TEXT OF PRESIDENT McCORMICK'S JULY 17, 2009 RESPONSE TO THE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON CHARGE S-0804, DEALING WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL EMERGENCIES:

I am writing in response to the Report and Recommendation on Charge S-0804, Dealing with Psychological Emergencies, as adopted by the University Senate on May 1, 2009. I thank the members of the Faculty and Personnel Affairs Committee for their attention to this important issue.

While I share your concerns about the need to raise awareness of mental health issues among Rutgers faculty and staff members, we unfortunately do not have the funds available at this time to accomplish everything the University Senate has proposed in this regard. I have spoken with Vice President for Student Affairs Greg Blimling about how we might begin to address the Senate’s concerns. Vice President Blimling reported that there are ongoing plans to upgrade the
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) website so that it does a better job of identifying the warning signs for referral to the counseling center and information about how faculty and staff could best make those referrals. In addition, we are considering a “faculty/staff hotline” so that calls from this group will be given priority in the triage system that we established. Finally, we are in the process of trying to identify individuals, possibly some of our doctoral interns in
Psychological Counseling, who could offer presentations or conduct mini-workshops in this area during faculty/staff orientation programs and similar events.

In short, we support the principles espoused in the recommendations and will do what we can with the resources available, but will be unlikely to accomplish all that we might wish to implement in this area because of budget limitations.

Sincerely yours,
Richard L. McCormick

c:  Philip Furmanski, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
    Gregory Blimling, Vice President for Student Affairs
    Jill Richards, Director of Counseling and Psychological Services
    Melodee Lasky, Executive Director Rutgers-New Brunswick Health Services