Student Counseling Services is expanding this semester and has three new positions with open applications from Aug. 9 until Aug. 23. 

With the counseling center’s move to Oakview Circle last year, as well as a student health fee increase, the opportunity to expand and add new positions became possible. 

 The student health fee increased $15 from last year. Dr. Lynne Martin, director of student counseling, said the majority of the health fee is for the new positions and will be used to expand the services offered. 

“This will enable us to expand programming on campus and do a lot more educational activities,” Martin said. 

The new positions, which Martin said she hopes to fill this fall, were introduced at a SGA Senate meeting last year where Vice President for Student Affairs David Shields advocated for what the fee increase could mean for students.

“We thought it would be more helpful if we offered more services,” said SGA President Laura Giles. 

Martin said the expansion will allow more bodies, and with more bodies you offer more services. Most of the money this semester is going to counseling services for the expansion. 

“This is a necessary fee,” said Vice-President of Senate Nikki Messer. “VP Shields came into our meeting about this — half went to health and half went to counseling.”

Each position is full-time. Two are 10-month positions, both for licensed mental-health counselors. One of these positions will include the responsibility of managing the Care Team, which is UNA’s behavioral intervention team.

According to UNA’s Division of Student Affairs website, the Care Team’s purpose is to enable the university to provide early intervention, support and behavioral responses to students displaying distressed or disruptive behavior. 

The third full-time position is a 12-month position as a senior-level, mental-health counselor. The job includes being a skilled and experienced mental-health generalist, as well as providing individual and group counseling to UNA students.  

Counseling service hopes to offer more group counseling and do more activities on campus. With these new positions they have the opportunity to offer more with their services, Martin said.