Jordan Patterson

Opinion Editor

College is, obviously, something that plays a role in all of our lives. 

However, it leaves a bigger mark on some of us and sometimes it even leaves a mark that can hurt. 

“Anxiety is the top presenting concern among college students, 41.6 percent, followed by depression, 36.4 percent, and relationship problems, 35.8 percent,” according to the American Psychological Association website. 

In addition, these same directors believe that mental health is becoming a bigger problem and this was the common belief back in 2013. 

That was seven years before a virus would lock all of us away at home and keep us from getting out and seeing friends and family.

I feel like with this growing concern, actions need to be taken in order to prevent a lasting effect on students in the present and their lives in the future. 

About 21 percent of students who are diagnosed with depression will have lifelong symptoms according to the What To Become website.

Even after school, the symptoms might not go away and it might end up affecting people for the entirety of their lives. 

In addition, just being depressed throughout a student’s college years can hurt their academic performance.

Therefore, I think it is very important for universities to find ways to reduce the amount of stress that they put on the shoulders of their students. 

Ultimately, their goal should be to help the students grow and improve so they can become successful. 

However, if all they’re doing is hurting their students mental health then they are not achieving the goal they should be setting out to do.

I think that some suggestions that could be experimented with is giving less homework or having more flexible due dates. 

Some may say that the goal for these types or practices is to prepare students for the workforce. 

To those people I ask, what job requires you to do work outside of the allocated hours or what job requires you to have several other jobs that are completely different?

I’m not saying that teachers should adopt a completely laissez faire attitude about school work. 

However, I would like teachers to try to be more cognizant of how they are impacting their students mentally because I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be the reason a student drops out of college due to stress, or worse.

Email Jordan at:

jpatters13@live.esu.edu