UW System audit says mental health needs outpacing resources
University of Wisconsin System Regents admitted Friday that an audit showing a growing need for mental health counseling on campuses across the state is a cause for concern.
"This study was a wake-up call," said Board of Regents vice president Charles Pruitt.
The report by the UW System Office of Operations Review and Audit found that on campuses which kept statistics, about 6.3 percent of students (more than 9,500) attended individual, couples or group therapy sessions in the year that ended June 30, 2007. UW-Madison had the highest percentage, with 9.1 percent of all students receiving counseling services.
Overall, two-thirds of students who received counseling services were female.
"We can't just put this aside," Brent Smith, who chairs the regents' Business, Audit and Finance committee, said of the audit.
Most troubling might be the fact the audit noted students in the UW System often wait a week or more for counseling now -- and wait times are likely to increase as demand grows faster than resources.
The report indicated that the number of students getting counseling has risen sharply on most UW campuses in the past four years -- increasing an average of 22 percent during that period. The number of counselors, however, stayed the same.
It is believed demand for services is likely to keep growing as campuses expand their enrollments, more veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan take classes and the percentage of students with severe mental health problems increases nationally.
However, there appear to be no quick fixes.
The UW System has currently not set aside additional funds to make sweeping changes in mental health counseling programs. The report suggests the UW System consider counseling fees, user fees, financial support from other university departments and third-party billing and payments as possible additional sources of support for counseling.
In an effort to serve more students with the current professional counseling staff, the report suggests things such as increasing group therapy, outsourcing certain aspects of counseling and using counselor interns.
UW System President Kevin Reilly said he would ask an advisory panel to review the report and make recommendations.
At the time of the audit, all of the UW comprehensive institutions and three UW Colleges offered mental health counseling services for students. Ten UW colleges do not currently offer services, although they are set to do so this academic year.
Wiley
honored
UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley received a resolution of appreciation during Friday's Board of Regents meeting at Van Hise Hall on the UW-Madison campus.
Wiley is stepping down from his post Sept. 1, when he will be replaced by Carolyn "Biddy" Martin. Martin attended Board of Regents sessions both Thursday and Friday.
While introducing the resolution to honor Wiley, Regent David Walsh, a lawyer from Madison, praised the outgoing chancellor's efforts to teach the public about the importance of higher education.
"One of the great legacies is that he has started a public dialogue about the future of higher education in Wisconsin," said Walsh. "He has started it, he has argued it and it is now our responsibility to make sure that everyone is engaged in it."
Wiley then addressed the Board of Regents for the final time as chancellor, leaving them with these final thoughts.
"If I could leave just one last serious message with the board. ... I think it's unfortunate that the state, and regents, treat tuition and state support as separate items. ...
"The really important public policy issue is, I think, answering a very simple question. And that is, 'Who should pay for these commodities? Who should pay for what?' "
Wiley noted that a college degree is not only a valuable commodity to an individual -- but a person with a degree is valuable to the state, as well.
"How much is it worth to the state?" Wiley posed. "How much is it worth to the individual? That is the real question. I don't know what the right balance is. ... But that is the right question, trying to figure out, for the good of the state, what fraction of the cost should the state pay?"
The 66-year-old Wiley isn't retiring. He is returning to teaching in the fall, this time as a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs. On Nov. 1, he will become the new interim director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, the public half of a new research center that is billing itself as a model of interdisciplinary science and public-private collaboration.
Between 1964 and 1968, Wiley earned his master's and doctoral degrees in physics from UW-Madison. He returned to Wisconsin for good in the summer of 1975 and began work as a faculty member for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Budget
request gets OK
The Board of Regents on Friday approved biennial budget requests to the state.
UW System's request for new initiatives in the 2009-11 operating budget seeks $37.5 million in additional state tax revenue and $13.4 million in student fees for ongoing funding to support the Growth Agenda, which includes initiatives that directly address Gov. Jim Doyle's priority of economic development.
UW System's Growth Agenda request includes plans to provide additional access to more than 7,000 full-time-equivalent students, with many of these initiatives targeting adult nontraditional students who are more likely to stay in the state after graduation. It also includes other initiatives focused on increasing jobs in the state through technology and workforce development and matching university resources with needs in civic, nonprofit, business and other community ventures.
"I think it's a very reasonable budget request," said Walsh. "It doesn't overreach, but it maintains what everybody seems to be supportive of, and that's the Growth Agenda."
The board also approved a capital budget that
requires $139.7 million in state-supported bonding for new major
projects, remodeling and expanding academic facilities. The UW
System has pledged $88.9 million of private matching funds for
these projects. In addition, the board is seeking authority to
construct $257 million of new projects that will not require any
state support. It is also requesting $130 million in
state-supported bonding for maintenance, repair and renovation of
existing academic facilities.
Chazen
Museum moves forward
The regents unanimously approved the Design Report for UW-Madison's Chazen Museum of Art project and gave the authority to increase the project's scope and budget by $15.6 million, of which $15.4 million will be paid for with gift funds. Overall, the project will cost $47.1 million -- virtually all of which is being paid for with gift money.
The 81,000-square foot building, to be located at 750 University Ave., consists of a new four-story museum building linked to the existing Chazen via an enclosed bridge. The third-floor bridge will serve as an art gallery and span Murray Street, which is being converted into the East Campus pedestrian mall.
Work should begin in 2009, with an opening in February of 2011. The site is the former A.W. Peterson office building that is now demolished.
New MS for
UW-Madison
The Board of Regents also unanimously approved a new Master of Science degree in Clinical Investigation at UW-Madison.
The School of Medicine and Public Health hopes to contribute to the national effort to increase the number of clinician-scientists conducting patient-oriented research. The hope is the program will help accelerate the rate at which scientific discoveries are translated into medical applications that will benefit the health of people and communities.
The new program is subject to a regent-mandated review in five years.
