Jack Dugan
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The University of Iowa campus is notorious for breeding the type of students we’ve all been or at least brushed elbows with before: bags beneath the eyes, a cold sweat, tufts of hair clasped in their hands in moments of anxious fits. Student stress is a prevalent and important issue that affects hordes of students not only here at the UI, but nationally.
The pressure involved with a university education is a mounting issue. The price tag of university education in America has been on a steady and steep incline, forcing most students to either take out heavy, stress-inducing student loans or to work part-time hours on top of an already demanding course load. Students, to be blunt, are strained and stretched thin.
This stress is mentally taxing and inevitably plays a role in the development of mental-health-related issues, most prominently anxiety and depression. According to the American Psychological Association, in an article published in September 2014, “About one-third of U.S. college students had difficulty functioning in the last 12 months due to depression, and almost half said they felt overwhelming anxiety in the last year.” It was also reported that, of those who did seek help for their mental ailments, an alarming 30 percent had stated that they had seriously contemplated suicide at some point in their lives.
No one said college is an easy endeavor to undertake, but the fact of the matter remains: Student mental health is a real problem and one that must be addressed. Stigmas surrounding mental health have been subsiding over the years, and today more students feel comfortable seeking help. This, when coupled with there being simply more students enrolled in universities than ever before, has college counseling offices struggling to provide prudent and timely help.
According to the Psychological Association, most university budgets for counseling services have remained unchanged despite the spike in student enrollment and the increasing need for their services. The report goes to state that “from 2010 to 2012, the average maximum number of students on a waiting list for institutions with more than 25,000 students nearly doubled, from 35 students to 62 students.”
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The UI is one of many institutions complicit in maintaining unreasonable waiting times for those seeking counseling. Students, even after anxiety attacks serious enough to warrant hospitalization, have a daunting two- to three-week wait before they can be seen by qualified staff, according to an Iowa Radio interview with UI Student Government President Elizabeth Mills. Iowa State is even worse, with an average wait of 30 days before a student can meet with staff.
According to a Penn State study, student stress also has an immediate effect on student academics. If the UI wants to remain an academically renowned and competitive institution, then it would be in its best interest to provide ample mental-health support to its students.
There is no apparent excuse as to why a university the size and prowess of the UI cannot provide quick and competent counseling services. With the academic demands and hefty tuition involved with enrollment at UI, it’s not much to ask for.