With an expected 1,100 suicide deaths predicted for college students in the next year, a surprisingly low buzz is being made about why this problem exists, why it is increasing, and what to do to fix it. While some university officials have increased funding for student mental health services on campus, this has not appeared to help decrease the amount of suicides on campuses across the country. It is clear that the issues causing student suicide need to be addressed, rather than attempting to put a band aid on the problem after the fact. We’ve all undoubtedly heard many times that the world is an increasingly competitive place. This is certainly true, but is it necessary to place this burden on us young people directly out of high school?
Young adults need a number of years to ease into an adult workload because of the stresses that they face upon leaving high school and moving out into the world. While it is likely that these stresses aren’t the only cause of student suicides, it is undeniable that they play a large role. The stress of college life affects the vast majority of students who never resort to suicide, too. All are at an increased risk of developing mental problems such as anxiety and social disorders which can dehabilitate individuals for life. A greater urgency towards alleviating these stresses needs to be adopted by university officials in order to try to save our brightest young minds from depression, suicide, and other mental disorders.
In a student’s early years, and even some cases throughout college, transitioning from home to school can be very difficult. Our ties with friends and family back home can be strained, and some of us may feel lonely and isolated in our new school environment. Initially, most freshmen are inexperienced with handling the rigors of a college course load and may see their grades suffer as a result. After some time at school, many of us that have experience with these issues still continue to suffer from feelings of inadequacy and depression because the course load is unnecessarily high and the pressure to succeed increases each year of school. Most students realize as they progress throughout college how important grades are in the competitive world they will be entering, so competition increases without bounds in upper-level courses. Additionally, upperclassmen like myself are nearing graduation and may need time to secure positions of employment, figure out future living situations, decide how to handle relationships upon moving, apply for graduate schools, etc. The myriad of obligations placed on college students makes many cling to childish activities such as binge drinking and drug use because they are overwhelmed by what it means to be a full-fledged adult at the age of twenty. One of the main problems with the current education system is that it robs us of much of our time as young adults, leaving us less able to cope with the stresses of adulthood which are prematurely forced on us.
If these responsibilities aren’t enough to make a student’s head spin, recent tuition hikes have us paying absurd amounts of money to learn loads of superfluous information. Most students leave college in debt to lenders, parents, or both. Knowing that vast sums of money are going to be needed to pay off these loans, students feed into the already competitive atmosphere of college by obsessing over grades with the hopes that these will lead them to the money they desperately need to get out of debt. When looked at through the eyes of the student, it’s easy to see then why feelings of worthlessness are so common among college students.
If you can’t tell that I’m painting a bleak picture of college life here, I am. My peers are killing themselves at an all-time high, and college officials have done little in the way of fixing the issues that are actually causing it. It’s great to emulate the real world so that students get a taste of what is to come, but 18-21 year olds are not mentally mature enough to handle the full rigors of adulthood. We have new, complex problems that we have never dealt with before, and need more time to do so. College officials need to develop ways to lighten the course loads of students so that they have more time to be young adults and deal with young adult issues. This could be accomplished by removing many of the breadth requirements of majors and replacing them with a lesser amount of social and professional development classes where students are instructed on the future roles expected of them in society and the work place. After all, isn’t the purpose of college to prepare us to to become informed, well-adjusted citizens? Classes that ask us to memorize information that will have little impact on our future lives are adding a great deal of unnecessary work to our course loads. What information is actually relevant could easily be incorporated into these social and professional development classes.
Some critics of this proposal will argue that American education is already lacking and that the last thing we should be doing is cutting classes. While I agree, their approach still needs readjustment to a lighter semester course load. Although this would mean a college education would take more than four years to complete, this may actually be more effective as a teaching regimen than the current method of cramming 15-18 credits worth of information into our heads each semester. Spreading the information out over a longer period of time could give students more time to focus on classes that matter to them. This will lead to an increased retention and passion for learning, while decreasing student stress.
