The university officials confirmed today that they are keeping our counseling services in house. This was a long and draining fight but our refusal to back down forced them to listen. Keep watching to ensure they actually follow through on this promise.
July 5, 2021
Final supporters
April 2021
Cleveland State University
To: President Sands, Vice President Forrest Faison, Vice President Shannon Greybar Milliken, and the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees
Re: Outsourcing CSU Health & Wellness and Counseling Center Services
We believe in the university’s mission to empower students, create knowledge, engage communities, and shape the world, and are jointly petitioning against the outsourcing of student wellness services on campus and for retaining our well-established Health & Wellness and Counseling Center Services. Our concerns are that outsourcing these services attacks the values of Cleveland State University and undermines what students hold most dear:
Relevance and Community Engagement: Just weeks ago, the Counseling Center spearheaded a Mental Health Awareness week that reached thousands of students and community members. Because the center is funded and supported by staff and faculty, they were able to connect with multiple departments on campus and in the city, modeling for us what being active citizens who work creatively can do. The Counseling Center’s actions not only brought in donations from the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio and Trinity Cathedral for this project, but also strengthened partnerships with those institutions on CSU’s doorstep, drawing positive media attention for the university.
Accessibility, Affordability, and Inclusive Excellence: By outsourcing student health care, the quality of triaging students who need assistance is lost, and the accessibility of students who do not or cannot utilize insurance plans is diminished. The CSU Counseling Center not only provides free access to care, but is able to see students in a timely manner. In addition to this, the Counseling Center works closely with numerous university groups (LGBTQ+ Student Services, Office of Disability Services, CASC, Peer Education, the CARE Team, academic advisors, and more) to ensure that diversity at this institution is maintained through collaborative efforts for all students. Underrepresented students, students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and first-generation students who already experience increased barriers to support will be particularly affected by efforts to outsource care. In 2019-2020, the Counseling Center service statistics show that 33% of clients were first generation students, 30% were LGBTQ students, and 36% were racial/ethnic minority students. Outsourcing wellness services would create additional barriers to care and is not a step in the right direction for ‘putting students first.’
Fiscal Responsibility and Responsiveness: The number of students seen at the CSU Counseling Center has increased approximately 10% every year for the past five years though no additional staffing has been provided. The needs are vast, and the quality of services are imperative. Outsourcing services would also eliminate current training and prevention programming. The CSU Counseling Center trains counseling psychology doctoral students, has graduate assistantship training opportunities, and offers an APA-accredited internship for two interns each year. They also received a $300,000 three-year Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant to help prevent and address suicide on campus.
Accountability: Because there has been no collaborative effort with the current Counseling Center staff nor relevant faculty and students, and because this change is happening without public knowledge, we question that CSU administration is being responsible with this decision and their actions.
Freedom of Expression: We utilize our right to freedom of expression and appreciate that this is a value of CSU. We ask that you champion our right to freely communicate by honoring our request and maintaining student-centered wellness services on campus.
As a community, we demand that administrators at Cleveland State University reprioritize investing into student well-being in a way that is student-centered. The intention to dismantle well-established Health & Wellness and Counseling Center Services and outsource these services in a time of global pandemic, continued racial injustices, and political tension is unwise and diverges from current best practices. In a 2020 study, the American Psychological Association acknowledged a national mental health crisis which has impacted adult mental health significantly; More so, 87% of college students endorsed significant academic distress and noted there is not enough support in these trying times (APA, 2020). While outsourcing wellness services at any point seems to be a disservice to students, outsourcing these services now could be particularly damaging. While other universities are calling students in by bolstering their already-established wellness services both through funding and programming (Case Western Reserve, Kent State, UNC-Charlotte, and University of San Diego to name a few), CSU is looking to outsource these services to a company that will not be able to personalize student wellness nor allow trusting access to care. Outsourcing wellness services would be a great loss to students in so many ways.
If Cleveland State University is genuinely seeking to be an “Anchor and Beacon Institution” who puts “Students First,” then outsourcing student wellness services is directly misaligned with that goal. We are asking President Sands and administrators to please reconsider the outsourcing of student wellness services. Ultimately, as students we want to make CSU and the greater Cleveland community proud, and we are asking for student-driven support along our educational journeys.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to more collaborative conversations in the near future.
