The Student Health and Wellness Center was expected to receive more than $4 million from increased tuition this year, but so far has seen less than 5 percent of that money.
During tuition talks in March, ASU President Michael Crow requested an $80 per student per academic year health and wellness fee that was shot down by the Arizona Board of Regents. Instead, the money was rolled into the overall tuition increase.
Crow told The State Press in a March article that though the fees were not established, the extra money included in the raise would still be directed to the health center.
But the administration's stance on health center funds has since changed. The health center has seen $170,000 of the $4.6 million it was supposed to receive.
Undergraduate Student Government President Sophie O'Keefe-Zelman said she believed the money was still reserved for the University health system when it was included in the tuition increase.
"It's definitely disappointing because we were under the impression that the money rolled into the tuition would go to the student health center," she said. "I understand that the University has a huge financial need in order to provide a quality education, but I wish a larger portion would have gone to student health because it is such an important student service."
O'Keefe-Zelman said the services are particularly important for students who live out of state, especially international students, as they are required to buy health insurance through ASU, she said.
She said the health center was built in the late '50s to accommodate 6,000 students, which is now only a fraction of the more than 50,000 students who attend ASU. She also said she believes the center is underfunded.
"I hope it receives the additional funding in the future at the very least," she said.
The money from the health fee would have been used to reduce fees for sexually transmitted disease screening, meningitis vaccines, free nutrition counseling and an on-call physician available 24 hours a day, former ASU Student Health Director Mary Rimzsa told The State Press in a February 2004 article.
Vice President of Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez, who is ultimately responsible for the health center, said when the fees were denied and the money was rolled into tuition it was decided it would be treated as tuition dollars, despite Crow's earlier comments.
"When all monies arrive they all go into one pot and then everybody competes for their specific needs and requirements," he said.
ASU Executive Vice President and Provost Milton Glick said the decision was made to reprioritize tuition dollars, including the $80 fold-in, to better meet what administration thought were student priorities.
These priorities, he said, included more tenured faculty, smaller class sizes, longer library hours and tuition waivers for teaching assistants.
"What [Crow] said was we would do something with student health but that we weren't going to do all of the things we were going to do had we got the separate health fee," Glick said. "In my presence he was always quite clear that once they said it was all tuition we would try to reprioritize."
Glick also said it was his understanding that tuition was raised last semester not to include the health fee but to set the ASU and UA tuition increases at the same amount.
Though the money from this year's tuition increase was not allocated to the facility, Glick did say the center would be going under an extensive redesign in the near future, the details of which are forthcoming.
Psychology and family human development sophomore Emily Ventura, who has had good service at the health center, said she thinks the center is doing fine as it is.
"I think it's important to fund it," she said. "It's definitely important to keep it up to date and working well."
Communication senior Mairead Moeser said her experiences at the center have been mixed, but she is disappointed the center didn't receive the extra funding.
"I think that [the center] should be a high priority," she said.
English literature senior Megan Santosusso said she understood there were other priorities but also felt the center should have been among the highest.
"I think it's kind of shady," she said. "None of my classes are any smaller."
Reach the reporter at rkost@asu.edu.
