DOGGED DEVOTION GUIDE DOG MAKES CAMPUS LIFE MORE MANAGEABLE FOR BLIND CSUN FRESHMAN.

Classes are two days off, and Amber McLain is fully ensconced in her dorm room at California State University, Northridge. It's Saturday, and her computer arrives today when her mother drives in from Hemet to help her get settled.

That's the good news.

There's still a dorm room phone to be activated and classes to be switched or possibly upgraded. McLain, a strong math student who hopes to teach the subject before branching out into educational administration, is convinced that she has been placed in a class below her abilities.

And a call to her mother's cell phone brings fresh frustration: The box containing McLain's set of dishes and cooking items has gone missing.

``I had everything - I love to cook - and it's all gone,'' says an exasperated McLain, 18. ``I'm really upset. I want my dishes!''

That culinary mishap notwithstanding, McLain seems to take setbacks in stride. To hear her talk about it, unconnected phones, mismatched classes and scheduling conflicts are just part of what an incoming freshman experiences.

Just like learning your way around an unfamiliar campus with a guide dog helping you get from your dorm to your classrooms, to the library, to Burger King and home again.

No problem, says McLain, blind since birth and one of four CSUN students who uses a guide dog.

Finding her way

You simply walk the regular routes a few times to get yourself and your dog acclimated to time, distances and landmarks. Note-takers, specialized computer programs and tape recorders help you pick up blackboard information; you get your books and - whenever possible - lecture notes in Braille, and you stay in regular contact with the campus' Center on Disabilities and its Students with Disabilities Resources division.

When necessary, you ask people for help, hoping they have more sense than to try to offer directions by telling you the building you're looking for is ``over there.''

And, in McLain's case, you place a lot of responsibility on the furry shoulders of Dolly, a 3 1/2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever supplied by Sylmar-based Guide Dogs of America. The two have been fast friends for the past year, and Dolly hasn't let McLain down yet.

``I don't know how I did it, but yesterday, I went to campus and, coming back, I forgot which way I turned,'' said McLain, who was born with a form of retinitis pigmentosa. ``I thought I'd just ask somebody for help, but then I just let her go, and we ended up at the back door of the dorm. I was lost, and she found her way back to the house. It was the coolest thing.

``I don't know how she knew, but she found it without any hesitation or wrong moves. I was like, 'OK, Dolly, you take me where you want me to go. I know you know where you're going.' And she did.''

Everyday miracles

By now, stories like that are fairly commonplace to the operators of Guide Dogs of America, a nonprofit training center that prepares dogs expressly for the purpose of making life easier for legally blind men and women. In addition to providing companionship, Dolly has been trained to execute an array of commands - anything from finding doors and rails to directional movement, stopping at curbs, and locating elevators and escalators. Anywhere McLain goes, Dolly follows - or, more often, leads.

``She's a really high-strung, energetic dog, but she takes her job very seriously, and she's incredibly intelligent,'' McLain says of Dolly, who, off-duty in her mistress' dorm room, is happily gnawing away at a banana- split-shaped squeaky toy. ``They have to be really special to be guide dogs.''

The presence of a guide dog on campus - or anywhere else - is still far less common than visually impaired students who use a cane. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, the number of people in the United States who use canes for mobility outnumbers guide dog users 109,000 to 7,000.

But blind students living an independent college life are hardly unusual. CSUN's Students with Disabilities Resources gets high marks from its users, and McLain's can-do/will-do spirit should make the transition to her new home and school environment that much easier, say those who know or have worked with her.

``She seemed to be a very mature, independent young woman. My job was really fairly easy,'' said Daniel Duran, counselor and support services specialist for SDR. ``She was someone who has all the right skills in the right places for someone ready to tackle the life of a university student.''

Meant for each other

Those skills have been honed over the past several years while, during her tenure at West Valley High School in Hemet, McLain took part in numerous leadership activities. She managed the school store and was president of the school's Distributive Education Clubs of America chapter, which placed second on the national level last year.

Since getting Dolly - an event that McLain says wiped out all remaining traces of her shyness - she has also been a regular advocate for Guide Dogs of America, appearing at various events and speaking engagements. She expects to be plenty busy at CSUN, which means Dolly will be working hard as well.

``I never used a cane before because I think they're a nuisance,'' McLain said. ``They make you blind, in my opinion. So I didn't use a cane. I just ran into stuff.''

McLain begins her college career with 12 units - music appreciation, religion, English and math. She would have liked a physical education class, but she registered late and wasn't able to get all her first choices.

At home

McLain and a roommate share a first-floor apartment at Torrey Pines residence hall. The room is wheelchair accessible, meaning more storage space and unusually low sinks. McLain's four classes are spread out across the campus, necessitating a lengthy walk first thing in the morning and some quick dashes with Dolly during the 10-minute intervals between class sessions.

``I'm literally running up stairs,'' McLain said. ``And I have asthma, so that's not a good thing.''

Her first week consisted of class and route acclimation as well as a couple of meetings with orientation and mobility instructors. McLain even managed to fit in some Guide Dogs of America work, appearing in video footage on campus for a GDA promotional video. She uses a note-taker for one class but doesn't yet know how many of the SDR resources will be useful.

Not alone

But if she has questions, McLain can turn to a new friend she met at the GDA video shoot. Rebecca Albarran, 36, a fellow GDA graduate, is a second-year business major at CSUN. Although she commutes from Pasadena, Albarran and her golden retriever, Lilly, now know the CSUN campus and its facilities quite well.

``Instead of a lot of little pathways, where you can know to turn left and right, everything is very wide,'' said Albarran. ``So you feel like you're in a big open area. I got lost a lot, but we figured it out and Lilly memorized it. After awhile, you start to memorize certain cracks in the sidewalk.''

Campus personnel have been especially helpful, says Albarran, who chose CSUN for its disabled-student services.

``Business is a very tough major when you have a visual impairment. Everything is either graphs or columns,'' said Albarran. ``Every semester, they have been right there to accommodate me.''

For Albarran, SDR assistance has meant getting computer screen readers, textbooks converted to computer files or CD-ROM, Braille translation, even borrowing a tape recorder on the day she forgot to bring her own.

``I told them I needed somebody once a week to go through all the handouts with me, read the notes for my note-takers, organize my pages for me, tell me what's what,'' Albarran said. ``No problem. They gave me that service, too.''

SDR's Duran says that CSUN staff conducts a campus-wide safety walk every semester to detect potential problem areas. Visually impaired students are especially susceptible because an overgrown tree, construction work and detours can cause major problems. And whether they're wide-open spaces or scenic, rambling, curvy paths, major college campuses are not constructed with the visually impaired in mind.

McLain's not worried. She tamed Hemet, and she figures she'll know CSUN like the back of her hand in no time.

``I used to walk like a turtle. Now you can't keep up with me,'' she says. ``When my dog is at full pace, we fly down the road.''

CAPTION(S):

7 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) Follow her leader

Blind freshman tackles CSUN campus life with help from guide dog Dolly

(2 -- color) Guide dog Dolly lies under the chair of Amber McLain, a blind freshman at California State University, Northridge, during a music appreciation class.

(3 -- color) McLain shops for a T-shirt on campus between classes.

(4 -- color) McLain talks to her religion professor about getting a note- taker.

(5 -- color) Checking her Braille watch, McLain makes sure she gets to class on time.

(6 -- color) With the help of her mother, Susan Saenz, left, and her aunt, Michelle Taylor, right, McLain organizes her dorm room.

(7) McLain receives notes taken by a fellow student following a music appreciation class.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer