Follow us on Instagram
Try our daily mini crossword
Play our latest news quiz
Download our new app on iOS/Android!

Students and administrators meet to discuss mental health policy

Rachel Bronheim ’15, Alexandra Marino ’18 and Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15, members of the Undergraduate Student Government's Mental Health Initiative Board met with Senior Associate Dean of the College Claire Fowler Wednesday afternoon to explore the possibility of publishing the official policies for mental health withdrawals and readmissions in the Undergraduate Announcement.

The Undergraduate Announcement is a document that outlines the academic regulations, programs of study and course offerings of the University.

ADVERTISEMENT

Okuda-Lim said Fowler explained during the meetingthat the Undergraduate Announcement was established as a succinct and concise compilation of regulations rather than a detailed set of procedures.

Fowler suggested that the Mental Health Initiative Board work with the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students to revise the current FAQs on mental health withdrawals and readmissions, which were published by ODUS this past May, to be recognized as the University's official protocol.

The protocol would be characterized by specificity about current policies and would be made available to the public.

Okuda-Lim further noted that a meeting is planned with Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students MichaelOlin to analyze the feasibility of this proposal.

Fowler could not be reached for comment.

The conference came after 95.5 percent of voters approved of a referendum question that appeared on the recent USG elections ballot thatcalled for greater transparency in mental health withdrawal and readmission policies.

ADVERTISEMENT

Referendum question 1 was drafted by Okuda-Lim.

While concerns surfaced about the absence of demand for change, Okuda-Lim wrote in a Facebook post that releasing the official policies, which are currently not publicly accessible, is an indispensable stepping-stone for potential remediation.

“It's difficult to push for a policy change when the policies are not even public,” Okuda-Lim added.

According to Okuda-Lim, the few paragraphs published in the Undergraduate Announcement relevant to this issue are ambiguous. No specific explanations of withdrawal or readmission procedures are delineated, except for one paragraph on involuntary withdrawals.

Subscribe
Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The Mental Health Initiatives Board invited Olin and director of Counseling and Psychological Services Calvin Chin to a student-administrator conversation on Nov. 24, prior to the conference. In response to student concerns, the Board, in collaboration with ODUS, will embed more details in the “Frequently Asked Questions” regarding student rights to patient confidentiality.

The growing worry about the University’s mental health-related policies drew the attention of Bloomberg Businessweek, which said in an article published Dec. 1that “[Princeton] students fear that talking to mental health counselors will get them tossed out of school.”

Okuda-Lim noted that the Board is planning on collaborating with the Princeton Perspective Project for a January workshop on mental health.