Undergrad Counselors Provide Vital Resource For Students

To the editors:

I am writing in response to Lucy Caldwell’s comment, “Depressed? Like It, Love It, Live It,” printed on Mar. 20. I am impressed that, after only one and a half semesters as a college student, Ms. Caldwell feels that she has her finger on the pulse of Harvard culture, peer counseling, the history of psychiatry, and modern medicine. Regrettably, Ms. Caldwell is misinformed on each of these topics.

She writes that “hordes of social advocacy groups exist at Harvard” to prevent students from having mental breakdowns. Among these groups she counts Room 13 and Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach. As the current co-director of Room 13, I find her flippant characterization of our organization to be distressing. Room 13 does not exist to simply “serve students cookies and talk stuff out;” rather, our group consists of 30 student volunteers who are specifically trained to counsel individuals on such topics as sexual assault, suicide, grief, relationship difficulties, and, yes, even depression. Most importantly, Room 13 exists as a safe space for students to come down and talk about anything and everything that is on their minds without fear of being judged or lectured. We do not claim to be licensed therapists, but we are supervised by clinicians at both University Health Services and the Bureau of Study Counsel, we make referrals to other services at Harvard and in the greater Boston area, and we strive to offer an open ear to all students who simply want to talk. Ms. Caldwell’s comments about Room 13 and peer counseling at Harvard are unfair to those students who dedicate themselves to make sure Room 13 is open all night, every night, and also to those students who have visited or called us and appreciate the service we offer.

Ms. Caldwell also speaks of depression as if it is the muse of all creativity and something that should be cherished, not treated. The truth is that depression is a debilitating medical illness. I hope that Ms. Caldwell speaks with an individual who is clinically depressed and witnesses the effects of depression first-hand. Perhaps such knowledge and experience will spur her to rethink her baffling argument that depression is “interesting” and happiness is “boring”.



DANIEL J. FOTI ‘06

March 20, 2006