A recent Wall Street Journal report highlighted a pressing issue: at both public and private universities, the number of students classified as mentally “disabled” under federal law has drastically increased.
Accordingly, the number of students taking advantage of special privileges allowed to the mentally disabled – such as time extensions and special rooms for test taking – has also grown. University administrators and testing organizations such as College Board, which administer the SAT, seem happy to grant these privileges in an attempt to address this concern.
But exemptions and extensions are merely administrative band aids that don’t solve the underlying issue.
If we want college students to be healthier and happier, we can’t continue to coddle them. This allows young people to remain mentally- and emotionally-disturbed while lowering academic standards. It’s a double blow to college students, who are permitted to perform poorly without finding any long-lasting peace of mind.
One response would be to tell kids to toughen up, to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and to take the stress they are under with a certain amount of grace and dignity, rather than searching for medical reasons for their insufficiencies. This approach also misses the mark, however. Aren’t young people doing precisely this, trying to shoulder the burden of doing well in academically competitive environments all by themselves without significant support from their family or peer group?
Instead, parents should be demanding that university administrators make college campuses more welcoming and less stressful environments. Not by constructing “safe spaces” or lowering the bar, but by fostering a real sense of community.
This means changing a lot about how college campuses currently work: clamping down on the divisive antics of social justice warriors, disciplining professors who participate in hateful and criminal anti-fascist groups, and standing up for rather than penalizing and ostracizing campus conservatives who exercise their First Amendment rights. While these are political issues for college campuses, they also have tangible effects on the mental health of all students, including those not involved in politics.
Even the promotion of certain racial, ethnic, and sexual groups at the expense of others can be divisive and make students feel unwelcome. If students are truly treated equally, fairly, and honestly by their university administrators, they will be able to devote their attention more fully to their academic careers, rather than worrying about the latest dramatic cultural or political shenanigan on campus or fearing attack if they express the wrong opinion.
This is not a complete solution by any means. The increase in ADHD diagnoses among young people is a far wider, more complicated societal problem involving psychology, pedagogical methods, and the pharmaceutical industry. A large part of student stress might also be due to the high expectations placed on them by parents. These contributing causes to the increase in mental disability among college students cannot be addressed by any single government or university policy, or perhaps any single policy at all.
However, universities can help by doing their part to ensure that students are operating in an environment that is not politically-charged. A politically-neutral environment is one that allows students to flourish regardless of belief, and without forcing them into political campus discussions unrelated to their field of study. University administrators need to show compassion, not permissiveness, in the face of an issue with no easy solution.
