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Kansan staff
NEWS MANAGEMENT
Editor-in-chief
Candice Tarver
Digital operations editor Matt Clough
Managing editor
Maddy Mikinski
Social media editor Megan Tiger
ADVERTISING MANAGEMENT
Associate social media editor Emily Johanek
Business manager Gage Brock
Sales manager Becca Blackburn
SECTION EDITORS
News editor
Lara Korte
Associate news editor Conner Mitchell
Sports editor Christian Hardy
Associate sports editor Skylar Rolstad
Arts & culture editor Ryan Wright
Associate arts & culture editor Samantha Sexton
Opinion editor Jesse Burbank
Visuels editor
& design chief
Roxy Townsend
Chief photographer Missy Minear
Copy chief Brendan Dzwierzynski
ADVISERS
Chief financial officer Jon Schlitt
Editorial adviser Gerri Berendzen
66045.
The University Daily Kansan is the student newspaper of the University of Kansas. The first copy is paid through the student activity fee. Additional copies of The Kansan are 50 cents. Subscriptions can be purchased at the Kansan business office, 2051 A Dale Human Development Center, 1000 Sunnyside Avenue, Lawrence, KS., 60415
The University Daily Karsan (ISSN 0746-4967) is published on Mondays and Thursdays during
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FROM CAPSPAGE1
for Universities like Kansas, Vargas said.
THE PROBLEM
A 2013 study found that the more depressed a student was, the lower their GPA dropped as a result, and the higher probability that student had of dropping out of their university.
The study also found that the dropout rate is 25 percent among students who have less than a 3.0 GPA and have a mental health problem.
"It absolutely is a huge issue on college campuses," McKee said. "Stress and anxiety have been the top two academic impediments."
During the last 12 months, about 60 percent of students on campus reported feeling overwhelming anxiety and 92 percent said they experienced "average" to "tremendous" stress, according to a recent study conducted for the University by the American College Health Association.
BRINGING IN MORE SPECIALISTS
The most recent student survey by CAPS said more than 60 percent of their clients reported being more likely to stay at the University as a result of receiving service at CAPS, Vargas said.
"Retention is increased by focusing on mental health, which increases academic performance and matriculation [being enrolled at University]," Vargas said.
Mental health issues aren't new on campus, McKee said, but there's less stigma surrounding mental health and an increase in students seeking help.
Last year, finance committee members approved a $9 increase for CAPS in student fees which was to fund four new positions to specialize with counseling students with diverse backgrounds.
Student Senate has also been involved in the efforts to improve mental health on campus.
"It kind of seemed like it was very necessary," Gabby Naylor, student body vice president, said. "The wait times at CAPS were a little longer, so not only would this help decrease that wait time for you to get in for an appointment, but also if you wanted to speak to a specific counselor you could do that."
So far, CAPS has hired a psychologist and a clinical social worker. The search is still underway to hire one more of each position, Vargas said.
The new hires bring the staff count to 13 licensed professionals seven psychologists, five clinical social workers
and one psychiatrist with a therapist to student ratio of one for every 2,200 students.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
KANSAN.COM/NEWS | THURSDAY, OCT.13, 2016
About four to eight percent of students that visit CAPS require care they are unable to provide, Vargas said. When this happens,the student is referred to specialized services. Some of these services include the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, Alcoholics Anonymous, primary substance abuse treatment and more.
They also make referrals for students to academic advising, International Student Services, Academic Achievement and Access Center and some others, Vargas said.
CAPS hopes the new positions will help them see more students. In addition to hiring more staff, they are also increasing their outreach to students and staff at the University.
Part of the increase in visibility has come from the Mental Health First Aid in Higher Education training for the Lawrence campus this year for staff, faculty and students, Vargas said. All resident assistants and complex directors have been through the training, as well as the Office of Study Abroad, officers and dispatchers from the
KU Public Safety Office and staff from Student Affairs, Vargas said.
Plans are also underway to train staff from the Division of Undergraduate Studies and academic advisors, Vargas said. CAPS also offers training across the University.
"Stress and anxiety have been the top two academic impediments."
Jenny McKee Watkins health educator
Mental Health First Aid training teaches individuals how to "recognize the symptoms of emerging mental illnesses or to assist young adults in a mental health crisis [that] can help lessen the severity and impact of mental illnesses," Vargas said.
