Colorado State University will be getting a new on-campus health center.
The Associated Students of Colorado State University Director of Health Mackenzie Whitesell and CSU Health Network have been pushing for a new health center on campus, to be located at the northwest corner of South College Avenue and West Prospect Road.
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“Hartshorn is too small to accommodate the entire health network at CSU,” Whitesell said.
According to Whitesell and Sen. Andrew Bondi, the Health Network has moved its counseling services to Aylesworth Hall due to the lack of space in Hartshorn Health Center.
Bondi said that the new building will be easily accessible to all students, both on and off campus. According to Bondi, there will be an Around-the-Horn stop at the new building, and a large parking lot already exists directly north of the proposed site for the building.
Bondi said that the new health center will not cost students anything, expressing ASCSU’s desire to keep student fees and tuition as low as possible.
In order to pay for the new building, CSU Health Network will be partnering with University of Colorado Health and Columbine Health Systems.
In response to objections about the UCH’s association with the Univeristy of Colorado, Whitesell said that the UCH is a large health system that is independent from CU-Boulder.
“Our partnership at CSU is a great opportunity for both the University of Colorado Health system and students and faculty at CSU,” a UCH representative said. “We will help provide expert care and medical research opportunities to the CSU and Fort Collins communities.”
According to Bondi, CSU already partners with UCH to provide health insurance to faculty and staff.
“So a number of them go through UCH already, through the campus health insurance policy,” Bondi said. “But you kind of have to go a pretty good distance to get anywhere with that. Now that will be right on site.”
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The plan is to break ground on the new building within the next year.
“We would probably be seeing this new health network coming online in the next two to three years,” Bondi said.
Collegian ASCSU Beat Reporter Jonathan Matheny can be reached online at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @jonathanmathen2.
