Before the story broke last week, Yale officials repeatedly refused to discuss the university’s withdrawal and reinstatement policies or address any of the accounts offered by students and former students.
On Wednesday, Salovey said the article “misrepresents our efforts and unwavering commitment to supporting our students, whose well-being and success are our primary focus.”
In the story, more than 25 current and former students described their frustrations with a university filled with a $41.4 billion endowment, but beset by what they said are inadequate services and policies for people in crisis. mental.
Some reported that they sought help and never received an answer. Others were given limited 30-minute therapy sessions due to staffing constraints. Many said they learned to hide mental health problems and suicidal thoughts to avoid triggering retirement policies they believe are designed to protect Yale from lawsuits and damage to its reputation.
And those who were pressured to leave said they were given 72 hours or less to get off campus, with one student who was met by campus police after being released from a mental hospital and given two hours to pack up his belongings and vacate your bedroom.
“To be clear, the health and well-being of Yale students are the university’s top priorities,” Salovey wrote. “The Washington Post article does not reflect Yale’s efforts to promote student wellness. The article does not acknowledge the support, processes and policies in place or the positive results associated with our work.”
Salovey said the university plans to take steps in the coming months to improve mental health services and explained the efforts it has already made in recent years to make the reinstatement process less onerous and costly.
Next year, the university will open a new advising site. Salovey said a committee has been meeting in recent months “to continue to review our retirement and reinstatement policies. This group is prepared to implement policy changes in stages that will continue to support students.”
Two other Yale administrators, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis and Paul Hoffman, Yale’s director of mental health and counseling, also wrote. a letter to the editor on Tuesday, claiming the article ignored the “complex and nuanced effort” to address students’ mental health and said it “could put more students at risk” by giving them the impression they should stay in college at the expense of their wellness.
In an interview Thursday, Lewis said the university plans to hire an additional nine mental health doctors next year, bringing the total number to nearly 60. And the new counseling center to open next year will be Yale’s third in New Haven.
Lewis said possible changes to the university’s withdrawal policies may be announced in the coming weeks, but characterized them as “not sweeping policy revisions, but updating documents and making sure everything is clear.”
Lewis noted that administrators are trying to address a problem raised by The Post story: how students in crisis who withdraw from Yale lose their health insurance and access to therapy at a time when they need it most.
“I’m not sure I know for sure if we’ll be able to do it for a few weeks or so,” he said. “But we’re in the process of looking at that… the question of cost and insurance for those who come from families that don’t have insurance.”
Lewis said university administrators wrote the two letters in response to alumni concern over the Post article.
“I wanted to make it clear that the mental health of our students is a very, very high priority and that we seek to follow policies and practices that will ensure that,” he said. “In particular, that they are going to help prevent suicide. And that is the basis for our decision-making and nothing more.”
Many current and former students expressed their frustration with Salovey’s letter and the administration’s response.
“They missed the whole point of the article and those students who were brave enough to speak up,” said Alicia Floyd, who retired after a suicide attempt in 2000 and now works as a doctor. “The problem is how terrible they can do to leave and come back. And how that discourages people in pain from seeking help or taking the time off they need.”
Last year, Floyd and others created a nonprofit organization called Elis for Rachel pressure Yale to change its mental health policies.
“The letter shows how disconnected administrators are from our experiences,” said Akweley Mazarae Lartey, 22, a senior at Yale. “His policies of her have a huge effect on students, especially those who need support, who are low income and come from marginalized backgrounds. Or they are trans and non-binary, like me.
Lartey, the leader of a disability rights student group called DEFY, recalled having mental health problems in his first year at Yale and being warned not to reveal too much to his Yale advisors because of the withdrawal policy. . Lartey said he, too, had trouble finding counselors who understood his issues as a non-binary student.
“We desperately need not only policy reform and more resources,” he said, “but much better and more diverse directors.”
The scrutiny and discussion of the changes comes after more than a decade. of criticism of Yale’s withdrawal policies. In 2015, students demanded change after a Yale sophomore cited the withdrawal policy in an online post shortly before committing suicide. Last year, a freshman committed suicide just days after agonizing over online posts about the possible consequences of withdrawing from her.
Prior to the article’s publication, Yale administrators declined to provide The Post with statistics on reinstatement. In Salovey’s letter, he said: “More than 90 percent of students who were medically discharged are reinstated on their first request; over 99 percent on your second; and 100 percent for your third request.”
Those numbers include students who withdraw for physical and mental reasons. Lewis said that most medical removals are for mental health reasons. When asked how many students who withdraw decide to reapply, Lewis said he didn’t have that information.
“Even if 90 percent get back on their first try, what that doesn’t capture is the stress and trauma created by this cruel and absurd process,” said Rishi Mirchandani, who retired in 2018 after suffering suicidal thoughts and returned. to apply twice before being reinstated “Does not capture the logistical and financial obstacles. The anxiety and limbo you are forced to live in while you wait for them to make their judgment. No one disagrees that time off can be necessary and save lives. But it must be simple, flexible and supportive. Right now, it’s none of those things.”
Miriam Kopyto, 22, a senior and leader of the Yale Student Mental Health Association, said many on campus have contacted her group in the wake of The Post story, asking how they can help. to improve mental health on campus.
“I’ve been working for years, between my classes and my job, trying to get administrators to pay attention to these issues. And it often feels like we are invisible to them,” Kopyto said. “I hope things really get better. I would love to see that”.
