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About 35% of Syracuse University’s student population meet the qualifications for depression, an official from the Barnes Center at The Arch said at a Graduate Student Organization Senate meeting Wednesday.

The GSO Senate hosted staff from the Barnes Center to learn about the mental health services being offered on campus.

At the meeting, Cory Wallack, executive director of health and wellness at the Barnes Center, spoke about available mental health services for graduate students.

Wallack presented the Barnes Center’s model for mental health assistance, which focuses on health, counseling and recreation.  

“The easiest way to think of the Barnes Center model is a table with multiple legs,” Wallack said. “And that table represents your wellness, and if you take any of those legs out from underneath it, your table starts to get wobbly.”

During any given academic year, about 35% of the student population will meet the diagnostic criteria for depression, Wallack said.

Wallack, who has served in multiple health care roles at SU including as director of the counseling center, refuted the idea that a solution to this problem is bringing in more psychologists. He said hiring alone wouldn’t address the key issues, such as loneliness and nutritional issues, that can contribute to students experiencing depression.

“A lot of times when students come to us about being depressed, a lot of it has to do with a lack of nutrition,” Wallack said. 

For graduate students, the Barnes Center has a specific group dedicated to helping students navigate the graduate experience, he said. There are services for graduate students of a variety of different backgrounds, such as grad students of color and LGBTQ students.

To help people who experience seasonal depression, Wallack said the Barnes Center offers trips to get students off campus, Wallack said. 

“The totality is that you are living a stressful life,” Wallack said. “You have a lot of demands, so we want to get you guys out of the house for like an hour.”

Also during the meeting, the GSO Senate held elections for at-Large senators. 

The senate nominated Poonam Sawant, a graduate student in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management; Sagarika Barde, a graduate student in the School of Information Studies; Prathu Garg, an electrical engineering graduate student; and Nirali Kabli, an information management graduate student. GSO elected Sawant, Barde and Kabli.

GSO President Yousr Dhaouadi said the organization secured suite 122 in Lyman Hall as a new office for the GSO Senate. Dhaouadi said she hopes to expand alumni engagement in GSO, as well as make it more present on campus.

“We are looking at strengthening GSO as a standalone entity,” Dhaouadi said.

She later addressed the inclusivity of students enrolled in online graduate programs at SU and in the organization. Due to the increase of online graduate students, she is looking into how GSO should handle and work with online students. She suggested charging these students the same student activity fee as on-campus graduate students. 

“We want the option for every program to have an online representative,” said Dhaouadi.

She is also working toward getting greater advocacy and representation for graduate students in the Barnes Center.

During the meeting, GSO appointed Vito Iaia as interim president pro tempore of the senate, the first one in the organization.

“Initially, I was taken aback when I was approached for this position because I was in my second year on the senate,” Iaia said. “In just one year, I learned how the GSO functions.”

Iaia is eager to create a strong system for graduate students to depend on.

“I know being the first president pro tempore will help move the GSO to efficiency and a better resource to every graduate student at Syracuse University,” Iaia said.

Published on November 11, 2021 at 1:02 am