Mental Health and Wellness

Half of college students rate their mental health as fair, poor, or terrible, according to a recent survey from The Steve Fund, a nonprofit that focused on the mental health of young people of color.

The survey also found about 40% of students were “very or extremely stressed about maintaining their mental health” while in college. About 1 in 5 students said the same about connecting with other students and finding their niche in college.

Moreover, about one-third or more of students experienced a range of challenges such as changes in sleeping habits and difficulty concentrating and learning.

Students struggling with mental health in college isn’t a new phenomena, but “the severity and pervasiveness have clearly worsened,” Annelle Primm, The Steve Fund’s senior medical director, said in an email.

“We’re not just seeing higher levels of stress — we’re seeing a rising sense of disconnection,” said Primm. “The need for campuses to respond thoughtfully and urgently is more pressing than ever.”

The mental health issues students face may also impact their graduation trajectory. About half of students considered reducing their classload, 40% considered transferring, and 30% considered dropping out of college altogether due to “negative experiences on campus,” the report stated.

Steve Fund researchers surveyed about 2,050 college students between ages 18 and 24 who were attending four-year institutions and largely taking in-person classes.The survey was conducted last year between February and April.

There isn’t a single cause behind the mental health challenges that students are facing, but “several powerful stressors are converging,” said Primm. That includes discrimination on campus, encounters with campus security or a lack of belonging, according to the report.

Many college students also grew into adulthood during the COVID-19 pandemic, a uniquely disruptive period that had significant impacts on emotional development and social connection, Primm said. Some of those students struggled with isolation caused by remote learning, while others had limited opportunities to meaningfully interact with their peers during their formative years, she said.

“Layered on top of this are longstanding financial pressures like student loan debt, and broader societal stressors — from political divisiveness to global conflict,” said Primm. 

Racial differences

Negative experiences on campus — which were more prevalent among students of color — impacted mental health, the report found.

About half of Black and Indigenous students reported having a negative experience with cyberbullying on campus, the highest of any racial groups, the report stated. And a higher percentage of students of color reported threats of physical violence on campus and being stopped by campus police and security than their White peers.

About 60% of Black and Asian students and nearly half of Hispanic students reported negative racial comments on campus, and similar shares said the same about facing different forms of discrimination, the report stated. That’s higher than the 43% of White students who experienced discrimination and 29% who experienced racial comments.

Among all students, two-thirds pointed to other students as their source of their negative experiences on campus, while 20% identified faculty, the report stated. 

More than 4 in 5 students also said their institution “helps students from various racial and ethnic backgrounds feel welcome.”

But Black, Hispanic, and Asian students reported their campus climate as inclusive at lower rates than White students. And about half of Black and Indigenous students said they experienced difficulty being themselves in college.

Encouraging progress

Colleges may be making strides in providing better mental health resources to students, the survey suggested.

Student access to and awareness of college mental health services improved significantly since 2017, when the Steve Fund last surveyed college students about their mental health. That survey drew responses from 1,056 college students between ages 17 and 27 attending both two- and four-year colleges.

Primm said the two surveys can be considered comparable, as the majority of students who completed the 2017 survey were also attending four-year colleges.

More than 90% of students were aware of campus resources in 2024, compared to about three-quarters of students in 2017. Likewise, students in 2024 were more willing to discuss their personal issues or acknowledge their mental health issues than students seven years prior, the report stated.

Most respondents also believed their institutions were taking the negative experiences they faced on campus seriously. More than 65% of students indicated their institutions promptly addressed incidents of discrimination or bias, and more than 70% stated they “felt respected, supported and valued” by faculty and administrators, the report stated.

Still, a “sizable portion of students of color” did not feel respected, supported and valued on campus, and more than half of respondents believed their colleges took “a one size fits all approach to engaging its students,” the report added.

Students in 2024 expressed greater interest in support groups and expanded counseling services, safe and green spaces on campus, urgent crisis services and on-call mental health support, and programs that teach students about mental health, said Primm. 

“It’s about building environments where all students feel safe, valued, and supported,” said Primm.

Almost immediately after taking office, President Donald Trump launched a flurry of executive orders and policy directives that threaten to roll back the civil rights of transgender and nonbinary students and erase their identities. The administration has also targeted colleges that support transgender inclusion. 

Despite these moves, legal experts and transgender rights experts say college leaders can protect transgender and nonbinary students and make their campuses welcoming spaces. That type of support can be crucial to recruit those students, as well as improve their mental health and well-being on campus. 

But implementing affirming policies for those students can be challenging, as institutions risk losing federal funding or facing Title IX investigations under the policies now in place. 

One of Trump’s executive orders declares the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, which the directive said cannot be changed — a policy out of step with scientific understanding. 

