Category: Uncategorized

(This paper was originally submitted as part of Dr. Sonia Lenk’s course on Latin American Civilization and Culture on May 9th, 2019).

En Santiago, el capital y la ciudad más poblada de Chile, se encuentra un barrio lleno de rascacielos llamado “Sanhattan”. Como su tocayo Manhattan en la ciudad Nueva York, es un centro de finanzas y negocios. Este barrio es emblemático del hecho que Chile es, por muchas medidas, el país latinoamericano más exitoso económicamente. Este éxito tiene mucho que ver con la combinación de políticas económicas neoliberales con el cese de la represión social que fue común bajo Pinochet y el establecimiento de unos programas de beneficios sociales. Después de la restauración de la democracia en Chile en 1990, el gobierno chileno bajo los presidentes de la Concertación por la Democracia siguió con las políticas económicas neoliberales del régimen pinochetista y también ha aumentado la red de programas sociales, demostrando que estas dos políticas no son contrarias. Mientras las políticas económicas de la Concertación por lo general fueron una continuación de las políticas económicas pinochetistas, ellos relajaron la represión social y estableció unos programas sociales. Por eso, Chile se ha convertido en un país exitoso.

Es importante entender el estado político y económico de Chile al comienzo de los años 90, es decir, la situación en que se encontraron Patricio Aylwin y la Concertación cuando tomaron control del gobierno chileno después de 17 años de la dictadura. Después de unos fracasos económicos bajo el presidente socialista Salvador Allende, el general Augusto Pinochet hizo un golpe de estado militar y asumió la presidencia. El gobierno de Pinochet hizo unas reformas para convertir la economía del país en una más capitalista. Los “Chicago boys”, unos economistas educados en la Universidad de Chicago en los Estados Unidos, diseñaron un plan económico implementado por el gobierno que privatizó a unas industrias anteriormente poseído por el estado y recortó la inflación. Financieros extranjeros empezaron a invertirse en la economía chilena y por eso creció muy rápidamente (Pike). En contraste de estos beneficios del pinochetismo, el gobierno en esta época eliminó mucho de la red be beneficios sociales (establecida antes de Pinochet) que mejoraba la calidad de vida de la gente de la clase baja (Jeong 202). Al año 1990, cuando Pinochet renunció la presidencia, la economía chilena al nivel macro andaba bien, pero el estado de la clase baja era muy malo, todavía sufriendo los efectos de una recesión en los principios de los años 80. Entonces, asumiendo control del gobierno en 1990, la Concertación quería mantener la economía buena mientras también quería mejorar la condición de los pobres (Hojman 25-26). La Concertación mantenía control de la presidencia de Chile hasta 2010, entonces es esa época de 20 años que se analiza en este ensayo.

            Patricio Aylwin, el primer presidente chileno después de que Pinochet renunció la presidencia en 1990, expuso un plan para la economía chilena antes de asumir la presidencia. El plan mantuvo unos rasgos claves que caracterizaron la economía bajo Pinochet. En primer lugar, planificó a continuar con la política sobre las exportaciones instituido por el gobierno de Pinochet, a saber: un tipo de cambio realístico, tarifas bajas, y mercadotecnia en países extranjeros para motivar la compra de materias y productos chilenos (Hojman 26). El deseo de continuar estas políticas es debido a su éxito aun cuando Pinochet todavía fue el presidente. En 1989, la tasa de crecimiento de la economía chilena fue más de 9%, y las políticas de las exportaciones pinochetistas fueron visto como la razón para este crecimiento rápido. (Hojman 27). En 2005 Chile entró al Acuerdo Estratégico Transpacífico de Asociación Económica, un tratado de libre comercio entre Chile, Brunéi, Nueva Zelandia y Singapur (New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade). También tiene tratados de libre comercio bilaterales con Australia (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), Canadá (Global Affairs Canada) y los Estados Unidos (United States Trade Representative). Todos fueron firmados durante las presidencias de la Concertación.

