Houston Dougharty Requests, Respects Student Input
JRC- After over a year of frustration and diminishing confidence in his division, Vice President of Student Affairs Houston Dougharty recently made an important step toward regaining the student body's trust with his deft handling of the new Mental Health Center initiative. Students report that Dougharty “did all the right things” in managing the complicated issue of mental health on campus, which has always been a sensitive area for many students.
To ensure that students knew this wasn't something happening behind closed doors, Dougharty and his office sent an all-campus email asking for interested students to volunteer on relevant committees, including the search committee that will select a qualified counselor for campus.
“He came to us, so we didn't have to keep going to him,” said Chrissie Shaw '11.
Students responded en masse, and the Psychology Department volunteered two professors who added a professional perspective to the search, despite their differences with Student Affairs administrators.
“This time, we didn't want to just stick a couple students on the committee and pretend that's the best we could do,” said Dougharty.
Despite their distrust of Dougharty, many students responded positively to the email, overwhelming Student Affairs with interest in serving on the relevant committees. The Psychology Department overcame the divide between Dougharty and the faculty to provide needed support from licensed mental health professionals.
“From the start, we've been adamant that we be included in this process,” said Phyllis Wortman, Psychology. “It's not like we'd let office politics get in the way of the welfare of students.”
“I've supervised mental health counselors before, so I know a bit about the process, but I'm glad we asked them to help,” said Dougharty. “When it comes to issues this serious, I defer to the pros.”
“I'm not trying to let an obsession with some vague idea of “professionalism” get in the way of something that needs to happen for the greater good,” he added.
The first of the new candidates will be on campus this Friday.
Dougharty emphasized that the search was not failed, just “continuing” because it didn't work the first time.
“I'm glad we were able to come together with the faculty and SGA and not drag our feet on this,” said Dougharty. “If we had fucked this up, the newspapers would do something crazy like report on the exact opposite of what actually happened, just to make a point.”
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Little known fact: Immediate following the press conference, Dougharty organized a group hug. While unsuccessful as an actual administrator, he feels good developing a fuzzy hug specialty.