Pressures pile up on students

The life of a college student is a life envied by many.

It is a time to study interests, to lounge on quads and to pursue passions.

But like any demographic, college students are vulnerable to a unique set of pressures, and experts are monitoring dark trends among the American college set.

Richard Kadison, a student health expert, writes his 2004 book “College of the Overwhelmed.” that antidepressants have surpassed birth control as the most popular pill for college students.

While conversation abounds about how to increase the quality of student life at UNC, DeeDee Laurilliard, a social worker for the Center for Healthy Student Behaviors, says the center lacks specific information on the campus population.

A voluntary survey on topics ranging from sexual habits to suicide will be distributed through e-mail later this year.

Officials have also put in many hours ensuring that students are more aware of the resources on campus.

“We saw 551 more students in the 2004-2005 school year than in the year before,” says John Edgerly, director of the counseling and psychological service.

There were about a thousand more appointments last year than the year before, bringing the 2004-2005 school year tally to a whopping 10,869 appointments, Edgerly says.

Many experts believe that today’s college students are more troubled than those of previous generations.

“A little while ago, if a person had a mental illness, he or she kept it a secret and many didn’t try to go to college,” says Gwen Dungy, executive director of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

“With the Americans with Disabilities Act, people now know it’s their right to come to college just like everybody else,” she says.

Campus suicides have also been highly publicized in recent years.

At UNC, the 2004-2005 academic year passed without incident. But the University was shaken by two suicides during the spring exams of 2004. Four UNC students committed suicide in the 2002-2003 academic year.

Dungy says NASPA is beginning to do research to assess what factors are taking the biggest tolls on college students and what programs and services will best address them.

“Many academically qualified students are leaving college not because they are failing out,” Dungy says. “It’s because they can’t handle the pressure.”

Laurilliard says the two issues she sees regularly at her job are sleep deprivation and family issues.

“Students feel pulled in so many different directions and sleep usually suffers the most,” she says. “The other big thing is family problems — students may not want to be at home but feel guilty about deserting (their family) when health or financial problems arise.”

Last year’s UNC student body was rocked by a variety of incidents, including an alleged hate crime, meningitis outbreaks and a workers’ rights campaign that culminated in protestors storming South Building.

And Margaret Jablonski, vice chancellor for student affairs, was on the front lines for it all.

“In general, undergrads face the same kinds of issues,” says Jablonski, who has held similar posts at Brown University and the University of Connecticut. “They have the same kinds of personal issues ­— ‘Who am I? What do I want to study?’”

Laurilliard wants people to know that there isn’t a single student on campus who isn’t struggling with personal issues.

“We shouldn’t compare our insides to everyone else’s outsides.”

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.