By Lauren Zazzara
Features Editor
To address the illness, anxiety and injuries that can hit students during the school year, this semester the Center for Student Wellness, otherwise known as the Wellness Center, changed its hours.
According to Roger Keener, director of the Wellness Center, the Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, with nurse practitioner Dr. Becky Seefeldt available Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Keener said that when the Center is not open, the Medical Emergencies Response Team (MERT) is available to address situations, or students can receive a travel voucher from security to go to the Olean General Hospital (OGH) or Urgent Care.
The nurse practitioner can also refer students to OGH if they need services like a specialist, more tests or X-rays, Keener said.
“We are an immediate care. We aren’t an emergency room,” he said. “If somebody is bleeding profusely, we will be able to stop the injury and put them to higher care.”
Keener said that resources, money and budget allocations from student affairs are responsible for the nurse practitioner’s availability. He said that before last year, she was only here for three hours a day, five days a week.
“The students really wanted her to be here in the morning; it was always just the afternoon,” Keener said. “They wanted her to be here all day. So we increased it from 15 hours to 24 hours.”
On Tuesday and Thursday students can meet with one of the nurses, Keener said
Keener said that he feels the needs of students are still being met.
“I think we have enough resources. On Tuesday and Thursday if it’s an emergency, we would have them go to OGH or Urgent Care,” he said. “That’s only three miles down the road. We would get them a ride.”
Students are usually able to get appointments during the day, Keener said. He said that Marti Bova, the executive administrative assistant for the Center, helps accommodate students.
“She’s very compassionate for students,” he said. “If a student can’t come in at a certain time because somebody has an appointment, she’ll try to switch that appointment with the other person and make that happen.”
Keener said the Center uses student feedback to determine the hours it is open. He said that students wanted to be able to come in earlier in the morning, before class, so this year the Center is opening at 8 a.m. instead of 8:30 a.m.
He said that the counseling center had nights it was open and students didn’t use the services all of those nights, so they took a look at what nights the Center was being used.
“If we were going to make that change to be open on the weekends, we would really ask students if that would be something that was helpful or necessary,” Keener said.
Students said they had varying opinions on the Wellness Center’s hours.
“I feel like people are waking up later if they’re sick and they won’t want to get out of bed until later on,” junior business management major, Matt Swansey, said. “If they were open later on, or the practitioner was here, maybe from 12 to 7, that would be more beneficial. “
But Emily Jo Manchester, a senior women’s studies major, said the hours have always worked for her.
“Being open in the evenings might be beneficial to some people who have classes all morning and practice in the afternoon,” she said. “Maybe Saturdays would be beneficial. But I’ve never needed them on the weekends.”
Keener said that because the Wellness Center incorporates health and counseling, the staff can get a better look at total students’ wellbeing and can work on meeting their needs.
“We are always looking for students’ ideas, inputs and suggestions to improve,” he said.
“With the success it had, I am excited to see where it goes next year.”
zazzarlm13@bonaventure.edu
