Increasing mental health needs

We learned many things from the COVID pandemic including what didn't work in various systems and supply changes on which we depended. Health and wellness is an area that was exacerbated by the isolation of months of shut-downs where personal interaction was replaced by a mass movement to virtual communication and meetings. The Healthy Minds study found that the number of students in some form of therapy is at an all time high with 44% reporting signs of depression, 37% reporting anxiety, and 15% indicating suicidal thoughts. The 2023-24 assessment of students' mental health reflected slight improvement. Loneliness may be a common element across multiple types of mental health concerns. Mental health crises often goes unrecognized by peers and research has found that parents often had no clue that their children were struggling. Students seeking counseling help is a good sign but questions remain about the cause of rising needs.

The heightened awareness of both physical and mental health needs has reinforced the importance of providing a broader array of wellness interventions in higher education and community settings. Complicating the issue of addressing depression among students, research has found that those who identify as depressed cope less well than those who have similar symptoms but don't see themselves as depressed. Counseling support contributes to student persistence but being employed, family support, and extracurricular involvement can also help. Student affairs administrators have been at the forefront in responding to this need and getting ahead of the problem in ways that contribute to student success is essential.

Mental health is current students' top stressor and the soaring numbers related to anxiety disorder is one of the more prominent examples of unmet need. A close friend when I was a graduate student at CSU was a hilarious and talented student in veterinary medicine. He worked summer orientation with me and was selected as a resident assistant in my building. While serving as a resident assistant, he started coming to my apartment during the middle of the night, just wanting to be with me. All I knew to do was leave my door open to respond to his needs. When my company ceased to help, he went to the health center where he was prescribed medication. Unfortunately, medication ultimately seemed to exaggerate his symptoms. He withdrew from CSU to return home, broken by his inability to pursue his dream of becoming a vet.

Years later I began struggling with being able to sleep at night and I started having fearful thoughts that were almost obsessive. Immersed in frustration, I remembered my former friend and colleague and recognized the similarity between what I was experiencing and what caused him to leave his studies. I tracked him down to ask for his help. He immediately recognized my symptoms as similar to his own, symptoms that in the meantime had drawn him to pursue a doctorate in psychology with a research focus on anxiety disorder. To this day, I credit my friend and colleague with throwing me a life-line, one which prevented a deeper crash and offered hope (and success) in managing anxiety disorder throughout the rest of my adult life.

Anxiety disorder has now emerged as the most common mental health need, and stress is a strong deterrent for some students to even attempt pursuing a higher education. Estimates are that 34% of undergraduate students have some degree of anxiety disorder, a condition that appears to have been exacerbated by the COVID pandemic and perhaps the advance of technology that drives many young people deeply into isolation. The isolation and reduced interaction with others has been hypothesized as increasing the prevalence of anxiety disorder. Researchers have found that 64% of those who have dropped out of college had mental health-related reasons, 45% of which had no accommodation and 50% had limited access to mental health services. The impact of this in disrupted educational and personal life is unmeasurable. And, the cost of college drop-outs to institutions justifies the researchers' call that colleges must do more to address mental health needs.

Disruption of education and life certainly require attention and support in higher education. Yet, some counselors warn that including predictable youthful stress and anxiety as indicative of mental health decline is a mistake. Inside Higher Education's interview of three mental health professionals highlighted that students' mental health and needs are sometimes better addressed by paying more attention to life skills and helping students acquire adversity management mindsets. One said, "Not every student on campus needs direct clinical care, but they all can benefit from a culture of caring and compassion." Trauma among students is another condition that may be more effectively addressed in a time-limited and practical way, rather than introducing deeper diagnosis and longer treatment. Campus environment conditions such as trust & transparency, peer support & belonging, and cultural humility & critically engaging difference can systemically respond to the trauma felt by a variety of students.

Addressing the increased prevalence of mental health complications requires more than just adding counselors. The 2023 Depression on College Campuses conference shed light on central challenges that require attention. Providing triage to determine what type of support students need may release some of the pressure for counseling. Some institutions resorted to out-sourcing counseling due to budget restrictions in the face of rising demand. Relying on external providers neglects the role of community, which can at least partially address students' needs through connective, supportive, and positive environments for all. The University of Maryland teaches emotional regulation in a 1-credit course to provide a tool for those students who elect to take the course. Other campuses are redefining the the role of counseling and replacing previous Directors who have perhaps been slow to change their models. Creating campus spaces that foster different types of student engagement is a trend on other campuses.

