Heat forces LU to relocate Student Health Services

Lincoln University's Thompkins Student Health Center building is closed temporarily - but the services housed there remain available in two other locations.

Jerome Offord, LU's dean of Administration and Student Affairs, told students, faculty and staff in an email Wednesday:

Mental Health Counselor Jamie Smith was being relocated temporarily to 303 Founders Hall.

Barbara Black and the student health center staff was moved to 208 Scruggs University Center.

He said all phones were to be transferred to the appropriate offices.

Blame the heat for the moves, Offord told the News Tribune.

"We've scheduled and planned to replace the chiller in the Thompkins health center this summer," he explained, "attempt(ing) to select a time period that is not as disruptive as the academic year.

When the heat index reached its peak (Wednesday), the staff couldn't work in an environment where the internal temperature was well over 80 degrees."

So administrators moved the health center staff to places that are air-conditioned, he said.

Offord emphasized this a short-term solution.

He wasn't able to predict Wednesday when the temporary changes would end and the health center staff could be returned to their more familiar surroundings.