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Mental Health Trouble At USF

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 9, 2008

Updated: 03/08/2008 11:23 pm

TAMPA - Since the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech last year, many more faculty members and others have called the University of South Florida counseling center to alert its staff to troubled students.

But there still aren't enough counselors to meet the growing mental health needs of the university's 45,000 students on all of its campuses.

Florida's entire university system suffers from a lack of counselors, but state officials noted recently that the need is particularly acute at USF.

The ratio of counselors to students at USF is about 1 to 3,500, whereas the national average is about 1 to 2,000. The average in Florida's public university system is 1 to 2,600.

While the need for counseling services at USF has grown sharply, the counseling center's budget has flattened. Counselors have seen a nearly 50 percent increase in students seeking one-on-one counseling in the past seven years. But in that time, because of budget cuts, the center has lost one full-time counselor and two graduate assistants.

Only two of the state's 11 public universities have ratios better than the national average. A state committee formed in the wake of Virginia Tech said recently that hiring more counselors must be a priority.

In the past year, USF has spent $75,000 to contract with a few counselors outside the university to provide about 30 additional hours of counseling to students each week, said Tracy Tyree, USF's associate vice president for student affairs. That has trimmed the average wait time to see a counselor from as long as four weeks to about two weeks.

The ideal wait, however, is closer to one week, Tyree said, which would require more full-time psychologists, not just part-time counselors. That won't be easy. The state mental health committee, formed last year by the university system's Board of Governors, said that universities must seek additional money. That funding, however, depends on the largesse of the Legislature, which is weighing how to close a budget shortfall expected to top $2.5 billion this year and next.

Trying To Raise Money

One way to raise money, the committee suggested, is to lift the cap on university health fees. The Legislature caps fee increases at 5 percent a year. University leaders say that doesn't allow their schools to keep up with spiking health care costs.

It wouldn't cost students much to hire just one counselor, said Dale Hicks, the associate director of USF's counseling center. If the university imposed an extra $2 per year on each of the Tampa campus' 38,000 students, it would easily cover the salary and benefits of a psychologist, Hicks said.

"That would allow us to do more preventive work in the community," he said.

Just one counselor, however, won't be enough, state officials say. The International Association of Counseling Services recommends a student-to-counselor ratio of 1 to 1,500 students, which is even lower than the national average. For USF to reach that mark, it would have to hire 22 more counselors for all of its campuses, according to the committee's report.

With USF considering more than $50 million in budget cuts, there is little likelihood of reaching that mark soon.

"The budget constraints are just killing the whole university, and that's certainly hurting us," Hicks said.

In The Wake Of Shootings

One public university in Florida has reached the international association's recommendation: New College of Florida, the state's smallest university. Only one other has a ratio better than the national average: the University of Florida, which has one counselor for every 1,700 students, according to the state committee's report.

Although last month's shooting at Northern Illinois University may be foremost in the minds of the public, it was the Virginia Tech incident that set off calls for change. Last April, Florida's university system asked the Legislature for $3.5 million to hire more police officers and psychologists after a Virginia Tech student with a history of mental health problems killed 32 people before taking his own life. Legislators didn't fulfill that request.

Since then, USF's counseling center has received more calls from faculty members and other workers about troubled students who they thought needed help from counselors, Hicks said. Other students have called to report the same of friends and roommates.

Hicks said that one thing the university hasn't adopted since Virginia Tech is a policy that removes severely troubled students from campus.

After Virginia Tech, university system Chancellor Mark Rosenberg urged a policy of "involuntary medical dismissal" of students who pose a clear and imminent threat to others. Five public universities in Florida have such a policy.

USF discussed the policy, which many consider controversial, but never put one in place, Hicks said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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