story | Sofia Sigal-Passeck, Guest Writer
photo | Sofia Sigal-Passeck
While the exact definition of a fully residential college is not that clear, it is generally thought that at a fully residential college, students do not need to leave campus to satisfy their basic needs.
Yale-NUS College strives to uphold that standard by spending a substantial part of its budget on dining halls, housing, and the wellness center. However, Yale-NUS’ “full residential-ness” may have been brought into question when the administration announced last semester that the college would not hire a new nurse.
Yale-NUS students can sleep, eat, study, exercise, and receive mental health assistance without leaving campus. However, when it comes to medical assistance, students have to go to the University Health Center (UHC).
In order to collect Yale-NUS students’ opinions regarding the nurse issue, I created a Facebook poll on the Yale-NUS College Community page.
More than 200 Yale-NUS students voted, and over 90 percent of them agreed that Yale-NUS should hire a new nurse. Moreover, 172 students agreed that “the new nurse needs to be able to give medical notes.”
Many students also shared their frustration about having to leave campus to receive medical assistance or medical notes.
Andre Wong ’21 commented, “I miss Doris so much, and as much as we talk about mental health, I feel physical health shouldn’t be forgotten.”
Hansel Konstantin Tantohari ’21 said, “[Waiting for a consultation at] UHC takes up to [three hours] and [the doctors] often [misdiagnose] people (especially with fractures/tears but to be fair a nurse wouldn’t be able to do this either).”
Clearly, many Yale-NUS students think that the administration should hire a new nurse.
I am sure that the administration carefully considered the costs and benefits of having a nurse on campus. However, after receiving such an overwhelming response from the student body, the college administration might want to reconsider their decision.