            Por lo general, las políticas económicas de las presidentes de la Concertación fueron exitosas. Aylwin y los siguientes presidentes de la Concertación—Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Ricardo Lagos, y Michele Bachelet—presidieron sobre una época de buena economía en Chile, con la excepción de un periodo de estancamiento causado por la crisis asiática entre 1998 y 2001 (Zona Económica). Uno de los problemas más comunes de economías en desarrollo es la inflación, pero Chile no ha luchado con la inflación tanto como otros países en desarrollo. El peso chileno ha mantenido una tasa de inflación bajo de 10% desde el medio de los años 90, de acuerdo con las metas del Banco Central de Chile (Naudon y Vial 94). En los años entre 1990 y 2017 el promedio de crecimiento anual del PBI de Chile fue 4.68%. En comparación, el promedio de crecimiento anual del PBI de todo Latinoamérica y el Caribe durante la misma época fue 2.69% (Banco Mundial). El esfuerzo que hizo los gobiernos de la Concertación para sostener la buena economía del régimen pinochetista entonces mantuvo la economía chilena mejor que las otras en la región.

            Bajo el régimen pinochetista, había una red de programas sociales muy débil. En los años principios de la dictadura, los gastos del gobierno fueron muy pocos, especialmente en cuanto los programas sociales: en 1979, los desembolsos del gobierno chileno en los programas sociales fue 17% menos que el nivel de los desembolsos en 1970, el año antes de los aumentos de Allende (Davis-Hamel 81). Sí, el gobierno bajo Pinochet aumentó sus gastos en los años 80 para enfrentar una recesión fuerte, pero estos gastos fueron primariamente en la nacionalización de deudas incurridas por los bancos. Se estima que un 80% del pueblo chileno sufrió un empeoramiento en su calidad de vida tras la dictadura de Pinochet (Davis-Hamel 84). Entonces, bajo la dictadura el gobierno estaba dispuesto a gastar dinero para el bienestar de los bancos, pero no para el bienestar de la gente.

            Los gobiernos de la Concertación aumentaron mucho los gastos en programas sociales comparado con el nivel de gastos bajo Pinochet. Para pagar para esta expansión de la red de programas de beneficios sociales, implementaron un sistema de impuestos progresivo; es decir, los más ricos pagan un porcentaje de sus ingresos más alto que los menos ricos. Esto resultó en un aumento de ingresos públicos de 15% (Davis-Hamel 85). El presidente Ricardo Lagos implementó un programa llamado Chile Solidario con el propuesto de disminuir la cantidad de personas viviendo en pobreza extrema, y fue exitoso (Davis-Hamel 86-87). El Congreso de Chile también durante la presidencia de Lagos reformó el sistema de asistencia médica, estableciendo el sistema de Acceso Universal con Garantías Explicitas (AUGE). AUGE garantiza cuidad sanitaria a todos los chilenos para ciertas enfermedades (hoy en día hay 66 en la lista) (Missoni y Solimano 13).

            Se nota acá un caso especial que no bien se suele considerar parte de una red de programas sociales, pero es un gasto del gobierno para el bienestar de unos de sus ciudadanos y muestra el compromiso del gobierno democrático a la equidad: los pagos a las familias de las personas matadas por el gobierno militar, y a las víctimas de la tortura. Unas comisiones formadas por el gobierno hallaron que el régimen pinochetista mató a aproximadamente 3.200 personas (incluso a 1.100 desaparecidos) y que fueron aproximadamente 37.000 víctimas de la tortura en esta misma época (Macias 126). A los principios de los gobiernos de la Concertación el gobierno aprobó una ley que compensó a unas víctimas de la violencia estatal. Ley 19.123 de Chile, aprobado en 1991, “[promueve] la reparación del daño moral de las víctimas [de violencia estatal]… y [otorga] la asistencia social y legal que requieran los familiares de éstas para acceder a los beneficios contemplados en esta ley,” según su propio texto. Establece “una pensión mensual de reparación en beneficio de los familiares de las víctimas de violaciones a los derechos humanos…” Se puede debatir se estos pagos pueden recuperar el asesinato de un querido o los daños duraderos causado por la tortura, pero esta ley muestra que el nuevo gobierno democrático de Chile quería recompensar para los actos aborrecibles del régimen pinochetista. Dicho en otra manera, el espíritu reconciliatorio del lema “crecimiento con equidad” extendía a medidas dirigidas directamente a los que sufrían más por la dictadura.