With college mental health counselors reporting concern about their ability to address students' needs, finding other ways to respond is critical. Faculty are first to see evidence of students in crisis, but training and support is required to increase their effectiveness. Four out of ten students say that faculty are central to addressing stress, with primary sources being exams and pressure to do well. Faculty can contribute to increased student success including being more flexible about deadlines, teaching strategies, and attendance/participation. Even strategies using virtual reality are being adopted to train and to reach broader numbers of students in need.

The creativity of faculty who integrate practicable mental health skills in regular courses would do a lot to improve the campus climate. Encouraging resilience is an important part of a positive climate but it must not minimize the suffering experienced by those struggling with mental health. Officials at the University of New England say, "Messages of strength, resilience and the expectation of positive outcomes must extend beyond college counseling services to all aspects of the student experience" and well-coordinated networks of support should be a dependable dimension of the student experience.

One of the most critical questions is how well prepared are students to face the reality of living and working after graduation, a challenge captured in a Harvard graduate's reflections. A survey of graduates ages 22 to 28 determined that 51% needed mental health support in the last year with variations in types of problems and a disparity of impact for men and women. One of the most interesting findings was that peer relationships (57%) and extracurriculars (51%) were most helpful in preparing them for their past-graduate experience.

My previous blog post on Health and Well-being in Higher Education addresses the variety of challenges related to the mental health needs of students, a phenomenon that is complicated and requires a comprehensive response. I'm thankful that educators are now understanding the need for greater mental health services and a more wholistic approach to it, a commitment that is reinforced by my personal experience and the professional role I played as a university administrator for over 40 years.

Open access to scholarship

The evolution of scientific understanding and stretching for innovation is one of the outcomes that higher education strives to achieve throughout the world. And, one of the primary ways that research and knowledge advances is through open access to outcomes.

After the Biden administration committed U.S.A. higher education to open access in publishing the findings of federally-funded research, other regions and countries are repositioning to remain part of the international scholarly discourse. It is unclear who will be involved and on what timeline but Asia is likely to follow the U.S.A. lead.

One of the factors that impacts open access is the fees charged by journals for open access publishing. Smaller countries may struggle to find the resources to fund these publications. However, in order to make sure that their scholars are part of the international conversations, even smaller countries will need to find a way.

The "caste" system in higher education - and ways to address it

As higher education has become increasingly commodified, hierarchies of quality and elitism have continued to harden. The problem is fairly easy to discern. When higher education is allowed to slip into a caste system of its own, similar to what Wilkerson describes in her book Caste - The Origin of our Discontents (2020). The point in education is that, where faculty and students are sorted into institution environments that are either rich or poor, the impact of caste is perpetuated and perhaps even magnified over time.

A review of Status and Culture... suggests that caste is primarily about seeking status, a point that is obvious in higher education. An important addition offered by David Marx is that the most destructive place in a status hierarchy is in the middle. Why? Because those with the highest status frequently presume to be the change makers setting the standard while those at the bottom literally have nothing to lose by challenging it. Those in the middle continue to fight over who's better than the other while being essentially controlled by the two ends of the continuum.

The brazenness that is possible, and likely necessary, at the bottom is revealed in Reyes' The Purpose Gap. Written to expose the chasm between systems of privilege for white and minoritized groups, Reyes advises Black and Brown colleagues to not rely on white liberal solutions to inequity. The solutions offered by the established hierarchy is to identify "star" and exceptional Black and Brown candidates who manage to succeed even against the odds, when the real solution needs to be creating constellations of excellence where the opportunity gap is bridged. The lack of comparability in minority student degree completion represents a potential of $2.9 billion per year in lost wages. HBCUs have been an important contributor to reducing the economic gap and lack of support for them is a risk to U.S. democracy.

Oh, and by the way, minoritized groups are increasingly taking charge of language. Using Black instead of other words has been around for quite some time. There is now push back on using the presumed non-gendered "Latinx" language. The preference is Latine (plural) for those who identify in singular as Latino or Latina.

The word "caste" was not used by Mintz in his opinion piece "Why implementing a Richer, More Robust Academic Experience is so Hard?" but he clearly identified the gaps among different types of institutions. The caste gaps are systemic and have existed for a very long time, as evidenced in the fact that Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) receive 178 times less in donations than Ivy League institutions. Even though they often have fewer resources, attending an HBCU increases a student's chances of graduating and contributes to a modest increased earnings potential. The challenges of leading an HBCU may be a contributing factor in high turn-over of their Presidents, which in turn undermines their progress. The Blue Meridian Partners pledged $124 million in support for HBCUs to begin to address the imbalance of resources. Addressing the gaps would offer constellations of opportunity and talent and Mintz recommended specific ways that the caste hierarchy should be addressed.

