Williams Pharmacy, a St. Louis institution since 1952, closed for good on Tuesday. The pharmacy, located on the corner of Big Bend Ave. and Forest Park Parkway, had been serving Washington University students for 59 years. But the Williams family, who owned a chain of four pharmacies in St. Louis, sold three of them, including Williams, to Walgreens.

Last week, I received my first flu shot and was surprised by how easy it was. I walked in, filled out the forms, waited for my turn and then was administered the vaccine. All in all, it took approximately 20 minutes from the time I entered Student Health Services.

The Emergency Support Team, better known as EST to the rest of us, is one of the main lines of defense on Wash. U.’s campus against our occasional mishaps. This leads us to question why Student Health Services (SHS) would cut EST funding by $8,000.

Student Health Services has cut Washington University’s Emergency Support Team’s funding by $8,000 due to departmental budget cuts. Though the cut will not affect the services that EST offers, students who want to join EST will have to pay around $1,000 to be trained.

With abortion becoming a key issue in the health care debate, issues related to contraception have taken on renewed importance. Washington University offers emergency contraceptives to its students. However, unlike most sellers the University does not offer Plan B, an emergency contaceptive, to everyone. Student Health Services (SHS) dispenses emergency contraception only to women. Plan [...]

Last year, my allergies caught up with me­—for the third time in my life, I actually had an asthma attack. Thankfully, SHS managed to come to the rescue—they were extremely helpful and very thorough.

With national health care reform on the horizon, health insurance is a hot topic among Washington University students. Some say they are unhappy with the school’s Aetna student health insurance plan, which is mandated for all University undergraduate and graduate students.

Suspected cases of swine flu at Washington University hit four on Thursday evening, with school officials expecting the number to increase.