By Erin Dostal

The Daily Northwestern

A $1 million grant to Searle Student Health Service will go toward creating more physicians’ offices and exam rooms and a larger lab and pharmacy in an expansion set to begin later this year.

The gift from The Chicago Community Trust will help Northwestern University Health Service expand and renovate the campus health center, offering students greater privacy and improved services within the next few years.

“This building is long overdue for renovation and expansion,” said Dr. Donald Misch, executive director of health services. “It’s too small. It’s not properly arranged. There isn’t enough privacy, so this is great news for us.”

The grant honors John G. Searle, who was vice president of the board of trustees when he donated $800,000 to build Searle.

Misch said Searle’s designation of one room as both an office and an exam room is inefficient and can pose privacy concerns, since personal materials may be left on office desks.

With the construction, doctors will have a separate smaller doctor’s office, but they’ll also be able to work out of more than one exam room at once, Misch said.

Misch said the issue of increasing privacy will also be addressed when renovating the lobby.

Students will no longer have to worry about people in the waiting area hearing their reason for coming in, Misch said.

“Privacy is something that could be looked into,” said Weinberg senior Alexandra Schwartz. “Students are looking for privacy and better healthcare in general.”

Although Schwartz said she’s never had a bad experience at Searle, she sees the renovations as positive.

“I haven’t seen any changes in my four years here,” Schwartz said. “It’s nice to see they’re starting to get changes.”

Colin Rolfs, a Weinberg junior, said he doesn’t think privacy is an issue at Searle.

“I never encountered that as a problem,” Rolfs said, adding that he understands why other students might be concerned.

In addition to providing greater privacy, Misch hopes the expansion will allow health services to have medical residents. Residents have worked at Searle in the past, but the program outgrew the facility.

One of the benefits of having medical residents at health services was that it could serve as a “recruiting pipeline,” Misch said.

Counseling and Psychological Services will also benefit from the grant, as they will be moved into the new building instead of being housed across the street.

“Both CAPS and the Health Service are excited to have this happen,” Misch said.

Although renovations will cause a temporary inconvenience, Misch said they will be worth it for the end result.

“If you’re going to renovate, there’s no way you can’t move people around,” he said. “That’s the price of progress.”

Misch said construction was supposed to begin during this summer, but it will likely take six to nine more months to begin work because of planning and construction bids.

Misch said he hopes the construction will be complete within the next two-and-a-half years.

Reach Erin Dostal at [email protected].