At their last meeting of the quarter, Graduate Student Senate took the next step with the health care recommendations they submitted to Ohio University officials a few weeks ago.
The senate passed a resolution calling for OU to provide students with free and anonymous HIV testing.
“This is moving forward very quickly,” said Graduate Student Senate President Tracy Kelly. “(We) have been asked to convene a university-wide task force on this particular issue because it really kind of emerged out of us in collaboration with the (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) Center and Health Promotions”
Free and anonymous HIV testing was one of the five recommendations to improve health care that Graduate Student Senate submitted to Dean Ryan Lombardi this quarter.
The main reason Graduate Student Senate passed the resolution is because it will allow students to remain anonymous if they choose to get tested, said Ron Ranson, the Graduate Student Senate commissioner for African American Affairs.
“It allows our students an opportunity to get tested without concern of having that go to their health insurance so they can report it on their own,” he said, adding that the anonymity will greatly help international students as well.
“Our international students to be tested as well without that having to be reported, which it’s really important to provide them with that opportunity to get tested,” Ranson said.
While the task force will be advocating for free testing, there is a good chance that it will end up costing the students a little money out of pocket, Ranson said.
“It is highly possible that there will end up being a cost, so it is our job to make it affordable and be able to be utilized by all of our students,” he said.
The task force members will be chosen as soon as possible, and the group will include the Athens’ AIDS Tack Force as well as Tania Basta, an assistant professor in the College of Health Sciences and Professions, Ranson said
The task force will also decided where to have the testing should it become a reality.
“Where would students be most comfortable,” Kelly said, adding that appropriate policies regarding aftercare and counseling services will also be addressed.
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