Kudos to Penn State for realizing why students have nicknamed the Ritenour Building "wait-an-hour."

It's no secret that students often have to wait a long time to receive care from University Health Services (UHS). Part of this problem, officials have said, is that the existing facilities are outdated -- UHS director Margaret Spear said the building has not been expanded since 1953. How can students expect quality health care on campus if the facilities are behind the times?

The Penn State Board of Trustees discussed the possibility of relocating and expanding UHS to a location on the eastern end of campus to help with these problems. While plans are still very preliminary, the fact that the university is addressing students' health care needs is a step in the right direction. The project's programming phase is not expected to begin until spring 2005, and it is still unclear as to when construction would begin. We just hope the university will approve and finalize plans as quickly as possible.

A possible location for the new building would be adjacent to the MBNA Career Services Center on Bigler Road, an especially convenient location for students living in East, Pollock and South Halls, as well as the new Eastview Terrace dorms.

Trustee Gary Schultz said last week he expected the cost of a new facility to be between $20 and $25 million. While this may seem like a steep price tag, rebuilding from scratch, Schultz said, would be less expensive than renovating the existing building. He said the bulk of funding for the new building would come from the student activity fee, which will continue to increase $1 per student per year for the next four years.

If student fees are going to be used to fund any kind of construction, the project should be one that students can see benefits them directly.

Also, creating a new facility that would allow for more efficient use of staff would, in the long run, save students more money because salary expenses would not increase.

And building from scratch rather than renovating existing UHS facilities could save students more inconvenience because it will not limit access to Ritenour while renovations are taking place. Even if renovations were done in the summer, students are still on campus, attending classes. What would happen to UHS services if the building were being worked on all day?

While the campus is expanding and the university is constantly building new structures, it is nice to see a project that will directly benefit students by increasing the quality of on-campus health care and hopefully lowering the amount of time they have to wait for that care.