According to the National College Health Assessment, 40.2% of students suffer from depression on a nationwide basis. Additionally, 1 in 12 students has a suicide plan. A 2016 Nonprofit Employment Practices Survey reported that turnover rates in nonprofit staffing continue to grow. A study from Columbia, Harvard, and Georgetown found that “the busier a person appeared, the more important they were deemed,” lending to the “Cult of Busyness” that seems to have erupted in our culture. Each of these statistics and findings are indicative of the day to day that staff members, educators, community partners, and students face. They are overworked, overcommitted, exhausted, depressed, stressed, etc. In our session, we hope to discuss the role that institutions of higher education play in creating this culture (examples: exceedingly high expectations students need to meet to gain college acceptance, asking staff/faculty to do more with less) and what role they can play in shifting our culture to support a more holistic picture of success and wealth. Furthermore, we hope to crowdsource real ways to engage in intentional self-care and reflective practices and advocate for such opportunities to administrators and other power brokers.
