CPUC discusses mental health, votes on adding non-voting PRINCO member at last meeting

The Council of the Princeton University Community held its last meeting of the academic year on Monday, May 6.

Executive Director of University Health Services John Kolligian, Jr. gave an address that focused on mental health. He discussed future projects for UHS, including plans for a more user-friendly website, mental health drop-in hours in the residential colleges and the graduate college, as well as working on mindfulness therapy, which is based on being aware of one’s own thoughts.

Data from the 2012 National College Health Assessment was also presented at the meeting, providing statistics about students’ stress, anxiety, depression and sleep patterns both nationwide and at Princeton. A scatterplot demonstrated that most students reported feeling stressed at school and that stress is the affliction that most impacts their academic work. One graph indicated that 58 percent of University students reported that they felt rested less than four days of the week.

“Fifty-eight percent of our students are not getting enough sleep to feel rested more days of the week than not. [Lack of sleep] can worsen or precipitate existing health problems and can compromise memory and learning,” Kolligian said. “We really have become a night owl nation … And nationally, our college students are sleeping worse than they ever have. They are feeling pressured to be connected, to be responsive, to be always on. That is going to do something to their cardiovascular systems over a period of time.”

After Kolligian addressed the council, a panel consisting of Counseling and Psychological Services Interim Director David Campbell, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Michael Olin, Graduate Student Government president Friederike Funk GS and former Undergraduate Student Government president Bruce Easop ’13 assembled to continue the mental health conversation.

Campbell emphasized the confidentiality of mental health services at Princeton. “It’s through confidentiality that students are willing to share the important aspects of their lives,” he said.

Olin explained that the residential colleges’ directors of student life learn about students of concern — any student identified by a peer, administrator or by himself as having a mental health issue that needs attention — through various means and will only talk about students to residential college administrators if a medical release is in place because confidentiality is of utmost importance.

A graduate student who spoke at the meeting but did not reveal her name said that she believed that course structure could contribute to mental health issues, using the Wilson School’s graduate program, which she said sets up its first semester to be particularly challenging, as an example. Easop agreed that mental health can be related to a variety of areas, including academic programs and grading policies.

Easop summarized the mental health discussion at the meeting by identifying three central themes: communication, intersections and how to introduce these topics earlier. He mentioned plans to introduce students to the mental health resources available during orientation week, before classes begin.

The council also voted on a proposal reviewed at the last meeting that would add a member of the Princeton University Investment Company to the Resources Committee as a non-voting member. The proposal aimed to facilitate communication between PRINCO and the Resources Committee, psychology department chair and Resources Committee Chair Deborah Prentice said. The motion was unanimously passed.

President-elect Christopher Eisgruber ’83 outlined his plans for the start of his term on July 1. He said his tasks will include putting a team together to find the University’s new provost and executive vice president, conducting a broad listening tour of campus and continuing the arts, internationalization and diversity committee initiatives of President Shirley Tilghman’s administration.