The first aid is also about helping people on a basic human level, McKee said.
"It empowers people to understand that a lot of the tools you would use in a situation where someone needs you, you already possess. It's about being empathetic," McKee said. "It's about offering what you have as a person to that other person."
Watkins offers various
services to help students with stress, anxiety and other mental health problems. McKee said they have a nurse practitioner that works with prescriptions for students with mental health issues, and that Watkins doctors and nurse practitioners have conversations with students about their mental health.
They also provide other help, including stress-busting study breaks in the libraries. a massage therapy program, appointments with health educators and animal therapy programs.
"Research shows within the first five minutes of interacting with a therapy dog, people's production of cortisol decreases, their heart rate decreases, their blood pressure decreases," McKee said. "That's tangible on how your stress level can be decreased in just five minutes."
Naylor said one of the keys to improving mental health and retention on campus is to continue raising mental health awareness.
"We're talking about it more," Naylor said. "And I think that anxiety and depression are two of the biggest things that impact students, especially college students, and I think that in our busy college lives it's something we need to be paying attention to."
Common book explores identity and race
▶ CHANDLER BOESE
@Chandler_Boese
Between national events and local activism, issues surrounding race never seem far away from the University's campus. But this year's common book is bringing discussion of these issues into the classroom even more than before.
Every freshman entering the University this year is required to read "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. The book is being incorporated into many classes geared toward freshmen, such as ENGL 101 or UNIV 101.
The common book isn't a new program, but this year's book is particularly notable because of the issues it talks about. Coates, an African-American man, wrote the book as a letter to his son. In it, he discusses issues of violence against African-Americans in the U.S. and relates it to the objectification of the black body in American culture.
For Meagen Youngdahl, a graduate student teaching a section of ENGL 101, bringing this book into the classroom has been a challenging and rewarding experience. She dedicated the first quarter of her class this semester to slowly and deliberately discussing "Between the World and Me."
"We went very slowly through the book, sort of section by section, had a lot of conversations about it, a lot of discussions," she said. "I would say that
it was one of the most useful teaching tools I've ever had in the classroom regarding issues surrounding race."
Youngdahl said discussing these issues with freshmen, students who are just entering a brandnew environment, is vitally important, but can also be very challenging. She said she had a number of students who expressed some discomfort with the subject material.
TA-NEHISI COATES
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
WINNER
BETWEEN
THE WORLD
AND ME
"This is required reading." – Toni Morrison
"But we also tried to use that discomfort in a productive way," she said. "We tried to recognize that this discomfort was coming up from students encountering experiences that are very different from their own."
"Not talking about the
In general, continuing to have the conversation about racial issues is vitally important to the University, said Nancy Kepple, a professor of social work who works mostly with graduate students.
19. "This is required reading."—Toni Morrison
The University has been continuing to emphasize this focus on racial conversations through several events.
Next Wednesday, Oct. 12, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Honors Program will host a screening of "3 $ _{1/2} $ Minutes, 10 Bullets," a documentary depicting the shooting of four African-American teenagers by a white man.
Jabari Asim, the editor of Crisis magazine, an advocacy organization produced by the NAACP, visited the University on Sept. 29 to discuss racial issues in America.
Chandler Boese/KANSAN
issues that are going on, whether it's in the common book or the issues playing out day-to-day in the news, that are playing out on campus, to not talk about them is another of ... reinforcing a universal narrative that doesn't fit," she said. "By not talking about it, you're pretending it doesn't exist, because silence is a form of communication."
Kepple has been encouraging her classes to explore issues of identity and race for the past several years. She said she's not trying to tell students what to think about race, but simply to provide them with a perspective they may not often hear.
"It's not my job to teach my opinions to them, but to allow students to understand the broad range of opinions and critically evaluate what it means and how it impacts the clients and how it impacts themselves in doing the types of work they will do in social work," she said.
Kepple said facilitating these conversations isn't easy and sometimes leads to difficult moments in the classroom.
"When you facilitate these conversations, it means that a broad range of ideas might come out and there's a lot of pain underlying experiences people have and also a lot of misunderstandings people might have. And all of that has to be managed in the classroom," she said.
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