The Columbia Mental Health Task Force (MHTF) has just released a press release including their suggestions sent to President Bollinger later last year. Following the death of Joshua Villa in December, MHTF sent a memo to President Bollinger in regards to student concerns for mental health at Columbia. Some of the students’ proposals reflect the numerous opinions of Columbia students, including hiring more staff and offering extended hours for CPS. However, MHTF has still not received an official meeting with President Bollinger, as previously promised, to further discuss the memo. Co-founder of the task force, Sejal Singh CC ’15, praises the efforts of CPS to support students over the past semester, but Singh calls on President Bollinger to “lead a conversation” about fixing the gap between student needs and the actual services offered on campus.

To further educate the community on mental health issues at Columbia, MHTF will be hosting a Teach-In this Wednesday, April 22, at 8:30 PM in Pupin 214. All are encouraged to attend. The Teach-In will also allow for attendees to offer input on the proposals previously sent to President Bollinger.

Update, 7:51 PM: MHTF also released their survey report, which can be found here.

Please find the entire press release from MHTF below.

COLUMBIA MENTAL HEALTH TASK FORCE RELEASES POLICY
PROPOSALS AND IDENTITY-BASED SURVEY REPORT:
Student Advocates Express Serious Concern About Inaction of Central Administrators

Today, the Columbia University Mental Health Task Force (MHTF) called on University President Bollinger to respond to a student policy memo on mental health concerns submitted to his office in early December 2014. The MHTF publicly released this memo of comprehensive policy recommendations, along with the results of a survey assessing student experiences with Counseling and Psychological Services’ (CPS) care for identity-based mental health concerns.

The MHTF’s policy memo (link here) addresses a wide array of student concerns with mental health care on campus, and includes a series of specific proposals to expand CPS staffing and space, extend drop-in hours to midnight and into weekends, emphasize more diverse hiring, strengthen the University’s crisis response, and create a mental health-related orientation program for all incoming students. Many of the proposals are informed by the findings of the MHTF’s identity-based concerns survey.

The policy memo was submitted to the President’s Office on December 9th, 2014, following the suicide of a Columbia College first year, Josh Villa. But the Task Force says that after the winter break, once student pressure and media scrutiny had dissipated, initial signs of engagement disappeared. A promised meeting with President Bollinger and central administrators about serious and urgent mental health concerns on campus has been repeatedly delayed for months, and there has been no indication that the University’s central administration plans to take action to address campus mental health issues this year.

In contrast, student advocates praised the responsiveness of administrators in both CPS and Health Services, and noted that administrators in both offices have been open and actively responsive to student feedback throughout the year. Students from the Task Force pointed to the increased visibility of resources for students with marginalized identities and the recent switch to ProtoCall, an after-hours on-call service which connects students to professional counselors. These students claimed that both CPS independently sought these solutions after hearing student concerns, and initial feedback to both initiatives has been extremely positive.

“Our positive, productive relationship with CPS and Health Services proves that student advocates and administrators don’t need to be at odds. But those services still don’t meet the tremendous need on campus and we need President Bollinger to lead a conversation about fixing that,” said Sejal Singh, CC’15 and a co-founder of the Task Force.

Students maintained that there are still key areas for improvement within CPS; in particular, the Task Force’s Identity-Based Concerns Survey indicated that students of nearly all marginalized identities—including students of color, LGBTQ students, and Muslim students—expected and received less satisfying care. Importantly, the data showed that (among students who identified with more than one underserved group) each additional identity was associated with further dissatisfaction.

“We know there are key steps the administration could take tomorrow to keep students healthy and safe, and from our perspective, CPS and Health Services need more institutional support. So my question is this: Where is President Bollinger on this?” said Caitlin Lowell, CC’15 and a Task Force core organizer.

The Mental Health Task Force will be hosting a teach-in on Wednesday, March 22, at 8:30 p.m., to engage with any community members who are interested in hearing more about these policy proposals and mental health advocacy this year. The teach-in will be followed by an open call for input on these proposals, which will be revised to reflect community feedback.