The student Health Center on campus is not talking, not helping and is taking student money without actually doing anything for the students.

According to the brief introduction of the Health Center on elcamino.edu, services are provided because of the fee that students pay for, when paying for classes, ASB, etc. and those services include: chiropractic service (by appointment), STD testing (on certain days/times), psychological counseling and normal office visits.

How can the health center help students when the description of the center doesn’t specify what a “normal office visit” even is.

If an athlete gets hurt, they go to the training room for athletes near the sand volleyball courts, on campus. If a regular student gets hurt, they are supposed to be able to go to the Health Center, but it doesn’t seem like there is any indication of it being where to go.

According the website, the center is there “to help maintain optimum mental and physical wellness,” and that’s great for the Health Center to have a purpose.

Personally, I don’t believe they really operate with that mission in mind.

For context; a friend of mine stubbed his toe on a Thursday and started bleeding. He went to the center and an employee in there said he had to come back at 3:30 p.m. because, on Thursdays, the Health Center is closed from 1 to 3 p.m.

If the center is really about the wellness of students, it should be open all the time. I assume, as a community college, there is enough staff to work shifts during the day.

I am aware that there may not be constant troubles for students, physical or mental, but life happens, and someone can’t just fall and hurt themselves when it’s convenient for the Health Center.

The page also has the audacity to say that these are “free services.” Now I don’t know how others would define “free,” but if I’m paying for these services, that doesn’t make it free – it means these things just come with what I paid for.

Several colleagues of mine went to the Health Center to get information and were shooed away because there was no one to talk to them.

Now, that didn’t make sense, so they ask what was meant by that comment, and the person who used to do any public speaking for the center is no longer employed by the school, so no one can specifically talk to us.

I went myself to confirm it, and it’s ridiculous that not a single person can talk to the press because there is no one in that position.

The Health Center needs to be do a better job at handling time management for the aid of student life, and have better handling with personnel within the department.