Another executive order, which was blocked by a federal court, withheld federal funding to medical providers that provide gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapies, to transgender people under the age of 19. An additional order directed federal agencies to end “equity-related” grants “to the maximum extent allowed by law.”

The U.S. Department of Education also issued guidance in late January advising education leaders to follow the previous Trump administration’s Title IX regulations after the Biden-era version of the rules were struck down. The Trump administration’s letter stated the department will enforce Title IX in a way that is consistent with Trump’s executive order mandating the federal government only recognize two sexes that cannot be changed.

This interpretation stands in contrast with the Biden-era version of the Title IX rules, which had prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. The Biden administration also withdrew proposed Title IX rules in December that would have barred blanket bans on transgender students participating on sports teams aligning with their gender identity.

Yet another executive order targeted an extremely small sliver of student athletes nationwide by threatening to withhold federal funding from colleges or K-12 schools that allow transgender girls and women from competing in sports aligning with their gender identity. The NCAA revised its policies to comply with the order. 

The new administration has already opened Title IX investigations into San José State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, and others that allow or have allowed transgender women or girls to participate on teams corresponding with their gender identity. 

However, the enforceability of the Trump administration’s recent executive orders, which are essentially “ideological policy statements,” has not yet been determined, said Elana Redfield, federal policy director at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Williams Institute. 

At the very least, colleges shouldn’t be rushing to implement “harmful and discriminatory policies” before they are legally required to do so, said Jose Abrigo, an attorney and HIV project director for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. The policies could be blocked or modified by the courts and preemptive compliance could “needlessly harm students,” he said. 

The executive orders try to suppress speech, erase identities and punish those who affirm the existence of transgender and nonbinary people on college campuses — institutions that are meant to be “bastions of free thought and open discourse,” Abrigo said. 

“Academic institutions should be places where truth is explored, not dictated,” Abrigo said, “where students are empowered to live authentically, not forced into silence by discriminatory and unconstitutional edicts from the president.”

How colleges can protect trans students

College leaders have several ways to affirm and protect their transgender and nonbinary students, experts say. 

Higher ed institutions are in the business of education, so they should be informing students about what gender-affirming care is available and how they can access it, said Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

They should also educate students about their options for changing their name and gender markers on legal documents and their rights concerning use of locker rooms or restrooms corresponding to their gender identities both nationally and in their own states, they added.

Policies allowing students to easily change their names across campus can be effective, said Sarah Lipson, a public health professor at Boston University. These allow a transgender student to enter a new classroom and avoid a faculty member referring to them by their deadname — a name given to them that they no longer use, she said. 

But those policies should be flexible, such as including a transgender student’s deadname in communications to their family if they are not out at home, she said. 

Colleges also need to provide support to transgender and nonbinary students through campus counseling centers, Beemyn said. Smaller colleges without counseling centers can refer students to outside therapists that work with transgender or nonbinary people, they said. 

Gender-inclusive housing is also critical for transgender students, Lipson said. Placing transgender students in single occupancy dorms to avoid pairing them with another student who shares their gender assigned at birth is “not inclusive,” she said. 

“That’s really changing the college environment for the trans student by saying you have to live by yourself in order to be part of this community,” Lipson said. 

Public colleges in red states with transgender-affirming restrictions have other options to support or recruit transgender and nonbinary students, Lipson said. For instance, they could limit pronoun use on admission documents, referring instead to students by their names. Colleges could also use plural or gender-neutral pronouns instead of “he or she” or “your son or daughter,” she said. 

“It requires combing through a lot of materials, but most importantly the front-facing admissions materials to ensure that those are not unnecessarily reinforcing a gender binary,” Lipson said.

The biggest thing colleges could do now is not erase their transgender and nonbinary students, Abrigo said. Instead, campus officials should recognize their existence, affirm their identities, and ensure they have access to the resources and support they need, he said. 

College leaders can simply send messages to students, reminding them that transgender and nonbinary students matter, that they’re part of the campus community and that they're aware of the threats against them, Lipson said. 

“Some of these students that we’ve talked to in red states were really reflecting that,” Lipson said. “‘We feel that people are really looking out for us to the extent that they can.’” 
 

Non-affirming campuses could impact mental health

The mental health impact of the executive orders on students can vary — depending in part on where they are in the process of coming out as transgender or nonbinary, Beemyn said. 

Beemyn is working on a study that asks transgender students if the national climate is affecting whether they are willing to be out about their gender identity. 

Some students in liberal states or at progressive colleges — especially those with a strong support network — don’t feel the effects of national politics as much, Beemyn said. However, the national discourse has prompted some students to say they are less likely to come out to new people and want to be less visible, they said. 

