While many other college students worried about classes, friends and politics, students at New York University had more on their minds: since the beginning of the academic year, three student deaths have haunted the institution.
According to Justin Brenneman, the News Editor for the Washington Square News, NYU’s student newspaper, two of these students jumped from the tenth floor of the Bobst Library and the third fell from the window of a non-NYU building. With NYU being a peer institution of Wesleyan, the shockwaves have reverberated through the administrators and students of both communities.
“There’s a lot of disbelief [at NYU],” Brenneman said. “The media outside of here have been very invasive…some of the media are trying to make it into a trend, but students on camps don’t view it that way.”
The accessibility of mental health services on campus may be a contributing factor to the dearth of tragic accidents at Wesleyan. According to Dr. Philippa Coughlan, Director of the Office of Behavioral Health, counseling services are available to students on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. Regardless of when the call is received, students will be seen within two hours or less, even if this means that staff members must rearrange their schedules.
“We would much rather see [than not see] people who say, ‘You know, I think this might be a problem, but I don’t want to take time away from others who may need it more,’” Coughlan said. “Let us make that decision…We take people at their word. If they say it’s urgent, we believe them and part the waters.”
In addition, Coughlan noted that approximately 99 percent of students who use Behavioral Health Services are self-referred, a comforting fact that indicates that students feel comfortable coming to the office.
“We offer a variety of resources that reach out to students that seem low-key but really are very dynamic,” Coughlan said.
Due to the limited staff – the office boasts only four full-time therapists – each student on campus is given ten free therapy sessions per year, though Coughlan stressed that counselors make every attempt to facilitate student needs. Sessions can be broken up, so that, for example, students going through difficult periods can meet with a therapist for twenty minutes every day in one week and count that as a single session.
According to Coughlan, Health Services plans to hire two more counselors, an action that will hopefully give students increased access to the care they desire.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have only well-trained clinicians,” she said. “Students should feel secure having such able and experienced therapists.
Students, however, are not always self-recommended. According to Coughlin, the office welcomes recommendations from faculty members and other students. While she emphasized that staff members don’t try to turn professors or friends into therapists, they do recognize that often these third parties have a unique relationship with the troubled student and thus ask them to suggest that the student seek professional help. Sometimes, something as small as offering to walk with the student over to the Behavioral Health Office may be enough. If one has never been to the building, the initial steps can be a daunting task.
This readiness on the part of students to help their peers seems to be one of the characteristics that define Wesleyan.
”Certainly I think students here are an exceptionally supportive group for one another…and I get the sense that the faculty is very well in tune with one another,“ Seth Samuels ’05 said.
Lisa Eisenberg ’06 agreed, citing 8 to 8 as a prime example of students’ compassion for one another.
”The fact that we have a group like [8 to 8] says a lot,“ she said. ”It’s a student run group, with a month-long intensive training period. I think it shows that other students are very open here.“
Coughlan also noted that the Office offers a one-time consultation visit in which students can discuss an isolated event without having to commit to coming regularly. Therapists have an in depth understanding of academic matters at Wesleyan and thus are better able to provide more immediate assistance to students. This intimate knowledge of what it means to be a Wesleyan student and the issues that specific to Wesleyan allows clinicians to be more adept.
”The Wesleyan experience leads to a wonderfully rich life in terms of self-knowledge and understanding of one’s environment,“ Coughlin said. ”It also leads to introspection which is fundamentally positive but which can also be preoccupying especially if information learned in classes lead to this introspection. The pluses carry an extra work-load.“
Though also an elite university, students cited key differences between NYU and Wesleyan. Allison Layman ’06 felt that Wesleyan students feel comfortable deviating from the traditional four-year college path. Location was also viewed as significant.
”You’re just not as anonymous here as you are at NYU,“ Layman said. ”It’s harder to get away with being upset here, and I think that has a lot to do with the type of person who comes to Wesleyan…[In addition] professors are definitely aware of what’s going on with students.“
”NYU is a huge totally anonymous school,“ Samuels said. ”I think that being a small, tightly knit school works in our favor in that regard.“
The disparities may be due to things other than just sheer size.
”Wesleyan is a caring community,“ Coughlan said. ”I don’t think you see that often enough as a self-descriptor.“
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