As the Texas Tech community continued to process the tragedy from Monday night, the Student Counseling Center reminded students of the free services they offer on campus.
Therapist Jennifer Gay said she has seen the full gamut of emotions from students, from anger and fear, to the guilt of not feeling anything.
“It has been a mixed bag on what students are feeling. What it was like to be in lockdown on campus. How they were feeling who they were with and how they are coping. You know, if they were telling jokes or watching Netflix, or if they were really scared and crying together.”
The center offers a place for students to cope or even just talk, with daily drop in hours in addition to appointments. Tuesday and Wednesday, following the shooting on campus, they held special drop in hours for students.
“This tragedy has impacted us for sure, and we are all hands on deck,” Gay said.
She said they are always busy this time of year with midterms, but they want students to get all the help they need.
Taylor Russell has been utilizing the various counseling resources since the Spring, but said she thinks they are important for students in times like these.
“I mean I think it affects all of us whether we realize it or not,” Russell said. “Sometimes you have these things that you need to talk that you don’t even realize that you need to.”
As students returned to classes and daily routines, flowers in Memorial Circle honoring the fallen officer served as a reminder.
“I think there is a lot of unspoken sadness, where we feel like we are in college now, and we have to keep going on and act like these things don’t affect us, but I think they all do. You can feel it in the air when you walk by Memorial Circle and see the monument and everything,” Russell said.
The staff at the Student Counseling Center hopes they can help students process those feelings.
“So when it hits that close to home that feeling of losing control and someone doing something you have no control over is really scary,” Gay said. “You know what we are trying to do is say, ‘Any emotion you are having is valid.'”
CLICK HERE for information on these resources at Texas Tech.
The number for the local mental health Crisis Line is (806) 740-1414.
