Finding a helping hand isn’t always easy for students, which is why the MSU Counseling Center is extending its reach further than it has in previous years. Before fall, appointments to see a counselor could take up to a few weeks to make.
Agriscience senior Danny Herriges called for an appointment last spring and was told he could see a counselor within a few days.
“They gave me the typical, ‘See us at this time’ deal,” Herriges said. A revolving door of directors made it difficult to get students in, and scheduling far ahead caused some students not to show up, said David Novicki, a professional counselor at the center.
“The last director that had been here for four or five years left, then we had a director who lasted for about a year and an interim director who lasted about a year,” Novicki said. “Administratively, the unit was up in the air in terms of assuming a direction.”
A new outlook
Things started to change in July when the center hired a new director, Jan Collins-Eaglin. She plans to stay for more than a year.
Once Collins-Eaglin took her post, she began implementing new practices to make the center more efficient, Novicki said.
Picking up the phone or walking into the office now constitutes an appointment.
“When a student calls, they’re able to talk to or see a counselor immediately,” Collins-Eaglin said. “Then you have an initial discussion and meeting with a counselor.”
Students are given a choice of what kind of counselor they would prefer to meet with.
“If you want to see a male, a female, (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) counselors, counselors with expertise in alcohol or substance abuse — we try to tailor our offerings to the students’ needs,” Collins-Eaglin said.
Chris Matus, a social relations and policy and English senior, and former State News columnist, decided to utilize the center when he first came to MSU.
“I had a hard time transitioning from high school into an environment with so many different students,” Matus said. “It was really overwhelming coming to MSU and feeling faceless.”
Having another person to talk to really helped put things in perspective, he said.
“I didn’t want to talk to my friends because I didn’t want them to be like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’” Matus said. “I found it really helpful, simply because they helped guide me and see things weren’t as overwhelming as I thought they were.”
Short staffed
The center is not without its woes.
According to the International Association of Counseling Services Inc., the organization in charge of accreditation standards for university and college counseling centers, the ratio of full-time clinical staff should be one per 1,000 to 1,500 students.
The MSU Counseling Center has 16 full-time staff members, made up of professionally licensed counselors, psychologists and social workers, for 46,045 students.
Using these standards, MSU should have almost double the current staff.
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“We need more counselors — we’re a little low,” Collins-Eaglin said. “In terms of our programs, we’re absolutely on par.”
The diverse selection of workshops, seminars and counseling is more than adequate even with a low counselor-to-student ratio, since the center only sees about 5 percent of the student body, she said.
And MSU isn’t the only Big Ten school experiencing a lack of counseling staff.
At Purdue University, the student Counseling and Psychological Services, or CAPS, has seven professional staff members for about 39,000 students.
“We are understaffed by any standards,” said Becky Wong, the coordinator of clinical services at Purdue’s CAPS.
“There are actual standards, and we are very under.”
Compared to MSU’s student body, the University of Wisconsin has almost 5,000 fewer students and 28 full-time staff members at its University Health Services.
The department also considers itself understaffed.
“There’s a thing among the counseling group that we’re really interested in the increasing intensity of college concerns on campus,” said Robert McGrath, director of health services at Wisconsin.
“We’re feeling a little pressed right now.”
Financial hardship
Monetary problems are the main reason for the lack of clinical staff at the MSU Counseling Center, Collins-Eaglin said.
The center had $100,000 more in its budget five years ago. It operates with a $1.7 million budget today.
“A lot of it is funding,” Novicki said. “Student mental health isn’t always a bigger issue. Money goes into the Cyclotron versus someone’s mental health.”
Office of Planning and Budgets Assistant Director Richard Geiersbach said the office allocates more funds to major administrative units, such as academic programs and colleges.
“We’ve tried to support the teaching and the students,” Geiersbach said. “We’ve had a period of constrained budgets, and some things had to be constrained and had a lower rate of increase.
“The Counseling Center seems to be one of those.”
Discussions are planned to possibly help the center receive more funding.
It recently applied for a major federal fund, which would be put toward mental health services, Novicki said.
With a squeezed budget and low counselor ratio, the center prides itself on its enhanced ability to get students in precisely when they need help.
“We’re trying to work to increase (the number of students) who come in,” Collins-Eaglin said. “We really want to educate about mental health, that it’s not a bad thing and to destigmatize (it).”
