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McCoshed:
A Clinic Plagued by Ethics Lapses, Incompetence Leaves Students at Risk From STDs.
Matthew J. Schmitz '08
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A Student Inquires
The events that led to New Jersey’s censure of McCosh began on a Saturday night last April. Then-Princeton sophomore Kyle Smith was studying with a group of friends. When conversation turned to Princeton’s ‘hookup culture,’ someone remarked that the one in four students on campus is believed to be infected with an STD. The one-in-four figure reflects campus health administrators’ belief, affirmed in multiple conversations with McCosh officials, that Princeton’s rate of infection reflects the national average. Concerned by such high figures, Smith decided to learn more.
At the campus health center, triage nurse Miriam Torres told Smith that state regulations require the reporting of new STD cases. Months later, Finnie and Silverman, who ran the clinic, claimed ignorance on changes in the state reporting law. State law requires that administrators take responsibility for STDs on campus. In addition to physicians and certain types of nurses, people overseeing institutions of higher education are required to report cases of STDs.
When Smith called the state to learn how many STDs McCosh had reported, state officials—who later cited Smith’s inquiry as the impetus for their investigation— discovered that McCosh had broken the law.
Danger from STDs
The problems that would lead to the state investigation were noted over three years ago in a University report. The report, written by the Health and Well Being Task Force cited failings in regulatory compliance and data collection. According to the report, there was “simply no way for UHS to operate” without hiring additional staff. The University heeded this warning by giving $195,291 to health services. Just a year after the warning and funding increase, the state stopped receiving any STD reports for Princeton students.
Princeton’s failure comes at the same time other colleges face problems with STDs. Miriam Grossman, a psychologist with UCLA’s Student Psychological Services, argues in her book Unprotected that during her tenure at UCLA, administrators did not do enough to make students aware of the physical and psychological consequences of casual sex. Last year, nearly 10% of students at ten southeastern colleges tested positive for chlamydia. Grossman faults campuses nationwide for the lack of medically accurate health education: “Too many young people, especially young women, are paying a very high price.”
Months after Silverman’s departure, the University is well into a search for his replacement. In January it convened an informal dinner meeting that included administrators and applicants for Silverman’s post. Notably absent, according to one participant, was any mention of the state investigation of McCosh or of Silverman’s history with Keeling & Associates.
Matthew J. Schmitz is a senior at Princeton University from O'Neill, NE. He is the Publisher Emeritus of the Princeton Tory.
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