Abstract
CULTURAL AND RESOURCE CENTERS (CRCs) on college campuses are pivotal safe havens for minoritized students. These centers and ethnic studies programs were established as a product of student activism in the 1960s to address the demands for recognition and support of students with diverse cultural identities at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) (Patton, 2023). Initially tasked by administrators to manage student unrest, these centers have evolved into essential spaces. CRCs respond to immediate student needs (such as offering support following racial bias incidents or providing financial aid literacy coaching) and foster community by engaging students in cultural programming and by offering physical space for students to connect with peers, faculty, and staff with similar cultural identities. The collective offerings of the CRCs help students develop and/or strengthen their sense of belonging. Despite their critical role, these centers often operate with limited resources. They are expected to address multiple demands, including recruiting students to the university to enhance diversity, cultural outreach to departments and offices across campus, and retention support. In her 2010 book chapter on Latina/o culture centers, Adele Lozano (2010) shared their significance as a unique and empowering space. She emphasized how these centers provide holistic learning opportunities where students can explore and affirm their racial and ethnic identities—a role crucial for many students who may find these centers to be their primary campus spaces for such experiences. Despite their critical role, these centers often operate with limited resources.
At the University of Arizona, Kenny and Max serve as staff for Asian Pacific American Student Affairs (APASA)—the cultural center focused on Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American (APIDA) students. As of the Fall 2024 semester, 11% of the student population identifies within the APIDA diaspora. Kenny is in his seventh year as director for APASA, and Max is in his third year as an Embedded Counselor for students in APASA. In what follows, we share our experience developing a unique partnership between Counseling & Psychological Services and APASA to support the mental health and well-being of APIDA students.
APASA and APIDA Students’ Mental Wellness
APASA WAS FOUNDED IN MARCH 1993 by student activists at the University of Arizona due to their concerns about the administration's insufficient support and understanding of the diverse experiences and perspectives of the campus’ Asian Pacific American students. Since its founding, APASA has been able to physically exist because of the generosity of other CRCs at our university. Initially, African American Student Affairs (AASA) offered physical space for APASA inside their center. Later, given the ups and downs of institutional dynamics, when APASA received its own location, and subsequently had it taken away, Native American Student Affairs (NASA) shared their physical space with APASA for 13 years. Finally, in 2022, the university granted APASA their own permanent space in the Student Union. Although allocating physical space for APASA never seemed to be an institutional priority at the University of Arizona during these years, since its inception, APASA has served as a vital resource, providing support and fostering community among Asian Pacific American students at our institution. From the recruitment of prospective students through graduation, APASA offers programming and support services that are compelling and culturally relevant. APASA advises and supports APIDA ethnic and cultural student organizations, offers programming that caters to the needs of the students, hosts monthly lunches for APIDA students, faculty, and staff to come together, collaborates with Housing to support the APIDA Scholars Living Learning Community, partners with Asian Pacific American Studies faculty for programming, and provides space and staff support for students to meet with peers who share their cultural identities.
Approximately 2000 APIDA-identifying students attended APASA programs like the ones we’ve listed. Still, despite APASA's work and that of the additional CRCs at the University of Arizona, minoritized students over the years have tended to often experience the broader campus climate as a hostile and culturally insensitive place to be in school. In the Spring 2016, students from multiple Cultural and Resource Centers joined forces to present a unified set of demands known as the Marginalized Students of the University of Arizona (MSUA). Their demands highlighted significant concerns and frustrations, particularly regarding the lack of culturally sensitive staff to support students of color during their transition to campus life. Central to their concerns was the desire to see their diverse identities represented among the Counseling and Psych Services (CAPS) staff. Students wanted CAPS clinicians who reflected their diverse identities and for all CAPS staff to provide culturally competent support and understanding. Students wanted CAPS clinicians who reflected their diverse identities and for all CAPS staff to provide culturally competent support and understanding.
Then, President Hart took a full year to address these demands and mobilize the U of A administration. After being called out by these ardent minoritized student leaders, the administrators allocated a trivial amount of funding to (a) expand staffing in each of the cultural centers by one FTE, (b) create a student staff position that serves as Financial Aid Peer Advisor in each center, and (c) offer programming funds of $5,000 for six cultural and resource centers to address students’ health and wellness needs.
