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THE LANCE
A Weekly Journal of News and Events At St, Andrews Presbyterian College
Volume 18, Number 15 I j Lanrinburg, North Carolina Ides of March, 1979
Counseling Our Depression
By John Fewell
Serving as a counseling,
testing, and occupational-
educational research resour
ce, the Career and Personal
Counseling Center located on
campus maintains “a close
relationship” with the college,
according to Dr. Alfred
Thomas, Director of the Cen-
and of counseling for the
Presbyterian Synod of North
Carolina.
The center here is the
largest of two oprated by the
Synod in North Carolina and
is one of only three counseling
centers in the entire state
which is approved by the In
ternational Association of
Counseling Services.
Under an agreement with
the college the center
provides its services free of
charge to St. Andrews studen
ts whom utilize its resources
through such means as fresh
man testing, which is built in
to the program of the college,
or also on an individual basis.
The center is staffed by
three counseling psychiatrists
who are available for coun
seling in personal problem
areas, educational planning,
and career counseling. It
also features an occupational-
educational library which
students can utilize on their
own without having to see
members of the center’s
professional staff.
“I would say it would be
very rare for a school other
than a major university to
have the extent of the resour
ces that are potentially
available to a student here,”
said Dr Thomas, who has
been Director at the center
since 1970.
The counseling program of
the Synod was begun in 1951
Ml the campus of Flora Mc
Donald College and at that
time served to provide a
career guidance experience
for young people from tiie
churches throughout
the Synod.
Its first director was Dr.
By Joey Sherr
Many students are
by the tape spanning the
length of the west corridor in
the Liberal Arts Building for
the past couple of weeks.
Despite speculation that
Maintenance was using the
tape to keep the building from
falling apart, the tape is ac
tually a time line depicting the
relative occurrence of events
leading to the formation of our
solar system and Earth as we
know them today.
Rodger Decker whom is
presently Director of
Rehabilitation Services and
Professor of Education and
Psychology at St. Andrews.
Since that time the progrsim
has expanded to include a
large adult population from a
wide geographical area, most
of whom come for 2 or 3 day
career development
programs in which, as Dr.
Thomas explained, the par
ticipants seek to “assume
more initiative in giving
direction to their future
rather than just reacting to
whatever happens around
about them.”
There are also 2-day
programs for high school
students (and some students
from other colleges) who
come to the center to discuss
and plan their education and
career objectives.
The center is also visited
periodically throughout the
year by area college groups
who come to look at its
resources and to learn about
its operation.
Dr. Thomas emphasized
that all counseling is kept
strictly confidential. “That’s
basic to the ccunseling
process^” he said.
The following is a dialogue
by Dr. Hiomas during our in
terview. Some of the dialogue
has been left out for brevity’s
sake and to avoid repetititm. I
asked Dr. Thomas to discuss
in general terms the problems
and concerns that were
representative of the St. An
drews students with whom the
counselors at the center are
involved. DR: THOMAS:
“First of all I would make a
generalization...and that is
that it is my impression that
the students at St. Andrews
now and for the last couple of
years or so have been charac
terized by I would say more
emoitonal stability and
maturity and whatnot than we
were experiencing in the
early ‘70’s and periiaps even
in the late ‘60’s, even though
that was before I came, when
According to Dr. Thomas
Blackburn, who conceived the
idea, “The time line is a
Droiect to help STMS students
visualize the linear
relationship of periods of time
since the beginning of the
solar system, which occurred
approximately 4.8 billion
years ago.”
Although the tape is 100
meters long, or 328 feet, man’s
span in this time is only 6.5
centimeters, which is about
2.6 inches.
Blackburn hopes the tape
there was much turmoil just
in general in the country and
that seemed to be reflected
in the individual lives of a lot
of college students who were
wrestling with very
significant moral and ethical
issues and that became very
personal issues.”
“And of course there’s no
question that what the drug
issue was as big problem with
which we were heavily in
volved with students in the
early ‘70’s. We’re not as in
volved as much now so I
would assume from that
there’s less of that problem; I
have no statistics one way or
the other.”
