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Students' mental health, and how best to monitor it, is now a pressing issue on campuses nationwide
By: An essay by Rob Copeland
Issue date: 7/25/07 Section: Gothica
Last update: 9/15/07 at 3:53 PM EST
Last update: 9/15/07 at 3:53 PM EST
Hollingsworth says she receives referrals from students, staff and professors daily, totaling more than 700 in the past year. Most are casual conversations to ascertain if a student's behavior is only a sign of a bad day or of something far worse.
Those reference calls are highly correlated with severity and urgency, she says.
But Baucom says he believes there is a limit to how far he would expect one of his professors to get involved with a potentially mentally ill student. Although the Virginia Tech shooter was flagged by the English department, Baucom added that he doesn't think his faculty has any further responsibility to keep an eye out than professors of economics or math, for instance.
"What's important for us is to realize what we are competent to do.… Our fundamental responsibility is to teach," he says. In the event of an emergency, an English professor would contact the academic dean, who would liaise with student affairs and counseling services.
It's that sort of circulatory process that the federal report seems to criticize. The report notes that many professors are unaware of the crucial warning signs of dangerous behavior and are unable to get in touch with mental health experts fast enough.
In a June issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Lake of Stetson University College of Law writes that universities need to end their resistance to change, and stop trying to "deflect responsibility."
"Higher education… frequently operates in ways reminiscent of its feudal past: Our institutions were designed to preserve and protect knowledge, not students," Lake writes. "Virginia Tech will remind us that a college is a unitary organism, and that it cannot afford to have any student who is seriously withdrawn and isolated or a total loner."
Administrators interviewed for this article rejected the argument that Duke's process moves too slowly. Hollingsworth says she has moved "in minutes" to help suicidal students in the past.
Those reference calls are highly correlated with severity and urgency, she says.
But Baucom says he believes there is a limit to how far he would expect one of his professors to get involved with a potentially mentally ill student. Although the Virginia Tech shooter was flagged by the English department, Baucom added that he doesn't think his faculty has any further responsibility to keep an eye out than professors of economics or math, for instance.
"What's important for us is to realize what we are competent to do.… Our fundamental responsibility is to teach," he says. In the event of an emergency, an English professor would contact the academic dean, who would liaise with student affairs and counseling services.
It's that sort of circulatory process that the federal report seems to criticize. The report notes that many professors are unaware of the crucial warning signs of dangerous behavior and are unable to get in touch with mental health experts fast enough.
In a June issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Peter Lake of Stetson University College of Law writes that universities need to end their resistance to change, and stop trying to "deflect responsibility."
"Higher education… frequently operates in ways reminiscent of its feudal past: Our institutions were designed to preserve and protect knowledge, not students," Lake writes. "Virginia Tech will remind us that a college is a unitary organism, and that it cannot afford to have any student who is seriously withdrawn and isolated or a total loner."
Administrators interviewed for this article rejected the argument that Duke's process moves too slowly. Hollingsworth says she has moved "in minutes" to help suicidal students in the past.
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