Faculty and student mental health

[Mobius]

Same tales we've heard for years. Institutions either pay lip-service or can't provide services to students. Giving an extension might be helpful, or it just pushes the inevitable "F" a few weeks out.

Just like with mental health issues among the general public, the problem is someone else's to solve.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/professors-struggle-with-demands-to-tend-to-students-mental-health

[FishProf]

As I read, I saw "doing away with midnight deadlines" as a way faculty are helping students.

I don't get it.  How does that help?  Unless the really mean "getting rid of deadlines" period.

[onehappyunicorn]

Yep.
Just had a student yesterday have a breakdown right in front of our building. The problem was she didn't know that she was huddled up right by the air intake. As she was screaming into her phone you could hear her through most of the building.
I went out to let her know and see if I could offer any help, she declined the help and was super embarrassed but I figured someone should tell her.
One of our issues is that when I have walked students up to the mental health services before there wasn't anyone available. It makes me hesitant to offer it to students but I do anyway, otherwise I feel like I haven't at least tried.
And, like in the article, I try to let students know that while I am happy to listen I am not a health professional and that I have to act on anything that would suggest that a student was a danger to themselves or others.
I want to be accommodating but when a student who has missed 11 classes states that the absences are due to their anxiety I really can't do anything to help them. I know what student services wants me to do (anything to help completion percentages) but if someone is struggling that much I don't see what benefit they are getting from being enrolled in classes. I always suggest a medical withdrawal to mitigate the penalty but most students don't want to do that.

[Hegemony]

I don't get it.  How does that help?  Unless the really mean "getting rid of deadlines" period.

I don't know what the Chronicle means, but I know that I always set my submission deadlines at 10 pm. I did this in emulation of another prof at my uni who wins teaching awards. I've had several students thank me because it means they only work frantically up till 10 pm, rather than til midnight. Which means potentially more sleep and less stress. (Sure, they could finish before midnight anyway. But what are the chances?)

[Mobius]

Mental health is such an ad hoc mess, and college students are thrown in it. Retention is the real goal, with student well-being just a variable that affects retention.

Medical withdrawals aren't ideal, but neither is staying enrolled. Allowing late work here and there does not fix underlying issues.

It's just a mess with little-to-no solutions that require resources.

[mythbuster]

One semester I set my deadlines as 5pm on Fridays- in the HOPE of giving students Friday evenings off. Got REAMED by them- they all wanted 11:59 on Sunday night. Go figure.

[FishProf]

One semester I set my deadlines as 5pm on Fridays- in the HOPE of giving students Friday evenings off. Got REAMED by them- they all wanted 11:59 on Sunday night. Go figure.

I see Hegemony's point, but this tracks with my personal experience.

Note:  Hegemony autocorrects to hedge monkey

[onthefringe]

One semester I set my deadlines as 5pm on Fridays- in the HOPE of giving students Friday evenings off. Got REAMED by them- they all wanted 11:59 on Sunday night. Go figure.

I see Hegemony's point, but this tracks with my personal experience.

Note:  Hegemony autocorrects to hedge monkey

Yup, even when I specifically note that I have set due times at 5pm so that they can get more sleep and I (and university IT) would be available if they have submission problems, they "get confused" and "prefer" a midnight deadline.

This year as a trial, I'm making reading responses due at 9:25am for a class that starts at 9:30am on the premise that it's not like I'm looking at them between midnight and the start of class anyway.

[marshwiggle]

Same tales we've heard for years. Institutions either pay lip-service or can't provide services to students. Giving an extension might be helpful, or it just pushes the inevitable "F" a few weeks out.

Just like with mental health issues among the general public, the problem is someone else's to solve.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/professors-struggle-with-demands-to-tend-to-students-mental-health

From the article:

Tara Tedrow has seen her share of students in distress.

