One of the popular buzzwords on college campuses in “mental health.” Having lured huge numbers of young people to their schools, many of whom have little interest in or preparation for serious study, officials confront the need to deal with an array of psychological problems. Some response to genuine needs is in order, but — no surprise here — student mental-health programs have branched out into ideological matters.

In today’s Martin Center article, Appalachian State University professors Michael Behrent and Martha McCaughey argue that student mental-health programs need to be reined in. They write, “The problem is that, in its current usage, “mental health” refers to more than merely practical problems. It belongs to a broader discourse and set of beliefs. In many ways, mental health is a new utopian ideology.”

How so? Behrent and McCaughey observe that part of the new “mental health” landscape is the notion that students must “feel safe.” That’s not what college should be about.

The authors continue: “Once these students wind up in their college classrooms, on the quad, or at a Halloween party, they are inevitably exposed to new ideas and expressions, some of which are unsettling or downright offensive. Students then commonly say that they don’t ‘feel safe,’ and they can feel bitter resentment that the university failed to keep its promise. Rather than telling students that they should prepare to confront an intellectually challenging environment, universities set them up to expect to be coddled. Stroking students’ egos and otherwise refraining from challenging them through open inquiry winds up being one of three trends that are undermining higher education, which Mark Horowitz et al. call ‘broke/woke/stroke.’ Instructors are now asked, implicitly or explicitly, to relax their expectations, reduce the rigor of their assessments of student work, and avoid topics that might offend students.” It just won’t do to have students feeling offended.

Read the whole thing.