Updates
April 21, 2021
Reaching this level of visibility feels like a small victory in a very long fight. I am exhausted by the constant uphill battle against these administrative decisions but your persistence forces me to keep pushing forward.
Reached 100 supporters
April 21, 2021
24 Comments
The counseling center is a necessary resource for students. Mental Healthcare is scarce at best and having it readily availible to one of the most at-risk populations for suicide (college students) is necessary to ensure our health. The decision to outsource it will cause immeasurable damage.
As someone who is seeing the impact of this firsthand, I assure everyone that this is a huge mistake for Cleveland State University. Outsourcing of mental health services will significantly impact quality of care as well as access to care. The worst part is that the university is attempting to keep this “hush hush” and not inform students about how this will impact their ability to receive mental health services. A FEE THAT IS ALREADY INCLUDED IN THEIR TUITION WITH THE EXPECTATION TO PAY MORE. Don’t forget the attempt to also do this in the midst of a global pandemic. Cleveland State doesn’t care about students. They care about profit.
Taking away the free counseling center is worst than damaging, it’s detrimental to students. I’ve utilized this service multiple times over my last three years here at CSU, and I can confidently say that if I hadn’t used this service, there would have been a “crisis” that staff and faculty at CSU would’ve had to handle. Taking away this service will mean many more “crises” on CSU’s hands, something that is completely unavoidable.
Students at CSU are the focus of the university and access to quality wellness services should remain an integral part of the university. Having access in-house managed wellness resources are a positive asset for universities.
These services are absolutely important for CSU students. There is a high incidence of suicide within first years college students. Adjustment and many other reasons are to justify the need of counseling and wellness services accessible to college students. International and out of state students need to have accessible services that are impossible for them to access out of CSU.
If you are unable to find the budget to provide free counseling services when your students are paying 8/k a semester, something is wrong.
Service for students from an University counseling center is different service made available to students from an organization outside university campus. Please reconsider the decision.
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The university officials confirmed today that they are keeping our counseling services in house. This was a long and draining fight but our refusal to back down forced them to listen. Keep watching to ensure they actually follow through on this promise.
July 5, 2021
Final supporters
April 2021
Cleveland State University
To: President Sands, Vice President Forrest Faison, Vice President Shannon Greybar Milliken, and the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees
Re: Outsourcing CSU Health & Wellness and Counseling Center Services
We believe in the university’s mission to empower students, create knowledge, engage communities, and shape the world, and are jointly petitioning against the outsourcing of student wellness services on campus and for retaining our well-established Health & Wellness and Counseling Center Services. Our concerns are that outsourcing these services attacks the values of Cleveland State University and undermines what students hold most dear:
Relevance and Community Engagement: Just weeks ago, the Counseling Center spearheaded a Mental Health Awareness week that reached thousands of students and community members. Because the center is funded and supported by staff and faculty, they were able to connect with multiple departments on campus and in the city, modeling for us what being active citizens who work creatively can do. The Counseling Center’s actions not only brought in donations from the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio and Trinity Cathedral for this project, but also strengthened partnerships with those institutions on CSU’s doorstep, drawing positive media attention for the university.
Accessibility, Affordability, and Inclusive Excellence: By outsourcing student health care, the quality of triaging students who need assistance is lost, and the accessibility of students who do not or cannot utilize insurance plans is diminished. The CSU Counseling Center not only provides free access to care, but is able to see students in a timely manner. In addition to this, the Counseling Center works closely with numerous university groups (LGBTQ+ Student Services, Office of Disability Services, CASC, Peer Education, the CARE Team, academic advisors, and more) to ensure that diversity at this institution is maintained through collaborative efforts for all students. Underrepresented students, students of color, LGBTQ+ students, and first-generation students who already experience increased barriers to support will be particularly affected by efforts to outsource care. In 2019-2020, the Counseling Center service statistics show that 33% of clients were first generation students, 30% were LGBTQ students, and 36% were racial/ethnic minority students. Outsourcing wellness services would create additional barriers to care and is not a step in the right direction for ‘putting students first.’
Fiscal Responsibility and Responsiveness: The number of students seen at the CSU Counseling Center has increased approximately 10% every year for the past five years though no additional staffing has been provided. The needs are vast, and the quality of services are imperative. Outsourcing services would also eliminate current training and prevention programming. The CSU Counseling Center trains counseling psychology doctoral students, has graduate assistantship training opportunities, and offers an APA-accredited internship for two interns each year. They also received a $300,000 three-year Garrett Lee Smith Campus Suicide Prevention Grant to help prevent and address suicide on campus.
