A smattering of Skidmore students called on school officials today to boost mental health services by adding counselors, expanding a 24-7 hot line and providing walk-in support for students in “crisis situations.”
“We want to make sure that if you need help now, you can get help now,” said freshman Valerie Janovic, who organized and led a small rally on campus.
But Skidmore spokeswoman Debra Townsend said the school was already moving to expand mental health services, partnering with a company that will provide a 24-7 hot line for students to call for over-the-phone counseling starting this summer. And the school plans to bring a fifth counselor on staff as well.
“I think they are asking for four counselors; we will have five,” Townsend said.
The one point of contention seemed to be over the level of service that students having a stressful situation short of an actual emergency — like a panic attack — could access immediately. Janovic said she thinks that there should be open access to a crisis counselor for students who walk into the counseling center without an appointment.
Townsend said the college doesn’t have the resources to respond to every student panic attack and that the school “is not a mental health institute but is a higher education institute.” She said the school always responds to student emergencies.
“If it’s a life or death emergency or something that can’t wait, we will make sure they get help,” Townsend said.
The show of support for Janovic’s position was far from overwhelming as a small core of students with signs grew to just over a dozen at its largest. As the protestors tried to get other students to join their small but growing group, some students said they had to rush off to class or work on a paper but other students rejected their argument altogether.
“That is not true,” one of the students passing by said after Janovic told her that the counseling center makes students in crisis wait. “I had a crisis situation yesterday, and they got me in today.”
Janovic’s call to action was sparked after she had a mental breakdown. She said a counseling hot line wouldn’t talk to her because she “wasn’t suicidal” and that she couldn’t get into the counseling center for an appointment for two weeks. (School officials said the “protocol” is to get to all students within three or four days.)
“I wasn’t suicidal but it was definitely an emergency,” she said. “It was something that needed help then and not later.”
After two separate student deaths this school year, Skidmore extended its counseling center hours and brought in outside specialists to help the students as well provide opportunities for meditation and group counseling.
One of the students who did join in for the rally said she thinks the school can improve its mental health services, especially wait times to see a counselor. But she also said the college’s counselors did exceptional work.
“The counseling center has been absolutely invaluable,” Helen Gray-Bauer said. “Leaving the center I could feel a weight lifted off my chest.”
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