During Q&A, Cornell’s VP revealed part of the reason why the health fee is needed. The reason is to help pay off over $4 Million dollars of debt!

Casey Breznick from the Cornell reports.

VP Murphy Reveals Where Student Health Fee is Truly Going, Gannet’s Debt Over $4 Million

During today’s modified Student Assembly (SA) meeting, Vice President Susan Murphy ’73, Ph.D. ’94 held an extended Q&A with students during which she revealed further information and several bombshells regarding the highly controversial student health fee.

Seated next to two Forensics Society members moderating the Q&A on behalf of the SA, Murphy was immediately asked to divulge the true cost breakdown of the $350 health fee. According to her response, $150 will go to “expansion of health services,” $130 will go to paying for the increased staffing necessary to provide these services, and $70 will go to paying back a 2-year loan taken out specifically to pay for Gannett’s increased staff.

Murphy explained how in the 2009-10 academic year the University significantly increased the size of Gannett’s staff because a H1N1 outbreak on campus and that year’s cluster of student suicides put large pressures on the student health center. According to Murphy, at the time the University secured “one-time funding” to pay for this increased staff, but this unnamed source of funding only lasted three years.

When a student later asked how much Gannett’s debt is, Murphy responded, “over $4 million.”

Murphy also said “none of the fee” will not fund the physical expansion of Gannett’s facility, a project estimated to cost $55 million. Philanthropy and budget cuts across all colleges and the administration will fund that project, according to Murphy. She did say, however, that “part of the new costs are related to maintenance of the new Gannett building.”