Letter to the editor: Students should not need a car to find care

By Douglas Vandergraph

Imagine waking up sick in a residence hall, calling the campus health center and learning that the help you expected is somewhere off-campus. Your next question is not about university contracts. It is how to get there without a car.

That is the human problem at the center of The Rider News’ reporting on students’ difficulty obtaining on-campus medical care this fall. Some were referred to outside providers without consistently being told about transportation assistance. The university later explained that its previous healthcare partnership had ended and that interim arrangements were being made, with in-office care resuming Oct. 19.

Those details matter. So does the gap between an available service and a student who knows how to use it.

Rider students deserve a single, plainly written explanation of what care is currently available, when it is available and how someone without transportation can reach it. The answer should be easy to find before a student becomes ill, not after several phone calls. If an arrangement changes, students should hear it directly and promptly.

I think of the Gospel story in which Jesus notices a person that others have learned to walk past. The lesson is wonderfully practical: noticing another person’s need matters only when it changes how we respond. For a campus, that may mean a clearly staffed phone line, a dependable ride or an explanation that does not send a sick student from office to office.

Classmates have a role, too. When a friend is unwell, share class notes or help them find official guidance instead of assuming the problem will work itself out. Compassion is often ordinary and specific.

The question for Rider is not whether every healthcare challenge can be prevented. It is whether students can count on clear information and meaningful assistance when a challenge arrives. A health service should be measured not only by the care it intends to provide, but by whether the student who needs it can actually get through the door.

Douglas Vandergraph is an independent outside contributor who does not claim a Rider affiliation