Sour punch straws and lollipops, Vogue magazines and mandatory face masks await students who frequent the health center. Down the unassuming stairs in O’Hare Hall right before the bookstore entrance, the Rose Hill Health Center is easy to miss for those not familiar with the campus.

The Health Center is run by four nurse practitioners and one registered nurse, with eight additional nurse practitioners on part-time duty, rotating daily. Director of the Health Center Maureen Keown said they try to keep at least four providers on site every day to keep up with the number of patients that walk into their office.

The Health Center sees students who come in for medical reasons. But before they are seen, they must sit in the waiting room for a nurse to be available. Some students say they have had to wait just five minutes to be seen by a staff member, while others say they have had to wait over an hour.

“We do see a lot of students at Rose Hill,” Keown said. “We pretty much have a full schedule almost every day.”

In the waiting room, patients are greeted by check-in staff at desks.

To be seen by a nurse practitioner, students have three options: by scheduling an appointment by either calling their number, (718) 817-4160, on their website or emailing their own email address [email protected]. Students can also walk-in with no appointment.

If a student is going to the Health Center with an appointment scheduled, they can expect to wait 15-20 minutes to be seen. If opting for a “walk-in” without an appointment, it can be around a 25-minute wait, according to Keown.

“I’m sure that there may be days that we are very busy and they may be waiting, especially if they’re on the walk-in list, for over an hour,” Keown said.

Jaylen Dawson, FCRH ’28, went to the Health Center as a “walk-in” and said he wasn’t aware of how long he had been waiting for.

“I don’t even know, probably 45 minutes, an hour,” Dawson said.

Atticus Beasley, GSB ’29, came in with an appointment and said he was not told how long he would be in the waiting room for. He guessed he had been waiting for 10 minutes. He said that the previous time, he was seen within 15 minutes.

As according to Keown, regardless of having an appointment or not, the symptoms of the patient and their presentation can lead to them being bumped up to the top of the waiting list, and seen earlier.

“If somebody comes in [with], let’s say an allergic reaction, they go to the top of the list to be taken in pretty immediately,” Keown said.

Once students are taken from the waiting room, the average appointment can be generally finished within 20 minutes, although there are some fluctuating variables, according to Keown.

“If someone comes in and needs a nebulizer treatment or needs blood work, it could take a little bit longer,” Keown said.

Outside of the university’s Health Center’s duties, the facilities around the Rose Hill campus play a part in the prevention of illnesses spreading around campus according to Keown.

“If we notice that there is an increase in flu or stomach virus, we will contact facilities to do extra cleaning in bathrooms and shared areas in the dorms, in the gym, in the academic buildings,” Keown said.

While the Health Center is mainly a resource for sick students, its website states that they also focus on maintaining Fordham’s Jesuit values.

“We assist our students in developing moral and ethical values and characteristics that reflect the Jesuit tradition in regard to health promotion and illness prevention,” which is as its mission statement states.

Students’ satisfaction is tracked with a survey that is done every fall and spring semester. As according to Keown, overall results from produced by their survey in the fall were positive, mostly falling in the upper 90s on a 100-point scale.