‘Boy Erased’ condemns gay conversion therapy with nuanced portrayal of queer identity, family relationships, faith see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 8
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Men’s soccer clinches win over Stevens in NCAA Round 2 after dominant display in second half see SPORTS / BACK PAGE
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THE
INDEPENDENT
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T HE T UFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 45
tuftsdaily.com
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.
CMHS offers telehealth as new counseling option for students by Abbie Gruskin
Assistant News Editor
Tufts’ Counseling and Mental Health Service (CMHS) partnered over the past year with BetterHelp and iHope Network, two services that provide remote telehealth counseling services, in an effort to increase students’ access to mental health services, according to Executive Director of Health and Wellness Michelle Bowdler. The university reminded students of the services in an Oct. 17 email, after previously announcing them in a June 13 email. BetterHelp is offered over text, live chat, phone and video conference, while iHope is available on video conference, according to CMHS’ website. Bowdler said that with traditional in-person counseling appointments, students may encounter difficulties that would decrease their interest or ability to seek care. “When somebody is thinking about wanting therapy, one of the things that sometimes is a barrier is the counseling center has times available but it’s not the times a student can do it,” Bowdler said. “When people think about going off campus, or they’re referred off campus, one of the barriers for them is, ‘Well, it’s going to take me 20 minutes to walk to Davis Square,’ or ‘This person is in Cambridge and it’s only three miles away but I don’t want to pay for an Uber, and I can’t do that and pay a copay.’” Telehealth allows for flexible timing and location of appointments, appealing to students with hectic schedules, Bowdler added. “[BetterHelp and iHope] sometimes have people who have more off-hour availabili-
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Tufts Counseling and Mental Health Service, located on 120 Curtis St., is pictured on Oct. 23. ty,” Bowdler said. “[Students] can get online and there are many people to choose from, and they can look for [early or late appointments] … They’re not spending 20 minutes going and 20 minutes going back. They don’t have the stress of having to get to their appointment; they don’t have to worry.” Text and chat functions also allow students to enter the system and choose from potential therapists before committing, according to Bowdler. Bowdler cited research showing that telehealth platforms BetterHelp and iHope, which focus on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can be as effective or more effective than in-person therapy. “[iHope has] research that showed for CBT — particularly with telehealth — that it’s as
good or better doing it online as doing it in person,” Bowdler said. Bowdler said that many colleges throughout the United States have responded to a growing demand for counseling services by introducing additional resources, including telehealth options. Bowdler added that telehealth services can offer students a longer course of treatment, compared to the shortterm model of care that Tufts, like most other universities, provides. “What most counseling centers around the country are finding is adding therapists alone is not sufficient to keep up with demand,” Bowdler said. “So when you’re thinking about what’s needed on a college campus, you have to think about building community and additional resources as well.”
UnitedHealthcare StudentResources, which provides student health insurance for Tufts, added BetterHelp as a free benefit last spring, Bowdler said. Tufts has since partnered with iHope, a similar service that accepts major insurance plans, according to CMHS’ website. iHope bills students for the same copay amount as in-person appointments, and thus costs less than BetterHelp for students not under Tufts’ student health insurance plan, according to Bowdler. “For people who don’t have the student insurance, BetterHelp was kind of expensive,” Bowdler said. “With iHope, it was an alternative for people who didn’t have student insurance. We wanted to have two options, one for people who had the student insurance and one for people who didn’t … so that we would have something for everybody.” Other Boston-area schools, like Harvard University and Brandeis University, have already adopted telehealth services with promising results, according to Bowdler. The timing of the reminder email from CMHS was meant to coincide with midterms, upcoming finals and holidays, according to Jennifer Berrios, associate director of administration for Health and Wellness Services. “Historically we know that midterms, finals and holidays are stressful times for students,” Berrios told the Daily in an email. “These are also times when we see increased demand for mental health services. We wanted to get the message out to students about alternative mental health see CMHS, page 2
Senate meets with Dean of Arts and Sciences, hears funding requests by Alexander Thompson Staff Writer
The Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate met Monday night for its weekly meeting in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room for a question and answer session with Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences James Glaser and to hear supplementary funding appeals. The question and answer session with Glaser began with a discussion of student housing. Glaser cited the addition of over 100 beds in Stratton Hall and the construction of CoHo as examples of the university’s response to the lack of housing. The discussion then moved to Americans with Disabilities Act com-
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pliance which Glaser said the university has been working on over time and that significant funds have been invested in deferred maintenance, according to TCU Senate Vice President Adam Rapfogel. The inclusion of textbooks in financial aid awards was also discussed and Glaser said that $2.5 million had been invested by the university in part to defray these costs, according to Rapfogel, a senior. Glaser also said that the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts would be capping the admission of combined degrees this year but would work to push the number of students pursuing a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree to 85. Finally, Glaser discussed the university’s financial structure.
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Of the tuition paid to the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, around 15 percent goes to fund the central administration; the rest is first used to fund things shared between the two schools, like sports teams or Tisch Library. What remains is further split — roughly 80 percent for Arts and Sciences and 20 percent for Engineering, though Arts and Sciences accounts for 84 percent of enrollment, according to Glaser. He explained that the discrepancy is due to higher costs associated with educating engineering students. Rapfogel appreciated Glaser’s visit, noting the rarity of high-level university administrators coming to the Senate’s weekly meeting. “In my four years on Senate we haven’t had many senior decision-makers
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come in and answer questions for us,” Rapfogel said. “It was great to have time for us to find out how the university makes financial decisions. I’m really happy to hear [Dean Glaser] is interested in continuing the conversation, and I’m excited for our future projects.” After Glaser departed, TCU President Jacqueline Chen said that in the wake of an Allocations Board funding appeal heard last week, senators needed to remember to be friendly during such hearings. Last week, senators rejected a request for over $1,000 by the Korean Students Association on the grounds that it was “fiscally irresponsible,” TCU Historian Rebeca Becdach, a sophomore, said at the time.
NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 OPINION.....................................5
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