Just over a year ago, The Alligator reported on a fateful meeting in which Student Government officials voted against a proposal to provide permanent funding for new counselors at the Counseling and Wellness Center, igniting a conflagration of student outcry.
I didn’t take the decision well and wrote a letter to the editor lambasting the decision entitled “SG kills mental health funding: A travesty of priorities.” I expressed my agitated feelings and it seemed that many others felt the same way, responding to my call to come down and share their stories at the next Student Senate meeting.
I burned a lot of bridges. The Student Body President at the time came down to Senate and pointed out “inaccuracies” in my letter, but after I debated with him, we all realized that his reading comprehension wasn’t that great and he was grasping at technicalities.
One of the members on the local fee committee criticized me for not reading up on the “publicly available minutes,” but as it turned out, the minutes for the meeting were never published. Awkward.
The SG officials on the committee opted to redirect funding from elsewhere to the CWC by working with UF’s Chief Financial Officer, but they failed. (And y’all really think they were involved with expanding Bright Futures? They couldn’t lobby a squirrel to climb a tree.)
When the dust settled, our university administration ultimately provided the funding. SG played the rat race for credit, banking on the fact that, at the end of the day, we got the funding without having to raise fees.
But here we are again, a year later. Students are still telling their stories about how they face difficulties getting the help they need at the CWC. My friends have given up on getting help from the CWC and now scour the outside community for counselors. Unable to get regular sessions with counselors, they have ended up in group therapy.
Some of you may have seen a petition circling around on Facebook, advocating for increased funding for the CWC. The author is in the process of medically withdrawing from classes.
The CWC is doing what it can. I know it is hiring folks, but if it has a proposal in for this year’s local fee committee meetings, it means it needs more help.
Here’s how it will go. Likely within the next month, the CWC and other campus entities will submit fee proposals. Last year, the CWC wanted to raise the health fee by 71 cents per credit hour.
Multiply that per credit amount by the number of credit hours you are taking, and you will figure out how much more per semester you’ll pay. Seventy-one cents per credit hour multiplied by the 13 credit hours I’m taking would mean an additional 9.23 dollars per semester I will pay if the increase goes into effect.
Note that there are a lot of big “ifs” upcoming: I have not confirmed if the CWC has submitted a proposal, and the amount of the increase would have a big impact on its palatability with the Student Body. Additionally, even if the local fee committee does approve any increases, it is simply the first step before going to the university president and then the Board of Trustees and Board of Governors. Should all the hurdles be cleared, then it would go into effect next Fall.
There’s also the issue of affordability. A mainstay buzzword of the majority party, affordability was the reason why the students on the committee last year denied all the proposals. I’m not sure if I buy it, though. I look up how much SG folks’ homes are worth just for fun and, disheartened, I chuckle. I can’t really say SG does a great job of representing lower-income folks. I like to think that they are the people who especially benefit from services offered by entities such as the CWC (seeing how it’s free counseling.)
I hope people share their stories, someone actually decides to collect some data and we talk about this decision as a community. Here is a link to the petition: goo.gl/3oY4Vz.
Zachariah Chou is a UF political science junior and Murphree Area Senator. His column appears on Fridays.
