In response to the Virginia Tech massacre last spring, when a gunman killed 32 people and himself in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, the Office of Student Life, the Office of the Dean of the College and Psychological Services began collaborating on a Web site on which students can find "a place people at Brown can go when they're concerned about a student," Psychological Services Director Belinda Johnson said.
Launched in December by the Office of Student Life, a Web page titled "Helping a Friend in Crisis" provides warning signs of distress, tips for starting a conversation with a troubled student and contact information for support services.
After the Virginia Tech incident, Johnson said "the idea that different people on campus had different pieces of information about (the shooter)" was prevalent.
"Friends are often the first to notice that a student might be experiencing significant distress," the site reads. Two similar Web pages were created for faculty and staff.
"We're sending people to the same resources, essentially," said Margaret Klawunn, associate vice president of campus life and dean for student life. "But we felt that people would see different things."
The pages have been publicized in Morning Mail announcements since last week's shooting at Northern Illinois University that killed five people and the shooter. The student page also includes information about suicide, sexual violence and harassment and substance abuse.
"We think we've lined up a lot of the right resources and are trying to do as much communication as we can," Klawunn said.
Victor Schwartz, dean of students at Yeshiva University and a member of the American Psychiatric Association's Committee on College Mental Health, said colleges and universities have been "trying to beef up their counseling services and mental health programs" across the nation in the last 10 to 15 years.
College "is the period of time when many of the major psychiatric illnesses start manifesting themselves," he said. "So it's not surprising that we're seeing numbers of people in colleges who have the same kinds of psychiatric difficulties that everyone else does in the population."
Though Schwartz emphasized that "college campuses are still extremely safe places" compared to the outside world, he said their nature as "closed communities" means "it is useful for students to have some sense of what to do if they're concerned about a roommate or a friend."
"Probably the best arrangement is for there to be a choice of two or three people ... who will know what to do with that information," Schwartz said. He added that college administrators and clinicians try to maintain students' "sense of privacy and trust while at the same time not letting problems or people fall through the cracks."
While Johnson said "the average Brown student puts a high value on independence," she also noted "a general culture of students, faculty and staff caring about one another" on campus.
"You might be surprised - or maybe not - how often students come to us because friends have suggested it," Johnson said.
"I think this is a community where students do quite a bit of caring about each other," Klawunn said. "Yes, people are independent, but they tend to want to get help," she said, citing high use of Brown Emergency Medical Services as a sign that Brown students look out for one another.
"In the student life office, quite a few students come in to tell us about a concern about a roommate or a friend," Klawunn said.
