On Friday, the UT celebrated the grand opening of its new Student Health Center.
   
 Combining the services of the old Student Health Center with the Counseling Center and the Safety, Environment & Education Center, the new building is meant to be a one-stop shop for all student health needs.
    
“We’re here to celebrate, today, the opening of this fantastic facility,” said Chancellor Jimmy Cheek, who opened the ceremony. “A lot of planning and preparation has gone into the construction.”
    
Cheek thanked the students for their help in the project.
    
“This is a student initiative,” Cheek said. “The students came forth and said we need a better facility to take care of our health needs on our campus.”
    
SGA president Ross Rowland and Student Health Center administrator Jim Boyle also gave speeches citing the work and planning that went into the new center.  Rowland explained the long association SGA and the student body had with the project, while Boyle thanked the many construction workers, architects and staff that helped contribute to the completion of the center.
    
“To say I’m thrilled is probably the understatement of the century,” Boyle said.
    
After the speeches were done, Cheek, Boyle, Rowland and others cut a long, orange ribbon, signifying the opening of the facility.
    
After the ribbon was cut, the administrators, staff and the gathered audience entered the building for refreshments and tours of the facility.
    
As part of the overall change from the old health center, every doctor’s suite area has at least one waiting area. There is room for visiting doctors, which can include a surgeon or a gynecologist, as well as an area for prostate examinations.
    
The new center will also contain a pharmacy. Although it’s not currently stocked, students can expect to be able to purchase both prescription and over-the-counter medication by the upcoming fall semester.
   
 Along with these renovations, a much larger and separate X-ray and lab area were added, as well as separate facilities for physical therapy and sports medicine.
    
By being certified as a “green” facility, with recycling bins placed throughout the entire building, it is the first building on UT’s campus to be certified green.
    
The Counseling Center has also increased in size and improved amenities. The waiting room is much larger. Each doctor and counselor has his or her own office. The increased size and number of offices helped solve the major problem the old Counseling Center had with scheduling. In the past, offices were shared, and the center had to carefully schedule when patients could come in.
   
 Joining the Counseling Center with the Student Health Center has been part of the building plans from early on, said Victor Barr, the director of the Counseling Center.
    
“What we wanted was a place where we can facilitate mental disorders and physical disorders,” Barr said. “It’s better to think of them with an overlapping degree. … It just makes sense to put them together.”
    
Barr said that with the old facilities, the counseling center would sometimes have to refer students to the psychiatry center, which was in the old Student Health Center, but only about 50 percent of patients would go. The same problem occurred when psychiatry referred students to the counseling center.
    
Barr is hoping that with students only having to walk to a different part of the building, rather than to a separate building, more students will get the complete help they need. “It’s literally right there. I can walk them to it,” he said.
   
 Students who make a walk-in appointment at the Counseling Center can usually be seen within 15 to 20 minutes.
    
Cheek said 4,500 students on average come to the center a year. Nearly 1,600 students use the Counseling Center.
    
“And I hope this is everything our students need to deal with health physically and mentally on this campus,” Cheek said.