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Kentucky students face worsening mental health, financial insecurity, survey says

Lexington Herald-Leader - 4/1/2021

Apr. 1—Many Kentucky college students have struggled to pay tuition and have faced worsening mental health amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent survey of about 1,000 students showed.

The vast majority — 74 percent — of the current and prospective college students surveyed told a Prichard Committee research team that they'd felt an increase in mental or emotional exhaustion during the pandemic. Survey results showed that 46 percent reported an increase in loneliness, while another 17 percent reported increases in suicidal thoughts.

"I am alone in my dorm room, I have glass between me and everyone else at work, most of my classes are on Zoom," said one student respondent quoted in the survey results. "I became depressed and had to go see a doctor. I am now on three different medications and was reluctant to move back into my dorm room. I failed two classes last semester due to anxiety and depression."

The survey was conducted from Feb. 8 to March 8 and was completed by an "intergenerational" research team comprised of students and professionals. Brigitte Blom, the president and CEO of the Lexington-based Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, said the organization saw a need for this survey — along with several others related to Kentucky education — to provide on-the-ground information "so that Kentucky can turn the corner out of COVID in a way that is stronger than when we went in."

In addition to surveying nearly 1,000 current and prospective students, researchers also interviewed 11 people in key demographics to better understand the issues mentioned in the survey.

For more than a year, students have attended classes largely online or in reduced capacity classrooms as Kentucky colleges have sought to limit the on-campus spread of the coronavirus through social distancing. For many, quick chats after class or between desks have been replaced by formal emails and pre-scheduled Zoom calls.

With wider distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, colleges and universities across the state are preparing for a more normal fall semester. But administrators should continue to consider how to provide mental health supports for students, Blom said.

"Mental health needs have soared for our college students, and they're self-reporting this," Blom said. "So I think it's a big question for our colleges and universities and communities. How do we provide mental health supports for our young people?"

Most colleges and universities have some form of mental health counseling and on-campus academic help available to students. Before the pandemic, the University of Kentucky established a mental health task force and were making large investments to revamp its student support infrastructure after multiple reports of student suicides and after the campus had increasing year-over-year traffic to the university's counseling center. Now, many of those services are online via telehealth counseling sessions.

Cameron French, a University of Kentucky senior who participated as a student researcher on the study, said he hopes administrators across the state will continue to focus on mental health after the pandemic. Since a friend died by suicide during his sophomore year, French has advocated through student government for greater access to timely on-campus mental health support.

Despite increases in mental health concerns, about 12 percent of respondents said they used campus mental health services less frequently. At the same time, 13 percent said they weren't aware of their campus' mental health resources, while another 11 percent said they had trouble accessing them.

"This issue around (mental health resource) accessibility on college campuses is not unique to UK, and it's not unique to Kentucky, and COVID didn't cause this to happen," French said. "This was happening prior to the start of the pandemic, and COVID has only exacerbated it further."

Across the board, student concerns about college affordability, mental health and access to reliable food and housing existed before the pandemic but have been exacerbated by digital course loads and economic trouble.

Almost half of the students surveyed said they were more worried about food access since the pandemic began while about 40 percent said they were more concerned about stable housing or healthcare. Some students also told surveyors that they'd seen an increase in their personal expenses while facing decreases in income.

One student quoted in the results said they were $11,000 in debt while also working two jobs and trying to maintain good grades to keep a scholarship that covers some, but not all, of their costs.

"I don't know how much of it I can take anymore," the student said. "I really want to take a gap semester because I don't think this is going well for me. I think it would be best for me, but I don't think I could recover financially from it."

The survey also gauged interest among high school seniors looking to soon make the leap to college as well as prospective adult learners looking for additional education.

"We were hearing this before the pandemic, but the pandemic exacerbated concern among Kentuckians about the cost of college," Blom said. "Adults especially know the value of a college degree, but they're concerned about taking on debt, and they're concerned about the cost of tuition."

Over half of the high school seniors surveyed said they'd felt "more anxious" about their plans after high school than they did a year prior. A similar amount of high schoolers said they'd prefer a school that offered a mix of in-person and virtual classes.

Many prospective adult learners said they would appreciate the added flexibility that comes with online learning and would also benefit from increased child support opportunities should they return to school, Blom said.

Higher education across the state should better evaluate "what high quality remote learning includes," Blom said. Younger, traditional students are missing the classroom and campus experience right now, but many told surveyors that the flexibility that comes with learning from anywhere may come as a useful tool in the future.

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