At Williams and Trinity, students from 2014-15 waited at most two days to get non-emergency mental health counseling.

At Amherst, they waited a day and a half.

At Bowdoin and Connecticut College, they had no wait.

At Wesleyan, they waited three weeks.

For three weeks, students who needed counseling and support marked down the days on their calendars as they missed classes, lost sleep, dropped commitments, and suffered.

Now, a year later, they still have to wait over a week and face a limit on the number of weekly appointments they can make per year.

In 2015, the budgeting committee approved a crucial financial request from Wesleyan’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and halved the wait time, but Wesleyan still lags far below its peer institutions in the care it offers. Wesleyan must continue to take steps that draw it nearer to providing the care its students need.

If Wesleyan hopes that its students will grow into leaders and torchbearers, it, as an institution, should endeavor to do the same and commit to providing students care when they need—that means no wait—for as many times as the need—that means no cap on the number of weekly visits. Namely, the budget committee should approve the CAPS fiscal year 2017 budget request and:

1. Hire two new, full-time psychologists.
2. Raise our half-time therapist up to full-time.
3. Approve the hiring of a full-time Advanced Practicing Nurse Practitioner (APRN).
4. Increase the CAPS operating budget for the first time in six years.

With this signature, I lend my voice to a growing chorus of Wesleyan students who are speaking out against administrative underfunding and understaffing of CAPS and affirm my support for Establishing Adequate CAPS Staffing. I demand that Wesleyan University approve the CAPS FY17 budget request in its entirety.