College of Engineering leaders speak on mental health initiatives in light of student deaths

Abigail Ali News Editor & Mariana Fabian Opinion Editor

Editor’s Note: This article contains references to mental health issues and suicide.

There have been 11 student deaths this academic year with five being deaths by suicide. Mental health initiatives have been put in place across campus in an effort to support students and inform them of resources available to them. Leaders from across the University discussed these programs.

Four of the student deaths reported from the University were students in the College of Engineering. Angelitha Daniel, assistant dean for diversity, equity and inclusion in the college, and Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of engineering, said the college is putting in the work to better support its students.

“It really hurts us a lot to see the numbers that have happened this year,” Martin-Vega said. “We have lost a relatively large number of those that are engineering students, which, in part, I think is because we have 11,000 engineering students, but let’s say it was just one — it would still be the same level of concern. And when something like this occurs, we all suffer together.”

Martin-Vega said the College of Engineering has been working to incorporate more mental health initiatives since the COVID-19 pandemic started, which created a lot of stress for students. He said their focus is on closing the gaps between students and resources available to them.

“We say, ‘OK, what more can we do?’” Martin-Vega said. “We keep trying to create an environment that hopefully will allow individuals who may be suffering in their own way to reach out and that we can somehow intervene in some way, and I think that’s what a lot of the efforts are focused on.”

Daniel was a part of the Student Mental Health Task Force, a group of faculty, staff and students who conducted research on best practices, held listening parties for the community and evaluated current University policies, resources and practices. Daniel said creating a culture of care was a main goal for the task force as it created its report of recommendations on how NC State can better support students and their mental health.

“Our report was just released and the focus at the University level is for us to really put all of our energy and effort into creating a … culture of care and access [to resources], so students don’t feel like they don’t have the help that they need right at their fingertips,” Daniel said.

The task force’s report and recommendation was published in February and includes creating a culture of care, providing more resources to students and revising standing policies. You can read the initial statement by the University at news.ncsu.edu.

The College of Engineering, along with other departments on campus including the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Sciences, now has embedded counselors. Daniel said these counselors are currently located in Research Building II, Suite 200 and will eventually move to Suite 210.

Martin-Vega said students can make appointments by reaching out directly to the counselors or join them during their drop-in hours. Names of embedded counselors and other embedded staff across the University can be found on the Counseling Center’s website at counseling.dasa.ncsu.edu/people/ embedded-staff/.

Daniel said the College of Engineering is also participating in the Academic Affairs CARE Campaign. The CARE Campaign allows students to communicate with faculty and staff by sending an email with a colorcoded heart representing how they feel with the subject line “share your heart.” This initiative allows students to let faculty and staff know how they are feeling without having to have a full conversation.

“So, they can send that email, and a person in terms of faculty or staff responds to their needs [whether that be a] quick response in terms of acknowledging the email and then ensuring [if] they need support in terms of a CARES report being submitted, or just to come in and talk just,” Daniel said. “We’re poised to be able to meet those needs based on what they share with us.”

A CARES report is a Concerning Behavior Report anyone can submit if they are worried about a friend, student or colleague. The report gets sent to Student Behavioral Case Management. Case managers through NC State CARES help students get in touch with resources and help monitor their progress.

The college has formed a Safety Pin Crew, which Daniel said is a group of faculty and staff who wear gold safety pins to indicate to students they are a safe person to communicate with if they are facing difficulties.

“During certain times throughout the semester, [the Safety Pin Crew] goes through all of the engineering buildings on Centennial and Main Campus to check in, ask students how they’re doing,” Daniel said. “It’s gone really, really well. Students appreciate that we’re visible in that way.”

Free Moms, a group of moms that provides food and hugs to students on campus, have also made their way from Main Campus to Centennial Campus every Thursday.

“To see the line of students waiting to get hugs from the Free Moms just speaks to what we know is what is needed by students, and that’s connection, and letting them know that everything is going to be OK … and we’re going to be here every week to support you,” Daniel said.

Daniel said the College of Engineering is also encouraging faculty and staff to do mental health, first aid and Question, Persuade and Refer training. Daniel said dates have been planned for faculty and staff to participate in trainings through Prevention Services.

Martin-Vega said the college has made ef- forts over the years to reduce the vigor of the program while still maintaining its quality of education in order to relieve academic stress.

“An engineering curriculum is rigorous; it’s always been rigorous,” Martin-Vega said. “There was a time when an engineering degree had more credit hours than it has today, but … the way the engineering curriculum exists today really provides a lot more support for students to be successful than it was in the past. If you look at retention rates, for example, between the first year and the second year, or graduation rates, you’re gonna see that all of those metrics are much better and stronger today than they were 10 or 15 years ago.”

Martin-Vega said he thinks the COVID-19 pandemic may have made coming into college as an engineering student more difficult the past couple of years.

“I mean, you have students that normally would have come into the first year of engineering, and … they would have been on campus, they would have had more interaction, they would have had more support,” Martin-Vega said.