Doneka R. Scott, vice chancellor and dean for the Division of Academic and Student Affairs, today announced the formation of a Student Mental Health Task Force.
“The health and well-being of our students is of utmost importance,” Scott said. “We welcome the NC State community’s input into this critical effort to help guide the task force toward research and recommendations that best serve our students. We look forward to sharing the findings and making progress in our ongoing efforts to promote and support student mental health and well-being.”
The task force, which includes representation from students, faculty and staff, will explore best practices in student mental health and provide curricular and co-curricular recommendations to help improve student mental health and well-being at NC State. The task force will also solicit feedback and recommendations from students, faculty and staff over the next several weeks.
Specifically, the task force will:
- Take inventory of NC State’s current practices, strategies and programs for addressing and improving student mental health.
- Conduct a literature review and summarize the curricular and co-curricular best practices for supporting student mental health (incorporating analysis of national and NC State data trends as well as case studies of institutions at the forefront of addressing student mental health, including peer institution comparisons).
- Identify potential gaps between best practice strategies and NC State’s support of student mental health.
- Identify campus policies, rules and regulations (PRRs) that impact students’ mental health and provide recommendations for new PRRs or changes to existing ones (policy examples include attendance, student death communication/postvention, readmitted student, course withdrawal, etc.). The task force will also identify implementation impacts or concerns and potential pathways or solutions to enhance implementation.
- Recommend short- and long-term curricular and co-curricular improvements and innovations to help address and improve student mental health at NC State.
Scott has asked the task force to submit the completed report by Jan. 30, 2023 so implementation of new actions and strategies can begin in the spring 2023 semester.
Lisa Zapata, senior associate vice chancellor for the Division of Academic and Student Affairs, and Helen Chen, senior vice provost for instructional programs for the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost will serve as co-chairs of the task force.
In addition to the formation of the Student Mental Health Task Force, NC State has updated and expanded its Wolfpack Wellness website with a comprehensive list of support services, training and development opportunities and upcoming activities centered around mental well-being. It also includes off-campus and employee-specific resources.
This post was originally published in DASA.