EXPANDED SEMO HEALTH SERVICES STUDIED; STUDENTS WOULD FOOT THE BILL FOR ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

The Center for Health and Counseling at Southeast Missouri State University could offer expanded services at a cost to students under a preliminary proposal being developed.

The plan, being formulated by a committee of students and staff led by Patricia Volp, associate dean of students, could be presented to the university's Budget Committee by next spring.

It would expand medical and psychological services, including hiring of a doctor, and return an estimated $178,600 to the university's general operations budget, Volp said Monday. Each student enrolled in seven or more credit hours of classes would pay a health and counseling fee of $27.75 per semester under the plan. The fee would be assessed up front, with all eligible students being charged regardless of whether they use the health center or not.

Southeast's health and counseling services simply don't measure up to those offered students at comparable institutions, she said.

"Our whole orientation is that we have been very concerned that we simply do not provide the same level of health services for our students as students at other institutions get," said Volp.

Of 13 Ohio Valley Conference and Missouri regional universities surveyed this fall, Southeast is the only one that has no doctor services available on campus, pointed out Volp and Sallie Loos, health services coordinator.

Southeast is also the only one of the institutions surveyed that doesn't have a psychological counselor on staff with a doctorate degree. Southeast's counselors all have master's degrees.

All but one have higher budgets than that of Southeast, Volp and Loos said. Many have budgets in the $300,000 to $500,000 range.

The institutions surveyed, in addition to Southeast, were Central Missouri, University of Missouri-Columbia, Northeast, Northwest, Southwest Missouri State, Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Morehead State, Murray State, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

Only Austin Peay, a smaller school than Southeast with a full-time equivalent enrollment of 4,000 students, has a smaller operations budget for health and psychological counseling services, the survey showed. The budget at Austin Peay is $156,000.

Morehead State and Southeast are the only two institutions surveyed that actually have combined health and counseling services, Volp said. The other schools have completely separate health and counseling operations.

The University of Missouri, Southwest, Morehead State and Murray State levy semester health fees. Eastern Kentucky has a $5 fee, but that is assessed students for the summer session only.

Currently, Southeast's center, housed on the first floor of Crisp Hall, operates on an annual budget of $243,600, with two part-time nurses, one full-time nurse who serves as health services coordinator, three counselors including one who serves as counseling coordinator, and two clerical workers. The center on a limited basis also uses the services of a consulting psychologist, Dr. Joan Singer. The budget figure does not include administrative costs.

The cost of the health and counseling services to the university equals an estimated $16.25 per student taking seven or more credit hours per semester. This fall, 7,500 students at Southeast are taking more than six credit hours of courses.

At present there is no student fee levied to help fund the health center, although those using the center are charged for medicines dispensed and lab tests.

Under the plan, each student enrolled in seven or more credit hours would pay a health fee of $27.75 a semester, which would cover the current cost of $16.25 per student and an added cost of $11.50 per student to pay for expanded services.

The total fee would generate revenue of more than $416,000 annually for the health center, based on current enrollment.

Students taking less than seven credit hours would not have to pay the fee, but would have to pay the fee if they wished to use the health center services.

Volp said the student fee would allow the center to expand its staff by hiring a full-time campus physician, another full-time counselor, a full-time health educator as well as a nurse practitioner, a registered nurse, secretary, and lab technician, all part-time positions.

The addition of a nurse practitioner would allow the center to provide regular gynecological examinations. Currently, it only offers testing for sexually transmitted diseases.

Volp and Loos said the health center provides services to university employees as well as students, although students comprise the bulk of the center's business.

"I would guess we see 100 to 150 faculty and staff in a year," said Loos.

In contrast, the center annually sees about 6,500 students, 1,600 of whom were referred to local doctors, she said. The figures reflect total numbers and not individual students, she explained. A student would be counted each time he or she visited the center.

A survey of 216 users of the center last April, including 207 students, indicated that a majority favored expanded services and would be willing to pay a semester fee for such services.

Of those surveyed, 62 percent expressed a desire for more laboratory testing, 54 percent wanted regular gynecological services, and 51 percent wanted a doctor on campus. Some of those surveyed also suggested the center dispense birth control pills.

Loos and Volp said students should not have to shoulder the entire cost of operating the health center.

The tentative plan suggests that university general funds be used to pay the estimated $65,000 cost for the hiring of a health center administrator-psychologist.

If that cost were taken out of the money now expended by the university on operating the health center, the university would see $178,600 returned to its general budget, Volp said.

With the recent defeat of Proposition B, Southeast will be increasingly looking at how it can make ends meet in a time of state budget cuts, said Volp.

"We have to generate ways to provide more funds for the university in general," she said.

An expanded staff would allow the center to put a greater emphasis on educating students about health and wellness, as well as providing better health services, explained Volp. "We don't want students not to take care of their health."