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