UI Counseling Service to get much needed funding after UISG, GPSG pass resolution.
By Bill Cooney
An increase in funding to hire additional mental-health counselors on campus has found support among two student groups.
At its meeting Tuesday night, the Graduate and Professional Student Government passed a resolution to increase student fees by $6.25 per student per semester to be given to the student-health fund to hire two more mental-health counselors.
The UI ranks dead last in the Big Ten in the number of health counselors, and it does not meet national accreditation standards with its current ratio of one staff member for every 2,750 students, University Counseling Service Director Barry Schreier said.
“Looking at both of those benchmarks, we realized that UI counseling was understaffed,” Schreier said. “As soon as the resources become available, we’ll be hiring more staff to fill these spaces.”
According to the resolution, the UI administration will also provide funding for four additional counselors out of the general fund, and UI Housing and Dining will provide funding for another two. This will allow eight new counselors to be hired, bringing the total number of full-time mental health counselors at the UI up to 20.
The two counselors provided by Housing and Dining will be located in the residence halls. However, officials have not decided yet which residence halls.
GPSG President Josh Schoenfeld said the resolution would bring the UI a lot closer to the recommended student-to-counselor ratio.
“It’s a small price to pay to help out our peers,” Schoenfeld said. “Because it’s a student fee, if the undergraduate population increases as they predict it to, the amount Counseling Service will receive will increase as well.”
GPSG’s decision comes a week after the UI Student Government also passed the resolution at its last meeting of the academic year. Now, the state Board of Regents and UI administration will look over the resolution and decide whether to implement it before the start of the 2016 fall semester.
UISG President Liz Mills said the resolution was something the student government had been working on for a while.
“After learning Iowa was ranked last in counselor to student ratio in the Big Ten, student government knew we had to do something to address this,” Mills said. “UISG, GPSG, and the administration have been working together since the beginning on this.”
Schreier said he hopes the resolution allows the Counseling Service to cut down on the number of single sessions and referrals that occur because of inadequate staffing.
“We have a lot of outcome research that says when students come in for counseling, it works, they get better,” he said. “My hope is we’ll be able to staff so we can see students when they need to be seen.”
