SAN DIEGO – The Baylor Bears will travel back home to celebrate the new year as the champions of the Bridgeport Education Holiday Bowl.

You would think a strong interest in religion and family would be a good thing, but a Baylor scholar has identified at least one negative effect: interest in religion and family do not facilitate secular and civic engagement.

Dr. Young-Il Kim, a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Baylor Institute for Religious Studies, published a study in August an online edition of Social Science Research journal titled Bonding alone: Familism, religion, and secular civic participation.

Lacking awareness of counseling benefits is causing some international students to look elsewhere for advice in times of high stress.

During the peak of counseling sessions, faculty members are concerned about the additional pressure international students face in adapting to a new environment alone.

While counseling services may be an outlet of support via the Baylor Counseling Center in the McLain Student Life Center, currently there is no program specifically for international students, nor is there a specific counselor designated to receive them, according to Dr. Jim Marsh, Baylor counseling services director.

This semester, Baylor counseling services faced a high demand for counseling with a short-staffed office.

With seven full-time counselors and one full-time psychiatrist, counseling services does not meet the minimum counselor to student ratio according to the International Association of Counseling Services’ standard.

The association encourages each institution, depending on the size, to maintain one full-time equivalent professional staff member to every 1,500 students. Baylor enrolled 15,364 students this semester, so the standard is 10 full-time counselors. Baylor counseling services is short by two.