Southern students won’t get better health care

Southern University students will have to continue their wait in line to receive adequate health care services since a health service referendum failed to receive the necessary two-thirds majority vote from the student body during Student Government Elections last week.
The referendum, which would have allotted for a twenty-seven dollar increase in the student health service fee, only obtained 956 votes from students in favor of the bill. 760 students voted against the measure that its’ supporters hoped would have increased the salaries of the health center’s staff, supplied monies for additional health center physicians and dissolved the health center’s deficit.
“We are very, very disappointed,” said Wanda Warner, nurse manager of the health center. “We have three nurses, and we’re pretty much out of medication a lot.”
Dr. Peter E. Dawson, director of the health center, said that increases in medical expenses pushed the need for the referendum.
“We basically need a fee increase,” he said. “It (the money) has to come from somewhere or we won’t be able to provide the services that are required, it’s that simple.”
Dawson said all he can do now is approach university administration with the health center’s financial dilemma and see if funds are available anyway, but Warner isn’t that optimistic about the administration’s support.
“Once students don’t pass it, then it goes to administration,” she said. “There’s nothing else we can do. Administration usually goes on what the students say and if the students say no, usually they don’t push it.”
Dawson said he felt the students didn’t support the health referendum because they were unclear on the twenty-seven dollar increase in fees.
“One thing they need to get in their mind is that it was not going to be an out-of-pocket thing each time they came to the center,” Dawson said. “I don’t think they were aware of that.”
According to the health service referendum, the current health service fee of $40 would have been raised to $67 and would have taken effect in the fall of this year, had the referendum passed.
In conjunction with the student’s ignorance about the actual contents of the bill, Warner holds lackluster campaigning responsible for the referendum’s failure also.
“We are not allowed to actually politick the students so I kind of did what I needed to do to get it out there,” Warner said. “We were more aimed at hoping that the senate would push it more.”
Carey Ash, sophomore class senator, said although there is always room for improvement on both ends, the student senate can not be held responsible for the referendum’s failure.
“The student health center didn’t come to the student senate until late in the game,” Ash said. “The student senate did the best they could trying to get a referendum out. ”
Ash agreed that the increase was a good idea, but agrees with Warner that the students need to have better explanation as to where their money is going.
“Once that is made clear, I’m quite sure that the students will be for the increase in fees,” Ash said. “Southern just needs to be more transparent with what they are doing with student money.”
Because of the referendum’s failure, which will mean a weak operating budget for the student health center, Warner said students shouldn’t expect their current grievances with health center’s service to change.
“The wait is still going to be longer because we have no staff,” she said. “It’s going to be detrimental to the services, but hopefully we can get in and speak to administration about some other options, but at this point right now there are none.”