On one hand, this could be seen as a financial drop in the bucket for the university. On the other hand, the initial funding to address students’ health and wellness needs was important because it allowed APASA to hire a local therapist for two to three hours/week of office hours at APASA during the academic year 2018–2019. We were grateful for their willingness to support APASA students, but initially, few students utilized her office hours. Despite students’ experiences of distress, they were hesitant to seek counseling. This reality is in line with research showing that Asian Americans are three times less likely than Whites to seek mental health services (NLAAS). Similarly, in 2007, Jennifer Abe-Kim and colleagues (2007) found comparable results where only 8.6% of Asian Americans sought any mental health services or resources compared to 18% of the general population. Providing more detail on the basis of a systemic research review, Andrea Martinez and her colleagues (2020) reported Asian Americans regularly cite mental health stigma as the primary reason why they are less likely to utilize mental health services.
To break down these barriers, APASA professional staff asked student staff and student leaders for feedback on how to entice students to utilize the provider's time at APASA. Based on their feedback, for example, one of the shifts we made was to feature the counselor's first hour of the week at APASA concurrently with a program like “Faculty & Staff Fridays”—an activity where we encouraged faculty, staff, and community members to introduce themselves to one another in the hopes that students would connect with them during the event. As soon as more students understood the provider's role at APASA, and that APASA covered all fees, the appointments quickly filled! The increased utilization of those services proved that students needed these specific resources to be able to address their mental health needs on campus.
Due to the familiar theme of funding limits, CAPS at the University of Arizona cannot provide all student counseling services for free. According to the CAPS Annual Report 2023 (Abraham, 2023), 80% of University of Arizona students reported financial cost as the top barrier to accessing mental health services. What is even more alarming, students who identify within the demographics of queer students, students with disabilities, first-generation learners, and international students reported cost as a barrier more often than the rest of their peers. On average, one counseling session would cost between $20 and 35 per counseling session, with or without insurance. CAPS provides student assistance funds, supported by donations from past and current students to help defray the cost of the sessions. Another confounding consideration for learners who come from families associated with high stigma regarding mental health is the utilization of their health insurance, as doing so would result in an insurance statement being billed to their parents and thus outing their use of such services with unknown familial consequences.
Establishing the Site-Based Counselor Positions
BUILDING ON THE EFFORTS of the MSUA List of Demands in 2016, The Coalition of Black Students and Allies at the University of Arizona (COBA) more recently re-emphasized in an updated list of institutional demands the urgent need for enhanced mental health resources to support QT + BIPOC students during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Thanks to their advocacy, by December 2020, funding through the University's President's Office was provided to the Counseling and Psych Services (CAPS) Department to create four embedded/site-based counselor positions.
Prior to this funding, CAPS had attempted to establish a partnership with the CRCs by appointing a liaison with limited hours. However, COVID-19 put a hold on our ability to ensure these services could be utilized in person, causing a pivot in our plans toward catering to the pressures of the global pandemic. Students narrowly utilized Office Hours during the initial rollout in the Fall of 2020. To increase utilization, the center staff had to be creative with the messaging of these resources. The staff leaned heavily on social media and email messages sent directly to our target community. After a few months, because of the campaign (and possibly because of the prolonged pandemic), students started attending Drop-In Hours, thus, here again, proving the need for such initiatives in collaboration between CAPS and the cultural center. To increase utilization, the center staff had to be creative with the messaging of these resources.
By December 2020, the new funding enabled CAPS to create and sustain full-time embedded/site-based counselor (SBC) positions that met the demands at no cost to the students. CAPS collaborated with the cultural centers to identify and recruit these clinicians. Initially, four positions were created for the following cultural centers: AASA, APASA, Guerrero Student Center, and NASA. With additional funding from various sources, SBC positions have expanded to include International Student Services, LGBTQ Affairs, Veterinary Medicine, Fostering Success, and a half-time position at the Disability Cultural Center.
