by Molly Szymanski

This story was updated on Nov. 24 at 4:54 PM.

After dealing with the effects of the pandemic for over a year and returning to classes in-person, many students sought help from the Counseling Center on campus. Many, however, were unable to receive services.

The Counseling Center offers both individual and group therapy sessions for students seeking help with mental health. 

Group sessions range in focuses from general therapy to depression and anxiety to specific demographics like minorities and international students, yet only one group meets after 4 p.m. All the other groups meet between 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays only. Individual counseling sessions can only take place between 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Thursday.

The only time students can contact the Counseling Center to schedule appointments are during its business hours — 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, according to its website — a time when many students are in class or doing homework.

Even if they find the time to call, it’s difficult to get a hold of a staff member.

“I called during the hours and was put on hold for half an hour,” sophomore psychology major Aashri Sadu said. “As a resource for students who have classes all day and rarely have time for a long phone call, [the hours] aren’t ideal.”

Sadu reached out to the Counseling Center this semester to set up an intake appointment for therapy services. She said it was hard to get an appointment over the phone so she visited it in-person but was told that all spaces for intake appointments were booked for the next few weeks.

“The staff were super nice when I went into the physical building, but it was still hard to find a time to physically sit down with one of the counselors. I don’t blame them at all, they’re very overwhelmed, but it’s still terrible to hear that you can only really talk about your anxiety a month from now,” she said. 

Freshman public policy major Jules Dugan found herself struggling with mental health and attempted to make an emergency appointment at the Counseling Center, but was met with a similar response to Sadu— she would have to wait at least three weeks, despite the urgency of her request.

Dugan said she was at her wits end with the center’s incompetence, so she started a group called Students for Mental Health Action with her roommate, freshman government and politics major Kaelyn Roney.

“Without family members around for help, a student can feel like they don’t have a trusted person to talk to. Add in the stress of dealing with classes and social pressure, and college can be a place that many find difficult to navigate,” Roney said.

To help these students facing mental health struggles, Students for Mental Health Action stresses the importance of accessible hours, appointments, and more therapists on hand.

The Counseling Center is trying to accommodate students’ concerns, director Dr. Chetan Joshi said in a statement. It offers extended hours, a crisis hotline and a network of private providers for students who aren’t available during the center’s hours as resources, he added.

“We understand that these are challenging times and want to assure you that the Counseling Center is working diligently to accommodate the mental health treatment and support related needs of our students,” Joshi wrote.