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Student is enthusiastic
over local Crisis Hotline
By PATRICIA FLINT
Staff Writer
It's hard to believe that there
was a time when Melaney Linton,
a senior psychology major and
coordinator of Crisis Hotline,
considered herself a failure.
“I hadn’t really failed,” she
said.'‘Maybe I just felt like I had.”
Why?
“Maybe because my ex-hus-
band told me so all the time.”
At 24, Linton has been
through a tough time in her life,
an unhappy marriage and jobs
she didn’t like, now she is able to
help other people meet the prob
lems in their lives.
Linton is comfortable with her
self, her past and where she’s
heading, and is, therefore, quite
candid.
“If somebody can learn from
my experience, then I want to
share it,” she said.
Linton, as chairman, runs Cri
sis Hotline along with an advisory
board. Everyone associated with
the hotline is a volunteer.
Linton came to college three-
and-a-half years after her high
school graduation. During that
time, she worked in banking,
then in real estate.
“The money was good,” she
said. “The money was there, but I
didn’t enjoy it.”
She decided she needed a
higher education in order to do
something she would enjoy. To
day she’s applying to graduate
schools, looking toward getting a
doctorate in clinical psychology
and eventually opening up her
own practice.
“I think it’s important to find
something you really like and
then make it your life’s work be
cause being stuck in something
you don’t fike is hell. It doesn’t
matter how much money you
make. What’s the point?”
The Crisis Hotline in Brazos
County is the only one between
here and Houston, serving seven
counties and occasionally one or
two others. The people who an
swer the phones are not counsel
ors, but trained volunteers, Lin
ton said.
“We don’t tell them (callers)
what to do,” she said. “We don’t
suggest what to do. We don’t give
our opinions what to do because
we want them to find the solu
tions to their problem that best
fits the individual.
“Sometimes it’s easier to talk to
strangers about your problems
than someone you know, espe
cially if that stranger can’t recog
nize you on the street,” she said.
Crisis Hotline is strictly a confi
dential telephone service, but acts
also as a referral service, directing
people to specialty hotlines and
service agencies.
In addition to her school work
and her hotline work, Linton is
secretary of the Psi Chi/Psycho
logy Club and works in the ath
letic ticket office.
She is also doing research un
der psychology professor Char
lene Muehlenhard on date rape
— sexual aggression on dates.
She is looking into the personality
Melaney Linton, a se
nior psychology major
said Crisis Hotline
doesn’t tell callers what
to do because the serv
ice wants them to help
them find the their own
solutions.
attributes of women to see if cer
tain characteristics put a women
at risk.
Most people think that psy
chology students walk around
and analyze everybody, but they
don’t, Linton said.
“I think maybe more than try
ing to analyze everybody, I try to
understand people more than I
used to,” she said. “I think one
thing psychology does teach you
is to accept people’s differences
because everybody is unique; just
accept them for who they are. It’s
like, not only are individual dif
ferences OK, they’re a part of
life. That’s how life is supposed to
be.”
For Linton, going to college
was a new beginning; it gave her
the opportunity to be successful
on her own terms.
“For me it was like a second
chance at making something out
of myself,” she said. “In a way it
was a chance for me to learn exac
tly what my limits are.
“So far, I haven’t found any.”
Linton said college gave her
the chance to find out what her
opportunities and capabilities
are.
“For most people college is just
something you do when you get
out of high school,” she said. “L
had to give up a job where I was
making quite a bit of money. Even
though I didn’t like the job it was
hard to give up that financial sta
bility to become a poor student.”
Linton said she wouldn’t have
taken her education seriously if
she had gone to college right out
of high school. Her marriage and
her work experience were an ed
ucation in themselves, she said.
“I think I got married in, the
first place because I didn’t know
what I wanted to do,” she said. “I
don’t think I was happy with my
self as a person because I was
lazy, because I didn’t know what I
wanted to do with myself.
“What I’ve learned is that I’ll
never be happy with another per
son until I’m happy with myself.
“I’m happy right now — not
because I’ve reached all my goals,
but because I’m working towards
them.”
She is a strong supporter of
women’s rights and said it is not
true that all men are bigger and
stronger than all women. The va
riability within the sexes is greater
than the variability between
them, she said.
Linton said her classes taught
her to understand, refine and
substantiate a lot of her beliefs.
Linton came to Texas A&M be
cause she said she wanted to ex
perience first-hand Aggie spirit
and the bond between Aggies,
about which she had heard so
much.
But she disagrees with some of
the attitudes and opinions at
A&M.
