I believe that California Lutheran University should implement a policy allowing students to take between 1-4 mental health days per course.
Mental health days are essential to everyone, especially college students. Since COVID-19 hit the world in 2020, I feel like my world has slightly shifted off its axis. Fortunately, as a society, we are beginning to prioritize things we had not before, such as mental health.
โIn the context of the pandemic and climate change, there are all kinds of reasons why mental health is becoming more important and more visible to us,โ English Professor Bryan Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said that with the university left to enforce the policy, it takes the burden off of the professor.ย
โPart of the difficulty is imagining: how am I going to adjudicate whether someone is having a mental health issue? I donโt feel qualified to do that,โ Rasmussen said.
We are able to do more work and meetings online than we ever had in the past. We are also focusing more on mental health awareness and normalizing it. With the university enforcing a mental health day policy, it allows for the process to be directly integrated into courses, preventing professors from changing or ignoring the policy.
โI think taking mental health days seems like a good idea,โ Rasmussen said. โI have a hard time thinking about how it might work in practice, like separating mental health days from other kinds of issues that people might experience and managing that.โ
Though it is difficult to separate mental health days from just having a bad day, I think it is beneficial for students to be able to take a day off, regardless of the severity of their mental wellbeing.
โI think that taking a day to rejuvenate and manage wellness is a good practice, however, if there are ongoing mental health concerns then mental health days may not support a reduction in the problem,โ Director of Counseling and Psychological Services Anna Guerin said in an email interview. โEspecially if the student is not accessing some type of support.โ
Rasmussen said the idea of having students check in with CAPS would act as an โactive mental health day,โ in that the student is actively doing something to help themselves. He said that this would be beneficial and give students both tools and support systems to address and raise mental health awareness.
One flaw in this option is that some courses have classes that you cannot miss. Specifically for STEM majors, labs are essential courses that rarely allow for makeups. However, labs are typically 0-credit courses, and this policy would not apply to the labs, but rather to their corresponding courses.ย
Although it is circumstantial, perhaps the student could have a conversation with their professor or CAPS, to discuss a feasible solution.
Besides missing essential coursework, the other main concern is the misuse of mental health days.
To prevent abuse, the student should have to bring a signed paper from CAPS at some point that week to show that they are taking action and not just abusing the days to skip class.
โHealth is health and if you need to take an excused absence to support your mental health, I have seen many faculty support that option. Data has shown that more adolescents and young adults are experiencing mental health concerns,โ Guerin said.ย
According to verywellmind.com, as of April 2023, there are only 12 U.S. States that have passed legislation allowing students to have mental health days (excluding private schools). These states include Washington, California, Illinois, Maine, Virginia, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Kentucky. Eight states have proposed bills, while the other 36 states have zero legislation regarding mental health days.
In a brief survey I sent to students at Cal Lutheran, 91.7%ย said they would want and utilize this policy. With responses from 48 students, only three students responded that they might want this policy to go into effect and one person responded they would not want it to.ย
Although this policy may work as a short-term solution to a larger, long-lasting problem, I believe that the pros outweigh the cons. I think that many students, myself included, could benefit from having mental health days implemented into Cal Lutheran university policy.
