DePauw University counseling services is looking to replace four counselors leaving at the end of the 2018 school year, while also hoping to diversify the staff roster in response to the recent bias incidents on campus.
In addition to the three interns, director of counseling services, Julie d’Argent, is also leaving after four years at DePauw.
A recent campus-wide email from Alan Hill promised students that the administration is “posting and recruiting for a full-time counselor who is trained and has expertise regarding the specific challenges related to historically marginalized communities.”
D’Argent does not think the hiring process will be easy or quick. “I think it’s very difficult for administration to find licensed clinicians who will come to Greencastle because of its location. It’s difficult to find any clinician willing to come here, let alone diverse applicants,” d’Argent said.
There is currently one staff member of color. However, she is a part-time employee. Outside of this, d’Argent is an international employee from Mauritius, an island just outside the coast of Africa, “but that’s really the end of diversity,” d’Argent said.
Senior Olivia Page said she spoke with her counselor about the bias incidents on campus and expressed her concern at the lack of diversity in the counseling staff. “Since I am not a person of color I cannot speak in place, but I would assume talking about how one feels unsafe because of racist acts with a white person may not be the most comfortable of situations and… it may feel more like a lesson,” Page said.
Page, who said she has used counseling services, spoke to the importance of forming a relationship with a counselor. “As a person who has been to counseling for a while, it is important to form a relationship with your counselor and in order to do this, you need to be able to identify with them or feel safe around them,” she said.
According to d’Argent, it took a year to fill one position, and with four members leaving, she doesn’t think the positions will be filled by the beginning of next year, “but perhaps maybe they’ll find someone the year after.”
D’Argent, the only psychologist currently on staff, makes it possible for doctoral-level interns to come to DePauw counseling services. “We’ve had between two and three interns consistently since 2013/14. In order for us to have interns, there has to be a licensed clinical psychologist overseeing them; so someone with a PhD,” d’Argent said. With d’Argent leaving, the University will have to hire another clinical psychologist before any interns can come to DePauw.
Since the bias incidents, there have not been more students coming into counseling. “The students of color already in counseling have talked about it, but no one has come in solely because of the incidents. We had four or five emergency meetings, but those were mostly with international students [who were already in counseling],” d’Argent said.
While d’Argent could not offer exact numbers because of confidentiality, she said that there are more white students than students of color using counseling services.
“It makes sense, though, because it matches the racial demographic of campus,” said d’Argent.
D’Argent said that the stigma regarding mental health and cultural differences in the use of counseling services could also be affecting the low number of students of color using the counseling services.