Assistant Director of the Counseling Center Denise Litterer addressed the Undergraduate Student Government at its Monday meeting.
She gave a general overview of the University counseling center and answered questions from USG.
The counseling center, which is located in college park behind Falcon Heights, has walk-in hours from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, Litterer said.
“That is the way we find is fastest,” she said.
Much of Litterer’s time was spent addressing concerns with the counseling center’s budget. According to a handout passed around during the meeting, the counseling center’s budget in 2014 was a projected $728,202.
Most of that comes from student fees and the educational and general fund. Litterer said roughly 95 percent of the budget goes to paying staff.
Litterer said the counseling center would like to add more support staff but, “in general, however, we’re not planning any significant increases in our budget.”
“We don’t perceive that, however I think we want to stay creative in how we fund our services,” she said.
The counseling center generally conducts a preliminary meeting with students, and then decides on a course of treatment from there. The center’s staff consists of six licensed psychologists, two professional counselors, a part-time licensed social worker and a case manager trained as a public health administrator.
Litterer said the number of students who use the center has increased in the past decade. From July 1, 2014, through February 25, 2015, there were 1248 total clients, roughly on par with the previous two years.
Litterer said she encourages USG to inform constituents about the center, to try to take the negative connotation there.
“Even though the stigma’s better, it’s still there,” she said.
USG Speaker Kasie Durkit said a resolution to change the structure of the USG committee system will be introduced next week.
The resolution calls for the termination of the auxiliary affairs committee with an “Undergraduate Student Affairs” committee.
“We found that auxiliary is not as focused as we’d like it to be,” Durkit said after the meeting.
The new committee would be more flexible, with the ability to have subcommittees focused on specific areas created and discontinued by whoever would be the speaker at the time.
“I think good work is done in committee,” Durkit said. “It’s [just] kind of vague, kind of hazy.”
During his executive report, USG President Brian Kochheiser said his recent trip to Interuniversity Day in Columbus to discuss university funding models with state legislators was a success.