Otro aspecto restringido de la dictadura fue su regulación estricta de los sindicatos. Como gran parte de la base de apoyo de los partidos políticos que oponían a Pinochet (incluso a los partidos Socialista y Comunista, los que apoyan el presidente Allende), la dictadura necesitaba oprimir las actividades de los sindicatos para mantener su control del gobierno sin enfrentar un movimiento de resistencia (Murillo 449). También, como el régimen pinochetista fue enfocado en el desarrollo de empresas en el país, una clase obrera débil ofrecería un incentivo para compañía invertir en Chile. Pinochet instituyo unas políticas con el propuesto de hacer los sindicatos más débiles, “curtailing labor organization and collective bargaining, reducing firing costs, and allowing the hiring of strikebreakers.” (Murillo 449) En los primeros años del régimen de la Concertación, unas leyes reformativas sobre los sindicatos fueron aprobadas. El gobierno aprobó la reforma más grande con respecto a los obreros en 2001 durante la presidencia de Ricardo Lagos, implementando unas protecciones para los obreros como límites de horas extraordinarias del trabajo (Murillo 450).

La síntesis de crecimiento económico con iniciativos para promover la equidad social ha beneficiado Chile mucho, y ahora surge como uno de los países mas desarrollados y estables en Latinoamérica. Chile es miembro de la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económicos (OCDE), una organización que incluye la gran mayoría de países considerados desarrollados. La OCDE requiere que sus miembros son cometidos al libre comercio y la democracia y que tienen un gobierno estable y trasparente. Chile accedió al OCDE en 2010 (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). También Chile disfruta una política muy estable que deja que las empresas privadas inviertan en el país. Estas inversiones mejoran la infraestructura del país y crean empleos—Chile acerca el pleno empleo con una tasa de desempleo de 7.0% (Bradley 54-56). Finalmente, Chile tiene una clase media de un tamaño grande no visto en otros países latinoamericanos. Un estudio del Pew Research Center halló que, en 2011, un tercer del pueblo chileno son de ingresos medios (definido como ingresos entre US$10 y US$20 por día), lo más en Latinoamérica (Gao). En total, la economía y la sociedad chilenas son florecientes todavía hoy debido a los esfuerzos de la Concertación.

Entre las extremas de la izquierda y la derecha Chile ha hallado un sendero en el medio que ha llevado el país a prosperidad. La economía y la sociedad de Chile no son sin problemas, pero generalmente los líderes democráticos chilenos han cumplido su promesa de “crecimiento con equidad”. El Chile de los últimos 30 años da un ejemplo al mundo de lo que pase cuando el gobierno no sucumbe a los extremos—un país exitoso mostrando que es posible tener una economía estable y una sociedad más equitativa.

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(This paper was originally written for Dr. Jeffrey Kash’s Senior Seminar in Political Science, submitted on December 10th, 2019.)

Introduction

Political actors debate solutions to public problems, preferring to implement more feasible solutions rather than risk spending political capital on a program where the potential results are uncertain. With regard to suicide, several solutions present themselves. This paper analyzes 3 potential solutions to the problem of suicide—first, a brief overview of the problem will be given, and then each solution will be discussed, paying special attention to the solutions’ technical and political feasibility. Finally, the paper will conclude with the identification of the most feasible solution of the three presented.

Overview

            In the last two decades, the suicide rate in the United States has increased among both men and women across almost all age groups (Curtin et al.). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have determined that suicide is a major public health issue, given its prevalence and the severity of its human and social cost (ASAP – Suicide Prevention). Several interest groups are involved with the addressing of the suicide problem, such as the National Alliance for Mental Health (NAMI) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), dedicates much of its research to suicide prevention: the NIMH’s Division of Services and Intervention Research, under which suicide prevention research falls, had a budget of over $153 million for the 2019 fiscal year and is slated to have a budget of about $138 million in the 2020 fiscal year (FY 2020 Budget).

