Band Aids were a major topic of discussion in the open forum section of Thursday’s SGA meeting. Suffolk’s Counseling Health and Wellness Center (CHW) does not currently have Band Aids available for students.
“There should be a readily available place to get free bandaids, and if there was any place on campus to find a bandage, I can think of no place more reasonable than Counseling Health and Wellness,” said Commuter Senator at-Large Lukas Phipps.
“I think we should set up a committee or write up a resolution to target this issue because accidents happen all the time and we should not be held accountable for something the school should provide,” said Diana Saab, class of 2021 senator, during the meeting.
Sarah Tavana, senator for the class of 2020, began a discussion about the vaccinations that the university offers. If an individual is insured under the university’s insurance they can receive vaccinations for free. Without Suffolk’s insurance however, the CHW center charges $20.
Kostas Lukas noted that although vaccines are important, he advised SGA to be cautious of giving the university an easy opportunity to raise tuition rates. He cited local pharmacies, such as CVS and Walgreens, that offer free flu shots within walking distance from Suffolk’s campus
For some out of state and international students, their insurance companies don’t transfer to CVS and Walgreens locations in Massachusetts, and therefore would not cover free or low cost vaccinations.
While SGA disagreed on many aspects of how to proceed in terms of vaccinations, they all agreed that the topic would require substantial research before coming to any sort of decision.
“I do like that we are having this conversation but before we do anything beyond this conversation, we need to do our research. We should reach out to the relevant authorities on campus and we should look into relevant medical facilities around campus,” said Phipps.