“It would make logical sense that if someone can’t be themselves and has to hide who they are, that’s going to have negative effects on someone’s sense of well-being and sense of belonging, community and self-worth,” Beemyn said. 

The prevalence of mental health issues is disproportionately high among higher ed students who are transgender and nonbinary — but those rates can differ from campus to campus, Lipson said.

Boston University researchers analyzed national data from more than 11,000 transgender and nonbinary students at about 250 U.S. colleges and universities collected between 2022 and 2024. 

Overall, the research showed just 16% of transgender and nonbinary students are “flourishing” on campus. But that rate is much higher at some campuses, reaching 50% at some institutions, said Lipson. 

The rate of students experiencing symptoms of depression also fluctuated widely across colleges, from about 33% to upwards of 90% of transgender and nonbinary students, Lipson said. The rate of anxiety varied dramatically as well, ranging between 28% and 82%, she said.

The researchers haven’t yet examined which institutional policies might account for differences in mental health outcomes across campuses, but they plan to explore that next, said Lipson. 

Even so, researchers already know access to mental health care varies greatly. At some campuses, as few as 30% of transgender students said they had access to competent mental health care, compared with over 80% at other institutions, Lipson said. 

“There is a lot of variation in all of these outcomes — mental health, treatment use, and discrimination as well,” said Lipson. “That suggests that college campuses are playing a role in explaining this variation.”
 

Complying with the anti-trans laws

Many conservative states have enacted anti-transgender laws, including statutes barring transgender students from participating in athletics or using locker rooms or bathrooms that align with their gender identities. Finding a balance between complying with anti-trans policies while minimizing harm to transgender and nonbinary students can be challenging. 

In February, new restroom signs at the University of Cincinnati reading “biological men” and “biological women” sparked student outcry. 

The university stated it was following a Ohio law that took effect Feb. 25 requiring schools to designate multi-person student restrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms and showers to be used exclusively by students of the male or female “biological sex only.” The law requires “clear signage” to make those designations. 

But on Feb. 26, university administrators apologized in a letter to students and said they would replace the signs, adding that use of the term “biological” on the signs was “an error on our part.” Republican state Rep. Adam Bird, who cosponsored the bill, reportedly said the term “biological” wasn’t needed on the signs to comply with the law. 

As with state laws, colleges should take Trump’s executive orders as serious threats that merit a response to protect the organization, UCLA's Redfield said. A loss of federal funding could be consequential, considering higher ed institutions provide a wealth of research and data collection about the experiences of transgender people, she said. 

College leaders should likewise understand the threats are motivated not by science, but by ideology and bias against transgender and nonbinary people, Redfield said. 

Beemyn echoed those comments. The laws make it “impossible for [transgender and nonbinary students] to live their lives in a way that’s right for them. That’s a real denial of their humanity,” Beemyn said.

The University of Washington said it’s not taking any “preemptive actions” until it receives further guidance on how to comply with the Education Department’s Dear Colleague letter regarding Title IX enforcement.

“We are committed to providing access to excellence and a welcoming environment for all and believe that a breadth of perspectives and experiences make for a richer educational experience for everyone,” the University of Washington said in a Feb. 25 statement to Higher Ed Dive. 

If higher education institutions like the University of Washington and others want transgender and nonbinary students at their schools, they need to figure out ways to recognize their existence, said Redfield. 

“They have to make it clear that their intention is to create an environment where trans and nonbinary students can thrive,” she said.

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Campuses across the country are investing heavily in student mental health, but that investment isn't necessarily translating into impact. In a 2025 Inside Higher Ed survey, 69% of provosts said their institution has responded effectively to student mental health needs, while only 40% said undergraduate mental health is actually getting better.¹ That 29-point gap tells the real story. Schools are doing more, but students aren't feeling it.

Part of the disconnect is access. A 2024-2025 Healthy Minds Network survey found that 14% of students who skipped available mental health services simply didn't know where to go. Another 24% said they didn't have time, and 20% said cost was the barrier². Those figures are likely underreported, as many students won’t admit they’re struggling. The campuses gaining ground are the ones designing support that fits into students' lives instead of expecting students to seek it out. Here are five ways universities are putting that into practice.

1. Brain recharge stations

The University of Texas at Dallas carved out a designated quiet space where students can decompress between classes. Digital devices are discouraged to keep the environment distraction-free, and students can drop in whenever they need to without an appointment.³

It's a low-cost, low-barrier concept that removes two of the biggest obstacles to mental health support on campus. Students don't have to identify as struggling or wait for an opening, they just walk in.