“But we do not get involved
with as much of that though
we certainly do get involved
with particular students who
are having problems related
to drugs. Of course drug
problems are often related to
other kinds of problems too,
so you can’t really isolate
that.”
“Drugs may be a means
that a given person is using to
cope with some other
problems so to say that it is a
drug problem may be
speaking symptomatically as
much as anything else. But in
general we do not get as in
volved now as 5 to 6 years ago
with drug-related programs.”
“Depression, which seems
to surface more as exam time
approaches, is an ongoing
kind of concern with which we
deal among students. I
don’t want to say thafis a
tremendous problem, it’s not
in terms of the number of per
sons we see.”
“But it is found often
enough to say that is a con
cern among a number of
students, often related to par
ticular issues such as exam
time, often related to
breakups with sweethearts or
close friends, whatever,
scanetimes related to family
problems back home and in
trying to deal with it ‘in ab
sentia’ depression sets in; not
necessarily what we would
will last through the spring
term, so students can use it to
study for their STMS exan..
“We originally wanted to
paint a gold strip the length of
the causewalk, since it is
longer than the corridor in the
Liberal Arts Bulling,” said
Blackburn. “However, we
were reluctant to try doing
anything outside because of
all the rain.”
Blackburn plans to try again
next year to paint a line the
length of the causewalk for the
project.
define as clinical depression
whicn IS highly debilitating,
but at least it is bad enough
that it is inhibiting and makes
it difficult to function ef
fectively as a student.”
“And we find that then it
takes the form of not going to
classes, not eettine work in on
time, doing a poor per
formance, a performance that
is not at the level or earlier in
dications of what the student
can do.”
“Another kind of problem
that we deal with a good bit,
and there’s a sense in which
that may be more than any
other single category simply
because that is also a
specialty area of the center,
By Steven J. Kunkle, Editor
The First Annual St. An
drews Alumni Phonathon was
conducted in the Student
Union on March 5,6, and 7.
Students from Albemarle,
Concord, and Highlands
Dorms, and also represen
tatives from WSAP Radio,
caUed more than 400 alumni
during the three day period.
The Phonathon is part of the
Alumni Division of the St.
Andrews Annual Fund. The
goal for the Alumni Division
is $35,000 for 1978-79 with the
overall goal of the Annual
Fund set at $525,000.
The Phonathon netted a
total of 235 pledges, which by
far exceeded the goal of 120
pledges.
Greg Piccola and Steve
Newton’s determined efforts
on behalf of WSAP led the
radio station to a first place
finish with 98 pledges
received. For their efforts,
WSAP will recive $100.
and that is problems in
making career decisions
which may then have a
relationship to educational
decisions.”
“So this would not be so
much in a personal problem
area except than any decision
to be made is a personal
issue. But certainly in terms
of numbers of students with
whom we work those that we
see in helping them to make
decisions about the future in
career and lifestyle terms
could be a significant part of
that.”
“That would be more of
what I would call a growth
(Continued on Page 3)
Highlands Dorm was second
in number of pledges received
with 44. Leading the
Highlands effort was Bill
Knight. For this they will
receive $50, the second place
award.
Carol Carpenter, Marion
Bowden, Paula Sleter were
the leading solicitors from
Albemarle, while Kim FarKer
and Catherine Carroll led the
Concord effort.
It was the first time students
had participated in an alumni
phonathon drive, but ac
cording to Ron Leitch,
director of development, it
won’t be the last.
“Alumni Annual Fund
Chairman Joe Chandler, ’64,
and I were delighted with the
results,” said Leitch. “The 24
students who participated all
performed like seasoned
veterans. They should all be
proud of what they have done
for the future of our college.”
Time Charges Forward
■''he activity was fast and furious during the 1st Annual
Alumni Phonathon conducted in the President’s Dining Room
la; i, week. Twenty-four students participated in the effort and
potained 235 pledges to the St. Andrews Annual Fund.
Alumni Phonathon