Butler County colleges focus on student mental health
Butler County colleges are prioritizing mental health services for students.
Data shows a majority of college students, 60%, meet the criteria for at least one mental health condition.
At Slippery Rock University and Butler County Community College, various resources are in place to help students get through any mental health struggles and provide them help to further succeed.
“It’s a priority. Something we’ll always put an emphasis on is helping students,” Josh Novak, BC3’s vice president for student affairs, said.
During the fall semester, BC3 approved an agreement with Glade Run Lutheran Services for a pilot program to provide on-campus outpatient services and counseling for students and staff, starting this spring.
Services provided will include outpatient counseling, online mental health assessments, psychiatric assessments, planned care, and individual and group therapy.
The agreement is part of efforts to better accommodate students needs.
Novak said the university understands that mental health is a priority, but it has not scored well in various statistics.
“For all the commuter students, one of our challenges is providing (the) exact same services as four-year, on campus students,” Novak said. “What we were doing was using community resources to connect students with local counseling resources, but we didn’t have any specific access on campus.”
BC3 plans to offer the program again next year and is currently working out the details.
In recent years, the topic of mental health has been at the forefront of college administrators minds. They have seen it exacerbated by events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Karla Fonner, dean of students at SRU, said that educational spaces have had to evolve in recent years. She said even before the pandemic, students were experiencing more mental health stressors and were using various resources. The pandemic, along with other factors like social media, made the issue worse.
There are factors Fonner said schools may not have anticipated, such as dealing with interpersonal conflict, breakdown in relationships and people losing the ability to have difficult civil conversations with one another.
“Our primary mission is always education, so we try to provide as much education as we can, but here, we really see our students as holistic beings,” Fonner said. “So if they are not successful academically, it could be because they’ve got something happening with their mental health, or maybe they don’t have food secure, or maybe they don’t have a place to live.
“Maybe there’s something going on in their family life making them uneasy. So for us, it’s really important to focus on the entire student, the totality of their life and their life experience.”
Colleges have shifted focus on mental health. They no longer focus as exclusively on issues like drinking problems and suicidal thoughts; but also on having difficult conversations, having healthy relationships and friendships, and dealing with breakdown in community.
Schools have noticed it’s important that resources are physically present on campus; whether it be for mental health, academic issues, or other factors.
Novak pointed out the location of resources has been a topic of discussion since before the pandemic. BC3’s honor society presented a project to campus administrators prior to the pandemic in which students pointed out they would benefit from services being closer to them on campus and in the community.
The stigma around mental health has also had less of an impact on students, but it is still something schools have to deal with
“We’ve done a lot over the past few years just to try to bring attention to mental health awareness and battling stigma,” Novak said.
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BC3 student Gavin Yomes works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Professor Kevin Ruediger helps BC3 student Ethan Gaspers with his metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Professor Kevin Ruediger teaches a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Nate Amon works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Ethan Gaspers works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Nick Flockerci listens during lecture in an introduction to business course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Gavin Yomes works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Ethan Gaspers works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Nate Amon works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Ethan Gaspers works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Nick Flockerci listens during lecture in an introduction to business course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Nate Amon works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 students Jackson Snow, left, and Sam Heasley participate in a class discussion during an introduction to business course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Nate Amon works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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Professor Kevin Ruediger helps BC3 student Nate Amon with his metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Ethan Gaspers works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
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BC3 student Ethan Gaspers works on a metrology project during a Physical Metrology Lab course at Butler County Community College on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
