Peace of Mind

A JANUARY TIME MAGAZINE Artocle about mentally ill college students, titled "Lost on the Campus," included a provocative reference to your alma mater: "Dartmouth College, where the number of students admitting to psychiatric problems rose tenfold in the past three years, recently held a symposium on psychiatric health."

That increase isn't evidence of a sudden downturn in the mental state of the College community, says Dartmouth director of counseling and human development Mark Reed, but is instead the result of extreme under-reporting in the mid-19905, followed by several years of intensive campus outreach work aimed at getting students into the counseling office.

In 1996, he says, three students registered with the College as having psychiatric problems. (Registering their disability allows the students to be eligible for academic accommodations, such as extensions on papers.) Last year about 36 people registered.

Walking into a counselor's office is a step that more students are taking at Dartmouth and in colleges across the country these days, according to school health officials. One undeniable cause, says the College's disability director, Nancy Pompian, is the greater load borne by todays students. "They weren't under this kind of pressure 10 years ago—economic pressures, pressure from parents, self-pressure, performance anxiety," she says. "Students were more relaxed."

And while the College is seeing more students come forward for assistance, it continues to fight the stigma associated with psychiatric disorders.

"Dartmouth is famous for how much people love it here," says Reed. 'And there are stereotypes about that: everyone here is happy, athletic, bright—they're into 10 different activities and the leader of all of them. Having a mental illness doesn't fit that picture, so people will try to hide it." The outreach campaign seems to have been a success: Now Dartmouth's seven counselors see more than 700 students a year, most of whom suffer from depression. Anxiety disorders- such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder—are also common.

"Just because Dartmouth hasn't been the site of a student suicide in recent years, unlike MIT and Columbia, doesn't mean it couldn't happen here," says Reed, who has been in his position since 1991. "We certainly have suicide attempts every year. Some are quite serious.

"I worry about the students we see in counseling," he says. "But I worry about the students we don't see even more."

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "The quality of your experience will not be determined solely by what Dartmouth has to offer; your energy, empathy and creativity are necessary ingredients." —DARTMOUTH HISTORY PROFESSOR JUDITH BY FIELD '80, ADDRESSING FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT CONVOCATION ON SEPTEMBER 24