by Manny Loley
Middle Path isn’t the only part of Kenyon to undergo a recent transformation. The Health and Counseling Center, previously located in Sparrow House near Caples Residence Hall, was also gutted this summer in order to make the move to its new home on West Scott Lane, behind the post office and across from the Office of Campus Safety. The building will be dedicated on Oct. 23.
After experiencing heavy student traffic in years past, the physical Health Center building has doubled in size to better serve students, according to Director of Health Services Kim Cullers.
“We have updated equipment and more privacy,” Cullers said. “Everything we did in the older Health Center we can do better [here].” Cullers added that the former Health Center experienced multiple other issues, such as heating and cooling problems and poor ventilation.
According to Chief Business Officer Mark Kohlman, the Gund Partnership designed the new Health Center for a total price of $3.2 million including furniture and equipment.
Health Center staff expect that the office’s new location will bring more students through its doors, a theory supported by Emily Smith ’15. “The central location of the new building will definitely make it more convenient,” Smith wrote in an email to the Collegian. “It’s also a much more inviting space. There are windows everywhere; everything feels bright and welcoming.”
Counselor Nikki Keller echoed Smith’s sentiments about the benefits of the center’s new location. “I think it just has a feel of being more open and central to students,” Keller said. “It feels like we are more a part of campus than we were before.”
The new Health Center contains a total of five rooms, one of which is an emergency room equipped with oxygen tanks, a stretcher and emergency medical supplies. The office of Counseling Services operates out of the second story of the Center.
An elevator makes the new Health Center handicap accessible.
If there’s one downside to the new building, according to Keller, it’s having to break in the new furniture.