In a New York Times article published in January titled "Positives With Roots in Tragedy on Campus," Michael Winerip wrote that "some of the best university programs-at Virginia Tech, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Western Kentucky University-have been spurred by some of the worst tragedies." Following the suicide which shook the Brandeis community in February, Brandeis administrators say that the University has been no exception in evaluating the effectiveness of the counseling resources available to students, whether through the administration, Department of Community Living, Psychological Counseling Center or student-run peer counseling groups.

"I don't think the suicide was the result of any hole in our system or any weakness in it," said Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer. "But we would not be professional and we would not be the Brandeis administration that we are had we not done a lot of introspection and had we not done a lot of review," he said.

Although the University has not set up a specific committee or written an official report to evaluate its counseling resources since the suicide, recent meetings of administrators have frequently included reflections and discussions of ways to improve the counseling resources, according to Sawyer.

While the Psychological Counseling Center, located in the Mailman House at the edge of campus, is tucked away and easy to miss for some, it is nevertheless used by approximately 20 percent of Brandeis students each academic year, according to the Brandeis website.

It is estimated that by the time May rolls around, about half of the senior class has been to the counseling center at least once, according to Sawyer. The types of students and issues that are addressed in counseling vary, according to information from the counseling center.

While many students have been in therapy either off of campus or prior to entering Brandeis, according to the Counseling Center, many students who use the center have never been in therapy before and will come in just once for help when needed.

Students can also seek counseling through peer-counseling groups on campus, among them the Counseling and Rape Crisis Hotline, Students Talking About Relationships, the Queer Resource Center and Peer Education for Responsible Choices. Many also seek help from community advisors right in their own building.

The utilization rate of the center is "off the charts," according to Senior Director of the Psychological Counseling Center Dr. Robert Berlin. The uniqueness of the center comes from its strict policy of confidentiality, which separates it from the counseling services at other universities, according to Berlin.

"We adhere to confidentiality, we're down at the bottom of the hill, we don't interface with any departments, and we advocate for the rights of students," Berlin says. Unlike other universities that may require counseling as a result of a disciplinary matter, students who use the Psychological Counseling Center are self-referred and therefore there only by choice, according to Sawyer.

Brandeis is also unique in that students can continue to be counseled on campus, as opposed to other schools, which may refer students to therapy off campus after a certain number of visits.

The struggle the University faces is when students in need don't seek counseling help and friends do not notice or reach out for help. "Everyone has that problem in every community," Berlin said. "You don't know those people who are that alone, that desperate, don't reach out, don't tell the truth, hide, are too stoned [or] too drunk," he said.

The University works to educate students about the resources available to them, hoping students will make informed decisions when counseling is necessary.

"I want [students] to understand what the counseling center is. I want them to know who works there and what it's like to be a patient at the counseling center or a client at the counseling center so they can make an informed decision about whether that's good for them," Director of Student Rights and Community Standards Dean Gendron said.

The hope is also to reach more students by educating the student body about the signs to look for in their peers.

"Could we do a better job in terms of the students? I think so," Berlin said, noting the need for more mental health education programs through speakers, presentations, meetings or forums. "We're working on the education piece," he said.

"Also, bringing people who have things to offer that would be useful in understanding signs of difficulty in others and in general just raising the level of consciousness, though it doesn't need to be raised too much. This community is pretty smart," Berlin said.

While the University has been successful in getting the word out about what is available, there is always room to reach more students, according to Mark Hajjar '13, a coordinator of the Student Sexuality Information Service.

"It's a little bit of a balancing act. We try and highlight [our services] and get the word out about it, but we can always do better," he said. SSIS, a confidential peer-counseling service, is known for educating students on safe-sex practices but also offers "heavy duty" counseling, according to Hajjar.

"All of the counseling groups on campus have felt a certain degree of pressure and self-evaluation because it was a tragedy," Hajjar says of the February suicide.

"For all of us who were involved in counseling and social support networks, it feels like a personal failure. I think all of the groups on campus have taken the time to look at themselves and what they've been doing and really evaluate what could have been done differently," he said.

Rebecca Erenrich '12, a coordinator of Students Talking About Relationships, feels that although a good number of students are utilizing the counseling resources, the numbers could be much higher. Counselors for STAR have office hours from 2 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, more hours than students are using, according to Erenrich. She feels that more flyers, tabling and events are needed to get the word out about how STAR can be used, and she thinks that more collaboration between the different peer groups on campus is needed.

Knowing what other groups can offer and working together would allow peer-counseling groups to make educated referrals to students as to which groups to see, which could better maximize the number of students using the counseling groups.

"We're getting there, but we definitely feel under-utilized," Erenrich says.

In the aftermath of the suicide, however, there has also been a surge in the number of students using the counseling resources, according to Sawyer.

"So quite frankly, I think we need more therapists. I think we need more people in place. I think we're feeling a little tapped out. Certainly no student in an emergency will go without being seen immediately, but the counseling staff right now is very busy. It feels like in the aftermath, we could use a little help. We need more hours. If you walk by there on a weeknight the lights are on there until nine, ten at night, ... and that's therapy going on," Sawyer said.

Though there is no plan to add additional hours or therapists on campus during the short remainder of this semester, according to Sawyer, the University plans to assess the need for more help over the summer and will add more counseling hours in the fall if necessary.

"I would never say we can't do a better job making sure that our students are aware of all the resources on campus, not just counseling resources," Sawyer said. "There is so much in students' lives every hour ... in terms of information. So the struggle has always been where do we fit in with that, what do we need to do? What other medium is there or what other opportunities are there to make sure that students are totally aware of where they could seek assistance either through the peer groups, themselves or through the counseling center," Sawyer said.

Catering to a high-tech generation in a Facebook-centered society, the University is working to keep up and utilize online resources to reach the student body.

"One of the things that's interesting about being in higher [education] right now is the way students are learning both inside the classroom and outside the classroom because of advances in the digital sphere," Gendron said.

"What is it that you're attached to when you're not in class? Are you looking at Facebook? Are you looking at SMS or videos? We want to understand what kinds of stimuli students are gravitating to," he said.

"We can always do better, and that's all we're trying to do," Berlin said. "We're just trying to do as much as we can. ... No one likes a failure. Every time you face that you [try] to do more," he said.