2. Student wellness centers

Several major universities are investing in consolidated wellness facilities, as students are far more likely to use services when they're centralized than when they're scattered across campus. The University of Pittsburgh opened a nine-story, 276,000-square-foot recreation and wellness center in mid-2025. The building includes intentional "hang spaces" designed to build community alongside fitness. Michigan State is following in early 2026 with its own 293,000-square-foot facility, a project students themselves pushed for. Marquette University went a different direction, pulling counseling, medical care, addiction recovery and sexual violence resources under one roof.⁴

3. Wellness zones

Some campuses are going further, building spaces that offer structured wellness activities outside of a clinical setting. Clemson University's Wellness Zone offers yoga, stretching and meditation, while Indiana University's Wellness House takes a more varied approach with purpose-built rooms for studying, unwinding and quiet relaxation. Yale follows a similar model with five themed spaces including a music room, game room and sensory room.⁵

A more relaxed environment matters when stigma is still one of the biggest barriers to help-seeking. These spaces invite students in without making them feel like they're seeking treatment.

4. Faculty mental health training

A professor will often notice a student slipping before anyone in the counseling office does, whether it's falling grades, missed classes, or shifts in behavior. Faculty sit closer to the problem than most support staff.

That’s why the University of North Carolina trained over 1,600 students, faculty and staff through Mental Health First Aid. Trained faculty posted signs on their office doors signaling they were available to talk. The impact was tangible: conversations started earlier, students were more willing to reach out and interventions happened before problems escalated.⁶

5. Food pantries

Food insecurity and mental health are closely linked. Students who don't know where their next meal is coming from cannot focus on academics, let alone seek counseling. Food pantries are now present at 95% of schools, and in 2024 alone campus pantries distributed over 8 million meals.⁷

The challenge is getting students to actually use them, since many who qualify for food assistance won't visit a pantry if it means standing in line or asking someone for help. Bunker Hill Community College designed around that problem with its DISH Food Pantry, which uses smart lockers and an online ordering system to give students 24/7 access to food with no face-to-face interaction required. Students select items, choose a pickup time, then pick up their orders from lockers using a PIN code. Since launching in 2019, DISH has grown from distributing roughly 33,000 pounds of food to over 131,000 in 2025.⁸

Making wellness simple for students

The campuses making real progress on student mental health aren't necessarily the ones spending the most. They're the ones designing services around how students actually behave, removing barriers, increasing visibility and making it possible to get help without having to ask for it.

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Sources

1. Flaherty, Colleen. Student Mental Health Challenges Persist. www.insidehighered.com. October 30, 2025. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/health-wellness/2025/10/30/college-student-mental-health-remains-wicked
2. Healthy Minds Network. Share of College Students Experiencing Barriers to Mental Health Services in the United States in 2024 to 2025. www.statista.com. September 9, 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1126750/barriers-to-mental-health-services-college-students-us/
3. Mowreader, Ashley. Colleges Expand Wellness Offerings for Student Success. www.insidehighered.com. April 17, 2025. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/health-wellness/2025/04/17/five-new-well-being-spaces-college-campuses
4. Caulfield, John. Recreation and Wellness Are Bedfellows in New Campus Student Centers. www.bdcnetwork.com. October 15, 2024. https://www.bdcnetwork.com/home/news/55237393/recreation-and-wellness-are-bedfellows-in-new-campus-student-centers
5. Mowreader, Ashley. Colleges Expand Wellness Offerings for Student Success. www.insidehighered.com. April 17, 2025. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/health-wellness/2025/04/17/five-new-well-being-spaces-college-campuses
6. Mental Health First Aid. UNC-Chapel Hill Transformed Its Campus With Mental Health First Aid. www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org. October 4, 2025. https://mentalhealthfirstaid.org/case-study/university-north-carolina-unc/
7. Mowreader, Ashley. Infographic: Food Support Programs Reach 700,000 College Students. www.insidehighered.com. February 18, 2025. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/student-success/health-wellness/2025/02/18/39-colleges-rely-donors-address-food-insecurity
8. Bunker Hill Community College DISH Food Pantry. 2025 DISH Annual Report. www.bhcc.edu. n.d. https://www.bhcc.edu/dishfoodpantry/reports/

When students at Monroe Community College experience homelessness, they often meet with Nicole Meyer. Since 2023, Meyer has been the homeless liaison at the two-year public institution in Rochester, New York, which is within the State University of New York system. 

Nearly two years ago, SUNY required each of its 64 colleges to designate a person to serve as homeless liaison on their campuses — part of a nationwide movement to create such a position at higher education institutions. 

Higher ed institutions and states throughout the U.S. have passed laws and implemented policies over the past decade or so designating homeless liaisons on campuses. The movement has been fueled by a growing recognition that many students experience homelessness during their college years, experts say.