To enable the success of these positions, all SBCs fall under the purview of CAPS, which provides a hierarchical structure as well as logistical, clinical, and supervision support. In addition, the SBC supervisor would conduct periodic meetings with the cultural centers’ director to ensure that both parties’ needs are being met. The cultural centers are then responsible for providing office space, advertisement, and working closely with the SBC to address the mental health needs of the center.
Role of Site-Based Counselors—Max's Experience
I WAS HIRED as the SBC in order to provide culturally competent care through a range of modalities such as individual counseling sessions, educational outreach presentations on relevant topics affecting the community, and/or workshops. As we mentioned earlier, stigma surrounding mental health care among the APIDA community must first be addressed and trust must be established between the SBC and the students who make use of the center. We achieved this through three initiatives: advertising, informal interactions, and intentional programming.
In terms of advertising, APASA provided the relevant support in creating an informational flier regarding the SBC's hours of operation and a QR code to access a form on the CAPS website to set up an appointment. The flier is then promoted in the weekly newsletter, social media accounts, and electronic displays; additionally, physical copies are displayed throughout the center. At events hosted by the center, staff members are encouraged to introduce themselves and their role, creating another opportunity to connect with the students.
Beyond marketing, a key component of building trust with the student body is through consistent informal interactions outside of those times. Being genuinely interested in the well-being of the students allows us to get to know each other, creates an opportunity to explore and deconstruct their stigma regarding mental health, and provides an opportunity for them to learn more about my role and the therapeutic process. Anecdotal data supports the success of these interactions in the form of students approaching me directly to set up appointments over time, and by word-of-mouth referrals. Beyond marketing, a key component of building trust with the student body is through consistent informal interactions outside of those times.
Through those informal interactions, I also inquired about topics of interest for intentionally designed educational outreach presentations. Based on the students’ feedback, I would craft a presentation to address topics such as Tiger Parenting, Study Habits, or Journaling. At times, I collaborated with CRC staff members and/or fellow SBCs on the presentation's content while the centers provided the logistical needs to carry out the programming.
Impact of SBC
OVER THE PAST two years, the data collected by our assessment team illustrates the demand for services and the positive impact that it has had on students’ mental health. According to the data, the top five most prevalent mental health concerns expressed by the students who utilized services at APASA are anxiety/panic, depression, hopelessness, academic concerns, and family difficulties. These concerns are aligned with the top ten diagnoses per the FY 2023 CAPS Annual Report 2023 (Abraham, 2023). Students have also expressed their appreciation for the services through thank you letters containing notes.
According to data from Rachel Abraham (2024) collected internally and used to gauge the success of SBC utilization at APASA, the increase in demand for mental health services illustrates a 79% increase in the number of students seen and an 80% increase in student visits. During my first year (June 2022–May 2023), 76 students were seen at the center with a total of 166 visits. Those numbers jumped in the second year to 136 students, with a total of 299 visits. The CAPS data also illustrated an 85% decrease in high distress levels reported by students from their initial to the latest visit.
Students have also expressed their appreciation for the services through thank you letters containing notes such as “thank you for being there at a pivotal period in my life, and for helping me delve deeper into understanding myself when that was the last thing I wanted to do … I appreciate you helping me feel less alone in that road of unpacking and growth.” Another student wrote, “I learned so many different perspectives, you made me think. Thanks to you, I’ve made some big realizations and changes.”
Synergy between CAPS and APASA
THESE EXAMPLES ARE a testament to the synergy between the SBC and the APASA Cultural Center. The relationship between APASA and CAPS has so far been successful due to the strong connection and communication between Kenny (director) and Max (counselor). We set aside egos and focus on supporting our students. We regularly check in and share concerns when we notice students acting a little out of the ordinary. We both refer students to each other. Kenny meets with students who need additional support with campus life, scholarships, and/or academic concerns, whereas Max meets with students seeking support related to health and wellness. Finally, like all other campuses in the U.S. today, we also anticipate supporting students during campus and nationwide crises. Here, we sometimes pivot and expand our support to other communities affected by a current crisis. Whether it's after such crises have been processed with students or after meeting the demands of our regular services and programming, our staff, in return, are also encouraged to take some time to refresh.
Footnotes
We love feedback. Send letters to executive editor Z Nicolazzo (