Student petition demands more funding, sta for university mental health services

By Cormac LaLiberte STAFF WRITER

University Health Services (UHS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has just 71 employees in its mental health department, 23 of whom are listed as “providers,” to serve the campus community. UHS received a budget of $29.9 million during the 2021-22 academic year — less than 1% of the university budget and almost $10 million less than what was allocated to the Wisconsin Union.

Leland Hermus, who is in his last semester of a mechanical systems engineering degree, thinks it is imperative that the university prioritize its mental health access. He started a petition last Monday urging the university to allocate more funding toward that infrastructure. As of Wednesday, the petition approached 2,000 signatures.

Hermus emphasized the importance of mental health support on a college campus. Among college students, suicide is the secondleading cause of death and over 24,000 students are known to attempt suicide each year.

One roadblock to meaningful progress is the stigma surrounding mental health and suicide, according to Hermus. It is crucial, he said, to overcome that stigma as a university community — especially when Badgers “have tried committing suicide, or have friends that they’ve lost because of suicide.”

The issue hits particularly close to home for Hermus, whose father took his own life in 2020. He described the emotional turmoil that followed and said therapy allowed him to work his way back to stability. In the wake of his father’s suicide, he sought help through UHS, where a provider made an exception and found space for Hermus in a full schedule.

“I got the help that I needed, but that was only because they were willing to add me to their schedule, and they typically don’t do that,” reflected Hermus. “I thought about it for a long time, and I was thinking, how many other students don’t get that? [I got help] because someone at UHS felt really bad.”

Jackie Garwood is a fifth-year UW-Madison student in the ROTC program. Her main issue with UHS is one many students echoed: wait times. According to Garwood, a student seeking mental help through UHS could expect to wait no less than a month and often more.

Last year, the UW-Madison community lost one of its members, Sarah Shulze, to suicide. Shulze was a member of the track and field team, and Garwood, a Badger rower, said this prompted UW Athletics to provide increased support for its student-athletes.

Following Shulze’s passing, UW hired more psychiatric professionals to its athletic support sta — “but the thing was that that only benefited athletics, [which is] such a small population,” said Garwood.

Garwood’s sister is also a UW-Madison student, but she is not an athlete. When she was struggling with an eating disorder, she was limited in her access to services, Garwood said. She had to wait two months to see help, and when she did, her sessions were limited by a credit system.

“UHS didn’t cover it after a certain point, and she had to find somebody completely different, which slowed her process down quite a bit,” said Garwood of her sister’s experience. “Once you build a connection [with a provider], it’s hard to rebuild and reopen to somebody else.”

Generally, according to Hermus, people’s