Below is a transcript of our conversation with Melissa Hutchinson, CMU’s Executive Director of Counseling Services
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas, and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University's students and faculty. The CMU community, all blending on campus in a period of great change and challenge for the young people away from home and the interactions with a new, wider family. CMU is receiving national recognition as one of 70 colleges and universities in the U.S. receiving the 2025 Excellence in Mental Health and Wellness. I sat down with Melissa Hutchinson, Executive Director of Counseling Services, to learn more…
Melissa Hutchinson:
We have the Wellness Coalition. We have our CMU Cares program that is about early alerts. And that's one of the things that I think I'm most thrilled about at CMU is that there is real focus shift from being reactionary to being preventative and intervening earlier. Our students are investing so much time, energy, money in their degree, and if something around wellness gets them off track, we want to get them back on track as quickly as possible.
DN:
What might be some of the factors we would look at that could crop up in the day-to-day life and university experience of a student where something like the CMU CARES and that early intervention would be called upon?
MH:
So, I think that most people can think about the traditional things, depression, anxiety, grief, relationship issues, adjustment and transition issues. But we have students who are parents. We have students who are caregivers for aging parents or younger siblings. We have students with disabilities. We have students who are navigating the difficult political, social climate of today's world because their identities are under attack. We have students studying at CMU from all around the world. So, there is an endless array of possibilities because we are whole people. All of our experiences prior to coming and beginning our degree are part of who we are today. And we can't hide any of those pieces of ourselves. And we will do right by our students. And our students will do better if we see them as whole people and support their whole person while they're here.
DN:
A program, an approach, a department, the university has brought on board and is ramping up to offer more support in maybe some given areas and making sure that they're given attention as well.
MH:
One, there's counselors embedded in places like athletics, our Center for Student Inclusion and Diversity, and then we also have an embedded counselor in our Office of Sexual Aggression Services. And that department also oversees our SAPA program, Sexual Aggression Peer Advocates. This is a group of highly trained student volunteers that run a 24/7 crisis line during the academic year to support any individual on campus community or in the general community who's been impacted by sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, harassment, anything of that nature. And this is a really unique program. Not all universities have a program like this. In addition to the crisis line, they provide awareness events, programming, and they can help individuals get access to temporary safe room stays if that's something that is needed for that survivor.
DN:
Melissa Hutchinson, thank you very much for sharing. the picture of how we get along, how we relate, how we adapt to this period of life for people. And all the best as these efforts continue to address the needs of everyone that's part of the CMU family.
MH:
Thank you so much.
