SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras has dedicated  roughly $24 million dollars to SUNY mental health services, the largest single investment of its kind in SUNY history. 

With these funds added on to $35 million in current campus investments, SUNY has $59 million to advance its mental health resources.The investment will go to expanding student mental health programs and bettering current student services, such as the Crisis Text Line, Peer to Peer hotlines and campus counseling networks. 

SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley served as co-chair of the SUNY Mental Health and Wellness Task Force, which oversaw the investment. It was partially under her guidance that the task force recommended the expansion of funding, resources and partnerships for mental health resources.

“We know that deep learning happens when there are fewer barriers to understanding, feeling close to others and having the freedom to be safe and secure in a comfortable environment,” Stanley said. “When our students are plagued with mental health and wellness issues, that’s not possible, so we looked to SUNY’s many mental health and wellness professionals to guide us on what we need to do for our students.” 

This push for mental health follows escalating reports of mental health issues in students across the country, with statistics from the Centers for Disease Control showcasing that rates of students contemplating suicide have increased from 1 in 10 before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, to 1 in 4 since the pandemic emerged. 

“Our students are dealing with a once in a lifetime health crisis—first from the fear of the unknown and being away from family and friends, and now as we readjust to being in-person again, and coupled with the normal pressures of college, it is affecting their wellbeing at a higher rate,” Malatras said. 

College students have never dealt with a situation like now, dealing with not only a new environment, but a return to in-person learning that SUNY schools were unable to provide for students in the past year and a half. 

Students deal with change in many ways, and SUNY hopes to better address individual problems faced by students as well as focus on future expenditures to help current and future mental health needs. With this comes the encouragement of early intervention in mental health, training staff to identify warning signs of mental illness and helping all SUNY residents to feel comfortable with discussing and seeking aid for mental health. 

SUNY has already taken steps to promote mental health and wellness services in the form of the Student Mental Health Peer Advocates Training Program, over-the-phone counseling and the #ReachOutSUNY social media campaign. All of these resources work to give constant mental health support at all hours, allow for faster wait times for in-person counseling and to show students what mental health looks like so they can help themselves and their peers.

SUNY’s investment and focus on mental health is part of a greater American Rescue Plan championed by the White House to provide relief to the American people. New York Senator Charles Schumer and U.S. Congressman Joe Morelle referred to the plan in describing how they secured funds for colleges like SUNY in the wake of the mental health crisis caused by the pandemic. 

“Everyone deserves access to the support they need, which is why I’m so proud to have secured funds through the American Rescue Plan for this transformative expansion of mental health services across the SUNY system,” said Morelle. “I’m grateful to Chancellor Malatras for his partnership and look forward to our continued work together to end the stigma around mental health, improve support services, and uplift the lives of students and their families.” 

Malatras and Stanley alongside the Mental Health and Wellness Task Force, and U.S. Congressmen have worked hard to secure funds and ensure SUNY students have access to a variety of personal mental health services. Over the next academic year, students will see positive changes in the many programs SUNY offers and have a clearer picture of exactly where the investment money has gone into.