Face-to-Face: A Sociologist Looks at College Students' Mental Health

Authors

Maureen Kelleher, Northeastern UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

Fall 2024

Document Type

Article

Citation

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council (Fall/Winter 2024) 25(2): 3-23

Special issue: Form on student mental health

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Comments

Copyright 2024, National Collegiate Honors Council. Used by permission

Abstract

While both individual honors programs and their broader campus communities have implemented new initiatives and intervention strategies to address undergraduate mental health, significant needs remain unmet and concerns unaddressed about the long-term implications for students. This paper provides a framework for understanding the current (2023) environment on many campuses by presenting national legislation that shapes campus response, offering cases of specific institutional responses to crisis, and exploring the impact of face-to-face interaction between faculty and students in classrooms. Awareness of these three levels of response—national, campus, and classroom—equips and empowers the honors community to understand and effectively deal with myriad barriers, constraints, and resources in mental health care. Building on a bedrock of close-knit community and collaborative faculty, staff, and student experience, the author observes that face-to-face interactions are often the front-line response in honors education. Positing the fundamental resource in honors as faculty/student relationships, the author challenges practitioners to develop best practices for mental health interaction. How might honors faculty effectively balance interconnections with students and institutional structures? What limits are imposed on faculty, both at their home institutions and throughout an extensive network of governmental laws, rules, and procedures? How do honors colleges and programs roll out functional strategies to meet the emotional, psychological, and social needs of students in their everyday lives? Addressing these important questions, the author suggests that the best and most important work in honors is face-to-face conversations with students. Suggested readings and resources are appended.