By Tim Marren

The Rev. Linda Harle-Mould realizes that students want to be heard.

That is what she has come to realize as coordinator at the campus Listening Post. The Listening Post is a place where students can go and speak to someone who will listen to their problems and accomplishments with no agenda in mind.

“Everyone can feel comfortable coming,” Harle-Mould said. “All religious backgrounds are welcome.”

Harle-Mould has been listening to students for three years. She sits every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon in the Student Union and listens to students tell her about everything from the good grade they received on an exam to their contemplation of suicide.

“Just being here was the best thing we could do for the students,” Harle-Mould said of the purpose of the Listening Post.

Harle-Mould said that the consistency of one person, who each week in the Student Union, will listen to student concerns would create a caring loving presence.

Student Nicole Mariconda agrees that the reliability of one person at the post each week make discussing difficult topics easier.

“It is something here that I can depend on,” Mariconda said. “Here I have the same type of person that will give love as family would.”

The Listening Post is currently asking students who pass by to fold a paper crane as a symbol of peace. Harle-Mould said that they want to get 1,000 cranes folded and made into a mobile that will be hung on Ash Wednesday, March 5, and run through Easter Sunday, April 20.

The history behind the paper cranes and instructions on how to fold one for the Listening Post can be found at: http://www.sadako.com.