The counseling center has seen an increase in student need during the past year in relation to the wavering economy.
Director of the Counseling Center Dr. Lee Salter said last year the number of students they saw increased by 14 percent.
“We saw a definite increase last year,” Salter said. “I think it is continuous this year but we have not completed our statistics yet. The number of students that have come in are up.”
Salter said the economical recession affects students in several ways.
“One of the effects of the economy is that it is a big part of the problems and stress that students have,” Salter said. “Some of them have to worry about how to fund school or in other cases the employment of a family member is a big source or stress and worry.”
Director of the Cashier’s Office Bruce Forinash said there have not been dramatic increases in his department aside from the aftermath of state budget cuts.
“We have of course implemented a new student financial system that is part of the new student information system that affected student registration as well but it is nothing that we have paid for this year,” Forinash said. “We have actually lost about four people in this office particularly due to budget cuts.”
The cuts in staffing have created small changes in how students can complete payments, Forinash said.
“One of the reasons we have had to stop taking payments in the office is due to the fact that we have had to cut back on personnel and staff,” Forinash said. “As far as spending money has gone we have actually reduced our budget by a significant amount.”
Similar to how the University has had to make adjustments to the limited budget, Salter said students have to adjust to the additional stress factor.
“Part of the problem that students are having is that aside from all of the regular stress students have from school, this is something [additional],” Salter said. “Their stress levels then go up and then the student eventually gets to a level where they start to have symptoms. It is apparent in our numbers that there are more students we are starting to see, which makes sense.”
While some of the symptoms that students may see are physical, Salter said the counseling center is seeing many additional issues.
“When stress builds up to a certain level for all of us we tend to get symptoms like headaches which turn into migraines,” Salter said. “Symptoms may be physical but often what we see are things like sleep problems, issues with appetite — whether loss or overeating — increased anxiety levels, beginning to feel down or depressed about things and difficulty concentrating.”
The physical and emotional symptoms, according to Salter, affect a student’s ability to perform well in school as well as outside relationships.
“The economy is a stress on everything. There are problems either directly or indirectly because of friends,” Salter said. “Any time you put relationships under stress, if there is a lot of stress already then the additional stress levels can cause those symptoms which affect their school work and relationships, which in turn become another factor.”
Amanda Migliaccio, a sophomore in social work, said she agrees that the increased stress levels caused by the economy are definitely taking their toll on relationships.
“A lot of students are worried about paying for school or are having trouble finding jobs and that is obviously extra stress we normally don’t have,” Migliaccio said. “Guys want to be able to afford to take their girlfriends out to dinner and if they can’t then it causes more stress which definitely affects relationships.”
Salter said he hopes that students will take advantage of resources such as the counseling center when dealing with such problems.