The AU Student Health Center will operate during evening hours on Mondays and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m.
Dan Bruey, director of the Student Health Center, said that same-day appointments scheduled by sick students after 1 p.m. will be scheduled for the evening time slots.
The additional hours are part of a pilot program that will be in effect through Dec. 3. There will be no evening hours during the week of Thanksgiving, Bruey said.
Future plans to possibly expand evening hours to other days of the week will be based on the results of this pilot program.
The purpose is to give more immediate care to students who are actually ill, not for routine checkups, Bruey said. He said any student seeking a routine visit should do so during normal operating hours, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
“[We want to] ensure the evening slots available are utilized by students who are sick,” Bruey said. “We do not want to schedule routine visits into these slots.”
The pilot is a joint venture between the Health Center, Student Government’s director of Student Health and Services, Women’s Initiative and the Undergraduate Senate.
The planning phase for the program went on for almost two years, according to Bruey.
“I do not think our students would want to utilize a visit slot if they were not really sick,” he said. “We will not schedule gynecological annual visits, physical examinations or immunization visits during these slots.”
The costs of an appointment will not change for evening hours, Bruey said.
“The Health Center was able to shift resources to any extra costs to students or the Health Center,” he said.
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