400.00 Procedures

The committee will perform the following actions as part of their responsibilities in the review and enhancement of university access:

1. Maintain, review, and revise (as necessary) Montana State University’s ADA Transition Plan.
   1. The Committee will create a work group at the start of each spring semester to review the Transition Plan and recommend appropriate updates.
   2. The work group will provide this recommendation to the Committee prior to the end of the spring semester.
   3. The Committee will adopt an updated Transition Plan as appropriate and provide that information to UFPB.
2. Make recommendations for barrier removal priorities. Based on review of the transition plan and assessment of the campus physical environment the Committee will identify recommendations on actions which can enhance and improve access for the university.
3. Discuss, monitor, and evaluate campus-specific issues relating to compliance with the ADA related to facilities, parking, signage, and other aspects of the campus physical environment.