A few facts

Nationwide in every state, over 1,000 Community Colleges serve 6.8 million students. Thirty-five percent, (2.4 million) attend full time; 65 percent, (4.4 million) attend part time. Fifty-seven percent are female; 43 percent male. Twenty-seven percent are Hispanic, 13 percent Black and 44 percent White.

Admirably, Community Colleges have been the primary entry point for most Hispanics seeking a college education.

Many four-year colleges have long depended on Community College transfers to sustain their Junior and Senior classes -- and balance their budgets. They need the steady influx of Community College transfer students. Enlightened institutions have embraced Community Colleges as partners and established joint programs so students may transfer effortlessly.   

Further, many Community College characteristics, not to say innovations, such as an emphasis on excellent classroom teaching, effective counseling and class schedules to accommodate working adults, have now been adopted by most four-year colleges.

Adapting to realities

For privileged students, those whose parents went to college and drilled the need to graduate from college into their children from the earliest of ages, going to college has been a given for as long as they can remember.

Those lucky children invariably attended superior high schools, pursued college preparatory programs and had their progress carefully monitored by watchful parents. Any slip along the way was quickly addressed. Those children were “going to go to college” no ifs, ands or buts about that!

They were confident and felt early on they were college material. Yet many of them had difficulty adjusting to college. And why not? It’s a stressful experience. Depression and anxiety are common among freshmen. Many studies show that unless a student is able to personally relate to a course of study, a professor, a sports program or a student organization in the first nine weeks, it is quite probable that the student will become discouraged and drop out of college.

First in the family

If college-oriented, privileged youngsters, so carefully prepared, have a hard time adjusting, what of the first in the family to go to college? Their path is even more daunting, and that’s where we find most Hispanic students.   

Thus, normal adjustment problems are magnified. In many cases, their family’s financial needs create guilt, anxiety, and fear of failing. Although welcome, fierce support from proud family members frequently creates more anxiety, for failing would embarrass the family.

Hispanic students and COVID

Always attentive to local needs, many community colleges have been particularly diligent in recruiting Hispanics and then, via a wide variety of means, worked to help them succeed. No “sink or swim” mentality here. Every individual is different and must be met at their level to help them succeed. Under that type of tutelage, the results over the years have been outstanding.

Two years ago, as tens of thousands of Hispanics were bravely taking their first steps into higher education, the nation was hit by an unrelenting pandemic.

COVID devastated enrollments at all colleges. Community Colleges were particularly hard hit; thousands of Hispanics either dropped out or failed to enroll. That is particularly painful news, for statistics show that once Hispanics disrupt the normal flow – by dropping out or not enrolling -- very few ever return to college. Community Colleges are reaching out to those students and valiantly trying to claw back from the devastation.  But their task is harder than ever before.

According to an American Psychological Association study, Stress in America, stress caused by the pandemic among Hispanics was “deep and widespread.” Decision-making fatigue had a disproportionate impact on parents – especially those with younger children. Hispanic adults were more likely than others to know someone who suffered or died of COVID.  Of all groups studied, Hispanic adults had the highest levels of stress.   

Mental health issues on the rise

In September 2021, the Mayo Clinic reported that stress and depression had reached such elevated levels at colleges that both parents and colleges “should be concerned.”  Examples of anxiety and depression were up to 44 percent among college students. And that was at a time when many thought the worse had passed. Then we were hit with Omicron.

The results have been more than an inconvenience; they have been deadly. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among college students: another severe responsibility for Community Colleges.

Mental health problems are surging. As noted in the December 2021 issue of Scientific American, these were so profound that Congress took the unusual steps of providing temporary funding for mental health programs and pressured insurance companies to provide enhanced coverage.

Many subsequent problems have sprung up in colleges -- without adequate funding to deal with them. Thirty percent of students reported feeling depressed, while half of the students reported feeling overwhelmingly anxious. Nearly two-thirds of students with serious substance abuse problems suffered from mental health disorders.

Why are youngsters struggling?

Life in the United States is stressful. Increased societal pressure to succeed is visited upon students; many are not equipped with the necessary skills to cope.

Julie Scelfco of  The New York Times noted that young adults are increasingly faced with negotiating “America’s culture of hyperachievement” and “the pressure to be effortlessly perfect.” And since that isn’t possible, their mental health and well-being suffer.

Bottom line

As Community Colleges face severe enrollment shortfalls and have had to eliminate adjunct and full-time faculty positions as well as staff, it may seem odd to write about student mental illness issues. But it’s a growing reality we should not ignore.

This new set of problems can’t simply be dumped on colleges to solve. As so wisely noted by the Lancet COVID Commission Task Force on Mental Health, the pandemic “offers a critical opportunity to invest in and strengthen mental health care systems to achieve a ‘parity of esteem,’ meaning that someone who is mentally ill should have equal access to evidence-based treatment as someone who is physically ill.”

Community Colleges, as is their wont, will undoubtedly tackle the problem. That’s what they do -- serve local needs. I hope it doesn’t fester as another underfunded, and therefore neglected, project.