So I am going to talk about something that is very personal to me that I thought I would never mention in any sort of public form, but I feel like at this point I need to address the situation because I know that there are few people that will. Georgia Southern is having a huge problem.

The Counseling Center is extremely understaffed.

It’s scary to me that as a student who is dealing with mental health issues and is paying health fees that I can call in to the Counseling Center at the end of September and be told that there are no more slots open for almost a month.

I understand that “a college campus is also not a full fledged counseling area, just a checkpoint” and that they are looking at having peer counselors. That’s great. But what are students like me supposed to do right now? Can we afford to wait until our mental state is bad enough to make an emergency call? The answer is: I have no idea.

I am not upset with the counseling staff; it is in no way their fault. How can 9 people met the emotional needs of over 20,000 students? I know they are working themselves to the bone. It just scares me that this seems to be a problem that goes overlooked.

Sure, the Counseling Center has walk in hours, but with a busy work and class schedule, I do not have the ability to sit and wait in the hopes that some poor other person in psychological distress happens to miss an appointment that they need.

And I guess I’m going to have to pull a Kanye and say that because of this it feels like to me that Georgia Southern does not care about the mental well-being of its students. And if that is true, it is honestly completely heartbreaking.