This article was changed to distinguish between the new student government organization and student representatives in Senate.
Funds gathered via Otterbein’s 2014-2015 student life fee are being utilized to reform the counseling services and to create, promote and run the new Student Senate.
The fee, which was first charged to students in this academic year, costs undergraduate students $100 per semester. Half of the fee goes to campus organizations such as clubs and Greek Life while the other half goes to counseling services for students.
Collette Masterson, associate director of the center for student involvement and adviser of the new student government, said that the funds gathered from this year’s fee were used for many expenses involved with setting up the organization.
“The PR campaign regarding ‘Can Cardly wait’ as well as the resources that we’re able to put on the election’s campaign processes which would be typically funded through the fee in the future but also it’s been used to help us think about how we’re using the fee before we create the policies and resources that will help us out in order to create a student organization starting next year.” Masterson said.
Masterson said the funds were also used to pay for students to attend a conference on student governance.
After the new governance model is officially in session, the allocations committee, which will consist of student senators with one faculty senator and one staff senator, will determine how funds are distributed. Groups can request funding, which will be rewarded based on factors such as how efficiently they will be spending the funds and overall contribution to the student body.
Dr. Kathleen Ryan, director of the counseling center, said that the funds directed toward the counseling center have been used to start the development of the planned counseling center.
Otterbein’s counseling services were carried out exclusively by contracted psychologists last year. Otterbein hired Dr. Ryan to direct the counseling center and provide dedicated services at the beginning of the year.
The former limit of three counseling sessions was officially increased to five. However, Dr. Ryan said there is some flexibility in the number of sessions and some students are able to attend more if they need extra sessions.
The center has also added emergency hours to benefit students in need of help.
“One of the things we’ve done is we’ve added a daily time at 4 PM for any kind of urgent or emergency evaluation. A student can come in, it helps if they call in advance but they don’t need to call in advance. so that a student can be seen any day of the week. If a student is coming about an issue that’s not pressing, then we’ll try to schedule them within that week or the next week,” Dr. Ryan said. “They’re being used, so it must be helpful.”
The counseling center is still in the process of developing, as a result, there has been no significant marketing campaign to increase awareness of the services. Dr. Ryan said the center plans to add another full-time employee this summer.
