With Clancy Gone, Health Services Down But Not Out
Mary P. Clancy, RN, was the Graduate Center’s only licensed medical provider.
With the recent departure of the beloved Mary Clancy, Director of the Health Services Center, the Office of Student Affairs has been scrambling to find an adequate successor. Meanwhile many new and returning students are arriving at the Graduate Center only to find they are without access to professional health care on campus.
Clancy, a nurse practitioner, and the only licensed medical provider working in the Health Services Center resigned on July 30th and the administration, although actively involved in negotiations with unspecified service providers, has yet to find a replacement. Consequently the center is currently operating without any licensed medical practitioners.
The Health Services Center, funded by a significant portion of the student activity fee, is one of the most popularly supported programs on campus, and is vital to the health and well being of the Graduate Center Community. The center, which provides free medical consultations, prescriptions, physicals, blood tests, and examinations, is an especially important resource for the many uninsured or seriously underinsured students who rely upon the free care provided there. Indeed, in a 2005 referendum described by Director of Student Affairs Sharon Lerner as “the largest turnout by far of any election or referendum” in 15 years, GC students overwhelmingly agreed to a whopping $96,000 increase in student activity fees specifically earmarked for the continued support of the Health Services Center. That the center is now inadequately staffed for an indefinite period of time raises concerns that it might have all been for naught.
Matthew Schoengood, the Vice President of Student Affairs, has said that his office is doing everything it can to find a new director, adding “it is my hope to have a replacement for Mary sometime this semester.” When asked if he could be more specific, Schoengood explained that he could not fairly offer any more specific time frame for Clancy’s replacement, but did say that he thought “this is going to be played out in a relatively short time.”
Part of the problem, suggested Schoengood, is that, although the administration and the Doctoral Students Council knew as early as last September that Mary Clancy was intending to retire in July, the process of finding a new director and nurse practitioner has proven to be a lot more complicated than anyone expected. Although Schoengood said that he could not talk about the specifics of any contract negotiations, he explained that his office had originally expected to sign a new deal with the same health care provider much sooner. “It was indicated to me that if and when she retired they would work out a deal for a new contract,” said Schoengood. However, that contract has turned out to be a lot more difficult than anticipated and Schoengood added, “it’s very frustrating, and if I had known this [was going to be so difficult] last year we would have gone down another road.”
The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs also assured the GC Advocate that whether or not they find a permanent replacement for Mary Clancy tomorrow or next month, they will do everything they can to find someone to either temporarily staff the health center or offer some kind of off-campus care.
In the meantime, Ms. Annabella Bernard, the administrative coordinator of the Health Services Center, is directing interested students to facilities and clinics in Manhattan where they can find some kind of comparable services for a fee or on a sliding scale. This is cold comfort, of course, for those uninsured graduate students who would have received free treatment at the Graduate Center but make too much to qualify for a sliding scale at New York City clinics.
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