The letter stated that the new organizational structure may destroy the Bureau’s mission.

“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 niche will disappear with it,” the letter stated. “While the Bureau may remain in name and address, its distinctive nature and role will inevitably cease to exist.”

The Bureau provides a range of counseling and therapy services, in addition to academic tutoring, stress management and procrastination workshops, and a course on reading and study strategies.

Many say that its broad focus and friendly, home-like atmosphere makes the Bureau a point of entry into mental health care that seems much less daunting than the more clinical option of the MHS.

The March letter stated that the Bureau counselors felt that their concerns may not have been fully heard or addressed by the task force.

“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 concern that the restructuring will “have a 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 tend to shy away from mental health services.

“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,” the letter said.

Rosenthal said at the time that the administrative unification would benefit both facilities, and that the Bureau would remain its own organization.

“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.”

Placing both services under a single leader will ensure that the two do not waste resources providing overlapping services, and that students are referred to the place that can best meet their specific needs, Hyman wrote in an April e-mail.

“The reorganization enables us to make sure that, wherever students first go for help, they will be able to access easily and smoothly the assistance best suited to their needs,” Hyman wrote. “The Bureau and MHS are being brought together—each continuing to provide its unique services to students, but communicating and working together more effectively under a shared umbrella and a new leader.”

PRESCRIBING SOLUTIONS

The draft version of the final report obtained by The Crimson last week found that knowledge about mental health services varies among residential Houses, peer counseling groups, international students and graduate schools. It recommends that the administration should implement new methods—including online resources and new working groups—to distribute and reinforce this information.

The report advocated the creation of “mental health resource person[s],” each of whom could advise up to 40 designated first-years if students felt they were not getting adequate information from proctors or their primary care practioner (PCP).