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Health Center helps ensure students are of sound mind, body
By Ruthanne Johnson
rjohn180@mscd.edu

Photo by Heather A. Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu The director of the Health Center at Auraria, Stephen P. Monaco, Oct. 31 in his office at the Health Center.

Employees at the Health Center at Auraria are not only concerned about the physical well-being of Metro students who visit the clinic, but also with testing the pulse of each student’s academic health.

A new program at the center, Academic Vital Signs: Assessing the Pulse of Academic Progress, was created after Metro’s administration directed the school’s faculty to focus their efforts on student retention.

The Health Center staff began the program, which connects students having academic problems to the right department for help in order to increase student retention.

In addition to normal clinical intake, Health Center employees now ask questions about the student’s academic condition. So far, the program has helped with the problems of more than 35 students, including a student whose bag contained $800 worth of books was stolen, a student having problems with her professor and a student having scheduling conflicts after gaining custody of his son, according to Health Center officials.

“Things on campuses are constantly changing,” said Kathy Simmons, medical records supervisor at the center. “We want to make sure students are getting the help they need.”

For students, frustration can often lead to avoiding the problem for so long that it begins to manifest itself in physical symptoms such as migraine headaches, insomnia and sickness. “Students can become worn out and fatigued, especially during midterms, their immune systems becoming compromised,” said certified medical assistant Sonja Coleman-Harris. “We (at the Health Center) feel that academics play a major role in health, and during the intake process we are now asking each student about how they’re doing academically, what their major is, graduation date and if they are having problems in any of their classes.

“Because we have worked the questions into the daily intake, we find students are open to sharing their problems with us and actually very appreciative of any help we can provide,” she said.

Since the program’s inception in September, the Health Center staff has had weekly training sessions on Metro’s student resources. Each week directors and staff from different resource centers such as the tutoring center, Counseling Center, Student Support Services and the Math department have given presentations to the Health Center staff.

“By the end of the semester, we at the Health Center will have had a visit from all of Metro’s resource programs,” said Steve Monaco, director of the Health Center.

Monaco personally helped the student whose books were stolen by picking up the phone and calling Michael Clark, Auraria’s new bookstore director.

“Clark said, ‘Let’s replace the books and worry about the money later’. The student was so grateful she was crying,” Monaco said.

Since the inception of Academic Vital Signs, Metro’s counseling, disabilities and tutoring centers have added the program to their agenda.

“All departments could do this,” said Monaco, who believes the program could ultimately help increase Metro’s student retention rate.

The Health Center recently submitted an outline of the Academic Vital Signs program to the American College Health Association in the hope of being awarded a formal presentation at the association’s annual meeting in 2007. They have yet to hear back from the association regarding their submission.