Accountability: Because there has been no collaborative effort with the current Counseling Center staff nor relevant faculty and students, and because this change is happening without public knowledge, we question that CSU administration is being responsible with this decision and their actions.
Freedom of Expression: We utilize our right to freedom of expression and appreciate that this is a value of CSU. We ask that you champion our right to freely communicate by honoring our request and maintaining student-centered wellness services on campus.
As a community, we demand that administrators at Cleveland State University reprioritize investing into student well-being in a way that is student-centered. The intention to dismantle well-established Health & Wellness and Counseling Center Services and outsource these services in a time of global pandemic, continued racial injustices, and political tension is unwise and diverges from current best practices. In a 2020 study, the American Psychological Association acknowledged a national mental health crisis which has impacted adult mental health significantly; More so, 87% of college students endorsed significant academic distress and noted there is not enough support in these trying times (APA, 2020). While outsourcing wellness services at any point seems to be a disservice to students, outsourcing these services now could be particularly damaging. While other universities are calling students in by bolstering their already-established wellness services both through funding and programming (Case Western Reserve, Kent State, UNC-Charlotte, and University of San Diego to name a few), CSU is looking to outsource these services to a company that will not be able to personalize student wellness nor allow trusting access to care. Outsourcing wellness services would be a great loss to students in so many ways.
If Cleveland State University is genuinely seeking to be an “Anchor and Beacon Institution” who puts “Students First,” then outsourcing student wellness services is directly misaligned with that goal. We are asking President Sands and administrators to please reconsider the outsourcing of student wellness services. Ultimately, as students we want to make CSU and the greater Cleveland community proud, and we are asking for student-driven support along our educational journeys.
Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to more collaborative conversations in the near future.
Updates
April 21, 2021
Reaching this level of visibility feels like a small victory in a very long fight. I am exhausted by the constant uphill battle against these administrative decisions but your persistence forces me to keep pushing forward.
Reached 100 supporters
April 21, 2021
24 Comments
Access to mental health care is vital to so many student who would otherwise be unable to receive care. The loss of the CSUCC to an outside organization would not just be damaging to the campus community and the other organizations it works with, but to these students who will never receive care because of inability to pay. CSU, this is the wrong choice.
The counseling center is a necessary resource for students. Mental Healthcare is scarce at best and having it readily availible to one of the most at-risk populations for suicide (college students) is necessary to ensure our health. The decision to outsource it will cause immeasurable damage.
As someone who is seeing the impact of this firsthand, I assure everyone that this is a huge mistake for Cleveland State University. Outsourcing of mental health services will significantly impact quality of care as well as access to care. The worst part is that the university is attempting to keep this “hush hush” and not inform students about how this will impact their ability to receive mental health services. A FEE THAT IS ALREADY INCLUDED IN THEIR TUITION WITH THE EXPECTATION TO PAY MORE. Don’t forget the attempt to also do this in the midst of a global pandemic. Cleveland State doesn’t care about students. They care about profit.
Taking away the free counseling center is worst than damaging, it’s detrimental to students. I’ve utilized this service multiple times over my last three years here at CSU, and I can confidently say that if I hadn’t used this service, there would have been a “crisis” that staff and faculty at CSU would’ve had to handle. Taking away this service will mean many more “crises” on CSU’s hands, something that is completely unavoidable.
Students at CSU are the focus of the university and access to quality wellness services should remain an integral part of the university. Having access in-house managed wellness resources are a positive asset for universities.
These services are absolutely important for CSU students. There is a high incidence of suicide within first years college students. Adjustment and many other reasons are to justify the need of counseling and wellness services accessible to college students. International and out of state students need to have accessible services that are impossible for them to access out of CSU.
If you are unable to find the budget to provide free counseling services when your students are paying 8/k a semester, something is wrong.
Service for students from an University counseling center is different service made available to students from an organization outside university campus. Please reconsider the decision.
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Access to mental health care is vital to so many student who would otherwise be unable to receive care. The loss of the CSUCC to an outside organization would not just be damaging to the campus community and the other organizations it works with, but to these students who will never receive care because of inability to pay. CSU, this is the wrong choice.