Change is not effected by renouncing the means by which it can be achieved

A week ago, Amy Gutmann sent a school-wide email, outlining Penn’s new initiatives to address mental health problems on campus.  Building on systems already in place such as “the appointment of the first Chief Wellness Officer in the Ivy League… and the development of a Wellness at Penn website,” President Gutmann describes taking the next step in an effort to combat mental health problems by fully integrating all health and wellness resources into its own unit under the Provost Office.  Objectively, the expansion of CAPS and SHS and the prioritization of health and wellness within those organizations is an important step in the right direction.  Penn needs to be able to provide easy access to comprehensive mental health care.  That is a given.  But while this email from Amy Gutmann does show our university moving in the right direction, it still leaves a lot to be desired. 

At the beginning of 2019, the Ruderman Family Foundation conducted a study that looked at mental health within all eight Ivy League universities and the ways in which they addressed mental health and leave of absence.  Penn, while receiving the highest grade out of all the Ivies, still failed–we received a D+ in terms of how we approached leave of absence.  While leave of absence is not the only way to address mental health, the way in which our university deals with it suggests a lot about how Penn prioritizes our mental health.  Sure, CAPS has been expanded.  Yes, we have a new office of health and wellness.  But Penn’s use of leave of absence to push students out and avoid providing them the help they need points toward a darker culture of shame and social mental health triggers. 

Expanding Penn’s mental health resources places the locus of control on treatment; not prevention. It is imperative that we also address preventing mental health problems on Penn’s campus and in order to do so, we must acknowledge the toxic environment that is often promoted by Penn.  Whether it’s the six classes we feel we have to take, the triple majors we want to complete, on-campus recruiting, or the seven different clubs we’re in, Penn often fails to address its own role in mental health problems.

Penn is, however, an Ivy League university–many students arrive at Penn expecting a competitive learning environment with challenging classes and a fast-paced social life.  Of course, there is nothing wrong with taking six classes or wanting to triple major–the problem arises when students feel that is the only option. 

One only needs to go on the UPenn meme page on Facebook to see the myriad of jokes and comments about mental health, the pressure students feel to “sell out” to finance, the condemnation of liberal arts majors, OCR woes, dining hall disasters, and thoughts on imposter syndrome. While obviously a platform to poke fun at Penn, the content of the jokes reflects campus wide struggles to fit into a vicious environment.  This is where Penn’s efforts to address mental health and wellness slack off: providing campus resources can only do so much if the triggers that send students to those resources in the first place remain untouched and unconfronted.  

At the very least, Penn needs to take responsibility for the role it plays in the climate of stress, anxiety, and depression that plagues our campus.  From the chemistry professors who warn against helping each other too much to the exams two days after Thanksgiving Break (Thanks Professor Molander) to the lack of discussion regarding OCR alternatives, there is so much Penn can do to take steps to combat mental health triggers. 

Photo cred: Linda Ting