Around 8% of undergraduates and nearly 5% of graduate students reported experiencing homelessness in a 2020 survey that was published in 2023 from National Center for Education Statistics.

“There has long been an assumption that if someone was in college, that they had the financial well-being to cover all their expenses,” said Rashida Crutchfield, executive director of the Center for Equitable Higher Education at California State University, Long Beach. “As higher education has learned that [homelessness] is part of the student experience, you’re seeing a lot more responsiveness to our responsibility to address it.”

Students experiencing homelessness typically don’t have family or friends who have attended college and therefore lack a network to help them navigate the financial aid system, campus life and important resources, said Barbara Duffield, executive director of the nonprofit SchoolHouse Connection. 

A homeless liaison thus becomes a point person on campus who can connect these students with resources that will help them remain enrolled through graduation, Duffield said. 

In fact, a lack of housing can hinder students’ ability to focus on their studies, causing them to drop out, Duffield said. Additionally, such students often grapple with mental health issues, a sense of isolation and family-related issues, she said. On top of all that, they often must balance jobs with their classes, she said. 

In Meyer’s case, by fall 2024 she had worked with 173 Monroe students experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness — roughly 2% of the college's student population. A disproportionate share of those students are Black, Brown and women, Meyer said. 

Meyer helps students find sustainable on- or off-campus housing — a challenging task given surging rental costs in Rochester. She works with the financial aid office and other administrators to help the students access scholarships, grants and the college’s emergency funds. 

In addition, Meyer said she connects with school districts to help prepare high schoolers experiencing homelessness for the transition to college and partners with local organizations to help Monroe students navigate health insurance, transportation, child care and a host of other needs. Essentially, she’s the designated point person for all those students. 

“I’m a one-stop-shop for basic needs, and housing and security,” said Meyer. 
 

The origins of homeless liaisons

The homeless liaison role emerged at the higher ed level following the 2007 passage of the federal College Cost Reduction Access Act — a bill that increased funding for Pell Grants, made reforms to the financial aid system such as expanding repayment options for borrowers, and gave unaccompanied homeless youth independent student status when applying for financial aid, Duffield said. 

That meant youths living in shelters, outside, in cars, in hotels, or on couches could apply for federal financial aid without their parents’ signatures, she said. 

“This was really important because for so many young people, they are not in touch with their parents, they’re not being supported by their parents, and it’s just barrier after barrier after barrier to getting financial aid,” Duffield said. 

At the time, Duffield said, colleges lacked knowledge about unaccompanied homeless youth, as well as training to identify those students and address the barriers they face. 

Following the 2007 law, Colorado policymakers tried to rectify that knowledge gap by organizing a task force composed of students and higher ed and K-12 administrators. One of the task force’s recommendations called for establishing a single point of contact at every college and university in Colorado, based on a liaison model already used in K-12 districts. 

Colorado colleges appointed homeless liaisons in 2009, establishing a first-of-its-kind model in the U.S., according to a fact sheet from the state’s education department. 

Other states, including North Carolina and Michigan, followed Colorado’s lead by informally adopting a homeless liaison model, Duffield said. Then states started codifying such liaison positions into law, with California and Louisiana doing so in 2016, Tennessee and Nevada in 2019, and Maine, Maryland, Illinois, Florida, and Arkansas between 2020 and 2022. Colorado finally codified the task force’s recommendation of designating a campus liaison into law just last year.

These states saw an opportunity to help students receive support services they may need, considering they are often first-generation college students with a history of trauma, abuse, neglect, deep poverty and instability, Duffield said. 

What do the liaisons do?

Terry Mena began his role as Northeastern Illinois University’s homeless liaison in 2021 after the Illinois state Legislature mandated the position for all colleges in the state. 

When Mena receives a report from a student, faculty or staff member, or high school counselor that a university student may be experiencing homelessness, he will reach out to the student and conduct an intake with other administrators to better understand their situation and create an action plan, he said.

“We begin to pull together on-campus and potentially off-campus resources to assist the student based on each circumstance,” Mena said. 

Homeless liaisons also help students navigate the financial aid process, Crutchfield said. 

Students under age 24 can receive an exemption allowing their colleges to assess aid based on their own financial status — rather than that of their parents. But financial aid offices don’t always ensure eligible students receive that aid, Crutchfield said.

“Financial support is critical to student retention in colleges and universities,” said Crutchfield. “This is true for any student, but in particular for students experiencing homelessness. If they don’t have access to financial aid, they don’t have access to our institution.”

However, the work homeless liaisons do varies with the institution, Duffield said. 

At some colleges, “other than being able to answer questions or help with challenges around financial aid, it’s a pretty limited role,” said Duffield. “In other places, it’s more expansive.”

