Soaring Mental Health, Academic Needs Overwhelm UWM Students and Staff

After graduating high school at the beginning of the pandemic, UW-Milwaukee student Theresa Jackson faced obstacle after obstacle in college. First her grandma died, then she struggled financially, then her other grandma died. She felt guilty, depressed and anxious.

“I felt like I was drowning, and I couldn’t come back up or like someone had tied an anchor to my feet and it was just constantly weighing me down,” said Jackson, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy.

As a result, she started missing classes and falling behind on assignments, and in fall 2021 she ended up on academic probation. Jackson lost both her campus jobs and was almost kicked out of university housing, she said.

In the wake of the pandemic, UW-Milwaukee students are stressed out and failing academically at record levels; in fall 2022, 19% of the sophomore class was on academic probation, up from 12% two years ago, according to Vice Provost for Student Success Dave Clark. Enrollment and retention rates are down as the university faces ongoing budget challenges, and some support staff members accuse the university of refusing to invest in services amid intensifying student need.

“Students are struggling,” said Clark. “They are coming in with, in some cases, less preparation, particularly in math and writing. There’s also personal challenges like mental health, financial challenges, all these non-academic challenges students struggle with.”

Further, UWM’s spring-to-fall retention rate fell from 75% to 72%, which is connected to the rising academic probation rate, according to Clark.

“We know that students who hit probation typically have a really hard climb to get back out, so that’s something we’re very concerned about,” he said.

With an acceptance rate of 79% and average ACT scores between 19 and 24, according to the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, UWM is considered an access institution. More than a third of students are the first in their families to attend college, and more than a quarter come from underrepresented groups, according to the Division of Academic Affairs, which means more UWM students need academic and financial support. In comparison, UW-Madison’s acceptance rate is 57% with average ACT scores between 27 and 32, and the flagship campus enrolls fewer first-generation students and students of color.

At UWM, the pressure to keep struggling students enrolled is more than altruistic; it’s vital to the university’s financial future.

In fall 2022, there was a 3.6% decrease in enrollment across all UWM campuses. This is worrisome for the university, as 88% of its operating budget is enrollment-driven, according to Chancellor Mark Mone.

“We really want to and need to turn that around because of the enrollment gear that is directly synchronized with our tuition dollars,” Mone said in a virtual faculty and staff town hall on Nov. 15. “We operate very much like a private university today.”

Pre-pandemic, 42% of students enrolled at four-year institutions said they had considered dropping out due to emotional distress, according to a national survey Mone cited during the town hall. The number increased to 76% after the pandemic, he said.

“People this semester, at all levels, this isn’t just undergrad students, there’s a sort of tiredness that set in, that we’re just kind of all exhausted,” said UWM Assistant Professor Lia Wolock.

Mental health experts at UWM report more students are getting help and have found better language to explain their struggles since the pandemic.

“I think that the challenge of isolationism sort of exacerbated things that people may have laid dormant,” said Jon Broskowski, disability services manager with UWM’s Accessibility Resource Center.

The Center had 1,400 active students during the fall 2022 semester, up from fewer than 1,000 in 2018, despite declining enrollment.

“We’re probably having the most new students we’ve ever had,” Broskowski said.

The Accessibility Resource Center provides accommodations such as alternative testing arrangements or notetaking services to students with disabilities or major health concerns. But Broskowski said most students seek accommodations for anxiety and depression, not for physical disabilities.

In fall 2022, there was a significant increase in requests for flexibility on assignments, single dorm rooms and emotional support animals in residence halls.

UWM Counseling Services has also noticed changes in student mental health since the return to in-person classes.

“What I think I see is the threshold for that kind of overwhelmed state, that sort of shutdown state, seems to be lower,” said Counselor Jeb Ebben. “One other thing that I’ve seen is social anxiety, difficulties interacting with other people, fear of being seen as stupid in classes. That, to me, makes a lot of sense, if you’re coming from a world that’s existed for the last two years where social interaction looks completely different than it had in the past.”

Instructors across campus report lower engagement and spottier attendance since the return to campus.

“People skipping classes, people procrastinating on assignments, is something that we see a lot here,” Ebben said. “I think avoidance is a really seductive sort of strategy. I think procrastination, skipping class, those are things that can really relieve anxiety in the moment.”

UWM student Theresa Jackson said she did not get the understanding from instructors and the university that she needed.

