Alexandra Murata, BC ’10, had been waiting in line for one of Health Services’ 1,200 H1N1 vaccinations Wednesday when nurses told her and other Barnard students they were not eligible for the shots.
Murata called a sorority sister and allowed health officials to listen in on the call. She asked her friend if she could borrow her CUID, telling workers manning the station that she had forgotten her ID card and was really a CC student. Then, Murata said, the health officials decided to let her and other Barnard students receive the flu shots.
“Then they told all the Barnard girls behind me that it was OK and they could stay in line, so all Barnard girls can get shots now. They didn’t make an announcement because most Barnard girls had already left, but they told me that they would not turn away any other Barnard students,” she said.
Murata added, “I just hate when there is a double standard. ... If we can check out books in Butler and eat in John Jay and CC/SEAS students can use Lehman Library and eat at Hewitt ... why draw the line when giving out flu shots?”
Officials from Health Services and nurses working at the event declined to comment.
Murata said she was told by nurses that Barnard Health Services had ordered their own supply of vaccinations, but could not tell her when they would be made available.
Samantha Taube, BC ’10, said she went to get vaccinated after receiving an e-mail from Columbia Health Services inviting Columbia students, faculty, and staff with valid Columbia ID to receive the free shots.
She said she had no idea Barnard students were not eligible until she was told so by a nurse—after she had waited in line for 40 minutes.
“This wasn’t explained anywhere in the e-mail that was sent out, plus it was sent out to the entire university,” Taube said.
The e-mail sent on Dec. 3 from Samuel L. Seward, Jr., M.D., assistant vice president of Health Services at Columbia, does not mention Barnard students.
Other students in the line—which at times stretched from the piano on the bottom floor of Lerner to the Broadway Room—said the wait was to be expected.
Becky McCoy, a graduate student at Teachers College, said she couldn’t complain about waiting in line for over two hours for her free vaccination.
“They’re doing absolutely everything they can to keep what should be a very chaotic thing organized,” she said.
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