Being a homeless liaison is usually not a standalone role. Rather, it's conducted by a staff member who works in financial aid, student support or student advising offices, she added. Mena, for instance, is Northeastern Illinois’ vice president of student affairs and dean of students, and Mayer is a student services specialist at Monroe. 

Training also varies. Mena and other Northeastern Illinois campus staff and administrators received training to conduct the work through the Beegle Poverty Institute — a professional development course through consulting firm Communication Across Barriers. The course helped them understand the causes and complexities of poverty and how to help students become self-reliant, he said. 

Meyer, on the other hand, never received formal training for being a homeless liaison, but she tries to take advantage of professional development opportunities, such as by taking courses at the college that may be helpful. She also said she built experience doing this kind of work within the financial aid office before the liaison role was created. 

She also talks with other homeless liaisons through a SUNY homeless liaison network about strategies for approaching scenarios they face on the job, such as identifying students who might be homeless or building relationships with landlords, she said. 

Additionally, homeless liaisons have varying workloads.

Since launching its homeless liaison position in fall 2023, SUNY Cortland has received fewer than five referrals to the program, including a student who needed temporary housing over school break, said Ann Bersani, director of residence life and housing and the homeless liaison at SUNY Cortland, a public four-year institution in New York.

“All of the cases referred to me as liaison have been solved by the student without accessing additional services." 

Nonetheless, should students ever need the services of a homeless liaison, SUNY Cortland is prepared, Bersani said.

“To have somebody who is a point person, who understands what you’re going through, who knows what resources are available on campus and off-campus, who can take that extra time, whether it’s pointing in the right direction to community resources or [pointing] in the right direction on campus," Duffield said, "just makes all the difference.”

Almost three-fifths of surveyed college students, 59%, lack consistent and adequate access to food or housing, according to a report from The Hope Center, a student-focused resource and policy center at Temple University.

Among students who had stopped out of college or were considering doing so, 79% cited basic needs insecurities or financial challenges as their reasoning. The report defined basic needs to include housing, health care, nutritious and sufficient food, internet and technology, transportation, personal hygiene and child care.

The Hope Center also found few students in need used campus resources available to them. Among students who reported at least one basic need insecurity, 48% didn’t know about relevant support services on their campus, according to the report.

The Hope Center noted that students have trouble affording college and those from “structurally marginalized backgrounds” experienced basic needs insecurity more often than others. This includes Black and Indigenous students, students with disabilities, those attending college part time, Pell Grant recipients, former foster youth, and those who have previously been incarcerated.

Among Black and Indigenous respondents, almost 75% reported at least one food or housing insecurity, compared with 55% of White respondents. 

From spring 2023 to summer 2024, researchers surveyed 74,350 students from 91 colleges across 16 states. A bulk of those surveyed, 72%, attended two-year institutions. 

Survey respondents were more diverse than the national average, made up of 55% non-White students and 42% of students over age 25. Additionally, 38% of respondents received Pell Grants and 21% were students with disabilities.

Among the surveyed students, 23% said they care for at least one child, either as a parent, primary caregiver or legal or informal guardian.

Parenting students were twice as likely as students without dependents to have stopped out of college and subsequently reenrolled. They often cited child care as a factor, the report found.

Additionally, more than two-thirds of parenting students, 67%, reported experiencing housing insecurity, compared to 48% of students overall.

To address these disparities, The Hope Center urged colleges to offer centralized wraparound resources. "Students’ needs are interconnected, and comprehensive support systems are the most effective way to address them," its report said. 

Students' responses indicate that they will use support services if they know colleges offer them. For example, 64% of respondents said they would be somewhat or very likely to attend in-person counseling if they were struggling with their mental health. Additionally, 65% said a lack of awareness about resources prevented them from receiving more support for their basic needs.

Colleges should both offer and adequately publicize resource programs, the Hope Center said.

A college student in Minnesota put it simply.

“I’m trying to break generational curses and be the first college graduate in my family and it seems I’m swimming upstream," they told researchers. "I know I can do this with the right amount of knowledge, resources, and support! SEND HELP!”

The report also called for more government support to help college students meet their basic needs.

Two-fifths of students, 41%, experienced food insecurity, the report found.

“There is only fast food and gas stations on campus," one student from Tennessee told researchers. "The closest grocery store is a Publix a mile away which most of us cannot afford."

The report advised federal policymakers to overhaul and simplify the eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Current SNAP rules make college students ineligible by default and force them to meet narrow and potentially burdensome exemptions to gain eligibility.

Lack of awareness can prevent students from receiving help. Last year, the Government Accountability Office found that 59% of students experiencing food insecurity who likely qualified for SNAP in 2020 did not receive benefits.

