Counseling center is unhelpfulIn response to your article "Creating a safety net on campus" (Features, May 3):

Oh lord. To gauge the efficacy of the counseling center on campus by the number of students who have visited it once is to gauge the effectiveness of a doctor by the number of patients they have consulted once.

From my personal experience, the counseling center on campus is understaffed with often-dismissive administrators and ineffective counseling times. In the fall semester, when I visited in October, they told me they didn't have any slots for about a month and that I would need to sit through intake appointments before they could even consider assigning me a counselor. By that point, I was suffering incredible anxiety and panic attacks but I couldn't see anyone for 5 weeks. And by that point, the counselor that I finally did manage to see blamed me for not going to see him sooner.

The counseling center is available as a resource, but it is not a particularly helpful one. While there are nice counselors, there are more than a few who are unhelpful in times of emotional crises at best and, at worst, push you emotionally in the opposite direction. The appointments are difficult to secure.

While I have never used SSIS counseling, I'm sure they make themselves more available than the counseling center. In a time of poor mental health, it's difficult to manage to slog out of bed or to do even the most minute of tasks, and securing a counseling center appointment makes you jump through more hoops than even the registrar's office requires.

-Anonymous

Showcase Jewish diversity

In response to your article "Campus Jewish life is misrepresented" (Forum, April 12):

Although I understand and sympathize with your frustrations, I think this "issue" is in fact a gift. American Jewry looks at Brandeis because students here are involved. They care about Israel, our connection to the land, and the politics that surround it. We should be proud that Brandeis is regarded as a microcosm to what Jewish college students believe. We should rise to the challenge and display beliefs and agendas that showcase how diverse our community really is. I realize that this takes effort. The New York Times is not going to come out with an article titled "Brandeis still boasts a committed Jewish community."

We must do something to be worthy of headline news. And it's important, like you mentioned, that the news cover all opinions, not just radical ones. That is why I urge all Israel advocacy groups on campus to make sure (in a respectful, meaningful manner) that the news about Brandeis really represent who we are.

-Michal Pearl '11

Brandeis Jews in unique position

In response to your article "Campus Jewish life is misrepresented" (Forum, April 12):

I, too, dislike being held up to some kind of fantasized expectation about "Brandeis" as if we should provide reinforcement to every conventional line of thinking in the Jewish establishment. As a student body we would love to coalesce over issues such as Middle East conflict, but it's clear that the problems are not that straightforward. Gone are the days of Civil Rights and Vietnam: the question of what is best for the Jewish people and for Israel is inherently divisive. If anything, it should be appreciated that we are earnestly conflicted, and if anything our voices should be taken seriously as indication that there is turmoil and doubt within our own community, not just from secular Liberalism. Brandeis students are at the vanguard of a generation balanced with both acknowledgement of an eternal tradition, and progressive outlook toward religion, politics, and social justice.

-Nathan Hakimi '11

News story was biased

In response to your article "Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace present three generations of Palestinian refugees" (News, April 12):

It is one thing to write a report about an event that takes place by informing readers of the main purpose of the gathering and of the primary message that the organizers of it wish to convey. However, it quite another thing altogether, when a journalist uncritically regurgitates a highly contested version of history. A journalist should never allow her story to serve-for all practical purposes-as a press release for one side in a highly charged, controversial issue. Almost every "fact" reported in this "news" story is presented in a distorted and totally one-sided manner. Readers of the Justice deserve better-on this and any other controversial issue.

-Ken Brociner

Somerville, Mass.