On Jan. 18, Student Health and Counseling (SHAC) opened the doors of its new location on the first floor of Whitecar Hall. The move is part of a greater relocation of services on campus and is instrumental in enabling SHAC to better serve the students, staff, and faculty of the University.
The staff of SHAC provide treatment for acute illnesses and injuries, consultations on health-related problems, allergy injections, referrals to specialists, and counseling to hundreds of students each month. Assistant Director of Counseling Dr. Karen Levinson explained that growing student needs required a change.
“In Whitecar Hall, SHAC is more centrally located on campus, there are more exam rooms to accommodate increasing needs, and there is more space for students to check-in and sit comfortably while they wait to be seen,” Dr. Levinson explained. “Additional room also means less sitting directly next to other sick students.”
The new space also offers an additional work station for students to self check-in for services, and a separate waiting area and side entrance for counseling students.
Although the new location isn’t far from SHAC’s previous home in the 4140 Woodland Avenue Building, moving the week before students returned from winter break was a “whirlwind.” Amongst the flurry of packing and relocating, the SHAC staff seized the opportunity to streamline their materials and re-revaluate and how they operate. After only a few weeks in their new-and-improved home, SHAC is back to business as usual.
As the campus continues to expand, be on the look out for more changes and improvements, including the newly designed Barnes and Noble bookstore taking over SHAC’s old space in the 4140 Woodland Avenue Building, and the addition of a Starbucks.
For more information about Student Health and Counseling, please visit
http://www.usp.edu/shac/.