Olin Health Center has been nursing students back to health for 75 years.
On Tuesday, Sept. 30, staff and students celebrated that period of service at Olin’s Fall Welcome and Anniversary Open House.
Olin’s Marketing and Communications Manager Kathi Braunlich explained the long history of Olin Health Center, which started as Student Health Services in 1893. There wasn’t a full-time physician on campus until Richard Olin arrived in 1925 with the goal of building the first full-scale hospital on campus.
Construction for the hospital began in 1938 , but Olin died that year before the building was finished. In the fall of 1939, Olin Memorial Health Center opened.
Braunlich said the fall welcome is meant to introduce students to the services Olin Health Center offers.
“We want students to experience and learn things when they are feeling well, and then they don’t have to look things up when they are sick since they already know where to go,” Braunlich said.
History education junior Julie Podorsek said Olin Health Center is convenient for students, especially with a courtesy van that picks up students anywhere on campus.
Food industry management junior John Hulbert took advantage of Olin Health Center services his freshman year.
“I wasn’t comfortable with Urgent Care, and Olin helped me get through getting sick for the first time on my own,” said Hulbert.
At the fall welcome event, members of MSU Student Health Advisory Council explained the center’s care options at various stations with Olin staff members.
SHAC is one of Olin’s three student groups. History, philosophy, and sociology of science senior Marisa Martini has been president of the group for the past two years.
“We promote student health services here at MSU, and give the student a voice in how those resources are shaped so that they’re most effective for the student population,” Martini said.
SHAC aims to help students attain their health goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle while at MSU. They understand the difficulties of being healthy in college, when students are under stress and experiencing new things.
“Mom and dad are not right around the corner anymore,” Martini said. Students are leaving home and Martini believes that it is important for them to be informed about the resources available to them while at college.
To keep health resources current, Olin Heath Center is continually changing.
This past summer, Olin’s primary care clinic was renovated to make the check-in and waiting room areas more comfortable for patients. The wellness area for massage therapy, reiki and reflexology, was also completed. On October 1, those services became available to students and carried the center’s health offerings into another school year.
