The following is a letter written by Tim Rabolt and Jennifer Curt of GW Students for Recovery. To sign the online petition requesting a full-time staff member to support students in recovery, please click here.
Dear President Knapp,
Sunday May 21, 2017 marks the day of University Commencement for the Class of 2017. It’ll be your last Commencement as University President, and we thank you for the work that you have done for the GW community over the years. This year will also mark the final chapter for the two of us, Jenny and Tim, as we close out our time at GW. We will leave behind a legacy for having given a voice to students in recovery from addiction and mental illness, as well as advocating for resources that are necessary for hundreds of those students to be successful at GW.
Aside from both graduating this year, we have another thing in common: we both live a life of long-term recovery from addiction and mental illness. Our recovery journeys began in the spring of our senior years in high school, and those journeys have continued on throughout all of our time at GW. Our parents raised us to believe that we would be great, that we could accomplish anything we put our minds to, including a degree from The George Washington University. When the dust of the destruction settled and we accepted a life of recovery and sobriety, the college experience seemed scary, uninviting, and dangerous.
A few months into my GW experience I (Jenny) first met Tim who had gathered together students who were living in recovery on campus. We figured if we had united enough students to fill a Marvin Center conference room, there must be more of us out there. The individuals at our meetings became some of our closest friends: Javi, Stephen, Ali, Jocelyn, Zoe, Jon, Will, Blake, Kevin, and David. We could name over 40 more but we’ll stick with these 10. These are students in recovery who did not find the support they needed and decided that GW was not the right place for them. The truth is, as our group continues to grow, with the Serenity Shack on campus and our peer support meetings, we and other student leaders don’t have enough time, resources, or expertise to guide each of these students in their recovery journeys at GW. Students who leave for substance use and mental health concerns are a major contributor to lack of retention at our university. There is a solution: we need a full-time staff member to run the GW Collegiate Recovery Program.
A collegiate recovery program (CRP) is a formalized institutional support service developed to adequately support students in recovery. Many of our market-basket schools such as Vanderbilt and Emory have developed and continue to grow such a program. Universities such as Michigan, Ohio State, and Texas with similar rankings to GW have well-established programs. Programs provide long-term supports that counseling centers cannot with individualized recovery plans, life-skills workshops, as well as community partnerships and outreach. Colleges supporting students in recovery is nothing new, dating back to 1977 at Brown University. The Association of Recovery in Higher Education (ARHE) has identified over 150 colleges and universities working to support students in recovery, and has nearly 65 member institutions (including The George Washington University). We have the students, we have the space, we have the tools, but we need the staff.
As you’ll see, this push for dedicated staff is recognized as a vital resource by a large portion of the GW community. Our hope is to find the financial resources necessary to hire a full-time staff member to work for our collegiate recovery program. We trust that you’ll understand how important this contribution is to the lives of a significant student population within the GW community. We thank you for your time and consideration, and greatly look forward to making history as the three of us close out our time at GW and celebrate together on the National Mall on May 21.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Curt (Class of 2017)
Tim Rabolt (Class of 2015, Class of 2017)
To sign our letter, please check out our online petition
To donate to the GW Collegiate Recovery Program, please click here
To learn more about the GW Collegiate Recovery Program, please email recovery@gwu.edu
To learn more about GW Students for Recovery, please visit www.gwsfr.org or connect with us on social media (see below!)