Angela Jones
Campus Eye Staff
Students expect a lot out of their advisers, whether they need information on a class, discussing career options, declaring majors, transferring, personal conflicts, and more.
Student Government wants to make sure the college has the advising staff to meet those needs.
“The counselors here have many hats to wear,” said Student Government Vice President Kevin Parker.
According to Student Government President Tom Berg, in a national survey, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, students said they wanted more help navigating a path to their specific academic goals.
But sometimes getting an appointment with advisers, even for walk-in hours, is a challenge, Parker said.
Berg and Parker said Student Government is advocating for more advising resources, such as bringing in more counseling interns who may be able to better help students in their broad areas of need.
The counseling needs also tie in with the mental-health screening day which was held on campus in the previous semester Parker and Berg said.
Students might remember this as that one thing that took up the student center for the day that teachers were offering extra credit for and had the cookies to lure people in. The screenings were open to anyone who wanted to learn more about their state of mind and had apprehensions about anything from stress and depression to bipolar disorder or other mental concerns.
This event attracted more than 600 students. Within an hour the organizers ran out of surveys. The high level of attendance had highlighted an interest in the matter and close to 30 percent of the student responses revealed that going into personal counseling would be beneficial to them, Berg said.
“I personally know [the student’s] struggles from my own experience,” Student Government President Tom Berg said.
Student Government hopes to respond by bringing in other organizations such as NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), and Pacer, an organization for disability assistance, to make sure students are getting the help they need, Berg said.