On September 28, Virginia State University (VSU) canceled classes and encouraged students to take the day off to prioritize their mental health. After a tumultuous year and a half, VSU’s mental health day was dedicated to addressing mental and emotional fatigue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Employees could also opt to use a leave day or take a relaxed workday, and faculty and staff were also encouraged to prioritize self-care by taking a five-minute break from their work or leisurely chatting with colleagues. The university scheduled numerous Trojan Wellness Day events for students, including yoga classes and meditation sessions.
Dr. Donald E. Palm, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs, said, “We all need to think about prioritizing our health on this day, in order to continue to ensure that greater happens here. And the message we want to spread [to] our Trojan Community is simple — Virginia State University cares. We care about you and your mental health; and we recognize your hard work and commitment.”
The university received a great deal of praise from the community as well as nationally for Trojan Wellness Day. Online, users applauded the university for its commitment to students’ mental health and encouraged other universities to do the same. One Twitter user said, “This is amazing to me. I wonder how so many of my friends from college would have [fared] if our alma mater had listened and reacted nearly as well as VSU.”
However, although the day may have had good intentions and is a promising start to addressing collegiate mental health concerns, giving a single mental health day to students won’t end a mental health crisis. It must be an ongoing and active endeavor by universities across the country — and as of right now, universities are falling ridiculously short.
Prior to the pandemic, the topic of mental health among college students was already a fragile one. According to surveys from the American College Health Association (ACHA) conducted in 2018 and 2019, 60% of college students reported that they felt “overwhelming” anxiety, while 40% said they experienced depression so severe that they had trouble functioning. Mental health issues commonly emerge and persist among college students for an array of reasons. For instance, adjusting to living alone is challenging, as well as adapting to a heavier workload and making new friends. There are other stressors as well, such as finances, socializing, and “fitting in.” College is such a transformative time for so many of us, and change isn’t always easy.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit — and it especially hit hard for college students. In a 2020 survey, 71% of 195 college student respondents said that they felt increased stress and anxiety due to the pandemic. Not only did students have to navigate a new world where the air we breathe could hurt us and the ones around us, but we also had to grapple with adjusting to online classes and keeping our grades in check. We struggled with loneliness from not being around our friends and social circles at college. We struggled with perpetually thinking about what could have been from our college experience.
And as school opened up this fall, another wave of anxiety rushed in as we had to readjust to being around people, to socializing, to being back in-person. To potentially becoming infected by a virus that has taken the lives of over 700,000 Americans as we emerged from our homes and back into the world.
Although universities commonly tell college students that they are sympathetic towards these issues and that mental health is something to be prioritized, their actions typically reveal otherwise, and they fail to allocate proper funds to provide mental health resources for students. While universities should be budgeting money towards providing counseling services for students, they instead push money into other aspects such as athletics or construction. While these things are important in terms of bettering student life on campus, mental health services are the bare minimum to ensure that student life is functioning. The mental health crisis can literally be a life or death situation for some students, or significantly derail their futures. According to the Suicide Prevention Center, one study found that depression is linked to dropping out of school.
Or universities take the easy way out by providing students with a day of puppies or free hot chocolate (my college even brought “therapy goats” one day during my freshman year — yes, you read that right). Instead of seriously addressing mental health issues through therapy and other tangible resources, universities commonly resort to using “stress-busters” and fun activities to coax students into believing that they are acknowledging and prioritizing their mental health. But this is just a mere facade — because getting therapy goats to come on campus for a day is a lot cheaper than paying for actual therapists.
VSU is right in their sentiment that mental health needs to be prioritized for college students, and especially given the mental toll of the pandemic, but the way that they are going about confronting the issue is totally wrong. Trojan Wellness Day was essentially just another day of stress-busting for college students, and frankly, a mere publicity stunt on behalf of the university to demonstrate that “they care about mental health” — because the next day, on September 29, everything went back to normal. Classes resumed, along with the large bulk of homework and assignments to complete.
VSU students who struggle with mental health weren’t miraculously cured on Trojan Wellness Day — they continued to struggle with it the next day. Because without adequate resources like therapy, counseling, and adjusting school requirements and course loads to meet the needs of students, students will continue to undergo this crisis. And they’re undergoing it alone. What universities also need to realize is that mental health is not linear — it is a constant uphill and downhill battle that ebbs and flows.
The national mental health crisis endured by college students can’t magically be resolved by a couple of meditation sessions or a single mental health day — although I wish it could.
Studies:
American College Health Association. (2018, 2019). ACHA National College Health Assessment.
Eisenberg, D., Downs, M., & Golberstein, S. (2009). Stigma and help-seeking for mental health among college students.
Son, Changwon, BS, MS, et al. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study.