Article

Crisis hotline lessens hours this semester

This move was made in response to counselors quitting
Michael Rosenthal - Staff Writer

Currently carrying a staff of fifty, down from one hundred and sixty four years ago, High Hopes will no longer be open 24 hours. The office will now be open until 12 midnight on weekdays “staff permitting,” while classes are in session.

High Hopes, a student run crisis intervention hotline, was in jeopardy of not being able to provide the service that the Student Association has chartered them to do.

Faced with a shortage of staff, the executive board members of High Hopes held an emergency meeting two weeks ago, according to Lisa Greene, one of the co-directors of the center, during which they voted to alter the organization’s constitution.

This move was made in response to counselors quitting, with the main complaint being the time constraints, such as outside obligations and expectations to fill gaps in shifts, said Lisa Greenwald, senior English major and counselor since sophomore year. When functioning normally, each student counselor sits for a two-hour shift once a week and overnight shift a semester, but due to staff shortages more was being asked of the students.

After the vote whether to remain open 24 hours was proposed by Greene, it became policy to keep the center opened 24 hours Thursday through Sunday morning. Jason Cetron, training coordinator for the center verified that the new hours are from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. Monday through Wednesday, staff permitting, and 24 hours Thursday through Sunday morning, but is closed on Sunday.

High Hopes has taken precautionary measures to ensure that every call is heard when there are gaps in scheduling. There is an answering machine service to direct calls and the co-directors are on-call 24 hours a day in one-week shifts, said Greene When on call, they can be reached by beeper if problems arise.

“Our hope is that people will call back if they really need us.” said Greene, “We’re doing the best we can, which a lot of people don’t understand. We are students too and we try really hard, but you can only do so much with fifty people.”

Prior to the vote, the executive board met with the SA Executive Vice President Rebecca Patt, who oversees SA chartered groups. Patt urged the staff to “take a proactive stance in order to continue providing services at a level in which they can function.” With this proposed change High Hopes must present the altered constitution to the Rules Committee of the SA and then the Student Assembly must put it to a vote. The earliest the committee can review the changes is Nov. 7.

The client-centered group’s main goal is to listen to callers’ problems. Potential counselors are rigorously trained for nine weeks culminating with a moch call scenario, said Laurie Feit, co-director of the center. Members of High Hopes are instructed not to give advise or judge callers. They are there to listen and refer students to pharmacies, websites, or professional counseling.

According Cetron the number of calls depends on the stress level of students, for example, they receive more calls during mid-terms and finals and during the weekends.

Cetron could not comment, due to confidentiality, on the average number of calls a counselor may recieve in a two hour shift but did admitt, “10 would be a lot.”

Greenwald commented, “I love High Hopes. The work that goes on is very important and should get more recognition.”

The organization plans on returning to full service come the spring semester, according to Greene. Currently they have seventy-one trainees in seven different classes.

Feit asures that “High Hopes is committed to serve the needs of Binghamton and the outlying community.”

News editors Wasim Ahmad and Nicole Flatow were not involved in the reporting or editing of this story.