Students Voice Health Concerns at Assembly
During Tuesday’s StuCo-led health and wellness assembly, a panel of twelve representatives from the Health Services Department sat on the stage to answer questions and address concerns voiced by students. Students voiced their thoughts at three microphones placed on the first floor and on the balcony.
In an email from StuCo adviser and health instructor Carol Cahalane sent the preceding day, students were asked to bring any questions for the department and share them. Cahalane explained in her email that the forum-style assembly also served to introduce and explain changes in the department over recent years and initiatives it had undertaken “to improve Exeter health and wellness.”
For students uncomfortable with sharing their concerns out loud, StuCo president Rebecca Ju shared questions with the panel that she received via email. She urged students to continue to communicate questions and concerns to her after the assembly so that she could relay anonymously to members of the department. Furthermore, in a school-wide email after the assembly, the Health Center sent students a link to a website where they can anonymously post feedback. In the future, StuCo will look to hold smaller open forums and additional school wide assembly discussions for a variety of topics, including health and wellness, Exeter’s sexual climate and academic support on campus.
Principal Lisa MacFarlane said that to try to engage the entire student body in a conversation was worthy of admiration and applause. She also voiced her support for students who spoke and the opportunity for others to anonymously send questions or feedback. “These are important questions,” she said, and added that whenever a student is left with a question or has an unsettling experience, it is vital that they are provided an opportunity to return to it and have the opportunity to air it.”
“The responses did not really address the sensitive issues such as why it is necessary to give pain medications for illnesses that do not require them, or what specific things they have done to alleviate the fear of getting infected as a result of going to the Health Center.”
During the discussion, many students asked questions that expressed a feeling of generic treatment and disconnectedness in response to illnesses they brought to the Health Center. Several students criticized a uniform response to a wide variety of illnesses. One student anonymously commented on how some students fear the Health Center, specifically students struggling with mental illness because of the potential consequence of forced medical leave. In response, the panel spent time explaining the medical leave process and stressed that students should not refrain from receiving help. Throughout the assembly, the panel explained its processes and aimed to clear up any misconceptions.
After asking several questions to the panel, senior Frank Fan was disappointed with the panel. “The responses did not really address the sensitive issues such as why it is necessary to give pain medications for illnesses that do not require them, or what specific things they have done to alleviate the fear of getting infected as a result of going to the Health Center,” Fan said.
Although some believed the panel’s responses were inadequate, others felt the problem of the assembly was rooted in students’ questions themselves. StuCo Secretary upper Joel Lotzkar said that some of the questions were not appropriate for the discussion and went astray from the target of the assembly.
“For the next open forum assembly, a clear goal or sample questions for the question and answer period needs to be sent out to the students,” Lotzkar said. He emphasized that with more direction, students would be incentivized to ask more serious, generally applicable questions that were most relevant to the topic at hand.
Lower Abigail Waite agreed that the focus of questions didn’t pertain to the most vital topics. She said that the majority of the discussion was spent on what she saw as “the surface issues,” pertaining to the logistics or cleanliness of the Health Center. She said that the conversation didn’t dig deep enough into the more important, “underlying issues,” such as the fears and thoughts surrounding the processes of the Health Center.
“Not as much got across to the panel in terms of issues with individuals’ experiences because people don’t want to share their personal stories with the entire school,” Waite said.
In the loud, packed Assembly Hall, many students did not feel comfortable standing up at the microphone and sharing their concerns. Upper Jesus Rivera said that he thought the forum would have been more successful in a smaller setting. “The applause and snickering was so loud,” Rivera said.
With some questions combatively challenging the on-stage faculty, some students saw a disconnect between the panel and the audience.
Lower Jacqui Byrne saw that a “students vs. faculty” dynamic, rather than a more positive collaboration, arose during the assembly.“The students were trying to ask questions or give comments and instead of taking them into consideration some of the conversation was just the board defending themselves,” Byrne said.
Senior Kyra Citron agreed with this imbalance, and disliked the defensiveness of the panel. “I think there was a mutual miscommunication between students and faculty, because a student’s personal experience at the Health Center should not be questioned,” Citron said. “Rather, the Health Center should ask what the student suggests to address their concerns.”
However, other students believed the panel was open and comfortable in having these conversations. Waite believed that the panel was “eager and willing to speak to any issues that were addressed.”
Due to the time constraints of the assembly period and the time necessary to explain and respond to questions, some students and panelists felt the discussion alone was far from conclusive. Counselor Constance Morse said that many important subjects were not touched upon. “There are still questions that students may have that could have been addressed in the assembly,” she explained, citing topics like access to birth control, testing for STDs or privacy and confidentiality throughout various processes, especially between students and parents.
Despite the necessary brevity of the discussion, Morse said “it was a useful and good beginning.”
Medical Director Myra Citrin agreed. “I do wish more kids could have had the opportunity to ask questions, and that we had had more time,” she said. However, she said the panelists will review other questions sent to StuCo president Rebecca Ju during the assembly along with responses to their online survey and comments left in their suggestion box.
Dean of Student Health and Wellness Gordon Coole said the nature of the forum and the time constraints in particular, made it difficult to gauge “a true representation of the students with such limited time. I hope we can follow this effort with smaller group discussions when there is more time available.”
Psychologist Szu-Hui Lee agreed with Coole and stressed the importance of many more discussions after the assembly itself. “I only wish we had more time so more of us had the chance to share our thoughts,” she said. Lee argued that forums are helpful in the beginnings of important conversations regarding the culture and status of the community and its health, but that “it will be critical to have follow-up conversations to make sure we are hearing all the concerns and we are working together to problem solve.”