OUR VIEW: To more effectively serve students and dismantle the stigma that surround mental illness, the counseling center needs a larger budget.

Just this week, this nation saw the devastating affects of mental health issues left untreated: the Sutherland Spring, Texas. The gunman with an extensive background with mental illness  murdered 26 people and put 20 more in the hospital, the youngest being a mere 18 months old along side a pregnant women and the older a 77-year-old-women. While nothing that extensive has happened here thankfully, those on campus deserve a facility that caters to effective mental health and they cannot do that with a small budget.

Students and faculty members visit the center all year around, and to think mental health can be reduced to mere dollar signs risks the wellbeing of our faculty, administration and students. Funding for the campus is strict, and considering the budget cuts, careful consideration is necessary before money is spent; however, we have seen a student on the Texas Tech campus where police were called for a wellness check based off erratic behavior, so having a state of the art facility well equipped for situations like this should not be a consideration, it’s a down right necessity.

We have a wellness center that offers classes, equipment and newly added personal trainers to maintain physical wellbeing for our campus, but can’t see students for mental wellbeing. The administration needs to take steps to ensure the mental wellbeing of students is a priority, not left on the back burner.

The administration took such intricate care to place the counseling center on the outskirts of campus to protect students security, now use that same care for the actually students opposed to the building itself.