By Michael Kennedy

It’s another year, and there’s more controversy about the University of Louisville health center moving off campus. But this time, it seems to be even closer to a reality.  The U of L president and the current Student Government Association support the move, while the employees of Campus Health Services appear to oppose it.

Since the fall of 2006, students at U of L have been paying a $35 Student Health fee.  According to the U of L Web site, the student health fee “funded additional primary care services, initial psychiatric consultations, specialty care (dermatology, Ob/Gyn), health education programs and expanded office hours.”  In 2006, the student health fee was estimated to raise $889,100, of which $350,000 was going to finance the debt for future construction of a health center.

 “When it comes to student dollars, students need to be getting something in return,” said SGA Services Vice President Krista Woltermann.  “The best possible place that we could do that, and see a result now, is going to be Cardinal Station.”

Cardinal Station is the proposed site for the new facility.  Currently, the health center is located in a building between the Student Activities Center and the Houchens Building.  Cardinal Station is located on Central Avenue, next to the Jim Patterson Baseball Stadium.  According to Woltermann, the current facility is 7,500 square feet, while the new facility would be 8,500 square feet.  But there would be more than just the 8,500 square feet used as medical space, she said, since some health center operations would remain in the current building.

“We made a commitment to enhance student health services several years ago,” said U of L President Dr. James R. Ramsey. “Part of that is a bigger, better facility, and I think Cardinal Station is an excellent location, because we already have some of our faculty clinicians and primary care physicians there.”

At an SGA-sponsored town hall forum on Wednesday, Oct. 28, yellow fliers were found sitting on a table, purportedly written by the staff of U of L Campus Health Services.  The flier says, “This proposal [the move] largely ignores the needs of the students who utilize campus health’s many services.”  It lists several bullet points, and at the end reads: “Speak up for your right to convenient, accessible, and integrated health care on this campus!”

“People in campus health services are going to be there,” said Woltermann.  “This is their occupation.  They’re going to be there.  They’ve been there.  They’re going to be there.  This is their job.  They’ll be here for years.  But we’re only going to be to be here for a brief stint of time, as students, so that changes the perspective.”

Staff members of Campus Health Services were not allowed to comment for this article, and questions were directed to Phillip Bressoud, director of Campus Health Services.  Repeated calls to both Bressoud’s office phone and cell phone were not returned.

Many students fear moving the health center off campus would pose accessibility issues for students living on campus.

“I think, to a lot of students, it may be a little more inconvenient,” said Ramsey.  “But, I think that over time it will prove to be a much better location.”

Clark McCleskey, a senior political science major who has used health services and lives off campus, said it would be less convenient for students living on campus who don’t have their cars with them.

“I would rather keep it on campus, just because it’s more accessible,” said McCleskey. “We’re here for classes anyways.  If you don’t have reason to go over that way, then you never are over that way, except for football and baseball games.”

Woltermann said that SGA has heard concerns about sick students riding the shuttle to the proposed location, and instead will include a taxi service for sick students in their proposal.

“We wanted to be safe about this, and we wanted to be preventative,” Woltermann said.  “We felt the best way to do that would be through a taxi service, or some sort of escort car.”

Still, some students say a taxi service wouldn’t be enough.  Joshua Cruz, a freshman psychology major living on campus, said moving health services off campus is “a terrible idea.”

“[The taxi] would make things a little better, but just the thought of having to go somewhere further away to get health services is unfortunate,” Cruz said.

While SGA’s support of the Central Station plan may seem unwavering, it hasn’t always been that way.  In 2006, three new locations were proposed for the health center: a building to the north of Houchens, the courtyard in the Floyd Street Garage, and Cardinal Station.  The SGA supported the location to the north of Houchens, where Health Services now resides.

“The on-campus health center would be more convenient to the student body,” said Justin Tooley, the SGA Services Vice President at the time, in an interview with The Louisville Cardinal.

In 2007, then SGA President Brian Hoffman reaffirmed SGA’s support for a health center near Houchens.  He told The Cardinal: “We build hospitals in cities, because that is where the people are.  Using this same logic, a student health building makes sense here on campus.”

SGA President O.J. Oleka will provide an update on SGA’s proposal to the student senate on Nov. 3.