THERE are a few big differences between high school and college, and most of them have to do with freedom. In high school, you lead a sheltered life. You have curfews, regular grade reports, phone calls home if you screw up, and everyone from teachers to coaches looking out for you. Mostly, though, you have parents: lecturing you, worrying about you, and generally being a pain because they love you so darn much. Then you go to college, where being on your own can be scary at first but you end up thriving on your newfound independence.
That progression of events isn't as simple for students who suffer from psychological problems, but it doesn't mean that the independence of all college students should disappear.
There have been a number of cases recently in which students with mental problems have brought suits against colleges for not doing enough to prevent them from harming themselves ("Lost On the Campus," Time, Jan. 15). One woman who survived a suicide attempt she made while attending Syracuse University is suing the school. She claims they should have done more to prevent it, though the school says they provided her with a campus counselor and tried repeatedly to help her.
The issue of whether schools should be held accountable for what happens when students aren't mentally healthy invokes the larger issue of what the university's relationship to students actually is. The question is if schools should act in loco parentis - whether school officials have a special relationship with the student that imposes a duty upon them to protect students, like a parent-child relationship does. Legal experts, according to Time, say no such relationship exists.
The people suing universities over these matters unreasonably expect them not only to educate but also to babysit their students. Colleges cannot act in the protective role of a parent. To make them responsible for what students do to themselves, for whatever reason they do it, is ridiculous.
Asking colleges to take such responsibility would mean that they would have to keep tabs on the status of every student's emotional state. This, needless to say, would be impossible. The resources simply don't exist for every student to be looked after by adults, especially at schools like the University, where there are 13 students for every faculty member. Furthermore, the sad truth is that even the most energetic attempts at suicide prevention often aren't enough to stop some from harming themselves.
At the University, first years are provided with Resident Advisors, who are trained to watch out for mental problems, but adults are not directly involved. Psychiatric services are available to University students if requested, but professionals can't and shouldn't evaluate every students just in case something is wrong.
This is as it should be. It would be bad for everyone if colleges were forced to act as if they were surrogate parents. The freedom of college life would disappear if colleges had to supervise as well as educate their students, as high schools do. College is supposed to be a stepping stone between high school and the real world. If college merely becomes an extension of high school, the shock of being completely on one's own after graduation will be all the more intense.
Parents are in the best position to decide whether or not their child is prepared to deal with the stress college represents, so they should be the ones to make such decisions and take responsibility for their outcomes.
Parents of students with a history of psychological problems should take special consideration. Improved psychiatric medications mean that more and more people with psychological problems are now able to attend school, when they may not have been stable enough to do so before.
The result is that a large number of students have experience with mental problems. According to Time, colleges have reported a substantial increase in the number of students requesting mental-health services in the past decade. The number of students admitting to psychiatric problems at Dartmouth College, for instance, rose tenfold in the past three years.
In general, mental illness affects college students more than they may realize. After accidents, suicide is the leading cause of death among college students. Students of college age are particularly prone to developing psychological problems due to the combination of academic stress with unhealthy eating habits, erratic sleeping patterns and experimentation with drugs and alcohol.
The most colleges can be reasonably expected to do - and the most they can do without stifling students' independence - is to create an atmosphere of caring by encouraging students to look after each other. It would be helpful for colleges to educate students to notice warning signs and let them know what they can do to help if they're worried about a classmate.
Most important, colleges should have counseling services available for students who request them. In this way, the administration doesn't become Big Brother and students can learn to take care of others, certainly a good lesson for any school to impart.
(Laura Sahramaa's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily.)
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