One year after hiring Laura Weiss, Coordinator of Sexual Assault Services, Northeastern is continuing to make improvements to the wing of health.
In a few weeks, work will begin to move the Center for Counseling and Student Development into the Lane Health Center, making the Forsyth Building (most likely) a one-stop spot for students’ medically-related needs.
When Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Philomena Mantella commissioned an evaluation of Northeastern Health Services over a year ago, the report found many areas to be severely lacking. A priority, the report stated, was health services as a whole needed to become a more condensed, visible service. The student body, led by Student Government Association President Michael Romano, was also unsatisfied with the quality of health care and frustrations were starting to spill over.
For years, Lane Health Center has been suffering from a bad reputation. In 1993, the parents of Northeastern student Michel Goldberg sued Lane for misdiagnosing their daughter’s illness, which they believed led to her death from luekemia. They won a large settlement, but it was overturned on appeal. This story, filtered through word of mouth around campus, made Lane an undesirable place to seek help.
The Center for Counseling was in the midst of suffering a similar fate. Hidden away in Ell Hall, many students discovered there were simply not enough counselors to help them. The addition of a rape counselor last year was just a dent into the recommended improvements this service needs. With the NU residential population more than doubling over the past 10 years the sexual assault counselor was the only new body added in that time, Ed Hattauer, director of the Center for Counseling said.
Mantella also said Northeastern will add a drug and alcohol center, another area of health services that is weak. Overall, services will also have extended open hours and more staff to tend to the high student demand for help.
This initiative addresses immediate and long-term concerns. By moving all these services into one area, the university has all but eliminated constant confusion of this aspect of the “NU Shuffle.” Last summer, students were treated with another push to move services to a central location with the merging of the customer service and registrar offices. Students will no longer need to wander around campus to find help, which in these cases of physical well being and mental health, is valuable time.
Mantella grabbing the bull by the horns on this issue shows a sincere concern for the students, one that will not go unnoticed or under appreciated. Mantella has proven that medical services, be it physical or mental, is not an issue to be put on the back burner.
Lane Health Center has been thirsting for some positive press for years. Mantella can be credited for finally turning on the faucet.
