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Thinking Systemically to Better Serve Engineering Students’ Mental Health Needs: Policy and Process Recommendations

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Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

Engineering and Public Policy Division (EPP) Technical Session 2

Tagged Division

Engineering and Public Policy Division (EPP)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--44499

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/44499

Download Count

281

Paper Authors

biography

Kacey Beddoes San Jose State University

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Kacey Beddoes is a Project Director in the College of Engineering Dean's Office at San Jose State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from Virginia Tech. Further information about her work can be found at www.sociologyofengineering.org.

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biography

Andrew Danowitz California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4842-2005

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Andrew Danowitz received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2014, and is currently an Associate Professor of Computer Engineering at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. His research interests involve student mental health and accessibility in engineering education.

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Abstract

Recent years have seen a growing interest among engineering education researchers in studying and improving engineering students’ mental health. A picture of the state of engineering students’ mental health has begun to emerge, and it is clear that there are many unmet needs among this population. Aspects of engineering education that undermine students’ mental health have been identified, along with implications for engineering educators and administrators. In this paper, we turn to another aspect of the system: counseling and disability service centers. Based on interviews with undergraduate engineering students at five universities in the United States who had a variety of mental health diagnoses, we explore the challenges they encountered when trying to access counseling and disability service centers. The stories students shared bring to light important challenges and deeper insights into the experiences that characterize barriers previously identified.

Beddoes, K., & Danowitz, A. (2023, June), Thinking Systemically to Better Serve Engineering Students’ Mental Health Needs: Policy and Process Recommendations Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44499

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