HELP A SISTER OUT. MY COLLEGE IS IN TROUBLE AND I’M NOT SURE IF THESE SIGNATURES CAN REALLY DO MUCH, BUT IT CAN’T HURT TO TRY…..
Help keep Purchase College’s Alternative Clinic up and running!The Alternative Clinic has been an enormous part of promoting wellness as well as a multitude of services to the female-bodied students of Purchase College for over 20 years. The Alternative Clinic provides an array of services to students such as: pertinent information with respect to sexual health, peer counseling, free pregnancy tests, pap smears, birth control, STI testing, free pelvic exams, and many others.
The co-directors of the Alternative Clinic were told that because the clinic is funded by the PSGA (Purchase Student Government Association) and not the college, they (the interns and co-directors and nurse practitioner) aren’t SUNY employees so they don’t have the same protections as Health Services’ staff. The clinic interns also don’t have malpractice insurance (the nurse practitioner does, but it wouldn’t cover something like an accident in the waiting room). The clinic interns and co-directors were deemed to be too big a legal liability. The risk analysis was done by the counsel for the SUNY system. A lawyer whose job it is to protect the universities from lawsuits came and investigated the Alternative Clinic. However, the co-directors and interns were not informed of this development until their meeting with the lawyer. The lawyer referred to an “investigation” she had done, which did not include speaking to the nurse practitioner, faculty sponsor, or either co-director. The co-directors were told the investigation was part of a larger review of Health Services’ practices. The Alternative Clinic is not affiliated with Health Services, but did use their space.
This was a helpful and supportive service on campus and having it shut down is basically sending a message that “taking care of women and female-bodied people is a luxury and if it’s too expensive we won’t do it.” NO! WOMEN ARE WORTH THE COST.