During the pandemic, the federal government opened SNAP to all college students who were eligible for federal work-study programs or had an expected family contribution of $0.

This expansion ended in 2023, despite policy researchers recommending that Congress adopt them permanently.

The Hope Center raised similar concerns around government housing benefits.

Among those surveyed, 48% of students reported experiencing housing insecurity and 14% said they had been homeless at least once in the past year.

"Housing prices rise, inflation increases, all while most of us work 2+ jobs for minimum wage,” a Colorado student told researchers.

But as with SNAP, federal housing assistance often excludes college students by default. The Hope Center attributed these policies to "the mistaken assumption that all college students have access to on-campus housing or are otherwise financially supported by their family."

Over 4 in 5 college seniors have experienced burnout during their undergraduate experience, marked by chronic exhaustionl and lack of motivation, according to a survey from early career platform Handshake. 

More than one-quarter of respondents, 29%, said they frequently felt burnt out during their undergraduate career. That’s compared to 51% of seniors who reported being burnt out sometimes and 16% who said they felt that way rarely. 

The class of 2024 expects to carry those feelings into their early careers. A large majority of respondents, 80%, said they’re worried about burnout once they enter their professions. 

The class of 2024 largely began college during the pandemic’s early days, meaning the beginning of their undergraduate career was marked by social isolation, virtual learning and economic uncertainty. During that period, many college students reported worsening mental health. 

“You’re looking at a generation and a class of students that, quite frankly, have been through the wringer,” said Christine Cruzvergara, chief education strategy officer at Handshake. “They’ve had to study from home, they’ve watched some of their loved ones pass away. The pandemic was a really big defining moment in their life.”

Recent polls show those trends have continued even as pandemic-era restrictions have eased. 

A May survey from College Pulse and Inside Higher Ed found 56% of college students experienced chronic stress. Students with disabilities and mental health conditions reported even higher levels of chronic stress.

These issues can drive students to leave college. Around 2 in 5 students considered stopping out of college in 2022 within a six-month period, up from 37% the year before, according to a recent survey from the Lumina Foundation and Gallup. Students cited emotional stress and mental health as the top reasons for possibly leaving higher education. 

College debt is also weighing heavily on students’ minds, according to the new Handshake poll. 

More than half of college seniors expect to have student loan debt when they graduate next year, it found. And more than two-thirds of respondents, 69%, believe their debt will impact which jobs they consider after getting their diploma. 

As a result, students might forgo careers in lower paying industries because they feel pressured to earn enough to cover their loan payments, plus the cost of living, Cruzvergara said. For some students, that might mean delaying what they’re really interested in doing.

“As much as I would love to choose a job based on passion and work life balance, I do not think that will be possible due to loans and finances,” one college senior said in the survey. 

To help with this issue, colleges should ensure they have strong career centers that reach all students. 

“The process of getting a job is not intuitive,” Cruzvergara said. “Students need tips and advice, and they need to be taught and educated on how to go through that process. The earlier they start to learn that, the easier it will become through repetition.” 

The Biden administration has been trying to ease student loan burdens. The U.S. Department of Education recently rolled out a new income-driven repayment program called the SAVE Plan. 

It lowers the share of discretionary income that borrowers need to pay each month for their student loans from 10% to 5%. It also raises the income threshold borrowers must meet before they’re expected to make payments, opening the way for many borrowers to pay nothing. 

Major losses in my profession, as a campus counseling center director, are soon to reverberate. 

Three prominent counseling center directors recently posted that their positions had been eliminated, as their universities “decided to go a different direction.” This disturbing trend is happening, perhaps out of distress, along with “reorganizations” at multiple institutions over previous months. 

As president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, I know that schools are struggling to address the student mental health crisis. 

Despite increased funding to support students’ mental health needs, there is still much more to be done to address this issue. The needs are evident everywhere on campus, with faculty, staff and students encountering this on a daily basis. Faculty members at one institution believe they should get a pay raise for addressing it.    

Higher education, like any industry, is one that follows trends. Yet if this trend continues, we are going to see a similar rendering of what happened in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when many college administrators were wooed by managed care companies, insurance companies and hospitals to provide mental healthcare for students. One former counseling center director, whose staff was laid off as a result, said the outside entity hired counseling center staff that were laid off, paid them less and didn't provide benefits equal to those they had when working directly for the college.

In all of these situations, the colleges inevitably realized that this decision to outsource was short-sighted and the counseling centers were ultimately reopened on campuses. We will see how this plays out in the future, but if history is to repeat itself, it will not be an effective strategy. 

