Des Moines Register, IA
04-28-07
Universities want more counselors
While the number of students seeking help is growing, fewer staffers and trained
faculty members are available.
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. - A deadly shooting spree at Virginia Tech last week has spurred
campus counselors at Iowa's public universities, which already have lower staff
levels than nationally recommended, to call for reinforcements at student
counseling centers.
They also want more training for faculty to recognize troubled students.
Counseling staffs face pressure because more students are seeking help in
Iowa, counseling directors say. Meanwhile, few schools require faculty members
to attend training on how to recognize troubled students - programming that has
been in place for residence hall staff for years.
"We are fearful of a perfect-storm scenario - a decrease in resources to
counseling services coupled with increases in demand and increases in severity
of conditions," said Sam Cochran, the University of Iowa's director of counseling
services. "Those three things getting together cause us to lose sleep at night."
The University of Northern Iowa has the lowest number of counselors per student
among the public universities in Iowa. The counseling center there employs five
counselors, meaning there is one counselor per every 2,400 students.
The International Association of Counseling Services recommends one full-timeequivalent professional staff member per every 1,000 to 1,500 students, a ratio
Iowa State University and the University of Iowa also fail to meet.
ISU employs 11 counselors, for a ratio of one per 2,300 students; the U of I
employs the equivalent of 15.75 at a ratio of one per 1,905 students, counseling
directors said.
Will more counselors prevent tragedies?
The three counseling centers are studying student demand to decide whether to
ask the Board of Regents for permission to hire more staff, said Terry Mason,
director of student counseling services at ISU.
"Even if they have adequate resources, we can't say a situation like (the Virginia
Tech shootings) can't happen," Mason said. "But what we can say in terms of
probability, if a counseling center is adequately staffed and funded, then the
probability of students hurting themselves or others decreases."
When counseling centers don't have an adequate number of staff members, they
must refer more students to other health services, which creates more potential
for them to fall through the cracks, Cochran said. The U of I counseling service
refers 20 percent to 25 percent of its clients to other agencies, he said.
National campus mental health advocates caution campus counselors against
using the Virigina Tech tragedy as a guide for change.
"I would hate to see a high-level reactivity to one event," said Joanna Locke,
program director with the Jed Foundation, an organization in New York that
works to prevent suicide and promote mental health among college students.
Increased staff is "one of those things people assume will fix everything, when
that's not always the case," Locke said. "For some schools it might be broader
public health issues that can have an impact."
The Jed Foundation advocates campus-wide approaches to identifying students
at risk, rather than approaches solely focused at counseling centers. It suggests
that campuses offer to train faculty and staff to recognize and refer distressed
students.
Need for training of faculty, staff
Iowa's public universities require training for residence hall staff, but not for
faculty, instead offering help on identifying troubled students if a department
requests it.
Drake University, which was sued in 2001 by the family of student who
committed suicide in a Drake dormitory, began what will be an annual workshop
for new faculty to help recognize signs of a student in crisis, said Dee Wright,
director of the counseling center at Drake.
Connie Brooks of Norwalk is among those pushing for more action at universities
to deal with mentally ill students who could be a threat to others.
Brooks, 47, formerly taught night classes in public policy at Drake University. As
she watched the television coverage of Virginia Tech, she said one particular
run-in with a student kept playing through her mind.
A student who had argued with her during a night class followed her up to her
office, which she locked, she said.
"He came after me, pounding on my door to get in," Brooks said. She said the
experience was so terrifying that she started carrying pepper spray.
"I'm very sensitive to mental health issues," she said. "But if there's an incident,
and this person comes to light and you find out about mental health issues, then I
believe they have the responsibility to protect the rest of the community."
Universities must strike a careful balance when staff members try to detect a
student who is dangerous, said Cochran, at the U of I.
"There are scary people on campus, but I do think the climate in higher education
may tolerate a little wider range of personal expression and eccentricity than
some other settings might," he said. "A person that likes to cloak themselves in a
long dark cloak and sunglasses and not interact with anyone and read morbid
books would not be employable in most settings, but we see them every day on
campus."
Also, counselors have little information on what type of characteristics lead to
violent behavior, said David Towle, the director of the counseling center and
student disabilities services at the University of Northern Iowa.
"I think that we're attempting to develop better instruments, but there's a limit to
how good we can get at predicting violent behavior," Towle said. "It's such an
infrequent occurrence. It's difficult to establish profiles or criteria that predict
violent behavior."
Parents of mentally ill students have mixed feelings on how deeply universities
should be involved with identifying symptoms of mental illness.
Carl Mize, a professor of forestry at ISU, has a son who has battled
schizophrenia for years. His son was 19 in his first semester at the University of
Iowa when he went into his house and wouldn't leave, a clear sign that he
needed help, Mize said.
"In retrospect, it would be nice if someone would have come up and said,
'There's clear indications he has serious problems.' Maybe early treatment would
have helped," said Mize, who said his son has fought the disease ever since.
But he said he understands the challenges universities face when it comes to
intruding into students' lives and taking responsibility for what they do.
"Universities do what they are legally required to," he said. "At least I'm sure they
try to."