In one of my recent classes, a freshman commented on how many spaces on campus were dehumanizing, with people walking around “like robots.”
She explained how her first term at university led to significant mental health issues related to lack of sleep, isolation and dropping classes. She was seriously considering giving up.
This same student also shared that our classroom was the first place she felt she could relate to on campus – a space where she could focus on learning rather than grades, exploring questions relevant to her world and have authentic human conversations about life. She believes the course reignited her passion for learning, boosted her self-confidence and helped her develop meaningful connections.
Her story offers a powerful example of how campuses can not only create a breeding ground for mental health issues, but also foster spaces where students thrive.
Research and a plethora of anecdotal evidence tell us that campuses do far too much of the former and not enough of the latter. If this is the case, how can colleges turn the tide and become more part of the solution than we are part of the problem?
College students are continually confronted with a vast range of stressors, from racial discrimination to immense financial insecurity. This can be detrimental to their well-being, but campuses often fail to help students navigate these challenges.
In fact, many colleges actively exacerbate them in their quest for fame, wealth, and prestige. These unhealthy obsessions often compromise valuable benefits such as deep connections, community, spirituality, and health.
Related: Inside a university counseling center grappling with student mental health crisis
It’s no surprise that college students face a wide range of mental health issues, such as crippling stress, anxiety, and depression. In 2021-22, the national Healthy Minds Survey found that college students’ anxiety and depression were at historic levels, with 37 percent reporting some anxiety and 44 percent experiencing some depression in the two weeks preceding the survey. Additionally, about 83 percent said emotional or mental difficulties had impaired their academic performance at some point during the month preceding the survey.
Although some observers might try to dismiss these statistics as simply the result of the pandemic, national data suggest that mental health issues were on the rise before the virus arrived. It is essential that institutions pay more attention and take more responsibility for the emergence of these trends.
Campuses can not only create a breeding ground for mental health issues, but also foster spaces where students thrive.
Lindsay Pérez Huberprofessor at California State University, Long Beach, and I co-wrote a report which highlights how campuses fuel mental health issues and how they can help solve them. (Disclaimer: The report was commissioned by the California Futures Foundationamong the many backers of the Hechinger report.)
We note that cultivating caring, affirming, and connected communities on college campuses is essential when it comes to mental health.
Networks of caring faculty, staff, and students can become lifelines when academic stressors become all-consuming. And if colleges affirm students’ culture, values, and identities, they can boost their self-esteem and sense of autonomy, help them feel less isolated, and promote a greater sense of belonging. Prioritizing caring, connected, and affirming communities helps more students thrive.
For example, research shows an improvement in students’ well-being after they simply reflected on their intrinsic values in the context of their learning environment.
A program that allows students to simultaneously deepen their connections to the cultural values of their community and their learning environment can help them feel like they belong to both. Research also shows that culturally relevant learning experiences improve academic success.
Ethnic studies programs provide a strong model for creating such learning environments. Unfortunately, they are generally undervalued and subject to political attacks. In such contexts, they should not be asked to bear the bulk of the responsibility for cultivating these culturally relevant learning spaces on their campuses.
Instead, campuses should provide culturally competent mental health services through professionals who understand the diversity of students’ backgrounds and experiences. Offering counseling services, support groups, and outreach programs designed for diverse communities can help students feel understood and supported.
However, students must be aware of these services and be able to access them easily.
This requires campuses to provide clear and accessible support, rather than leaving students to find their own way through the increasingly complex bureaucracies of their institutions.
Related: STUDENT VOICE: After facing mental health issues in college, I now help others
Many of us who care about the holistic well-being of our students have watched mental health issues proliferate on our campuses and have been disappointed by the neglect of this growing crisis.
We must stop pretending that we played no role in creating this mental health pandemic.
Any institution that is concerned with chasing money and prestige while expecting students to sacrifice their health to earn a degree cannot call itself successful.
For colleges to effectively respond to the current mental health crisis and effectively fulfill their social responsibility, we must accept that we are part of the problem. We should actively work to address this.
Samuel D. Museus is professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is a nationally recognized expert on issues of equity and student achievement, and he is co-author of the “Degrees of Distress” report.
This story about student mental health crisis was produced by The Hechinger report, an independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Register for The Hechinger newsletter.
