![]() ![]() Ross and his family - “my girls,” he called them - moved here before Mardi Gras. His dissertation work focused on privacy in telehealth. He earned a master’s degree in public administration from UCF and last week, he finished a doctorate in health administration from the Medical University of South Carolina. Students involved with Campus Health through Tulane Emergency Medical Services and Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education spoke with finalists too. Porter and Campus Health staff led a committee that chose him out of three final candidates, all of whom visited campus last November. Porter described Ross as approachable, nurturing and caring. He hopes any students he sees pass by his first floor Willow Street office would feel comfortable bringing him concerns. ![]() “People look in and wave at me all throughout the day,” Ross said. It is symbolic of his philosophy: Be accessible. To understand Ross, it is important to know that he keeps his blinds open. “All this points to the fact that health and wellness of our students - it’s just paramount.” “We’re living in this era where health and wellness is all around us all the time,” Porter said, citing the pandemic, mental health and the reversal of Roe v. He also hopes to hire more students in Campus Health internships. Campus Health will likely expand virtual appointments to the Counseling Center this year. He is aiming to lower appointment wait times through telehealth, which allows students who cannot be seen the same day in person to quickly meet a physician online. “This is a time in which students just want more options,” Ross said. īut Ross said he is excited to join Tulane and took the job in part because he felt it would let him play a “critical role” in improving student healthcare here. Many Campus Health staff are so new that they do not yet have pictures on online bios. Tulane competes for those hires with other big healthcare chains like Louisiana Children’s Medical Center, which purchased Tulane’s three area hospitals in October. ![]() Campus Health needs to hire two directors and fill eight roles that remain open. He is not naive about Tulane’s challenges. He has a list of 10 student organizations to talk to and has already met with the Graduate and Professional Student Association and Tulane University Peer Health Educators. He plans to visit the recreation center to chat with students soon, too. He visited the Counseling Center unannounced to meet therapists who were not in sessions. After his job orientation, he explored campus. “In order to meet your needs, why not ask you?” And nearly two months into the job, Ross said it again and again: the focus is on students. “We gravitated toward him because he was very student-centered,” Student Affairs Vice President Dusty Porter said. And he will help unite Tulane Campus Recreation under the wing of Campus Health. His staff will study patient surveys, follow up with students and look for patterns in responses. He will hire a medical director and a director of The Well for Health Promotion, a student health programming service. Ross will direct a few main changes in his first year, some recommended by a consulting group Tulane hired to improve Campus Health last April. And Ross visited campus for the first time last fall. Tulane hired a new Counseling Center director in October. Two senior Campus Health leaders stepped down last spring. Those who stayed took on more work until it became unbearable, and they resigned too. It became a troubling cycle employees left, they said, because tensions with former department leadership hit a breaking point. More than a dozen staff members quit amid heavy caseloads and allegations of a toxic, abusive workplace. Ross steps into the new role shadowed by the turmoil that engulfed Campus Health over a year ago. “That’s what keeps me motivated, keeps me moving forward. His main focus: “Students, students, students,” Ross said last week. It is all a stark, crucial challenge for Caesar Ross, who took over Tulane University’s Campus Health department this February after leading Coastal Carolina University’s health center for 17 years. More than half of college students endure at least one mental health problem. Demand in university counseling centers has soared. One in five young adults suffer from depression. (Courtesy of Caesar Ross)Īt colleges everywhere, the issue is urgent.Ī mental health crisis is gripping campuses. Caesar Ross, Campus Health’s new assistant vice president, joined Tulane after 17 years in a similar role at Coastal Carolina University. ![]()
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