By Ariana Magafas
The 2021 fall semester was heavy for the Saint Louis University community as the school lost two students on campus to suicide within two weeks of each other. According to Active Minds, a nonprofit organization which promotes mental health, the “second leading cause of death among college students is suicide.”
Jennifer Ohs, an associate professor in the SLU Communication Department said she was worried the university would experience a second suicide after the first one.
“Suicides are contagious and students came into this term with their mental health already compromised because of COVID,” Ohs said. “The mood was very tense during those challenging weeks and it became evident that the whole campus was suffering. We were going through the stages of grief in the classroom.”
Overwhelmed with a heavy workload and trying to navigate living on their own for the first time, the mental health of college students is a growing concern across campuses. This worry has only increased, especially since the start of COVID-19 which forced college students to stay in their dorm rooms and limit any social interaction.
According to BioMed Central Psychology, 60.8% of college students experienced increases in anxiety, 54.1% of college students’ experienced higher rates of loneliness, and depression increased for 59.8% of college students since the pandemic.
College students have had many experiences where mental health struggles interfere with their academics. According to the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, “mental health problems can affect a student's energy level, concentration, dependability, mental ability, and optimism, hindering performance.”
SLU has given its students a “Mental Health Day” where they are encouraged to practice self care and spend the day focused on themselves. However, many community members believe one day is not enough. Students find themselves using this day of cancelled classes to complete assignments and do school work in order to keep up.
“Honestly, SLU doesn’t really understand what a mental health day means or how to properly figure out where to place it,” said Sophie Collins, a sophomore aerospace engineering major. “If it’s on a random Tuesday, it won’t do much. The administration here doesn’t realize that we can’t utilize it, so the mental health days are kind of pointless.”
According to Penn State University’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health, “utilization of counseling services on college campuses has increased by an average of 30-40% over the last few years.”
SLU students have started online petitions in order to obtain not only more, but better mental health resources on campus.
One petition, created this year after the two suicides on campus, asks for SLU to hire more counselors, allow one free counseling session every week, and make counseling hours longer. The petition currently has over 9,000 signatures.
“I signed the petition because in addition to SLU needing better mental health awareness, it is extremely difficult for students to change their counselor. There’s so much paperwork involved and it is not an easy process at all,” Julia Mannix, a sophomore business major said.
The University Counseling Center at SLU has nine counselors as of now and their hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.. According to The University Counseling Center, their mission is “to promote the psychological health and development of the SLU community using a holistic approach to achieve wellness and educational success.”
Counselors at SLU help students with a broad range of troubles such as depression, anxiety, stress, panic attacks, and adjustment problems. They offer students 10 free counseling sessions per school year.
“The majority of the students I see seek help for managing anxiety and depression,” Jamell Jacobs, a licensed professional counselor at SLU said. “I help them learn how to think and how to internalize things differently with a goal of reducing any worries they might be having. We want to help students find a new support system in a new environment.”
SLU students are calling for change because they do not think the amount of free sessions is enough.
“I’m glad that students at SLU are taking initiative about mental health,” Mannix said. “I have heard so many of my friends say how stressed and anxious they are about their classes, so I know that other students here feel the same way as well.”
Jacobs said that a lot of students who are graduating come to her for help in order to reduce their fear of going out and living in the real world.
“The mental health of college students is especially important because this is a huge transition point in their lives and everything they’ve known to be true is completely disrupted,” Jacobs said. “I recommend participating in counseling on a regular basis, but another solution for universities is to offer a class about mental health for freshmen and seniors to take.”
There is an article that was published in The University News on March 5, 2020, right before the peak of COVID that discussed the lack of space in the SLU community devoted to conversations about mental health. In response, students created Club Resilient, a club dedicated to empowering women through mental health discussions. According to U News, “Club Resilient has a goal to not only try to improve mental health, but also to create a community of acceptance and support through open conversation.”
Another U News article published in 2019, addresses the alarming rates of suicide among college students and advocates for effective mental health resources. According to U News, “SLU has piloted Suicide Prevention Week for the past several years, with their mission being to spread awareness of the resources and support available on campus for students to turn to.”
Both of these articles were published before the suicides of two SLU students in one semester which clearly communicates that there is still a problem at SLU regarding students’ mental health.
“The university should better equip faculty to support students,” Ohs said. “We need to decrease the stigma of seeking help and increase counseling services. I think support groups would be the most helpful so that people can have conversations in order to make sense and understand how to better support each other.”
Club Resilient is no longer a club at SLU. However, another club devoted to the mental health of SLU students, Active Minds, has been up and running on campus since the 2009-2010 school year.
The goal of Active Minds is to eliminate the stigma of mental illness and offer a space where open conversations about various mental health issues can be discussed. The club has organized many events to raise awareness for suicide, depression, stress, and other mental health issues that concern college students.
“In my opinion, SLU should have more clubs dedicated to mental health awareness,” Collins said. “It’s inspirational to see actual students taking action so that their peers can experience mental health improvements. Hopefully, more clubs can change the culture and climate on campus in regards to mental health, which could result in more students seeking the help they need.”
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