Focus Topic: A Mental Health Crisis in Higher Education

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Most psychological disorders happen on average between the ages of 18 and 24, which is also the age range in which most students attend college. Many college students today are finding themselves in psychological turmoil, which is problematic for the very internal growth and development that higher education is meant to offer for developing minds. These disorders hinder the ability for the mind to learn, adapt, and function in society. I will examine the possible factors that may be leading to such mental despair—academic pressure, financial burden, etc.—and attempt to relate them to the aftermath of the privatization of higher education and its effects on the human psyche. Privatization has lead to a paradigm in which students are “consumers” and degrees are “products,” and this market-driven nature contributes to lower academic performance and mental health. This epidemic is surely raising eyebrows, but the exact causes of stress and mental disorders are controversial and difficult to pinpoint. After all, these disorders can surely exist without privatization. In order to establish a relationship between the two, I will first attempt to explain the inner workings of the human mind through the psychology of learning, behavior, motives, and wellbeing. I will then discuss how privatization has created a college environment that is characterized by consumerism and automaticity. After, I will demonstrate how such an environment affects learning and internal development by encouraging faulty motives that are detrimental to wellbeing and productive behavior. It is this type of environment that feeds the formation of psychological disorders. The environment that privatization creates in higher education, specifically through consumerism and automacity, is contributing to a mental health crisis that is reducing wellbeing, ingenuity, and the ability for students to be aware and responsive to a rapidly changing environment.

Scouting the Territory of Liminality

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Below are some relevant and useful sources that I have recently found and looked into:

1) Caterino, Brian. "Lowering The Basement Floor: From Community Colleges To The For-Profit Revolution." New Political Science 36.4 (2014): 590-606. Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.

2) Simmons, OS. "Lost In Transition: The Implications Of Social Capital For Higher Education Access." Notre Dame Law Review 87.1 (n.d.): 205-252. Social Sciences Citation Index. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.

3) Wolfson, Adele J., Lee Cuba, and Alexandra Day. "The Liberal Education Of STEM Majors." Change: The Magazine Of Higher Learning 47.2 (2015): 44-51. ERIC. Web. 4 Oct. 2016.

The first source listed is a recent article from the academic journal New Political Science that sheds light on the privatization of college by profit-seeking businesses and the negative impact it has on higher education. Fueled by student loans, colleges now treat the service of providing education secondary to monetary gain. Institutions are constantly aiming to advertise themselves by reaching out to students (fishing mainly for first-generations and immigrants in order to hook them in) in hopes of raising their student body count. More admitted students means more student loans, which means more funds for these privatized institutions and profit-seeking businesses. This source can help me demonstrate how colleges care less about their students and more about their money. I would eventually like to tie this in with the impact such a paradigm can have on the education system and future of the country, which can be extremely problematic and diminish the intrinsic value of higher education.

The second source serves as great evidence of how colleges actually instigate social and economic inequalities within our society. This happens because less privileged students are less likely to attend prominent four-year colleges. Also, vulnerable students lack the resources to help them successfully navigate college territory and admission processes. Overall, the source brings these problems to the forefront while providing possible routes for reformation. I can use this information to help show how the current direction of higher education is decreasing the liminality on college campuses and destroying equal opportunity for success. 

Students taking out loans are forced to choose a major that will provide a financially stable career path. These most useful majors are in STEM, resulting in a decrease in liberal arts degrees. The third source is an article in Change: The Magazine Of Higher Learning that describes differences in four types of students taking STEM majors at liberal arts colleges: samplers, straddlers, explorers, and connectors. Overall, this source is perfect for outlining the importance of the liberal arts and non-science classes. Explorers are those students who had a strategy for choosing non-science courses. These students gained the most insight into more than one area of study to understand the ways in which experts in those fields construct knowledge (Wolfson et al. 44). Taking non-science courses can help students grasp a greater understanding of knowledge across disciplines and promote stronger learning and internal growth. I will use this source to help outline how the privatization of college has led to an increase in the need for graduating in STEM, which can lead to a decrease in ingenuity and creativity in the real world.