Where can a student go when they are in need for help? If you said the Health Center, then you better think again! The psychological section of the Suzanne Shively Health Facility is a joke and a very sad one at that.

I know that?s a little harsh, but after the experience I had the other day, I couldn?t let the opportunity to address an important issue such as “humanity” pass me by.

Like a lot of students, I?m under a lot of pressure. In addition to my three jobs, penning articles for three other publications and going to school, I?m a little on the edge. It?s no one?s fault but my own, but I do it because I?m one of those people who base their self-worth on the account of how much work they do.

As every day brought forth more deadlines and I finally started to realize that I had no way of escaping from it all, I cracked. I cried in public, on campus, and didn?t care who saw me. In the emotional state I was in, I was desperate to talk to someone?so I went to the Health Center. I mean that?s what they?re there for, right? So can you imagine the disbelief that I experienced when they gave me the runaround and stared at me like I was some freak.

After I checked in, I went upstairs and sobbed in my own misery for 20 minutes. Finally, the staff ladies called me up, looked at me squarely in my red, puffy eyes and told me to go downstairs to get my folder.

At this point I was upset enough as it was, but the last thing I needed was to be jerked around. If they needed my folder, they should have told me when I first checked in upstairs. It was obvious that I was truly upset by the look on my pink face and the constant sniffling that interrupted my conversation.

“Forget it,” I said, loud enough so everyone heard me. The woman who called me up then replied, “Oh all right, you want to forget, then forget it?next.”

Some of you are probably thinking, logically, about how this is strange behavior coming from an adult and that maybe I should grow up. Well you know what, that?s the kind of attitude that makes me sick to my stomach. A person?s not crazy if they express how they really feel.

My experience brings up an important question: At what point do we risk being standoffish and intervene when we see someone who is in need? Reaching out should be an innate response. If you resist that urge on account of trying to respect someone?s space, than your human connection is in need of some tuning. Many students can only turn to the Health Center for help, and unfortunately, it seems to me that the Health Center is in need of some help itself.

And to the staff members of the Health Center: you can save your time by not writing letters to the editor stating that you regret the unfortunate incident and you guys helped many people in the past?yada, yada, yada. That may be well and true, but I?m really disappointed in how my scenario panned out.

And I certainly hope that my case is the exception.

Georgette Todd is a Journalism major. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].