-
1 of 10
-
2 of 10
-
3 of 10
-
4 of 10
-
5 of 10
-
6 of 10
-
7 of 10
-
8 of 10
-
9 of 10
-
10 of 10
Health and Wellness Center looks to expand facilities
Archive
Comments
Story
While enrollment figures have soared by more than 7,000 students
over the last 20 years, the size of the Health and Wellness Center
remains the same. The strain on the limited physical resources of
the HWC has lead to an average two to three week wait for service,
along with additional in-house waiting time due to a spike in
walk-in traffic.
Last week Vice President of Student Affairs Peg Blake and HWC
Director Ferd Schlapper spoke before the ASBSU Senate to drum up
student support to build a larger facility.
Aside from an ever-growing student body population, the need for
the center is also growing. Schlapper said that not only has usage
surged 35 percent through mid-September over the past two years,
but also there has been in an increase in the severity of
students’ physical and mental needs requiring longer
visitations.
Blake said that new policies enacted by the State Board of
Education further increased demand upon the current facility. Under
new guidelines, students must carry student health insurance unless
they can document coverage with another provider. Therefore, the
student health center is increasingly the first stop for many
students’ medical needs.
The increase in need meets with an artificial cap in available
services given the limited space in the building.
The Counseling and Testing Center, which remains a separate
facility housed in the Education Building, also faces deadlocked
space.
“If we expanded our services right now and added staff,
we’d have nowhere to put them,” Schlapper said.
Calling the current Health and Wellness Center the
“McHealth Center,” Schlapper proposes a larger, more
modern facility combining physical and mental health facilities
while supplying enough examination and treatment rooms, counseling
offices and laboratories to meet university needs.
Currently, students pay $369.50 for coverage under student
health insurance, with an additional $25 fee for full time students
per semester. Schlapper acknowledged that costs may need to
increase with an expansion of services.
“With all of the…financial pressures right now and
all the fee increase requests that are all screaming out there, I
don’t want to be an added voice screaming out in the
din,” Schlapper said.
Schlapper estimates that in order to meet current needs, the HWC
needs about three times the current number of staff, size of
operation, staff and budget. He made clear, however, that the
triplicate figure would not necessarily mean that costs per
semester would also need to be tripled. Based upon student
feedback, he said, costs incurred may be paid with patient user
fees or with a flat-rate fee increase for all full time
students.
“Even if the budget went up, how it’s paid for would
be something students decide,” he said.
The visit to ASBSU Senate, in part, Blake said was to see if
there was as much support for expanded health services as there had
been in previous years. She said student government showed support
for many years for an expansion in services.
Students with questions or comments about the proposal may call
Ferd Schlapper at 426-2770 or
“mailto:fschlapp@boisestate.edu”>fschlapp@boisestate.edu
Sean C. Hayes
News Writer
The Arbiter
