Health services head proposes wellness program to U-Council

Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director of Health Services Daniel Silverman spoke to the U-Council last night about plans for a new wellness center on campus, as well as immediate ideas for improving McCosh's services during the current academic year.

After referring to McCosh as an "aging dowager" Silverman outlined his vision for a new wellness center, as well as changes in staff that would take effect in the near future.

The wellness center, tagged by Silverman as, "a place where people could come to take care of their mind and their body," would require about 40 to 50 million dollars to build, and five to seven years to complete, said Silverman, adding that the cost was "not a huge amount of money by Princeton standards."

Silverman called the project a "pretty ambitious kind of thing," and said that he had gotten a "positive response from senior leadership."

The proposed center would include a workout center as well as rooms for yoga and aerobics, a counseling center and a nutrition center, and would serve the faculty, students, and staff of the university.

Silverman has also presented a "pretty rigorous set of requests" to the University concerning changes to McCosh for this year.

Silverman said he hopes to add more medical personnel to McCosh, including a psychology counselor, medical doctor, eating disorders physician, clinical nutritionist, urgent care nurse and urgent care physician.

The proposal also included improved summer coverage. "We feel like the graduate students are under-served, particularly during the summer," said Silverman.

These proposed changes would cost about 1.2 million dollars, said Silverman, about 1 million of which will probably be funded by the Priorities Committee.

Silverman said such changes would address the increase in medical visits to McCosh, which rose to around 60,000 from 40,000 the year before. He said the increase reflected a "national trend in college health services."

"We are admitting broader, more diverse populations. With it we are seeing more medical and psychological issues come to college," Silverman said.

Silverman named depression, eating concerns, body image concerns and chronic conditions such as diabetes, stress and substance abuse as medical issues that have contributed to the trend of increased medical visits over the last four years.

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During the question and answer period following Silverman's talk, Matt O'Brien '03 asked him about McCosh's pregnancy counseling services — specifically whether the clinic would provide information to pregnant students about alternatives to abortion. O'Brien said the clinic currently provides no such information. O'Brien also asked Silverman whether he would consider allowing students with the University's health insurance plan to choose whether or not their money would go toward abortion services.

At the end of the meeting, the U-Council discussed implementing a transportation system for students traveling home for Thanksgiving. USG is looking into organizing buses that would take students to East Coast cities like Philadelphia and Boston. The U-Councilors said they wanted to find an inexpensive and convenient option. If they decided to hire buses through Airporter, students would pay around $30 for all destinations.

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changing demographic; more students with chronic medical conditions, more diabetes, more fairly sophisticated disorders, more students on psychotropic medications.

"The process [of creating a wellness center] is a long one." Silverman said, but added, "I don't think this is outside the realm of possibility."

During the question and answer session following Silverman's talk, Amy Saltzman '05 asked how the center would integrate with the coming four year residential colleges. Silverman responded that, viewing the residential colleges as a residence, it was also important for students to "get away from home," so he would advocate concentrating resources on a central facility.

Silverman envisions creating a place where, "a place where people would really come to take care of their mind and their body."

Silverman referred to McCosh as an "aging dowager," and added "The timing is fortunate. Dillon is on life support at this point. Most people, including president Tilghman, would say that McCosh needs a lof of improvement."

Silverman proposes to build a wellness center that would replace McCosh, which he called an, "aging dowager."

"The building is pretty old and dilapidated." Silverman said, but added, "Even if, in a perfect world, we could have a new building tomorrow, I would opt for something besides a square, 'doc-in-a-box' type building."

The new building would be a, "center for mind and body," and include a cardiovascular fitness center, as well as rooms for aerobics and yoga, a classroom for health education, nutrition center, and counseling center.

Silverman added that it might also include a spirituality center. "Thomas Breidenthal, the Dean of Religious Life, would have a role in this."

Silverman said that University staff and graduate students were two groups whose services he hope to improve. The envisioned wellness center would be, "open not only to students and faculty, but also staff." Silverman's request in increased budget for this year includes $100,000 to go toward additional summer coverage, which would mainly benefit graduate students.

Council member Chris Wendell '03 asked what the University currently does for it's staff. Silverman said that he felt the services provided were "very little," and noted that employee health was in the basement of McCosh.