The ACU Medical and Counseling Care Center increased its prices for this semester.
The MACCC is a service ACU offers to give students an on-campus resource where they can go for emotional or physical help. For students who may not have a car to get off campus medical resources or for students without medical insurance, the MACCC is an affordable resource for medical care and counseling.
Tyson Alexander is the director of the MACCC and works as the overseer of the facility. Along with this job, Alexander also offers counseling sessions himself.
“Part of it is we have a certain revenue requirement we have to meet for the university and part of it is our ability to have extra counselors,” Alexander said.
The price for a counseling session has increased from $25 to $35. The increase may seem small but it can be a big change for students who could barely afford it already. In fact, students who have had bad experiences at the MACCC in the past question the helpfulness of this new price point.
Billy Fulbright, a sophomore advertising and public relations major from Fort Worth, has a personal experience with the MACCC.
“I personally didn’t have a good experience there, because I didn’t feel any better when I came back,” Fulbright said.
Putting the bill on a student’s student account is a viable option for some but for students who pay their own tuition, it is only delaying the inevitable. Money charged to a student account does not simply disappear; it adds on to a preexisting bill.
Also, for students whose parents may not approve of them getting counseling it is impossible to hide a new bill.
The MACC has already thought of this and wants to counteract student worries.
“We never want the price point to be a barrier,” Alexander said. The new price point is there but if students have a hard time paying it the MACCC gives them the option to tell the center about it and receive a waived fee for a lower price point.
The new price can come with new problems, but it can also come with new benefits.
The MACC has taken the initiative to hire new workers to counteract the influx of students needing counseling. Usually, the counseling center averaged around 100 students a month but that number has increased.
The MACC has six set staff members, a psychiatrist, five grad student workers and three new workers who were able to be hired thanks to the new price point.
