'Wait-in' held by 'hippies' at Ritenour

By MEGAN DONLEY
Collegian Staff Writer

Sick University students visiting Ritenour Building were greeted yesterday by "hippies" passing out fliers.

The Undergraduate Student Government presidential campaign for Corey O'Brien and Kara Annechini staged a "wait-in" in front of Ritenour yesterday from noon to 1 p.m. to protest what they perceive as long waits and inadequate staff size at the health center.

"This is not an attack on University Health Services. We are here to inform the University of the problem. Cutbacks to our health services are crippling the students," O'Brien said in a prepared statement.

Campaign members dressed in 1970s garb, wore signs saying "waiting since 1975" and passed fliers out to students. They also placed signs reading "still waiting" and "welcome to wait-an-hour" on the lawn in front of the building.

The protestors got laughs from students passing by, but health services problems are still a serious issue for O'Brien.

"We want students to know that we're serious and we're not just spewing rhetoric," O'Brien said.

The other USG presidential candidate, Josh Bokee, said more improvements could always be made to Ritenour, but they may not be realistic.

"It would be wonderful to have three more practitioners, but they're about $60,000 each and the money's not there," Bokee said. Ritenour has made many improvements in recent years and staff members are doing the best they can with what they have, he said.

"More can be done and we will address that, but through resources we have now. Money's not going to fall out of the sky," Bokee said. "A wait-in is a nice stunt, but it doesn't do much to anger people."

He added that it would be better to cooperate with health services rather than anger them through a demonstration.

Head Elections Commissioner Steve Castor attended the protest to make sure that no violations were occurring.

"It looks pretty controlled," Castor said.

While the "wait-in" was going on, F. Scott Fein went to Ritenour with a temperature of 100.1. Fein (sophomore-marketing) waited for 30 minutes before he was told to come back in one hour. He said the Urgent Care Unit only had one doctor available from noon until 1 p.m., but there are three available after 1 p.m.

Dan Hymer (junior-enviornmental resource management) said he had never been to the health center but has heard complaints from others.

"It's an effective campaign. This is definitely a concern," Hymer said of the efforts by the O'Brien/Annechini ticket.

Director of University Health Services Dr. Margaret Spear was aware that this issue was included in the candidates' platform, but said she did not know the demonstration was going to take place.

She said about 30 percent of the students that health services sees are in the Urgent Care Unit, and they cannot control the flow of students who come in.

"A wait time with one hour is longer than we'd like it to be. We've been working hard to be as efficient as possible. It would probably help to have more staff, but we don't have the resources," Spear said. The timing of the rally may not be good due to the University's tight budget, she said.

Spear said the waiting time for urgent care varies from month to month. The average wait in November 1994 was about 38 minutes, while this February the average was about 70 minutes.

Although more students may be visiting in the busier months of the year, health services always has the same number of doctors. Spear said for the most part, students who are surveyed are satisfied with the services.

Part of the O'Brien/Annechini platform involves adding three more practitioners to the Ritenour staff.

"It's not going to be easy, but we have to at least add more money. It may not be there now, but at least the administration knows we feel it's a problem," O'Brien said after the rally was over.