After all, higher education often touts strong benefits as one of the reasons it pays less than the private sector. Once counseling center staff are not receiving their college or university benefits, people will leave, thereby impacting students, staff and morale. Secondly, once the hospital recognizes that it will not profit from college student mental health counseling, it will ultimately turn the counseling center back to the institution.

I am not advocating against an integrated wellness and mental health model. If done correctly, it can be one of the best tools for institutions to address student physical health and mental health needs, as research shows the two are significantly related. Many colleges are moving towards executive directors or associate vice presidents of wellness, a move I support. 

However, this approach should not entail eliminating mental health directors. 

It will backfire. 

Having a staff member, ideally a director, trained specifically in mental health, with access to best practices, accreditation standards and management experience is imperative to overseeing a department that has likely been over-utilized and understaffed for some time.

Higher education is at a crossroads. Costs are rising and college presidents and boards need to make hard decisions. Mental health concerns among our students are also rising, and when we accept a student, we accept them with all that they bring to campus: their academic successes, their athletic skills as well as their mental health. Deciding to cut costs by cutting mental health services makes no sense.  

As decisions are reached, especially around mental health, I urge they be made with informed, strategic steps that make sense for the campus. Any costs that leaders think they might be saving by eliminating a counseling center director or counseling staff will be lost due to a reduction in student retention — or to a lawsuit when something tragic happens due to lack of access to mental health care.

As a former Division I college basketball player, I struggled with mental health. Experiencing anxiety, depression and problem drinking, I blamed myself and failed to recognize this was a challenge that could be successfully addressed through awareness, resources and a supportive community.

While I never missed a game or practice and felt connected to my team, I spent the first two years in college struggling to balance academics with athletics, coming on and off academic probation, and eventually falling behind so much that I stopped attending classes. Afraid to lose my athletic community, which was strongly tied to my identity, I felt I couldn't ask for help. I struggled in silence until my final semester grades arrived, and I was informed I’d have to leave school. 

I assumed the lifestyle of a student-athlete was one I couldn't balance efficiently rather than realizing its inherent difficulty. There’s a common misconception among professors and peers that college athletes are privileged students with little intelligence and full scholarships. 

In reality, many work 35 hours a week while juggling education, extracurriculars and social lives. Additionally, other challenges have grown during COVID-19, with many student-athletes concerned about career planning as well as financial and food insecurity.

In fall 2021, 24% of male and 36% of female athletes "felt so depressed that it was difficult to function," according to an annual survey from the NCAA. Unfortunately, athletes fear losing scholarships, playing time or even their degrees should they take a mental health leave or suffer an injury. 

When I was a student in the 1980s, there weren't well-organized systems on college campuses to identify struggling students. It wasn’t recognized that elite athletes may be more predisposed to depression than the general population and are more likely to participate in high-intensity drinking than non-student-athletes, raising their risk for alcohol-related injuries. Thankfully, as awareness rises for mental health support and well-being, colleges have become more proactive about offering stronger, tailored support for individuals, like student-athletes, who face additive psychological stressors. 

But we can do more. 

Colleges can take several actions to provide quality mental health care and a culture of caring for student-athletes. 

First, colleges and universities should invest in hiring staff representative of the student body’s makeup. Despite the diversity of student-athletes, many don’t see themselves represented since most head coaches and athletic directors identify as White males. To successfully tackle mental health concerns, substance misuse, suicide, racism, homophobia and sexism, students need approachable mentors. Because women, LGBTQ students and people of color are the most likely student-athlete groups to report mental health concerns, it's vital that coaches and athletic staff act as role models that they can identify with and feel comfortable approaching when challenges or concerns arise.

Second, athletic leadership — including athletic directors, coaches and trainers — should prioritize athlete mental health. They can begin by talking openly with athletes about mental health and letting them know it’s normal to struggle to balance workloads and athletics. They can also share that it’s safe to ask for support resources provided by the school, and they can take steps such as mental health screenings to notice if a student-athlete is struggling. Improved collaboration between athletic and counseling center directors is needed to implement comprehensive plans to support student-athletes’ mental health throughout their college experience. 

Third, athletic departments should actively work to reduce stigma and barriers to help-seeking. Coaches and athletic staff are ideally positioned to do both by encouraging athletes to visit the college counseling center to check in on emotional well-being and address challenges that accompany being a student-athlete. Colleges can change the status quo and normalize mental health support by making resources accessible to students, allowing them to thrive in their personal, athletic and academic endeavors. 

Ultimately, I was lucky enough to receive support from loved ones, the school administration and athletic staff that enabled me to obtain my degree. But it’s incumbent upon us as individuals, and our college system, to ensure student-athletes receive the support they need before they’re forced to leave school. 

No individual should think they need to tackle the various pressures of being a student-athlete on their own. We can ensure that caring communities and support systems are ready to help.