Student Perceptions of College Counseling Center Services

This article presents how a college counseling center can be an integral part of a seamless learning environment. One barrier to this conceptualization of counseling as a source of learning are stereotypes of counseling centers as campus facilities for only crisis-oriented mental health treatment. While college counseling centers are used to contend with crises, it is unclear whether the reasons they are not used for more preventative work is due only to the clinical needs of students. Misperceptions and lack of awareness of services may additionally affect the use of the center. Data is presented from a midsize university in the Northeast regarding students' (a) perceptions of the existence of a counseling center on campus, (b) willingness to use center services and (c) awareness of specific services provided. Although the majority of students polled were aware of the counseling center, they reported moderate mental health concerns as their major reason for using the center and seemed to be unaware of the majority of services provided. The overall perception of the counseling center may minimize the extent of mental health resources utilized. Programming and marketing strategies are presented to begin to overcome this lack of awareness, and suggestions are made to improve this type of needs assessment in order to include the college counseling center as a contributor to a seamless learning/second curriculum environment.