Next month, Eden Schiano will start college for the second time.
Her first try came last year in fall 2020 when she enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University. She’d been looking forward to college since she was young and dreaming about theater. But Schiano didn’t know she would develop an eating disorder in high school, and she never anticipated that her first year in college would be timed with a global pandemic. She also did not expect that, within weeks of attending her first virtual class, she would be diagnosed with bipolar II.
Last September, Schiano dropped out.
With the pandemic still in full swing and the student mental health crisis continuing to worsen, how should colleges prepare for the coming year? That’s the question that higher education leaders are contemplating.
According to the American College Health Association and National College Health Assessment, in fall 2020, at least 27% of college-aged students reported receiving psychological or mental health assistance within 12 months of being surveyed. Thirty-one percent (31%) said that anxiety had a negative effect on their academic life; 23% said they were affected by depression.
Dr. Michael Woodford, a professor of social work at Wilford Laurier University who studies mental health and well-being for marginalized student populations, said institutions need to start considering their students holistically to better support their mental health.
“The norms we’ve used pre-pandemic need to be shifted,” he said. “How do we adopt curriculum of care, of faculty flexibility? When looking at learning outcomes, ask, ‘Do you need four assignments, or can it be three?’”
