Assessment in a University Counseling Center: A Case Example

College and university counseling center personnel are experiencing increased pressure to assess the impact and efficacy of their centers (Bishop, 1995; Cooper & Archer, 2002; Lockard, Hayes, McAleavey & Locke, 2012; Stone & Archer, 1990). This pressure stems from multiple precipitants, including decreased funding for higher education, increased competition among institutions, as well as current trends in assessment and accountability in higher education (Hodges, 2001; Schuh, 2007; Sharkin, 2004; Snell, Mallinckrodt, Hill, & Lambert, 2001; Watkins, Hunt, & Eisenberg, 2011). In addition, administrators and other university staff have become more concerned with the increased pathology and severity of concerns among students (Erickson-Cornish, Riva, Cox-Henderson, Kominars, & McIntosh, 2000; Gallagher, 2012; Rando & Barr, 2010; Watkins, Hunt, & Eisenberg, 2011). Concern among university personnel regarding increased pathology in the student population is warranted. The prevalence rates of college students seeking psychological help has significantly increased over the past few years and so has the number of students with severe mental illness (Gallagher, 2012; Rando & Barr, 2009). According to ACHA's National College Health Assessment (2012), in the past year 31.6% of college students felt so depressed that it was difficult for them to function and 51.3% reported overwhelming anxiety. Additionally, seven and a half percent of college students reported "seriously considering suicide" in the past year. One hopeful note is the work by Locke, Bieschke, Castonguay, and Hayes (2012), which reports that counseling center services have shown to reduce the suicide rate of their clients to one-sixth of what it would be if they were not in counseling. With the increase in demand for services and in severity of psychological problems, it is essential that university counseling centers make their services widely known across campus, identify the mental health needs of their students, and inquire about areas in need of improvement. However, although the prevalence of counseling center assessment has increased recently, the majority of staff members in counseling centers do little or no scholarly research (Cooper & Archer, 2002). Nevertheless, university counseling centers need to assess and highlight student retention and student learning outcomes to demonstrate their value to the university's academic mission. Rather than responding defensively to these pressures to evaluate their effectiveness, college and university counseling centers should respond proactively, using the results of their assessment to increase understanding of the functions of their counseling center, market the value of their counseling center to administrators, and identify areas in need of improvement. Counseling centers that conduct research regarding their impact on campus are better able to fend off budget or staff cuts than those that do not, leaving them able to serve their student population, which is particularly important in these difficult economic times (Brownson, 2010). Thus, staff at the Center for Counseling and Human Development (referred to as the Counseling Center throughout this article) conducted a two-pronged assessment to investigate student's perception of, and experience with, our counseling center. This research was exploratory, thus no specific hypotheses were created. However, in the spirit of acknowledging our biases, the counseling center staff hoped to demonstrate that the counseling center was a well-known resource among students, and that students who received counseling would find it helpful both personally and academically. In addition, counseling center staff hoped to demonstrate that counseling center clients found the services helpful, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, or year in school. Finally, we wanted to confirm that receiving services at the counseling center helps individuals perform better in school and aids in students' retention at the university. …