Student Senate voted 28-1-1 Monday to give an overextended Counseling Services staff a bit of a financial safety net.

At $156,300, that net aims to keep the counseling office from losing two of its employees – nearly half of its five-member permanent staff – during a university budget crunch that could force employee cuts.

The allocation also will likely raise annual student segregated fees by $16 per student, according to the bill.

“We’re an understaffed counseling service as it is,” said P.J. Kennedy, director of Counseling Services, who added that waiting periods for counseling appointments have reached as long as three weeks at certain times in recent years.

Kennedy presented senators Monday with results from a recent on-campus survey that asked students about counseling needs at the university. The survey was given to 2,000 students, with between 367 and 389 people responding. Twenty-two percent of respondents reported that depression was either a “problem” or a “severe problem,” and about 3 percent reported suicidal thoughts were a problem or a severe problem.

The only dissenter in Monday’s decision said he thought more attention should be given to preventing students’ need for counselors.

“I understand counselors help, and we’d still have them .” Sen. Dan Gawronski said, “but I think if we tackled the root of the problem first, maybe we could alleviate some of that burden that counseling has right now.”

Senators knock down pay raises
Senate also voted down a bill Monday that would have increased certain Senate members’ salaries.

The Senate president currently receives a $5,000 stipend, according to the bill, which was vetoed 16-11-3 (the bill needed a two-thirds majority to pass). The legislation matched the president’s salary to annual tuition, as well as raised and reduced several other senators’ stipends.

One opponent said he felt raising salaries while the university is facing funding cuts would be irresponsible, while another opponent said adjusting salaries based on tuition instead of inflation constituted a conflict of interest.

“In the times now with our economy the way it is, with people taking pay cuts, I don’t think it’s responsible for us to be raising our salaries and stuff like that,” Gawronski said.

Sen. Eric Meyers said that because Senate can alter tuition amounts by increasing student fees, senators in the future would be “voting on bills that are in direct relation to their salaries.” He suggested adjusting salaries based on inflation instead of tuition.

But Sen. Abou Amara said tying the salaries to inflation rather than to tuition could pose problems.

“The reason I didn’t want it to directly be related to (inflation) is because if we are in a recession like we are right now and inflation there’s a huge 20 point spike, that’s directly going to hit students here.”