Co-written by Amanda Sanders and Maggie McCutcheon.
On the first day of the spring semester, as students were reuniting with friends and readjusting to Harris food, phones buzzed with an email from Dean Cardwell about the weakened state of our Health Services department. Two members of Conn’s medical staff had left Conn in the two weeks before the College reopened for the semester. This has led to limited hours of operation in recent weeks. The staff members gave the College notice beforehand, but over a month later, Conn is still struggling to find new permanent staff members and keep the Health Center open daily amid flu season. In Dean Cardwell’s most recent email on Feb. 20, she stated that Health Services would now take appointments Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM, due to a flurry of flu cases in recent weeks. However, after clicking around the Health Services Portal, it became clear that appointments, if available, were not being shown. This begs the question of how useful Health Services actually is to the Conn community in its current state of operation.
The Health Services team is currently made up of one doctor, two licensed practical nurses, one nurse practitioner, and a physician’s assistant. Three members of the team were hired within the last month. Complaints have been voiced constantly around campus concerning the lack of appointments. Most troubling is that this is unfolding during flu season, which seems to have affected everyone through either their own infection or the infection of their peers or professors. Josh Moylan ‘23, in regards to his own experience with the flu and how quickly he was able to be seen, said, “[Conn’s Health Center] were useful to me but only because I didn’t go to them to get diagnosed. They need to restaff so that they can be accessible for people who can’t get off campus but still need diagnoses and prescriptions. They gave me cough medicine for my cough and checked me for pneumonia. I had made an appointment for a prescription refill before I got the flu and so I was able to be seen at a convenient time. However, I’m not sure if they’re able to see everyone that needs to be seen in a timely fashion.”
When asked what preparations were taken for the upcoming flu season, Dean Cardwell referred to the flu shots offered in the fall as well as a discussion with New London’s Urgent Care, “we wanted to put them on alert that we would be referring more folks over there [to Urgent Care],” said Cardwell. No extra hours were added for the imminent season and the prescription medication pickup hours were not extended. Cardwell suggested students wait until 9 am the next day or drive themselves to the pharmacy if the need for medication was desperate.
Uber Health is a ridesharing resource that the health center advertises which enables students to be transported to and from Urgent Care without cost. In Dean Cardwell’s many emails, she instructs students to call Campus Safety so they can arrange Uber Health rides. However, only 20 students have used this service since the beginning of the semester. Jade Hui ‘20 spoke to us about her experiences and views on the resource: “I didn’t want to Uber by myself… Who wants to sit in an Uber alone when you’re sick? I called the Health Center and they said there was no doctor to give me a flu test, so I just sat in my bed sick for two days.” Nick Alexandar ‘20 also shared his view on Uber Health, “ It feels much more like a cop-out than anything, like yeah we are going to help you but, it is not really in our hands and you know I felt like I was not getting any answers… it takes like five minutes to run a flu test.” The issue that many students are facing is not lack of treatment, but a lack of testing for viral infections that are easily spread on college campuses.
Connecticut College has recently announced renovations to many spaces on campus such as Palmer Auditorium, the Crozier Williams Student Center, the Academic Resource Center and the recently completed first floor of Fanning. The plans for renovation will benefit students on campus, but it is important to note that the first floor of Fanning and Crozier Williams are spots on campus that are heavily frequented by prospective students and tour groups. Many generous donors have contributed to our campus to better the student experience at Conn. When we asked Dean Cardwell if there were any plans to renovate or provide more funding for our struggling health center, the answer was no. Cardwell stated, “Generally, I would say with any institutional commitment such as renovating a building, you look at something that is going to impact students the most (…) so you know everybody uses Cro and not just students. (…) When you think about renovating Cro, it has such an opportunity to really change the student experience and change student’s social life on campus — it has a big potential for impact.” While these plans all add value to the College, nothing is more valuable than the health of students on campus. The truth of the matter is that a fully functioning Warnshuis Health Center that effectively meets the needs of students would positively impact the Conn experience. It just wouldn’t impact the tour groups.
Note: The Health Center declined to comment due to HIPAA laws.
Photo courtesy of Sophia Angele-Kuehn.
