The campus of Fort Hays State University will be alive again with students, many of them college freshmen. Most young people long for the day when they graduate from high school and get to leave the nest and set off on their own in college. They see many advantages, they are on their own, no one telling them what to do, true independence.
The Higher Education Research Institute released the results of their “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2014 Survey,” which found that 9.5% of incoming college students frequently “felt depressed” during the past year (a 6.1% increase over the past five years). Of the 150K+ students at over 227 schools who participated, 34.6% “felt overwhelmed” by schoolwork and other commitments (a 7.5% increase).
Los Angeles Times reported, “Colleges around the country are struggling to meet higher demands for psychological and crisis counseling, heightened by fears that their campuses could face incidents of violence and suicide.” These students need access to better mental health programming on campus to support their mental health needs.
Fort Hays State’s Kelly Center offers help to those that are struggling with the transition to college. The Tiger Media Network spoke with Sarah Brungardt, Professional Counselor and Bob Duffy, the coordinator of the Drug & Alcohol Wellness Network at the Kelly Center about what they have observed here at Fort Hays State University with students and dealing with school life as well as social and work schedules.
When asked if the Kelly Center has seen an increase in students looking for help with school, Brungardt said, “We are seeing more and more students every year, all of our schedules are very busy. We (The Kelly Center) are very happy that students are utilizing our services. We see it as a strength when students reach out to us and help improve their life on many different scales.”
Addressing what the results of “The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2014 Survey” said about college students feeling overwhelmed and depressed.
Brungardt talked about the transition from high school to college, “I’m seeing in a lot of students is they have a million things on their plate, so they are dealing with this transition here (at school) which is difficult in terms of academics, social life, if they have a job as well as stuff going on at home. So there’s a lot of depression and anxiety that come into play there because they have so much on their plate.”
Much of this spills over to social media, a place where students seem to go to deal with their issues with life as well as with fellow students.
Duffy said about this, “If you look at what is happening with the fraternity at the University of Oklahoma, what the students sometimes forget is that all of this stuff is public access and they don’t realize what they are putting out there about themselves or they don’t think about it.”
Social media also gives students a distorted view of the world they live in.
Brungardt said, “I think there are a lot of advantages to social media, but I think there is a lot of disadvantages. A lot of times is what I’ve seen is students compare themselves to others on social media and I always tell them that’s not really reality, we don’t post pictures of ourselves when we are sad, this person that happy all the time, that may not be very accurate. A lot of the time with some of the students who are struggling with depression we have made a decision for them to take a break from social media and every single one who has taken a break from it has benefited from it.”
The Kelly Center is located on the Garden Level of Picken Hall, room 111. Offering Academic Support and Tutoring, personal counseling, alcohol and drug counseling, testing services, disability student services, online mental health screening and other services. Call them at 785-628-4401.