The Student Health Center website inaccurately included 14 former employees in its list of current social workers — some of whom had not been employed by the university since 2016, according to their LinkedIn accounts.
However, after WSN reached out to the university for comment last week, the website was updated within a day.
Prior to the update, the webpage listed 70 wellness staff members. Fourteen of these staff members no longer work for NYU, university spokesperson Shonna Keogan confirmed in an email to WSN.
“The [former employees] you mentioned have moved on from NYU and have been subsequently replaced by other counselors, so we’ve removed the old names we found on the website,” Keogan said.
When asked if the updates made several days ago were in response to WSN’s investigation into the errors, NYU did not respond to a request for comment.
A version of the webpage drafted last May was updated to include new employees but neglected to remove those no longer working for NYU. Students interviewed by WSN voiced concerns that including former employees on the website could be misleading and confusing for students seeking resources provided by or information on the SHC.
LS sophomore Samuel Gray said it could also be viewed as deceptive.
“What this says to me is that at this point it’s almost less like an instance of a spread-too-thin bureaucracy not having the time to do something and more like a deliberate cover-up to mask flagrant f-cking negligence,” Gray said. “If they genuinely believe that it was an issue, [this] would’ve never have happened.”
Gray had his own difficulties with the Student Health Center when he attempted to make a counseling appointment and was never called back to confirm.
“I was also seeking avenues outside of NYU’s network, so it wasn’t like I was consistently asking them and they were dodging me,” Gray said. “I still said something and they still never got back to me which tells me that they either forgot or they could tell that I wasn’t that devoted to pursuing it and they took that as a, ‘Oh good, we don’t have to be annoyed by this kid anymore’ kinda thing.”
In a WSN investigation from last April, 14 students shared similar experiences, citing long wait times and never receiving appointment confirmations. Like Gray, many of these students ultimately resorted to other channels for counseling help.
LS sophomore Samantha Gordon said this inaccuracy indicates empty promises from the website, which states that student well-being is its top priority.
“If you’re such a large and well-known institution, you need to prioritize the health of your kids,” Gordon said. “With a school with as many students as we have, it’s necessary to have the proper amount of counselors to regulate and treat mental health.”
It was because of this lack of counselors that GLS sophomore Michael Allogiamento decided to seek counseling outside of NYU.
“Part of that is because it seemed to me as though they have less of a personal relationship with their patients and mostly because there’s a limited amount of counselors and a large amount of people who are dealing with mental health issues,” Allogiamento said.
Allogiamento added that after learning about the SHC website’s inaccuracies, he plans to do more research before making counseling appointments.
“You’re going to [the SHC] because you need someone that will listen and will tell you honestly what’s going on with you,” Allogiamento said. “If you’re reaching out to […] somebody that does not exist in the realm of possibilities, it’s just a little crushing.”
Email Lisa Cochran at [email protected].