“I think the conservativeness,
the unwillingness to change both
ers me more than anything,” she
said. “I think there is such an
aversion at this school to change.
Somehow, if you want to change
anything, it makes you a bad Ag,
a two-percenter. ”
A&M specialist named
official in Ag Extention
By ANN BRIMBERRY
Reporter
Dr. Milo J. Shult, a wildlife and
fisheries specialist with Texas A&M,
has been named associate director
for the Texas Agricultural Exten
sion Sevice. His appointment be
came effective Nov. 5.
The Texas Agricultural Extension
System is part of the Texas A&M
University System working within a
three part land grant operation.
This includes the Extension Service,
the Texas Agricultural Experiment
Station, and the College of Agricul
ture.
“We needed to extend that infor
mation beyond the Texas A&M Uni
versity campus,” Shult said, “so we
took a three pronged approach to
the utilization of research findings
by people within the state, by the stu
dent body, and through the exten
sion programs.”
Shult said the Texas Agriculture
Extension Service is now quite in
volved in a four year major program
planning effort which coincides with
the Federal Extension Service.
“This has given us a real opportu
nity to look at some key areas that we
are devoting a lot of resources in,”
Shult said.
“Our major program effort was
initiated one year ago as a planning
component. We hope that by initiat
ing and maintaining long term plan
ning efforts, we will be able to do a
better job of responding to clientele
across the state.”
Shult said Texas is a dynamic state
now.
“When we look at the people who
are moving to the state and the pop
ulation increase, we must look at
what we are capable of producing,”
he said. “As a result, a real challenge
is ahead of us to make sure all the
different clientele are aware of each
others needs.”
The major efforts of the Exten
sion Service have been, and continue
to be, strong involmement of people
at the local level, he said.
“We are an educational agency,”
Shult said. “People helping people is
exactly what we are about in the
sense that we do provide the re-
Dr. Milo J. Shult
search base information to people to
help them solve their problems.”
Shult said he does not plan to
make any changes in the program
initially.
“One of the things we hope to do
is to strengthen even further the ties
with A&M through the College of
Agriculture in order to build on and
enhance those programs we have re
cently identified,” he said.
The future challenge for the Ex
tension Service is to continue to
serve the old audiences, and be
imaginative and use their resources
to reach the new audiences, Shult
said.
“Our real emphasis must be in the
role of education,” Shult said. “With
Extention providing the research
base and alternatives, the people in
the state of Texas will be better able
to make these decisions themselves.”
Counseling available for faculty
By LYNN RAE POVEC
Staff Writer
Administrators involved with the
Faculty Assistance Program stress
one reason for the program’s success
... confidentiality.
The Faculty Assistance Program is
Texas A&M’s means of providing
counseling for faculty and staff
members who may have problems,
said Dr. Candida Lutes, dean of the
College of Liberal Arts.
Lutes served on the committee of
faculty members and administrators
that created the program more than
a year ago. She said a conflict with a
colleague or spouse, or a depen
dence on drugs or alcohol, are ex
amples of problems A&M’s faculty
and staff may face.
“If someone were to become alco
holic, their classes would go down
hill, and we really didn’t have any
means to handle that,” Lutes said.
I he Faculty Assistance Program is
a professional consultation service
located off campus at the Metro
Centre, 3833 Texas Avenue, in
Bryan. The service’s off campus lo
cation helps those who use the serv
ice maintain anonymity, Lutes said.
The University keeps psychologist
Sara Jones on retainer for 10 hours a
week, and she provides A&M faculty
and staff with advice and counseling,
or referrals, as needed.
Dr. Clint Phillips, dean of faculties
and associate provost, also served on
the committee that created the pro
gram.
He said the committee recom
mended Jones because she is famil
iar with A&M through several
means: she has taught psychology
here and has counseled students in
A&M’s College of Medicine.
“We felt that Sara could do an ex
cellent job since she had an under
standing of the University,” Phillips
said.
He, too, cited confidentiality as
the reason for the program’s success.
A&M gives Jones a list of those eli
gible to receive her services. Thus,
she can verify eligibility without con
sulting the University and maintain
anonymity.
A&M will fund a maximum of six
visits per employee per year. Those
visits are paid for with funds other
than University insurance program
funds.
The program can help individuals
with problems including, but not
limited to, depression; alcohol or
other drug dependency; conflict
with colleagues, superiors or subor
dinates; medical difficulties that re
sult from emotional problems; and
anxiety from other sources that may
interfere with attention to one’s job.
Jones makes no reports to the
University as to who uses her serv
ices. Appointments can be made by
calling 846-4361.
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