Administrators at Yale Mental Health & Counseling have confirmed that waiting times for appointments will be shorter this academic year than last.

In a Sept. 9 college-wide email, Director of Yale Health Paul Genecin announced that the center has hired three new clinicians. Though the departures of a number of clinicians last year and over the summer led to a decrease in the total number of clinicians — even after accounting for the new hires — from 28 to 27, MH&C will now have more full-time psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, University Deputy Press Secretary Karen Peart said in a Friday email.

In February, MH&C employed 28 clinicians who, together, clocked in the hours of 23.7 full-time clinicians. This month, although only 27 clinicians are listed on the MH&C website, those 27 will put in 26.2 full time clinician hours. A further 1.6 full time clinicians will join MH&C’s staff when hiring is finalized in early October.

“With three additional clinicians, it is expected that wait times will be less than last year,” Peart said.

With 27.8 full-time clinicians, MH&C will have a student-to-clinician ratio of 444-to-one by the start of next month. Though that comes nowhere near the access that students at Princeton, with a 396-to-one ratio, have, it far outpaces the ratios at Harvard and Cornell, where the student-to-clinician ratios are 754-to-one and 793-to-one, respectively.

Genecin added in his email that MH&C will continue to actively recruit clinicians. He did not state how many more the center plans to take on.