Gun Control as a Solution for Suicide

            One potential solution to the suicide problem is enacting gun control legislation, specifically gun buyback programs that would reduce the overall gun ownership rate. In 2017, a majority of suicides occurred by firearm (CDC Fatal Injury Report), and more than 82% of suicide attempts by firearm are lethal (Spicer and Miller 1888). Researchers have also found that higher rates of gun ownership are a good predictor of overall suicide rate at the state level (Siegel and Rothman). Means-reduction measures have proven to be effective at decreasing the suicide rate (Means Reduction Saves Lives), so it follows that reducing the ownership rate of firearms would in turn reduce the overall suicide rate (perhaps by a substantial measure, considering the large portion of suicides committed by firearm).

            Other nations have successfully implemented legislation that restricted and reduced gun ownership in the past, leading to decreases in the gun death rate overall as well as the suicide rate. In 1997, the Australian government implemented major gun control legislation, including banning certain kinds of weapons and enforcing a mandatory buyback program for the now-illegal firearms. This eliminated about 20% of all Australian firearms, or 650,000 guns (Leigh and Neill 509–10). In 1995, before this gun control legislation was introduced, there were 2.2 firearm suicides per 100,000 people in Australia. In 2006, 9 years after the legislation went into effect, there were 0.8 firearm suicides per 100,000 people, a decrease of 65% (518). In 2018, the Small Arms Survey estimated there to be over 393 million civilian-held firearms in the United States (Karp 4). To reduce the number of civilian-held firearms by one-fifth, as was done in Australia, the United States would have to eliminate about 78.5 million guns—121 times as many. For reference, the total population of the United States (about 327 million) is only about 13 times the size of Australia’s total population (about 25 million) (United Nations). As such, the technical feasibility of such a buyback program is much lower in the United States than it was in Australia.

            Gun control action in the United States faces serious challenges to its political feasibility. Comparison with other countries indicates that the United States has the some of the laxest gun control legislation among developed nations (Lopez). The National Rifle Association (NRA) is a prominent advocate of gun rights and opponent of gun control in the U.S. The NRA spent nearly $10 million in lobbying across 2017 and 2018 (Allison). 19% of U.S. gun owners said they were members of the NRA in 2017, and these members have more extreme anti-gun control views than gun owners at large or adults as a whole (Parker). The influence of these political undercurrents can be seen in Wyoming, a state with a high (and increasing) suicide rate where gun culture is strong. Suicide prevention professionals in Wyoming have found that national rhetoric around gun control has negatively impacted their ability to separate suicidal people from the means to kill themselves (Barry-Jester). The last time the federal government passed gun-control legislation was in 1994, when assault weapons were banned for ten years (Gray). Additionally, the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to bear arms opens up any gun control measure to potential federal litigation. As such, there is very little political feasibility for gun control measures aimed at reducing suicide to be implemented.

Increasing Treatment Access as a Solution to Suicide

            Research shows that most suicides are linked to some kind of mental illness (Brådvik). Increased access to treatment for those mental illnesses would likely help drive down the suicide rate. Research has found that there is an inverse correlation between the prevalence of SSRIs, a common type of antidepressant, among a population and its suicide rate—i.e., access to SSRIs can help drive down suicide rates (Ludwig et al.). Cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of talk therapy, has also been proven to reduce the risk of suicide in patients with mental illness (Schwartz-Lifshitz et al. 630). Given this information, increasing the availability of SSRIs and therapy could help drive down the suicide rate.

One technical obstacle to increasing treatment access is the shortage of doctors in rural areas: in a 2019 poll, 26% of rural Americans said that there was a time in the last few years when they needed heath care but did not get it (Siegler). Given that rural counties in most regions of the country have higher suicide rates than urban ones (Curtin et al.), this disparity is particularly relevant. Professional organizations like the American Association of Family Physicians (AAFP) have taken steps to address the crisis by funding fellowships for doctors to take employment in rural areas (New AAFP Initiative Addresses Rural Health Care Crisis). The federal government could grant tax credits or student loan forgiveness to doctors willing to work in rural or other medically underserved areas in order to help alleviate the suicide crisis. To more specifically address suicide, funding could be restricted to, or increased for, doctors who specialize in the treatment of mental illnesses.

