The 11 full-time counselors of the Bureau of Study Counsel sharply criticized a decision last month that placed them under the control of University Health Services (UHS), arguing in a March 3 letter that the change will “irreparably disrupt and damage” the Bureau’s work.

Two weeks ago, the Bureau began reporting directly to UHS Director Dr. David S. Rosenthal ’59. The change was recommended by the interim report of the Student Mental Health Task Force, released in early March.

The counselors’ four-page letter—which was addressed to Bureau Associate Director and task force member M. Suzanne Renna—said that placing the Bureau under the administration of UHS would render it unable to provide effective non-clinical counseling by effectively integrating it into the University’s clinical mental health system.

UHS Mental Health Services (MHS) currently provides clinical mental health treatment.

“If the Bureau is subsumed within a medical system, its distinct niche within the community will disappear, and, before long, the Bureau and its educational function will disappear with it,” the letter said. “While the Bureau may remain in name and address, its distinctive nature and role will inevitably cease to exist.”

The letter, which was obtained by The Crimson, asked Renna to share the counselors’ concerns with the task force. In particular, the counselors said they worry that unexpected effects of the Bureau’s move to a more clinical setting would detract from its mission to provide advising, counseling and care within an “educational model of fostering learning, growth, and development.”

“We fear that the integration of the Bureau and UHS will irreparably disrupt and damage the intricate ecosystem of Harvard’s community in ways that may be hard for the Administration to anticipate,” the letter said.

The counselors also expressed their concern that the restructuring will “have the paradoxical effect of closing out a large part of the very student population the task force is hoping to better serve,” particularly those students who typically shy away from formal mental health care.

“We are especially concerned about those students who do not conceive of their concerns and struggles as illness,” the letter said. “In particular, international students and minority students are among the many students who typically do not seek counsel in a clinical, medical setting because they do not regard their difficulties as mental health issues.”

Renna declined to comment Wednesday. Bureau Director Charles P. Ducey, who did not sign the letter, also declined to comment Wednesday.

A six-month investigation by The Crimson found that many students view the Bureau as more approachable than UHS, but that its lack of coordination with UHS hinders effective mental health care across the University. The task force emphasized the importance of maintaining a less-stigmatized entry into mental health care in its March report.

Sally T. Weylman, who has chosen to leave her post as a counselor at the Bureau at the end of May, said that she was concerned that placing UHS in charge of the Bureau would undermine the Bureau’s ability to provide effective counseling by compromising its uniqueness.

“We are viewed by students, faculty, and administrators as offering the kind of wise and compassionate services that have become all too rare in this age of fast food and quick answers,” Weylman wrote in an e-mail. “It is our deepest hope that into the future the University will sustain and enhance this unique perspective. Yet we fear otherwise.”

Rosenthal and Task Force Chair Dr. Paul J. Barreira said that the task force has committed to maintaining the Bureau as a separate entity, regardless of the administrative hierarchy.

“This isn’t an integration into UHS—this is a one plus one equals three,” Rosenthal said. “This isn’t really putting everything under one roof.”