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Zoey Freedman: UCLA senior surveys overlooks importance of mental health

(Kelly Brennan/Daily Bruin senior staff)

By Zoey Freedman

Feb. 9, 2016 12:44 a.m.

Graduating seniors may feel emotional as they prepare to exit UCLA with pomp and circumstance, but as far as the school is concerned, it’s all a matter of nostalgia – mental health has got nothing to do with it.

In January, the senior survey was sent out from the office of the dean and vice provost for undergraduate education at UCLA to graduating seniors on MyUCLA. The survey asked seniors to rate our experiences at the school, ranging from our academic experiences to our experiences with diversity, with entry into a raffle for free parking or a UCLA store gift card used as incentive for completion.

Although it makes sense for such a survey to take place so administration can get an idea of what students like and what needs to be improved, the survey curiously didn’t touch on any aspect of mental health on campus.

The absence of a section on mental health in the senior survey is a missed opportunity for the administration to gain a greater understanding of where improvement is most needed on campus.

Mental health plays a huge role in college students’ lives, and UCLA seems to be forgetting this. College students experience numerous stressors during their time here – the competitive climate, class work, financial independence, family issues – and this stress can build up, leading to destructive behavior or adding to already existent mental health issues. By not including questions on mental health in the senior survey, the administration is essentially skimming over a huge part of student life at UCLA.

Adding the opportunity for students to assess mental health after years of stress and challenging experiences could provide the administration with potentially eye-opening results. Having clear numbers and honest responses on the issue straight from the students would make clear how big of an issue mental health really is on campus. Without a survey to gather responses directly from the student body, the administration can’t possibly have an accurate picture of how prevalent any issue is on campus.

This survey follows the recent reduction of free psychological appointments available to students through UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services, sending the clear message that mental health is being prioritized less and less. The fact that the survey lacked a section on mental health in its numerous pages of questions seems to only reiterate that the mental wellness of students is not important, nor is it a priority. Although a survey obviously doesn’t change programs or campus climate immediately, it is sent out with the intention of letting students speak their minds and share their experiences in order to eventually improve campus life for future Bruins.

The mental health portion of the survey could also be used to assess the importance of other mental health resources on campus.

Aside from the seemingly obvious step of surveying UCLA students on their usage of CAPS and adjusting CAPS to align with the results, UCLA could foster a community with better mental health by providing more support – in terms of both finance and publicity – to student support groups. Groups like the SMART Recovery program, which aims to provide self-help programming and support to those struggling with addictive behavior, could play a vital role in providing students will a less-stigmatized way to better their mental and emotional health.

These groups on campus receive little to no support from UCLA when they could actually serve as an extremely beneficial alternate to campus resources like CAPS. The administration could help these groups flourish by working with them to at least set aside a guaranteed meeting space on campus, if not a small budget so these groups can afford the necessary resources to aid the students that attend these meetings.

A survey could help the administration determine how frequently students utilized CAPS during their years here, if they utilized student-run or other support groups and what could have been done to improve their experiences with these groups and services. An insight to the utilization of these programs could help the administration prioritize assisting in funding and promoting these other support groups on campus, especially if they choose to continue to reduce accessibility to CAPS.

Although it’s great that the university cares enough to ask graduating seniors about our experiences at UCLA, both inside and outside the classroom, it’s extremely troubling to know that a fundamental pillar of a successful undergraduate career seems to be rendered unimportant.

Acknowledging the importance of mental health in the senior survey is a start, and a good one. If the school took it upon itself to ensure that they were properly assessing the student experience, they could be sure that they were taking the information from our last few years to make someone else’s next few years the best they can be.

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