Politically, health funding for rural areas has aspects attractive to politicians on both sides of the aisle. Rural people make up an increasingly large portion of the Republican Party’s base (Parker et al.), so any legislation that directs resources to those constituencies would be a political win for the GOP. Democrats tend to favor increasing access to health care, and “ensuring universal health care” was one of the party’s planks in their 2016 platform (2016 Democratic Party Platform 31). However, in the current fiscal climate, creating a new program that would require a substantial budget to be effective would require justification from the party to both constituents and party members who are concerned about the growing federal budget deficit.

Addressing Toxic Masculinity as a Solution to Suicide

            Researchers have defined the term “toxic masculinity” as referring to a host of negative behaviors and beliefs prevalent among men due to their social conditioning (Salam). While the boundaries of what can and cannot be considered toxic aspects of the male gender role remain unclear, there is obviously a gender disparity in suicides. The ratio of male to female suicides was 3.6 to 1 as of 2016 (Hedegaard et al.). An aspect of toxic masculinity commonly identified by researchers is the need to suppress or mask emotion (Salam): this could dissuade men from seeking treatment for their suicidal thoughts and prevent others in their lives from seeing that they have a problem. Anna Maria Barry-Jester identified the “cowboy mentality” of self-reliance as a facilitator of high suicide rates in her case study of suicide among men in Wyoming. Ad campaigns targeted at programs with a largely male audience could help make men aware of the signs of depression and suicide and work to erode social norms against men seeking psychiatric help. For comparison, the popularity of erectile dysfunction drugs illustrates the impact that a concerted ad campaign can have on making men more willing to talk to their doctors about awkward or touchy subjects (Viagra sales totaled about $1.6 billion in 2012 (Mukherjee)). While depression and suicide are certainly darker topics than erectile dysfunction, both issues carry social stigma tied in with popular conceptions of masculinity.

            The Ad Council is a non-governmental organization that works with the federal government (and other groups) to produce public service ad campaigns. This is a common avenue for public service ad campaigns to get onto the air, and in all likelihood any ad campaign related to suicide would go through them. Data would have to be collected on the programs where the target audience of men most at risk for suicide could be reached. Nielsen collects data on the demographics of program viewers for television and listeners for radio, so this data could be employed to target men at risk for suicide most effectively. The CDC is the primary federal institution tasked with achieving public health goals through practice, so it is likely that they would be the ones footing the bill for the ad buy. This project could become costly, as sustained messaging would be necessary to erode the strong social barriers for men seeking psychiatric help.

            Political obstacles to an ad campaign of the sort just described could include public backlash against a perceived attack on social norms. If the ad is considered too aggressive in the way it challenges traditional masculinity in order to get men in need to seek treatment for mental illness, there could be a reverse effect of entrenching the very attitudes the ad seeks to eradicate. Ad buys could also be considered an insufficient measure to take against suicide, given the severity of the problem. It is possible that activist groups such as AFSP and NAMI would push for more drastic action.

Identification of the Most Feasible Solution

            Given the historic difficulty of passing gun-control measures in the United States, the sheer scale at which any significant gun buyback program would have to operate, and the potential for extended litigation challenging the program on second amendment grounds, the gun control avenue for suicide reduction is likely to be the least feasible. Next, while increasing rural health access has attractive aspects for both parties, the costs of incentives for doctors to take employment in rural areas would likely induce some sticker shock to politicians, and Congress could easily get mired in the small details of any program of the sort.

            Thus, while it is the least drastic solution of the three offered, creating an ad campaign targeted at men who have a socially-induced higher risk of suicide is the most feasible solution. Congress would likely not have to appropriate funds expressly for these ads—the CDC purchases ads from the Ad Council periodically as part of its operating budget (FY 2019 Operating Plan).

Conclusion

            Suicide is a prevalent and increasingly dire problem in the United States. When considering the three possible solutions of gun buybacks, increased rural health access, and ad campaigns targeting at-risk men, the last of the three is both the least drastic and the most feasible. In fact, it is the most feasible precisely because it is the least drastic.

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(This article was originally published on wkutalisman.com on April 4th, 2018.)

