After taking another break from debating Counseling Services allocations requests, the Privilege Fee Committee met again with Lafene Health Center to continue discussion without debating.
With Sarah Niederee, committee chair and senior in agricultural economics, absent, Jansen Penny, student senator and junior in mechanical engineering, led the discussion.
Currently Lafene receives just under 33 percent of the $16.5 million privilege budget under the Student Health Services allocations umbrella. Representatives are requesting a 3 percent increase in order to offer the same level of service. A stay on the budget would likely require Lafene to close Saturday operating hours.
Jim Parker, director of Lafene, said he has confidence in the abilities of the current staff, though he said since the 2003 movement of Lafene from the English and Counseling Services building to the current facility, “patient utilization has gone up” despite the “peripheral location.”
Parker said students’ health insurance “plays a big part” in the discussion about raising allocations.
“One of the main reasons that we try to keep our prices low … is because approximately 13 to 14 percent of students don’t have health insurance,” Parker said. “When we raise our prices, it will disproportionately affect students that don’t have health insurance.”
privilege-fee-committee-meets-with-lafene-health-center/]Jean DeDonder, director of alcohol and other drugs at Lafene, said the staff is trying to be stay up to date with the services they offer for treatments, including sexually transmitted diseases and testosterone treatments.Related:
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“We’ll try to be as many things to as many people as we can,” Parker said. “We never, ever, ever from the bottoms of our hearts, want to make a student feel bad about the care that they receive.”
The Privilege Fee Committee reconvenes Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Student Governing Association conference room in the Center for Student Involvement. For more information about meeting times and minutes, check out the Privilege Fee Committee file on OrgSync.
