North Campus health center's prognosis still unclear

The elusive North Campus health center has been in the planning stages for nearly five years now, ever since UB officials teamed up with the Student Association on a quest to provide better health care in Amherst. Since the project's birth, however, each in a long line of SA presidents has felt the heat and frustration as every year comes with new delays, locations, ideas and broken promises.

In the spring of 2004, although it did not yet exist, the health center started costing students. Each semester since then, students have paid an additional eight dollars in health fees that officials claimed would go towards the project. That's approximately $720,000 paid for a structure that hasn't been built.

SA candidates originally proposed the fee to help pay for the new health facility, but with no tangible progress made, some UB students are concerned.

"It might just be eight dollars per person, but this is a big school. That's a lot of money," said Andrew Pluff, a freshman exercise science major.

With five years invested in the project, several SA presidents have been on board. Each supported the project that would give the more populated campus better health care.

"I'm sure SA doesn't have the final call in something like this. It's not like they are the ones doing the building. If it's been going on for five years now, you can't really blame anything on the current office holders," said Terese Dudek, a freshman undecided major.

Though not ready to point fingers, some students, like Pluff and Dudek, wonder what their fees have been used for, if not the health center.

Dennis Black, vice president for Student Affairs, said the money designated for North Campus has not been spent. The fee increases were not solely for the Health Center, according to Black, and portions were state-mandated for salary and benefit increases.

Black also said that the "plan is to renovate space for fall opening," but he isn't the first one to make such predictions. In the fall of 2004, Frank Carnevale, director of Health Services, told The Spectrum that the plan was to begin construction in the spring and would "hopefully" be open by fall of 2005.

Carnevale could not be reached for comment on the current progress.

The idea of the North Campus health center has endured many rewrites since its initial proposal in November 2001. There have been various suggestions, including a plan to build the center as part of the proposed Lee Road Complex or within a new student recreational facility.

SA President Dela Yador has said that SA wants the center built in the Student Union, which was the primary motivation for the fee increase.

UB officials claim that the center is a viable project that has not been abandoned. However, now at the five-year mark, the planning has already taken longer than most students' undergraduate college careers.

"I still don't know what all the fees we pay are for, but if I'm paying for it I'd like to know it's going to be something I can use before I graduate," Pluff said.