In the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, there has been a wave of youth activism in support of gun control. Much has been written about the millennial generation and the nature of our politics, but as that generation ages, it is high time to analyze the formative political moments that influenced people born in a world radically different from that of older generations.

Pew Research Center defines millennials as those born between 1981 and 1996. The generation born from 1997 onward has been referred to by many names, but the most popular name seems to be “Generation Z” (that’s the title of the Wikipedia page, anyway). As of this year, an average college student was born somewhere between 1995 and 1999, so the first waves of Generation Z are now reaching adulthood and voting age. To understand what this signifies, we have to look at the moments that defined our generation’s political awakening.

Generation Z, by and large, does not remember a time when the United States was not at war. 9/11 occurred when the oldest members of the generation were 4 years old, and, ever since, the United States has been engaged in war in the Middle East. Interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq during our youth stand out the most — many of the images we absorbed as young children were those of yellow ribbons tied around trees and stuck to car bumpers, coffins draped in the American flag being unloaded on TV; the word “terrorist” has always been a part of our vocabulary.

As it became clear that the Bush administration misled the public as to the true reasons the U.S. was intervening in these countries, the cynicism toward government that this engendered became a matter-of-fact component of our understanding of politics.

Members of Generation Z were just reaching the age at which we started to understand the news when Barack Obama was elected president. At first, Obama’s fairy-tale-like rise to the Oval Office seemed to be emblematic of the infinite possibility of the American dream — but his election precipitated the descent of American politics into tribalism and vitriol rarely seen before.

Relatively mainstream media outlets spread the conspiracy theories that Obama was actually born in Kenya, that he was secretly a Muslim and that he was nefariously planning to become an autocrat. Opposing party leaders seem to base their entire platform on obstructing Obama’s policies. Generation Z has rarely seen Washington engage in bipartisan policy making.

In 2012, when Generation Z was in middle and high school, 20 kindergarteners and first-graders, along with six teachers and staff members, were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, one of the most shocking in dozens of school shootings that continue to occur multiple times a year. The visceral horror of children being slaughtered in their classrooms, compounded with the fear that our school could be the next place someone decided to attack, no doubt profoundly affected members of Generation Z. And yet, no comprehensive policy was enacted on either a state or federal level to combat this rash of attacks.

The picture is clear: Generation Z has lived in a country where the government has failed us time and again, where there appears little reason to have faith in the members of the establishment to manage the country properly or protect their citizens from harm. As we become more and more politically potent, radical changes in the civic fabric of the U.S. are inevitable.

(This article was originally published in the Fall 2019 edition of Talisman magazine, a Western Kentucky University student publication.)

College students’ mental health is a “growing concern,”  according to a 2013 survey conducted by the American Psychological Association of college counseling center directors. WKU’s own Counseling Center is located on the fourth floor of Potter Hall among the cluster of administrative offices that occupy several buildings atop the Hill. It serves as a key resource for WKU students but faces some obstacles in its mission and limitations in its resources.

During the 2018-19 school year, 820 clients received counseling from the Counseling Center, according to statistics provided by the Counseling Center to the Talisman, and even more students have interacted with the Counseling Center through its outreach programs. According to its website, the Counseling Center offers outreach programs on various topics, such as stress management and LGBTQ+ issues to specific programming regarding mental health disorders such as major depression and generalized anxiety.

Once people began to see mental health as important in the same way physical health is, WKU psychology professor Ronda Talley said “there was a movement to put mental health clinics in schools.”

Talley worked as a school psychologist at Jefferson County Public Schools for two decades and has taught counseling courses at WKU and Spalding University.

The WKU Counseling Center outlines its mission statement on its website: “The WKU Counseling Center is committed to promoting the academic mission of the university by providing a variety of psychological services to students that will augment recruitment, retention and graduation.”

When it comes to the qualities that produce a good university counseling program, Talley outlined four key elements: student and faculty awareness of the services, easy access to the services, having a variety of services available and the services being free of charge to students. Timing is one aspect of providing easy access, she said.

“There need to be times available that fit  with students’ schedules,” she said.

