Find causes of the problem in article - Essay Example

Causes of the Lack of College Counselors There is an increase in the population of college with every passing semester. Most of these students come in to college with an excess load of emotional and mental baggage that they cannot deal with on their own. Under normal circumstances, the college counselors are tasked with helping these students adjust to their college lives. However, it seems that this has become an almost impossible task for them lately. The article “As More Students Seek Help, Counselors Look for Ways to Lighten the Load ” by Steven Bridges as published in The Chronicle (2010) look deeply into the causes of this situation.

It would seem that the problem will not easily be solved because the reasons behind it are both economical and political. This quote from the same article practically sums up the causes for the problem: According to Education Department statistics, 12 percent of students at public two-year colleges reported having a disability of some type in 2007-8. Of those, 10 percent said they had a mental, emotional, or psychiatric condition, and 11.5 percent said they suffered from depression. Other studies indicate that the numbers could be higher: A fall 2009 survey by the American College Health Association found that 9.

2 percent of college students at all types of institutions reported being diagnosed with depression, and 9.4 percent with anxiety. (2010) School counselors these days are faced with students who need more than just a shoulder to cry on and an ear to listen to them. These are problems that require a lot more time and participation in the students everyday lives, neither of which these counselors have a lot of. The outcome? Lack of manpower and unserviced students. The first reason that he presents is that the economic recession has caused an overflow in college enrollment since there are people of far more advanced ages who find themselves without jobs and in need of career retraining.

The only place that they can get their retraining is in college. So, instead of having a single counselor deal with say 10 students, that person now deals with 50 - 100 students per day. Another reason for the lack of counselors would be that these educational institutions are not recession proof either. Even though they have an influx of students, the school administration still has to deal with other bills and costs that are needed in order to run the school, causing them to retrench certain employees.

These retrenched employees usually come from the Guidance Counseling department. We have to recognize that because the college counselors are now over worked and underpaid, they end up burning out. A burned our counselor ends up quitting their job and adding to the lack of college counselors on staff at the colleges. Now that we know the major reasons for the shortage of college counselors, it will do the colleges and universities well to develop ways and means to solve the situation before the students totally outnumber the counselors by the thousands.