Jed and Clinton Foundations Announce Joint Mental Health Assessment on College Campuses, 55 Schools Sign Up
By55 colleges and universities have agreed to participate in a program meant to review how they handle mental health on their campuses.
According to the Huffington Post, the Jed and Clinton Health Matters Campus Program, a joint effort from two prominent nonprofits, is organizing the review. The program's ultimate goal is to curb student deaths from suicide, alcohol abuse and drug overdose.
Students in college are highly susceptible to depression and anxiety due to academic pressure and a variety of other reasons. The Mental Health Matters Campus Program provide participating schools with the tools they need to conduct self-assessment surveys of mental health on their campuses.
The program is a collaboration between the Jed Foundation and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Both nonprofits already had programs in place that took a special interest in mental health.
"We're not saying these schools have the best programs in place today, but these are schools that are making the commitment to enter the process of continued improvement," John MacPhee, CEO of the Jed Foundation, told the HP. "Our hope is most of the schools - thousands of schools nationwide - will join the program and participate in this systematic process of looking at the programming and sharing the learnings across the schools.
"If we see a great program at one of these universities, we'll be sharing it with all the schools. A big part of what we want to do is socialize that."
Participating is a wide array of schools - Ivies, other elite universities, state schools and smaller colleges alike.
"We are thrilled to announce the first group of schools in the nation to join The Campus Program, and to celebrate these institutions for their recognition of mental health as an essential element of student education, development and maturation," Rain Henderson, CEO of the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, said in a statement.
Per the Huffington Post, here is the full list of the 55 participating schools:
Alfred University
Aurora University
Azusa Pacific University
Barnard College
Boston University
Butler University
California Institute of Technology
California State University - Chico
Cameron University
Columbia University
Connecticut College
Cornell University
Davidson College
Fordham University
Georgetown University
Indiana University
Marymount Manhattan College
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Monmouth University
Montana State University
New York University
Northwestern University
Oklahoma Baptist University
Oklahoma City University
Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Pace University
Pennsylvania State University - Altoona
Pennsylvania Highlands Community College
Pomona College
Princeton University
Saint Francis University
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
St. Cloud State University
Stevens Institute of Technology
State University College at Geneseo, State University of New York
State University College at Oneonta, State University of New York
The Ohio State University
Three Rivers Community College
Tulane University
University at Albany, State University of New York
University of Arizona
University of California - Los Angeles
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Illinois - Champagne Urbana
University of Pennsylvania
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
University of South Carolina
University of West Georgia
Viterbo University
Wake Forest University
Washington University in St. Louis
Western Oklahoma State College
Worcester Polytechnic Institute