One factor that can affect scheduling is the number of counselors available. WKU currently has five staff members available to students for counseling, along with two interns, according to the Counseling Center’s Associate Director Karl Laves. Counselors are assigned to a student based on the student’s schedule and the availability of counselors. According to Fall 2018 enrollment data, WKU ranks second-to-last among seven major public universities in Kentucky in terms of the ratio of students to counselors in the universities’ counseling centers.

WKU’s student-to-counselor ratio is 3,243 to 1, nearly twice the ratio recommended by the International Association of Counseling Services. None of the seven major public universities in Kentucky fall within the IACS’ recommended range, which is between 1,000 and 1,500 students per counselor.

Laves said that wait times increase as the semester progresses.

“It’s a moving target,” Laves said. “The first four weeks of this semester, your wait time was basically one day … as the semester goes on and we take in more and more clients, it gets pushed out.”

He said that wait times after the midpoint of the semester are usually about two weeks, while emergency services are always provided same-day.

Louisville junior Alex Boyd first went to the Counseling Center in late April upon the recommendation of a friend who had been there before. Boyd sees his counselor every two weeks while he is at school.

“I had a falling out with somebody close to me,” he said.

That drove him to seek counseling through the center.

“I’d never been in any kind of counseling or therapy,” Boyd said. “I just went in looking to see if I could get any sort of information, connecting dots that maybe I wasn’t making myself.”

Boyd described the counseling process as a kind of “mental checkup,” where he and his counselor discuss how he’s doing at that particular moment and build off things discussed in previous sessions.

“At the end, we try and set a goal, like a practice or how to think about something,” he said.

Boyd assessed his experience with the Counseling Center as largely positive.

“I feel like I’ve definitely got what I wanted out of it so far,” he said.

He said his appointments have been easy to fit into his schedule, and described his counselor as “very responsive, considerate and helpful.”

“The biggest thing is finding the right fit of which counselor you’re talking to,” he said. “One person isn’t for everybody. I know a few people who have seen the same counselor I see and didn’t have the same positive experience. They ended up finding someone more suited to them.”

Nolensville, Tennessee, junior Abby Baker first went to the counseling center during her first semester on campus and had appointments two to three times a month over the course of three months. She then decided to stop seeing her counselor on campus and find a private-practice therapist, she said.

She said at the beginning she was looking to talk through some of the anxiety and homesickness she was still struggling with.

Baker had also been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder before she enrolled at WKU. She said OCD can manifest itself in many different ways, but for her it takes the form of “a lot of intrusive thoughts.”

At the Counseling Center, Baker first encountered problems with scheduling.

“My appointments ended up being at random times, either right before or right after my classes,” she said. “It was hard to figure out when I could go and see someone who I’d already been talking to.”

Baker said she stopped going to the Counseling Center after three months because her OCD worsened.

“My intrusive thoughts got harder to handle,” she said.

She said she needed cognitive behavioral therapy. She had begun the therapy with her counselor, but she needed to go consistently.

“I decided to find someone outside of school,” Baker said.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of talk therapy during which the patient works with a therapist over several sessions to address problematic thoughts and behaviors, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Baker said the Counseling Center was able to help her in some ways.

“My therapist was super sweet and very helpful for general things,” she said.

However, she said she believes her specific needs exceeded what the Counseling Center was able to provide.

“I needed fairly intensive therapy, and I don’t think that’s something they’re equipped to give,” she said. “They’re so overcrowded and so busy.”

Most students attend five sessions or fewer before they stop going to the Counseling Center, according to statistics provided by Laves. Nevertheless, Laves said there is no limit to the number of times a student can see a counselor at the center.

“We’re not trying to get rid of anybody,” he said, “But we’re always keeping an eye on how quickly we can help a student get back in the game.”

In terms of the Counseling Center’s limitations, Laves said there are some circumstances in which students would be better served elsewhere.

“I think where we are probably more equipped are issues that don’t really have a diagnostic label,” he said.

Laves said that the Counseling Center largely deals with issues of identity, career and relationships.

Laves said the Counseling Center is set up to see as many students that need to be seen.

“The faster we stop meeting, the faster I can move on to somebody else,” he said. “It’s kind of a balancing act.”