After examining an external review of the counseling and mental health services at Northeastern University, Senior Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Philomena Mantella decided it was time for a change.

Northeastern University created the position of Coordinator of Sexual Assault Services, to be posted by the end of the week and filled as soon as possible.

“We are very excited, and really appreciate the student support along the way. We’re all excited, I mean we really are,” said Ed Hattauer, director of the Center of Counseling and Student Development at Northeastern. “This goes back to 1995-96, when the issue was first brought up to do this. This is really the culmination of many years of work in this area. It feels really good to have your work come to fruition.”

Within the external review, compiled after two outside consultants examined counseling and mental health services on campus in late May, issues of disconnected services, unclear protocol and a lack of steady 24-hour care surfaced.

“The consultants came in and recommended that we really needed someone to play this role or coordinator with prevention and education,” Hattauer said.

Shortly after the external review became public, so too did the announcement of the new sexual assault services position.

Senior Vice President Mantella told The News last week that the position would be created and added as a psychological coordinator to head up sexual assault services.

Hattauer said that in order for a job and job description to be approved, it must first endure some of the of the university’s bureaucracy and travel through five or six offices, but he said the position will be posted by the end of the week. Adding that this particular position received an expedited status, which he credits to the sincere interest in the issue across campus.

“We have the title of the position as psychologist: Coordinator of Sexual Assault Services and we will have a coordinator position that we use here at the counseling center,” Hattauer said.

The job description reads as follows:

“[To] provide short-term individual and group psychotherapy, assessment, crisis intervention, developmental programming, outreach and consultation. Supervise graduate students in training. In addition, this individual will have focal responsibility for coordinating and providing leadership for services for sexual assault prevention, response, programming, training and education.”

The Vice President of the Latin American Student Organization [LASO] Nadine Yaver said just because a position has been created does not mean that students should let down their guard.

“I’m not really surprised about the rape crisis counselor, I just don’t want it to end there, I don’t want [the administration] to think that the issue has been cleared up. A lot more goes into it than hiring a rape crisis counselor,” she said. “I don’t know if having a crisis counselor will make me feel safer at all, but it is definitely a start.

Hattauer said that once the position is filled, this one individual will not take on all of the sexual assault cases and will not simply sit in an office and wait for victims to come to them.

“This is a way to provide counseling services and also a way of providing leadership, prevention response and education,” he said. “The notion is like what we have with our multi cultural coordinators, they will not be the only person who handles students who are victims and survivors of sexual assault.”

He added that this will be a solid, permanent position. But said it will be difficult, if not impossible to find someone to fill the position by September.

“I know we won’t have someone in place by September but we will do the best we can to get someone on board as fast as we can,” he said.

Jorge Sanchez, a senior criminal justice major and the former president of LASO said that students must continue to work together to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus.

“I think that we will have enough services, but in the meantime we should promote education and awareness to the student body, not only through brochures and self defense but through real education,” he said.

Hattauer expressed his gratitude to both students and the administration.

“I appreciate the students’ and administration’s support to increase our staff in this particular area,” Hattauer said. “We’re grateful for student support and advocacy. Let me stop there, I could on forever.”