Spring Break
Budget cuts may leave students unprotected
Katie Hannafin
Issue date: 9/4/08 Section: Focus
Fewer free condoms are available this year to UConn students due to cuts in Student Health Services' (SHS) budget. The decrease in condom availability seems to have some students concerned.
Each year, Student Health Services has an annual budget which is made up of an allocation from the General University Fee (GUF) and Fees for Service revenue - generated from charges for certain goods and services, according to Michael Kurland, director of Student Health Services.
Kurland explained that to continue providing services to students, it would be necessary to either increase the fee for service revenue, decrease Student Health Services' expenses or a combination of both as the GUF could not support all of SHS's needs this year.
"We wanted to assure that our resources were being used wisely and that we were minimizing the negative impact upon students," Kurland said. "We chose to increase some of our fees and decrease some expenses by internally reallocating some of our funds. This was all in an effort to live within our budget, while being sensitive to the needs of the students."
As a result of the reallocation process, Health Education reduced its annual order for condoms. Condoms are still available for free in baskets at Student Health Services, Cultural Centers, campus-wide programs and at the Health Education Office. However, a decision was made by the Health Education Office to reduce the allocation of condoms to CA's, according to Kurland. Students now have to walk over to the health education office in Rome Commons of South campus.
Individual CA's, however can still come in to the health education Office for extra supplies and will be given additional condoms when they invite health education staff in to do a floor program.
Condoms are still available for free, they are just being distributed by a different method. "We, too, believe that condoms should be freely available," Kurland said.
"We're still getting condoms for our residents this year, just less [of-them than we did last year],"said Caitlin O'Hara, a 5th-semester vocal performance major, and 2nd-year CA. "CA's can go to Health Services and get condoms for their residents, but I'm not the real resource, health services is. I'll have the Sexperts come do a program [for my floor] and I know they'll still bring condoms, just maybe not an absurd amount like last year."
Each year, Student Health Services has an annual budget which is made up of an allocation from the General University Fee (GUF) and Fees for Service revenue - generated from charges for certain goods and services, according to Michael Kurland, director of Student Health Services.
Kurland explained that to continue providing services to students, it would be necessary to either increase the fee for service revenue, decrease Student Health Services' expenses or a combination of both as the GUF could not support all of SHS's needs this year.
"We wanted to assure that our resources were being used wisely and that we were minimizing the negative impact upon students," Kurland said. "We chose to increase some of our fees and decrease some expenses by internally reallocating some of our funds. This was all in an effort to live within our budget, while being sensitive to the needs of the students."
As a result of the reallocation process, Health Education reduced its annual order for condoms. Condoms are still available for free in baskets at Student Health Services, Cultural Centers, campus-wide programs and at the Health Education Office. However, a decision was made by the Health Education Office to reduce the allocation of condoms to CA's, according to Kurland. Students now have to walk over to the health education office in Rome Commons of South campus.
Individual CA's, however can still come in to the health education Office for extra supplies and will be given additional condoms when they invite health education staff in to do a floor program.
Condoms are still available for free, they are just being distributed by a different method. "We, too, believe that condoms should be freely available," Kurland said.
"We're still getting condoms for our residents this year, just less [of-them than we did last year],"said Caitlin O'Hara, a 5th-semester vocal performance major, and 2nd-year CA. "CA's can go to Health Services and get condoms for their residents, but I'm not the real resource, health services is. I'll have the Sexperts come do a program [for my floor] and I know they'll still bring condoms, just maybe not an absurd amount like last year."
Be the first to comment on this story