WINTER 2008 11 Dispatches

DISPATCHES Campus Lifeline Counseling is key for students facing mental health problems. For college students grappling line, and students with the most mechanisms recommended by with depression or anxiety, urgent needs receive appoint- the UW System report: a pro- access to mental health counsel- ments the same day, or the fol- cess to track students who are ing can mean the difference lowing morning if they call after identified as high-risk once they between failing and passing an hours. Other students typically are referred to off-campus pro- exam — or between staying in see a counselor the day after viders for continued care and school and dropping out. they call, says Bob McGrath, a treatment. “If there’s anyone When a recent audit found clinical psychologist and director that there’s a concern about,” long waits at some UW System of counseling and consultation he says, “we’re not just going to campuses for students who services for University Health make a referral. We’re going to want counseling appointments, Services (UHS). refer and follow up.” members of the board of “Student issues can be very McGrath and Van Orman regents responded with alarm. transitional,” McGrath says, say UW-Madison won’t seek to While students with the most explaining the need for prompt adopt some of the report’s other urgent needs are prioritized at attention. recommendations — including all schools, increased enrollment A spring 2007 survey by the using more group therapy, set- at some UW System campuses is American College Health Asso- ting a strict limit on the num- making it difficult for counsel- ciation found that more than ber of counseling sessions per ing staff to keep up with overall 60 percent of college students student, and charging fees to demand. In fact, the number of reported feeling hopeless at help cover costs. The university’s 37,000 staff has remained unchanged times, 45 percent said they were counseling service offers a num- since 2002 across the system. depressed to the point of hav- ber of targeted support groups, The reduction per year — At one extreme is UW- ing trouble functioning, nearly but, in many cases, groups are in tons — of UW-Madison’s Milwaukee, with just one coun- 10 percent considered attempt- not the right substitute for indi- carbon dioxide emissions under selor for every 4,289 students ing suicide, and 1.6 percent had vidual sessions, Van Orman says. We Conserve, a campus energy and where the wait for an attempted suicide at least once UW-Madison’s guidelines initiative launched in April appointment can be as long as during the past school year. include a maximum of 10 ses- 2006. Efforts include energy four weeks during a semester’s “A lot of mental illnesses sions per student — a limit not upgrades to buildings such as busiest times. However, UW- emerge at this age,” says Sarah strictly enforced for those who Chamberlin Hall, piloting a Madison — the only system Van Orman, UHS director. need more help — but the aver- power-management system school meeting the minimum “So this is the place to have age number of sessions is 4.5. for computers, employing staffing ratio established by the resources.” Last, charging any access fees for more efficient steam and the International Association of An increased demand counseling services would “put a chilled water production, Counseling Services Standards for the counseling services is barrier up for students at a time and using more energy- — has one counselor for every expected as more veterans when we don’t want to put bar- efficient light bulbs. 1,492 students and is able to enroll in college, and because riers,” Van Orman says. provide a quicker response. faculty, staff, and student The $150 segregated fee UW-Madison operates a awareness has grown follow- that each UW-Madison student twenty-four-hour crisis phone ing the tragedies at Northern pays per semester helps to cover Illinois and Virginia Tech in counseling, plus medical and pre- which troubled students went vention services. The fees total Who needs on shooting sprees. But, Van about half of the $2.4 million help and why Orman says, violence is not the budget for salaries and benefits typical response from students for counseling staff, with the rest • 9 percent of UW-Mad- who are struggling with depres- coming from state tax dollars. ison’s 42,041 students sion or anxiety. “The most com- The start of the fall semester seek counseling services. mon outcome,” she says, “is in September was “intense” as • Two-thirds are female; them dropping out of school usual for UW-Madison’s counsel- just under half are seniors or not doing well. If we know ing services, McGrath says, but or graduate students. that we can get students in [for he adds that the challenges of • Most-common problems: counseling] and get them into the work are outweighed by the depression and anxiety the right kinds of treatment, rewards. “Now and then you get disorders they’re going to do better, and a letter from someone from five Data from 2007–08. Source: they’re going to stay in school.” years ago that says, ‘You helped University Health Services McGrath notes that his me make it through.’ ” office already has one of the — Jenny Price ’96 10 ON WISCONSIN DISPATCHES It Doesn’t Add Up We’ve all heard it, and many of The effect sizes they found were us believe it: girls just aren’t as very close to zero, indicating good at math as boys are. But is that average scores of girls and it true? boys were the same. After sifting through “Boys did a teeny bit better mountains of data, a team of in some states, and girls did a scientists says the answer is no. teeny bit better in others,” says Whether they looked at aver- Hyde. “But when you average age performance, the scores of them all, you essentially get no the most gifted children, or stu- difference.” dents’ ability to solve complex Some critics argue, however, math problems, they found that that even when average per- girls measured up to boys. formance is equal, gender dis- “There just aren’t gender crepancies may still exist at the differences anymore in math highest levels of mathematical performance,” says Janet ability. So the team searched for problem-solving. Hyde, a UW psychology profes- those, as well. They compared, Still, will all of this be sor who led the study. “Parents for example, the variability in enough to finally shift our coun- and teachers need to revise boys’ and girls’ math scores — try’s long-held attitudes about their thoughts about this.” the idea being thatif more boys gender and math? Hyde can’t Although girls today take fell into the top scoring percen- say, but she remains determined just as many advanced high tiles than girls, the variance in to do her part. school math courses as boys do, their scores would be greater. “Stereotypes are very, very and women earn 48 percent The effort again uncovered little resistant to change,” she says, of all mathematics bachelor’s difference, as did a comparison ”but as a scientist, I have to degrees, the stereotype persists of how well boys and girls did challenge them with data.” that girls struggle with math, on questions requiring complex — Madeline Fisher PhD’98 says Hyde. Not only do many parents and teachers believe this, but scholars also use it to explain the dearth of female A Degree of Success Earning a college diploma pays off in the long run, but it seems mathematicians, engineers, and degrees from some universities net more than others. PayScale physicists at the highest levels. Inc., an online provider of global compensation data, recently Cultural beliefs like this are surveyed 1.2 million people who attended one of three hundred “incredibly influential,” Hyde schools, hold bachelor’s degrees, and have a minimum of ten years says, making it critical to ques- of work experience. (The typical mid-career employee is defined tion them, “because if your as forty-two years old with fifteen and a half years of experience.) mom or your teacher thinks you The survey excluded respondents with advanced degrees, includ- can’t do math, that can have a ing MBAs, MDs, and JDs. big impact on your math self- concept.” UW-Madison graduates ranked fifth in the Big Ten for mid-career To carry out its query, the salaries. Here’s how they stacked up among some other peer team acquired math scores from institutions. the annual state exams that are now mandated under the No DARTMOUTH $134,000* Child Left Behind Act, along with detailed statistics on test UC BERKELEY $112,000 takers, including gender, grade ILLINOIS $ 96,100** level, and ethnicity, from ten states. Using data from more MICHIGAN $ 93,000 than 7 million students, they then calculated the “effect WISCONSIN $ 87,800 size,” a statistic that reports the MINNESOTA $ 84,200 degree of difference between * Top among all schools girls’ and boys’ average math OHIO STATE $ 83,700*** ** First in Big Ten scores in standardized units. *** Last in Big Ten WINTER 2008 11 DISPATCHES Telling Tales UW students introduce Wisconsin schoolchildren to African traditions. During her childhood in Nigeria, located nearly five hours north song in the Disney film The Mobolaji Falomo x’10 didn’t of Madison — had just a hand- Lion King. As the children raise spend family time in front of ful of African-American stu- their hands, Okelo explains that the television. At night, when dents.

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