South Village Health Center (pictured above) offers medical care to students on Southside, offering two exam rooms and a pharmaceutical area. The center proved to be a success in its first semester of operation (Jenna Smolinski/staff photographer).
The South Village Health Center’s first semester of operation was a relative success and, at the very least, the center plans to continue with its current care offerings for the remainder of the academic year and in the coming semesters.
Located directly adjacent to Onondaga North on Southside, the center has two exam rooms, a pharmaceutical area and a staff of rotating healthcare professions, creating a sort of “mini-Lauderdale” on the south side of campus, according to Geneseo medical director Steven Radi.
The new health center opened at the start of the fall 2019 semester to provide students residing in South Village easier access to health and reproductive services. Radi is pleased with the center’s first-semester activity and patronage, acknowledging that students were able to find the center with ease and the days are always busy, signifying that a need is being met by the health center.
“This has been a desire, surely for all the years I’ve been here, to have a health center on the south side,” Radi said. “The fact that it finally happened I think is a good thing.”
The facility was intended to bring Lauderdale Health Center’s services to the other side of campus where a majority of residents are first-years, and Radi believes part of the center’s success is due in part to the convenience it has for Southside students. The center is open Mondays through Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. with reproductive health services provided on Fridays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Like Lauderdale, any student is eligible to receive care from South Village Health Center, whether or not they live on Southside, or even on campus.
Freshmen residents appreciate South Village Health and its proximity to where they live. “It’s definitely convenient. Everyone who’s gone has given positive feedback. I haven’t heard any concerns,” communication major freshman Lexi Flurschutz said.
Biology major first-year Rachel Denzler agrees, having had a positive experience at South Village Health Center. She noted that the Southside health center always has open appointments because students from other areas of campus are utilizing Lauderdale.
“The plans for next year are, at minimal, continue what we’re doing here. Ideally the plan would be to extend the services here to full days,” Radi said.
The issue in expanding hours of operation, however, is down to staffing. A former nurse as well as a nurse practitioner both left Geneseo right around the time South Village Health Center was planning to open. The school is nearing the end of the hiring process for a new nurse, which should bring the nursing staff to its usual number, according to Radi. The nurse practitioner position is currently listed.
Once those two positions are officially filled, Radi says South Village Health Center can really begin to expand and offer even more to students. Regardless, “we will be here doing what we’re doing this year come next academic year. It’s been a success, very much so,” he said.