If you’ve ever been around a group of college students you will likely find that mental health is not a new topic for them. As I’ve continually mentioned in previous blog posts, mental illness is an epidemic, especially among college students. Now, I’m not a psychologist, but to me that indicates some sort of correlation.

One of the greatest barriers to addressing collegiate mental health is the assumption that students’ wellness and their education are mutually exclusive. But, in-fact, addressing the issue of mental health through collegiate administration first has found a degree of success.

Recently, Ursinus College signed the Okanagan Charter which vows to embed health into the various aspects of the College’s culture, and ties to the greater community. Similarly they are greatly expanding their wellness programs and support systems. Widener University is taking a similar approach to mental wellness in their community. Generally, the approach to mental health is shifting in collegiate communities.

As previously mentioned, the link between the higher education system and its negative impacts on wellness are overtly linked. Study after study has not only found high links between college students and mental illness, but also that the rates of mental illness are rising.

The problem however, as I see it, is the current approach to helping students cope. I’m sure you’ve all been flooded with information about “wellness Wednesdays”, or self-care alternatives, or even CAPs appointments. If you ask me, I see these things as solutions to impacts of a greater problem that remains unsolved.

Perhaps we should hire more therapists, spread more information, make help more accessible. And don’t get me wrong-I believe we should do those things. But, the problem I see however, is how do we stop this number from rising? Why are so many students struggling?

This is the approach that Ursinus and Widener are trying to take. Perhaps we need deeper interaction between students and professors. Perhaps we need to lower the burden of tuition costs. Perhaps its the rushed 15-week educational system that needs change.

To rely on addressing mental health through mitigating symptoms already present among students is to ignore the reason that so many are struggling. Colleges bare a responsibility to help students when they are ill, but they also bare a responsibility to keep students safe from harm.

So as we analyze the growing and changing statistics around the wellness, or lack thereof, that students are experiencing today, we must ask also, why. Where is the line of responsibility that the University bares?

Mental illness is an all encompassing struggle. It appears differently for different individuals. It is triggered differently. It is healed differently. And so, the remedy too must be all encompassing. The system is broken. The system is making us sick.

Resources

Hannigan, Robyn, and Stacey Robertson. “How to Improve Mental Health for College Students.” The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, 2023, https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/college-students-mental-health-ursinus-widener-20230405.html.