1969: Nurses Staff the First Student Health Center

Charlotte McElroth and Eleanor Long were two of the first Capitol Campus nurses in 1969.

The first student health services center was in the Olmsted building, but by fall 1971 the college moved the facility out of Olmsted because it didn’t provide students with enough space and privacy to consult with nurses and physicians. Today it’s housed in the Wellness Center in the Capitol Union Building.

In 1969 and the 1970s, nurses not only worked on campus, but also worked overtime at events like the Harrisburg Rock Festivals and volunteered at the Flood Relief Center on campus in 1972.

When the college first offered student health services, students appreciated this on-campus service, but in a 1971 Capitolist newspaper article, one student asked, “Why is it we don’t have a nurse at prime hours, 1:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.? That’s when everything happens.” Capitol Campus did, eventually, hire a night nurse.

Nurse Long graduated in 1954 from the Lankenau Hospital School of Nursing and then worked as an R.N. at the Elizabethtown State Hospital for Crippled Children before joining the staff at Capitol Campus. Additional information about McElroth is not currently available in the College History Archive.