Empty senator seats quickly filled up in Coskrey Auditorium as the Mississippi State University Faculty Senate conducted its first meeting of the year.During the previous Senate meeting held in November, issues were raised concerning the services being provided by the Student Counseling Services and its capability to serve a growing student body.
In a letter intended to correct some misconceptions about the SCS, vice president for student affairs Bill Kibler requested the opportunity for Beatrice Tatem, SCS director, and Bob Collins, executive director of university health services, to attend the meeting.
“Even though we would clearly benefit from having more counselors, we are currently meeting the needs of the student body as students are providing them to the counseling center,” Kibler said.
Tatem was also in attendance at the meeting with an extensive PowerPoint presentation about the counseling services.
Based on the presentation by Tatem, Faculty Sen. Louis D’Abramo believes the counseling center is doing a good job.
“They recognize as well as we do that they need more counselors and improved facilities,” he said. “They are appropriately addressing these issues.”
Meredith McCurdy, senior agriculture information science major, thinks that it is a good idea for MSU to provide the services to students.
“Services like these are good for State because it’s important for students to know that there is always someone there for them to talk to,” she said.
Associate communication professor and Faculty Senate member Mark Goodman said that if students pay to go to MSU, the administration should progress toward providing them with the services they need.
Also in the letter, Kibler makes mention of a Risk Assessment Team, which will be responsible for addressing any report of a student engaged in unusual behavior.
“If we have a pattern of unusual behavior on a particular student, we want to be sure that everyone is on the same page with the same information,” he said.
Another item of business at the meeting was centered on the faculty’s use of Perry Cafeteria. In the agenda for the meeting, Goodman voices his opinion on the current situation in a letter: “The cafeteria has a tradition of being a formal and informal meeting place for faculty,” Goodman said. “Current operating procedures that require all people to pay $7 to enter hinder this tradition from continuing.