HANOVER, N.H. (WCAX) – Dartmouth College Friday released a new five-year strategic plan for supporting student mental health on campus. The wellness plan aims to address the stresses that students, faculty, and staff experience, whether it’s foreign conflicts, social media, or the lasting effects of the pandemic.
“I knew a lot of freshmen who were really struggling to assimilate,” said Ellie Oyebode, who was preparing for college when the pandemic hit. Now, as a sophomore at Dartmouth, time management is a new stress that is likely shared by many of her peers. “I have a show this Monday, a rehearsal on Sunday. I also have volleyball tournament on Sunday. I also have a test next week.”
Academics is Shayan Yasir’s major concern. “I tend to not be able to fall behind just because of the immense workload,” Yasir said. However, the first-year student also acknowledges that social media often causes headaches. “Whenever something happens on campus or in the world, everyone has ten different opinions on it, so you sort of hear a bunch of arguments all the time.”
Dartmouth’s new president, Sian Beilock, has made mental health a central focus of her tenure. The college’s new Commitment to Care plan expands on some of the changes made on campus over the last three years, including a new medical leave policy that covers mental health.
“Sometimes students need to take time away to heal, and that might be three months or that might be three years,” said Dartmouth College Provost David Kotz.
The new plan has five key points that center around student well-being in and out of the classroom. It creates an inclusive environment fostering diversity; it equips students with skills to navigate successes and failures; it actively addresses student mental illness; and it invests in new applications of evidence-based approaches to respond to changing needs.
“One of the things that I am really pleased with this plan is that it supports all students at Dartmouth, not just the undergraduate students but the graduate and professional students as well,” Kotz said.
Dartmouth has increased counseling staff by 50% to implement the changes and will be launching a website dedicated to information and resources. Students say it’s a step in the right direction. “I think it is really important that Dartmouth implemented this since I think some people would say that it might have been a struggle for them in the past to get mental health help here,” Yasir said.
“If this plan addresses that then I definitely think it will be a great thing. I definitely had those issues my freshman year,” Oyebode said.
Students actually had a hand in creating the health wellness plan and officials say they will be part of the evaluation process in the years to come to determine how successful it is on campus.
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