The number of mental health incidents on Slippery Rock University’s campus more than doubled in 2023, compared to the past year, and is now one of the most frequent types of calls made to campus police.

Campus police responded to 15 mental heath crises in 2023, compared to seven incidents in 2022.

With an exception in 2021, which saw a decrease in incidents from 2019, and 2020, when only 20% of classes were held on campus in the fall, SRU has seen an increase in student mental health needs over the past several years.

Different factors have been named. While SRU Police Chief Kevin Sharkey and Lt. Tyler Gray said they aren’t sure why they are responding to more crises, they said the pandemic — coupled with the usual challenges that come with transitioning to college — could be to blame.

But at SRU, and on college and university campuses across the country, the trends in growing mental health concerns precede the pandemic.

Figures from Penn State University’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health annual reports, which collect information from more than 180 college and university counseling centers, indicate the number of students seeking counseling on college campuses increased nearly 40% between 2009 and 2015, continuing to rise until the pandemic.

At SRU, the President’s Commission on Mental Health “evolved based on national trends suggesting that mental health concerns on college campuses were rapidly increasing,” stated co-chair and professor of occupational therapy Melissa Luchynsky.

“Since the pandemic, we’ve just seen a continual rise in students choosing the (Student Counseling Center),” said Ken Messina, the counseling center’s clinical director and associate professor of Counseling and Development. “I think we’re up around 10 to 11% of the student population that’s coming for services each year.”

The primary student concern at SRU seems to be anxiety, he said.

“When we look at this generation of students and look at what their life experiences have been,” Messina said. “They've been through an economic recession, they've gone to elementary school through high school in a time when they’re doing constant active shooter trainings and having to worry about school shootings. We’ve had a pandemic that's taken them out of school and disconnected them from peers … we've had, you know, just all these social factors coming in, which are bound to generate anxiety and stress and worry, among other things, with students.”

And then there’s ‘hustle culture,’ Luchynsky said.

“I do feel like we have more of a hustle culture now than we used to,” Luchynsky said. “One student had stated that they feel like my older generation might feel like they're lazy … when I went to graduate school to be a therapist, I didn't work. Many of our students now have to work and manage school. And so I think that can be why they're a little more disengaged — they’re trying to find that life balance between work and learning.”

The aggressive work mindset leaves students feeling like they’re not doing enough, despite sometimes working multiple jobs while juggling their studies and family responsibilities.

“I think it was just something that was born out of the economic situation,” Messina said. “Students are more concerned now and more aware of the realities of the economy right now, seeing what home prices look like. They're worried about, well, ‘How many loans am I going to have to take out?’ Ten to 20 years ago, nobody really thought about those things. They were pretty sure they were going to get a good job that was well-paid and be able to afford a home and hit those different financial goals. And I think students are seeing that that's different now, which has that other layer of stress to it.”

As a graduate professor, Messina said he is aware of the “constant pressure” for graduate students to juggle their studies with assistantships and field work.

“A lot of field work is unpaid in order to get their internship hours, which is usually like 20 hours week, plus they have to be able to pay rent and eat,” he said.

He said faculty is trained to observe when anxiety or any mental health problem manifests itself in the classroom.

“We always say, watch out for changes,” he said. “Some of the big ones with students are when they stop attending, or we see a big drop in their work. If you have a student that’s usually a pretty solid performer, and all of a sudden, their assignments just aren’t up to the same quality, that’s usually an early indication that something is going on.”

At a smaller university like SRU, Messina says the class sizes allow faculty to “keep a good eye on students.”

“You get to know your students,” he said. “You know when someone’s not acting their usual self, or when they’re not performing.”

Economic disparities between students also play a role in mental health, he said.

“A lot of students in those situations are juggling one or two jobs, plus family responsibilities, and if one of those things becomes more difficult, sometimes it’s the academics that take the hit,” Messina said. “They may have an emergency in their family and they’re the sole caregiver, plus they’re working two jobs.”

“When they have all that pressure and something goes wrong, you can see how that would impact their mental wellness,” Luchynsky said.

Messina said that when he notices a student who is struggling, or misses a deadline for an assignment, he reaches out to them immediately. That can open the door to an in-person conversation.

With the student, Messina said he will look at their course load, and have a discussion around how to get back on track while being mindful of the external pressures the student is facing.

Accommodations could include extensions, taking a summer class or, in more extreme cases, Messina said, taking a leave of absence.

“I think there’s that misconception that maybe because (students) are going to counseling or reaching out for help, or they’re talking about (mental health) more, that they’re less resilient,” Messina said. “In fact, I think it’s just the opposite.”

Part of the growing need for mental health services might be positive: It also means students are more open about seeking help and speaking about mental health, Messina said.

“I think our students are just more open to receiving services, therapy has become less stigmatized, more students see it as being available in something that they can use freely,” he said. “So I think that that's helped to get students into counseling services.”

Roman Carnes is a first-generation student pursuing his master’s degree in student affairs at SRU. A senior resident assistant, Carnes oversees 16 students with resident programming and any issues they might encounter supporting residents on campus.

“We are trained very heavily on (mental health) situations to comfort and speak to the student in the moment,” he said. “Once the situation is settled, we know how to refer them to the right people.”

The transition to college can bring up anxiety for students because of the inherent changes that come along with it, he said.

“There might be feelings of impostor syndrome challenging whether they belong in university followed by a sense of isolation because they haven’t found their niche yet,” Carnes said.

A first-generation student, Carnes said he struggled with those feelings as an undergraduate. In contrast to some of his classmates whose families had been pursuing higher education for generations, Carnes said he wasn’t sure how to navigate college.

“It can feel very debilitating to not know where to go and things like that, and then when you come in as a freshman, you have sophomores and seniors who have their groups already,” he said. “It can debilitate someone’s self-image, hijack their self talk about whether or not they belong in college.”

Carnes also observed the pressures experienced by students whose backgrounds were in complete contrast to him: He said that some students might “carry the familial (pressure) of pursuing certain degrees.”

“I feel that some people, with how they grew up, academics were the one thing they got praised for — when they’re coming into college, that can take its toll,” he said. “College is a very different experience than high school.”

Carnes said that while most conversations around depression and anxiety happen behind closed doors, there’s an increased openness in bringing up mental health and accessing services.

His professors at SRU have been understanding of accommodating students’ mental health days, he said, and bringing the topic of mental health up as early as syllabus week.

“My professor outright said that if you need to take a mental health day, to email them and let them know to touch base,” Carnes said.