“I know when my first grandmother died, I would just curl up in my bed and I would just rewatch her funeral on repeat,” Jackson said. “In our syllabus, [instructors] have different mental health resources for us and everything and they say, ‘we can’t knock you because you’re not feeling well mentally,’ but when you try to tell them what’s going on, they kind of either don’t open your email, ignore you or they just don’t care.”

Weeks after getting a promotion at her campus job, Jackson said she got a late-night email saying she was terminated because she had been placed on academic probation. Since Jackson was already struggling to pay for school, losing the job only complicated her situation.

“I felt like I was being punished for all the natural things that are going to happen like death and like financial crises and stuff like that, and when I tried to explain that to people and be truthful with them about what happened, nobody understood,” Jackson said. “That really hurt me.”

In addition to mental health crises either caused or exposed by the pandemic, some students are also grappling with learning loss resulting from online school or disrupted instruction.

In fall 2022, more UWM students were placed in lower-level math courses, and more students voluntarily enrolled in lower-level English courses, saying they need the preparation, according to Clark.

“We’re an access institution,” Clark said. “We’re used to serving students who come in who aren’t necessarily ready for calculus, so how do we work with an even larger population who are coming in a little less prepared. It’s a challenge.”

Part of the university’s effort to combat these academic struggles is rewarding some students with a $500 scholarship who maintain good academic standing their first year and use support services like the Student Success Center.

As of Dec. 15, the Center had 5,675 visits, an increase from last year, according to Director Brennan Olena.

Just over 50% of Student Success Center services are for math courses, including one-on-one tutoring sessions.

“If they give you that function, what’s the first thing you’re going to do so you can graph it?” tutor Zhané Miller asked a student in a supplemental instruction session.

“Draw a graph?” the student responded.

“No, that’s what we’re going to do in the end,” Miller said. Both students laughed before walking through the steps to complete the problem.

According to Olena, students are telling tutors about mental health concerns more than before; they’re also working on time management.

“They’re struggling to identify blocks of time when they should be studying and really making the best use of what their schedules look like,” Olena said.

UWM is trying to find a balance between the more rigid requirements of pre-pandemic college learning and the flexibility students are looking for.

By mid-November 2022, Nigel Rothfels, acting dean of the College of Letters and Science, was recommending that professors and instructors try to grant students’ accommodation requests, because students were unlikely to get a plan from the Accessibility Resource Center, according to an email.

“Instructors can use their best judgment in trying to meet accommodation requests by students. I would encourage you to let your students know that, if they are struggling, you would like to meet with them to figure out together how you might be able to help them be successful in your course,” the email said.

Across campus, UWM’s support centers are not keeping up with demand for services.

Concerns over staffing have been ongoing since 2019 when the Accessibility Resource Center began having issues with burnout, said Broskowski. In 2022, the staffing shortage intensified.

“We were never sustainable, and coming into this year we tried painstakingly to increase our numbers, but we just ended up, you know, there’s budget issues,” Broskowski said. “It just came down to, [the Center] is apparently not a priority. The administration really didn’t want to fill the gap. They’re like, ‘well, you can do more with less.’”

The Accessibility Resource Center went from having four access specialists earlier this year, including Broskowski, down to two by the middle of fall semester. The last access specialist left on Dec. 23, leaving only Broskowski.

The staffing shortage increased access specialists’ caseloads to over 400 students each in fall 2022, according to a 2022 UW-System report—a number more than double industry recommendations, according to Broskowski.

“It’s like an assembly line,” Broskowski said. “Unfortunately, there are students out there that are just, I would say, floundering. It doesn’t make us look good, it doesn’t make UWM look good, it doesn’t help the student, and for those of us who actually care and have compassion for students, it just tears us up. That’s why people are leaving.”

Since Theresa Jackson ended up on academic probation, she has gotten her grades up, started working on campus again and is the president of a student club.

“Last year I failed, but I’ve overcome obstacle after obstacle and I’m going to overcome this obstacle,” she said.

But she’s still battling her grief and financial need and, without more support from UWM, she admits that her academic future is still uncertain.

“I​​n the back of my mind, I constantly have to think about, ‘am I going to have to drop out?’” Jackson said. “I’m praying this semester’s GPA is good, but then again that balance that’s on my account is definitely doing some damage to me, so we’ll see.”