SHS introduces gender affirming care to support students

JAKE CHANG & ANNABELLE INK

The Claremont Colleges’ Student Health Services (SHS) now offers gender affirming care for all students under their health plan, an expansion to their service coverage as of January 2023.

“Student Health Services (SHS) at the Claremont Colleges is committed to providing culturally competent and inclusive services to all students under our care,” SHS said Dec. 14 via email. “As part of that commitment, our leadership team continually looks for opportunities to improve and expand our current suite of services.”

Also commonly referred to as transgender health care, gender affirming care includes an array of services that are meant to support a person’s gender identity, specifically when that person’s identity does not align with the gender they were assigned at birth.

Gender affirming care at SHS includes gender affirming hormonal therapy (GAHT) by trained healthcare providers who consult with students to prescribe hormonal regimens, according to the SHS website. SHS is also equipped to refer students to local resources in cases of complicated or non-hormonal services. Assistant director of the Queer Resource Center Pharalyn Robinson said in an email to TSL that previously, students had to endure long commutes and wait times to be attended to, as well as receive bills for labs from out of network providers.

“Receiving these services at SHS comes with greater transparency of pricing, no commute and much shorter wait times for care,” Robinson said. “The addition of PrEP [pre-exposure prophylaxis] and PEP [post-exposure prophylaxis] at SHS, along with the new gender affirming care means that our queer and trans students don’t have to go outside of the consortium for their basic health care needs.”

The mission to install gender affirming care at the 5Cs started with the inception of the Trans Health Task Force (THTF) eight years ago, Robinson stated. THTF is composed of SHS practitioners and Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services (MCAPS)

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“It’s gonna make an impact for sure,” he said. “But unfortunately, everything is so expensive, you know, going to the grocery store is like a warzone … So I mean, [the contract is] better, but still there’s more that can be done.”

Shireen Aslan, a Frary worker and member of the negotiations team, said the contract’s raises will help her better support her family and potentially give her time to pursue a Masters degree in the future. Now that negotiations are over, she has started taking online courses in UX Design, to further her understanding of the field.

Ramakrishna said the contract

After serving the Claremont Colleges’ COVID-19 testing needs for almost 18 months, Student Health Services’ (SHS) Tranquada Center discontinued in-person testing this Wednesday, officials across the consortium announced in emails to students and faculty this week.

At the Tranquada Testing Center, located on the first floor of the SHS building, students were able to take COVID tests on-site. SHS sent them their results via text and email within 48 hours of their test.

Students now have access to testing through the five COVID-19 vending machines located across campus.

Laura Muna-Landa, assistant vice president of communications and community relations for The Claremont Colleges Services (TCCS), told TSL that the decision to move testing exclusively to vending machines was made by “various consortial committees based on medical advice provided by Student Health Services medical providers.” with Pomona will set an example in the food and service industry in the Inland Empire.

Muna-Landa also shared that TCCS does not expect the shift to exclusively vending machines to have any “significant impact” across the colleges.

“Other workers will be looking to this agreement kind of as a standard for what they will come to expect from their employers,” Ramakrishna told TSL. “So I think it’s a really good contract in terms of raising the bar for workers across the board.”

Aslan emphasized that the contract is a win not just for the workers but also for the students, faculty and staff who supported dining staff during negotiations.

“This success is not just our success,” Aslan told TSL. “This is everybody’s success.”

Since the vending machines were installed in August 2022, she expressed confidence in continued “consistent, reliable utilization” of them.

SHS has assigned temporary staff members to assist in the transition away from in-person testing for the remainder of the semester. These staff members have been directed to be nearby the vending machine locations for assistance.

Annika Lindberg SC ’26 feared that the change will cause more confusion than clarity for 5C students.

“For me, the [SHS] testing site is the most accessible place to get tested because it’s really fast and it’s right in the middle of campus,” Lindberg said.

When Lindberg tried to use the vending machine located in Scripps College’s 240 House to take a COVID-19 test last semester, she was unable to register her test with SHS due to technical difficulties.

“It’s a confusing interface on the website the [QR code] takes you to,” Lindberg said. “I just gave up and went to the Tranquada testing site.”

Lindberg believes SHS closing its only in-person testing location will cause a decrease in the number of students choosing to test.

“The SHS center was so well publicized, and it was located in the health center, which was very common sense,” Lindberg said.