Throwing more dollars at mental health services with the hope that it will lower suicide and depression rates on campuses is wishful thinking on the part of university officials. Certainly mental health services are very useful and should be funded, but they cannot be expected to combat such a large problem single handedly. Reducing student stress through lower academic loads will allow universities to fight suicide and depression at both ends, both before and after the fact. It is up to students, parents, and all those who care about the health of the next generation to urge university officials to recognize the impact these stresses can have on the lives of students and call for the necessary steps to alleviate them.
-JL
Young adults need a number of years to ease into an adult workload because of the stresses that they face upon leaving high school and moving out into the world. While it is likely that these stresses aren’t the only cause of student suicides, it is undeniable that they play a large role. The stress of college life affects the vast majority of students who never resort to suicide, too. All are at an increased risk of developing mental problems such as anxiety and social disorders which can dehabilitate individuals for life. A greater urgency towards alleviating these stresses needs to be adopted by university officials in order to try to save our brightest young minds from depression, suicide, and other mental disorders.
In a student’s early years, and even some cases throughout college, transitioning from home to school can be very difficult. Our ties with friends and family back home can be strained, and some of us may feel lonely and isolated in our new school environment. Initially, most freshmen are inexperienced with handling the rigors of a college course load and may see their grades suffer as a result. After some time at school, many of us that have experience with these issues still continue to suffer from feelings of inadequacy and depression because the course load is unnecessarily high and the pressure to succeed increases each year of school. Most students realize as they progress throughout college how important grades are in the competitive world they will be entering, so competition increases without bounds in upper-level courses. Additionally, upperclassmen like myself are nearing graduation and may need time to secure positions of employment, figure out future living situations, decide how to handle relationships upon moving, apply for graduate schools, etc. The myriad of obligations placed on college students makes many cling to childish activities such as binge drinking and drug use because they are overwhelmed by what it means to be a full-fledged adult at the age of twenty. One of the main problems with the current education system is that it robs us of much of our time as young adults, leaving us less able to cope with the stresses of adulthood which are prematurely forced on us.
If these responsibilities aren’t enough to make a student’s head spin, recent tuition hikes have us paying absurd amounts of money to learn loads of superfluous information. Most students leave college in debt to lenders, parents, or both. Knowing that vast sums of money are going to be needed to pay off these loans, students feed into the already competitive atmosphere of college by obsessing over grades with the hopes that these will lead them to the money they desperately need to get out of debt. When looked at through the eyes of the student, it’s easy to see then why feelings of worthlessness are so common among college students.
If you can’t tell that I’m painting a bleak picture of college life here, I am. My peers are killing themselves at an all-time high, and college officials have done little in the way of fixing the issues that are actually causing it. It’s great to emulate the real world so that students get a taste of what is to come, but 18-21 year olds are not mentally mature enough to handle the full rigors of adulthood. We have new, complex problems that we have never dealt with before, and need more time to do so. College officials need to develop ways to lighten the course loads of students so that they have more time to be young adults and deal with young adult issues. This could be accomplished by removing many of the breadth requirements of majors and replacing them with a lesser amount of social and professional development classes where students are instructed on the future roles expected of them in society and the work place. After all, isn’t the purpose of college to prepare us to to become informed, well-adjusted citizens? Classes that ask us to memorize information that will have little impact on our future lives are adding a great deal of unnecessary work to our course loads. What information is actually relevant could easily be incorporated into these social and professional development classes.
Some critics of this proposal will argue that American education is already lacking and that the last thing we should be doing is cutting classes. While I agree, their approach still needs readjustment to a lighter semester course load. Although this would mean a college education would take more than four years to complete, this may actually be more effective as a teaching regimen than the current method of cramming 15-18 credits worth of information into our heads each semester. Spreading the information out over a longer period of time could give students more time to focus on classes that matter to them. This will lead to an increased retention and passion for learning, while decreasing student stress.
Throwing more dollars at mental health services with the hope that it will lower suicide and depression rates on campuses is wishful thinking on the part of university officials. Certainly mental health services are very useful and should be funded, but they cannot be expected to combat such a large problem single handedly. Reducing student stress through lower academic loads will allow universities to fight suicide and depression at both ends, both before and after the fact. It is up to students, parents, and all those who care about the health of the next generation to urge university officials to recognize the impact these stresses can have on the lives of students and call for the necessary steps to alleviate them.
-JL
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