by Katy Knapp
Daily Lobo
Students who go to counseling services at the health center for help with extreme suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts or self-mutilation could find themselves withdrawn from the University.
A proposed policy would withdraw a student involuntarily from UNM if they are deemed dangerous to themselves or others.
The policy is still in draft stages, said Carol Wagner-Adams, manager of Counseling and Therapy Services, who is one of the creators of the policy.
The withdrawal is not permanent, she said, and students can come back the University once they receive help for their problems.
"We are not a mental health hospital," Wagner-Adams said. "We are a University first. If we feel we can't take care of a student safely, then we have the obligation to find them care until they are safe."
She said the policy was drafted because UNM has had a high suicide rate in recent years and has no prevention policy.
Other schools, such as the University of Oregon, temporarily suspend students who are suicidal.
Wagner-Adams said the policy will undergo an extensive review process before it is proposed to the administration at UNM.
Eliseo Torres, vice president of student affairs, is still reviewing the policy.
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He will meet with other administrators, Wagner-Adams and a University attorney to review the policy in the next couple months.
"Once things slow down, I'll visit with all of them," Torres said.
Torres said he has not discussed what would happen to students who were on the Lottery Scholarship.
"Right now we're more concerned about the safety of the students, not about the money," he said.
Molly McCoy Brack, director of the Agora Crisis Center at UNM, said the policy leaves a lot open for misinterpretation.
"They need to make it clear that the policy is intended only for kids who are in imminent danger or harm," she said. "It should be a last resort."
McCoy Brack said the policy does not say that.
Wagner-Adams said since the policy is still in draft form, it will be reviewed multiple times before it is officially proposed.
"Who knows what changes there's going to be, or even if the policy is going to go through," she said.
She said CATS treats about 12,000 students a year. Only one or two students a year have been asked to leave the University because CATS therapists or psychiatrists diagnosed them as harmful.
"There are always clinical judgments that need to be made," she said. "There are people that come to the University who aren't very stable."
Wagner-Adams said it is not be fair for other students to feel unsafe in their living situation or have to take care of someone unstable.
She said students have asked the administration to help them deal with people they felt unsafe around in the past, but no policy has ever been drafted until now.
"It becomes a problem when one person's right interferes with the rights of others," she said.
McCoy Brack said she is concerned the policy would create a "don't ask, don't tell" mentality for students seeking help.
"This policy on its own could discourage people from getting help," she said.
McCoy Brack said people place a stigma on people asking for help, which is something Agora tries to address when they do suicide prevention work.
"People don't know how to ask for help," she said. "They hold it all inside - it snowballs until it's too big to take care of."