They'll approach her after class, in tears, saying they're overwhelmed and need an extension. Or they'll send an e-mail apologizing for missing class because they've got "stuff going on." Some share intimate details of their troubles; others simply allude to "personal issues."

Tedrow, a doctoral teaching assistant at the University of Iowa, community-college adjunct, and former middle- and high-school teacher, tells each of them to put their mental health first. If a student needs extra time on an assignment, or help catching up, she'll generally grant it. And if their problems can't be solved by academic grace alone, she'll refer them to campus counseling — and even walk them there.

"I want to make sure they feel heard and not alone, that we care about them," said Tedrow, pointing to a black band with the word "educator" that is tattooed around her forearm. "I've lost too many kids to suicide."

She's lost multiple kids to suicide??? Unless she's gone back to school much later in life, she can't have spent that much time teaching middle- and high-school. At any rate, how many lifelong teachers have even one of their students commit suicide?

[Wahoo Redux]

Will say that for the couple of times I had a student in severe mental health crisis, including an Afghanistan war vet who I actually walked over to a therapist, the mental health office was a huge help. 

[Mobius]

Maybe she's referring to those who committed suicide even years later. That wouldn't be out of the ordinary.

Same tales we've heard for years. Institutions either pay lip-service or can't provide services to students. Giving an extension might be helpful, or it just pushes the inevitable "F" a few weeks out.

Just like with mental health issues among the general public, the problem is someone else's to solve.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/professors-struggle-with-demands-to-tend-to-students-mental-health

From the article:

Tara Tedrow has seen her share of students in distress.

They'll approach her after class, in tears, saying they're overwhelmed and need an extension. Or they'll send an e-mail apologizing for missing class because they've got "stuff going on." Some share intimate details of their troubles; others simply allude to "personal issues."

Tedrow, a doctoral teaching assistant at the University of Iowa, community-college adjunct, and former middle- and high-school teacher, tells each of them to put their mental health first. If a student needs extra time on an assignment, or help catching up, she'll generally grant it. And if their problems can't be solved by academic grace alone, she'll refer them to campus counseling — and even walk them there.

"I want to make sure they feel heard and not alone, that we care about them," said Tedrow, pointing to a black band with the word "educator" that is tattooed around her forearm. "I've lost too many kids to suicide."

She's lost multiple kids to suicide??? Unless she's gone back to school much later in life, she can't have spent that much time teaching middle- and high-school. At any rate, how many lifelong teachers have even one of their students commit suicide?

[lightning]

In the old days . . .

I could simply have two deadlines: a midterm test deadline and a final exam deadline, with no mandatory attendance.

Maybe we should just go back to that model, since students keep wanting deferments & extensions. Let's just do away with most of the deadlines and just have two big ones, one of which is immovable.

[Ruralguy]

I find that students love the midnight deadline. They absolutely hate deadlines at class time or at 5. Anything that they feel they have to get done right before class (yes, obviously they could just have it done the night before at midnight) is "too much to expect of students." I actually think twice as many low stakes assignments are better for mental health (and learning) than a mid term and final that are worth everything.

[lightning]

I find that students love the midnight deadline. They absolutely hate deadlines at class time or at 5. Anything that they feel they have to get done right before class (yes, obviously they could just have it done the night before at midnight) is "too much to expect of students." I actually think twice as many low stakes assignments are better for mental health (and learning) than a mid term and final that are worth everything.

I'm just trying to propose giving the students (customers) what they want, which is a class without real deadlines.

[EdnaMode]

I find that students love the midnight deadline. They absolutely hate deadlines at class time or at 5. Anything that they feel they have to get done right before class (yes, obviously they could just have it done the night before at midnight) is "too much to expect of students." I actually think twice as many low stakes assignments are better for mental health (and learning) than a mid term and final that are worth everything.

In my classes, the majority of lab work is due at the end of that lab period, and homework is due by the beginning of the next class, lecture or lab, whether it starts at 8 AM or 3:15 PM or any other time. I've had no pushback.