The principles proposed by Mintz are by no means revolutionary. They include commitments to holistic development, an outcomes focus, interdisciplinarity, experiential learning, and pathways to career preparation. Mintz says that we all know that the higher education "system" is disparate and unequal, tantamount to a caste hierarchy. Calling educators to task, Mintz proposes that "We need a call to arms or an appeal to the better angels of our nature: a demand that all students, not just the most privileged, get the kind of higher education that truly engages students, embeds them in a community of learning and provides genuine mentoring, gives them the chance to engage in research and grapple with the biggest issues of our time and of all time, and better prepares them for adulthood." And, when degrees are completed, minoritized students should be informed about, and encouraged to use, networks that privileged students use all the time to secure internship and employment opportunity. Career networking for graduate students is particularly important since graduate school connections contribute to everything from employment to further research and study opportunity.

The perceived value of higher education differs depending on who you ask. Rankings are a highly disputed but often referenced guide to academic supremacy. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings are based on research publications, citations, and reputational assessment, measures that may or may not relate to student learning outcomes and positive benefit to individuals and society at large. Federal and state policies are biased toward economic returns, but some educators urge consideration of broader outcomes. Other measures of value might include "civic benefits, such as voting, for example, and volunteering, charitable giving."

Caste and elitism are significant impediments to renewing higher education's contribution to innovation. Mintz reinforced this point in his warning that innovation may be stagnating in our institutions. He suggests that an academic approach may, in fact, be the enemy of creativity and novelty at least partially, if not substantially, because innovation challenges assumed truths and traditions. The way out of this is to return to the intense inquiry of former eras by fostering more active learning around real-world problems.

And, actively engaging real-world problems has to be done in learning spaces that are inclusive of diverse points of view. But finding ways to be more inclusive can be a challenge, especially when revision of a knowledge base can risk cultural appropriation, which can perpetuate previous power differentials rather than challenge them.

The composition of learning communities is obviously at the center of challenging "caste" in higher education. Legacy admissions has been central to many elite institutions, a strategy that fosters loyalty and financial support of graduates and their families. A remnant of discrimination against Jewish applicants in the 1920s, the practice also guarantees the perpetuation of caste which has caused some institutions to move away from legacy preference. Diversity among the faculty is another part of the problem.

The U.S.A. Supreme Court Affirmative Action decision related to college applications led to questions about the preference given to legacies, which may lead to undoing the practice. Maintaining consideration of race increases the likelihood of diverse learners engaged with each other while legacy admission results in the opposite. A commitment to diversification that includes, but attempts to go beyond, race is the University of Utah's "Grit" admits, a strategy focused on learners from diverse backgrounds who have demonstrated resilience in challenging circumstances.

The goal that is most imperiled by caste in higher education is enhancing student learning through diversity and inclusion. As Colleen Flaherty opined, "the best means of promoting student success... means moving beyond the gates of the academy and applying learning in real-world settings in the community. Other times it involves working on diverse teams in the classroom on problems that matter to both the individual and society." The point - it's about engaging real-world questions with a diverse representation of students.

Carnegie Mellon University in Africa

Higher education partnerships that offer quality education in other countries is a form of knowledge diplomacy and it often comes with financial benefit to the higher education partner that is willing to commit to these oases of learning. Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh has two partnerships in countries where non-democratic governments are in place - Rwanda and Qatar. Both of these partnerships have caused skeptics to question if presence in a non-democratic setting is acceptable.

MasterCard Foundation's commitment of $275.7 million to the Rwanda partnership raised previous concerns to a new level. Carnegie Mellon University - Africa in Rwanda evolved from a small 2-year masters in engineering program in 2011. Growing enrollment/profile and concerns about Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, who has been criticized for multiple human rights abuses, have invigorated earlier concerns.

Recognizing two different views of what a higher education institution is might help inform the debate in this specific example, or in any international higher education partnership. In one view, is a higher education institution primarily a virtuous enclave where scholars and learners go to be perfected in their intellectual insight and prepared to live their best lives? By contrast, is a higher education institution an imperfect instrument of learning and evolutionary change that should engage with its scholars, learners, and communities as a platform for improving individual and collective life?

If higher education is perceived as a virtuous enclave then remaining distant from flawed and potentially abusive governments is likely justified. On the other hand, accepting higher education as imperfect and in search of refined knowledge and improved ways of learning would lead to engaging completely, with eyes wide open, but not pretending that either a higher education institution or specific government is ideal. The partnership is necessarily about transformation of both.