Each year, Student Association candidates run with platforms that call for a new health center on North Campus. And each year, SA officials leave UB without a health center realized.
Now it seems whoever runs in 2006 will have a familiar item on their platform.
Plans to place a health center akin to Michael Hall in the Student Union are officially dead. UB officials say building a new complex on North Campus is still a priority, but not a top concern, and the concept is stalled indefinitely.
"It got really complicated really quickly," said Frank Carnevale, director of health services. "There were a lot of parties involved, which is a good thing, but I don't think we were able to ever completely get everyone on the same page at the same time."
The collapse in plans is especially frustrating, said SA President Dela Yador, because UB administrators promised last fall that a new center would be up and running by now in the Student Union.
The plans announced last September called for the new center to be placed in 114 Student Union, with several wellness services, like counseling, moving to the third floor. To accommodate the changes, several other offices were also supposed to be displaced. SA already gave up its club resource center for the health complex, which would act as a satellite to Michael Hall.
One of the main reasons the plan fell through was a lack of funding. According to Carnevale, to support the center, UB needed to raise the health component of the comprehensive fee to $118. But in discussions with students, Student Affairs and the university, the highest the fee could be negotiated to was around $96.
When the comprehensive fee was increased last spring, officials said another $8 per semester would go towards the Student Union center. At $88, UB's health fee was the lowest among the four SUNY centers in 2004, Carnevale said.
Aside from money, timing was also a big factor.
"To get all the parties involved, agreeing to the same thing at the same time became difficult," Carnevale said. "And I think space became a factor too, as to where it would be and how it would be created and other offices that would be impacted would be moved."
Barbara Ricotta, associate vice president for Student Affairs, said a health center on North Campus remains a priority that will be incorporated into the long-term planning process and UB2020.
"There were a lot of issues that, both financially and space-wise, were just never able to be worked out," she said.
Ricotta said she understands why some might think UB is trying to distance itself from South Campus by further building up in Amherst, but the reality is that the majority of students are on North.
"(The health center) is funded by students and provides services for students," Ricotta said. "The majority of students, even those that live on the South Campus, have expressed interest in a North Campus satellite or facility."
The idea behind a small center in the Student Union was to provide a medium between dealing with minor medical problems and taking a trip to the emergency room, a place for students to go for checkups without having to trek to South Campus.
But now that the Student Union center has been shot down, Carnevale is thinking big and said he would like to see the health center included in the conversation about building a new recreation center on North Campus.
"What a perfect marriage between having recreational activities and unifying the wellness team services all under one roof," Carnevale said.
A rec center is one of many concepts that have come up on a North Campus wish list, including the long-awaited Lee Road project.
"Because it's a potentially new structure and new building, and we're not displacing anybody from their current office, in a way it simplifies the process," Carnevale added.
Another avenue, he said, would be to build a new complex entirely just for health services.
"If we were able to receive the funding, space, etc., our goal, our endpoint would be that we relocate the health services main operations to the North Campus," Carnevale said. "In one place, you'd have health counseling and wellness education services. Then we would retain Michael Hall as a satellite."
Such a shift would place the main center where the most students are and make it more accessible, Carnevale said, but the building "would have to be bigger than Michael Hall's space. We would anticipate an increase in volume because of the sheer fact of proximity."
Whether it's a rec center or a new building altogether, Yador said he doesn't approve.
"I don't know when that rec center is going to be built and from what I'm hearing, it isn't going to happen any time soon, so that would just delay the health center," he said.
And whatever happens, Yador said students shouldn't have to foot the bill.
"This isn't something students should necessarily be charged for because this is a service from the university for the students," he said.
"It's not a want," Yador added. "It's a need."
Ricotta said one option to fund future projects would certainly be to increase the student fee, but other possibilities will be considered when a committee meets in the coming weeks to discuss the rec center idea.
Ricotta added she isn't sure whether a Michael Hall-like facility would fit well in a rec center, but many university rec centers do have a wellness component. That will be one of the committee's tasks, to ask what an ideal health-wellness center would look like.
"It's probably time to update that so if we can move forward we have that work done," Ricotta said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
