Chapter 4: Enlightened in Loco Parentis: A Model for Addressing the College Student Mental Health Crisis

The increase in college students’ mental health struggles has led to a 30–40% increase in college counseling center visits between 2009 and 2015 (Center for Collegiate Mental Health, 2018). Traditional responses to this problem have focused mainly on increasing therapy staffs, but this approach has reached a tipping point due to shrinking budgets. In this piece, we advocate for widening the lens on the college student mental health issue to focus more on the systems that can mitigate or exacerbate students’ wellbeing. More specifically, we propose an updated version of in loco parentis as a model that could potentially decrease alienation and encourage the kinds of meaningful connections young people need to thrive.