Starting in fall 2021, Binghamton University and the College of Community and Public Affairs (CCPA) will provide increased mental health support for students with the new Helping Youth on the Path to Employment on Campus (HYPE on Campus) initiative.

Partnered with the University of Massachusetts Medical School, HYPE on Campus, part of the larger HYPE model, is a program and research initiative that aims to help college students with mental health conditions by providing support and resources to reach success. The program, which is led by the Services for Students with Disabilities (SDD) at BU, focuses on helping students develop productive skills and strategies, such as time and task management, memory and problem solving through peer mentoring. The mentors are master of social work (MSW) graduate student interns in the CCPA. The program also aims to teach students how to effectively use campus student resources, such as the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development and the University Counseling Center (UCC), so students can reach their academic and professional goals.

This semester, five CCPA MSW graduate student interns will be trained in various student support services on campus, such as SDD and the University of Massachusetts Medical School HYPE model. When the program starts next fall, the interns will be responsible for mentoring students and overseeing the program.

HYPE on Campus follows an evidence-based model, as BU and University of Massachusetts Medical School plan to jointly share research and outcomes. Throughout the initiative, the research team plans to further formulate and improve methods on assisting students with mental health conditions. Each student in the program will have an individualized plan and set of goals to achieve while working with their student interns. The pilot program will be limited to CCPA graduate students only for the time being.

While the program is still at its infancy, CCPA Dean Laura Bronstein said in a statement to the University that HYPE on Campus is an example of how BU is making important steps toward breaking the stigma of mental health while opening up new opportunities for students.

“We’re committed to the health and mental health of all people, including college students,” Bronstein said. “HYPE is a perfect fit for CCPA and our mission. Students on both sides will get to be a part of a really innovative and cutting-edge program.”

BU was one of two universities chosen to be a part of this initiative following a national search aimed at schools that share the same mission as HYPE and have the proper facilities to support it. Michelle Mullen, founder and lead researcher in the HYPE program at University of Massachusetts Medical School, saw that BU and CCPA demonstrated tenacity in both helping students with mental health conditions and research.

“Our aim was to partner with a university that could both successfully implement the program on their campus and one that would be well aligned with the values [HYPE] brings to the table,” Mullen wrote in an email. “[BU] and, in particular, the [CCPA] has demonstrated not only their commitment to this novel intervention but, more importantly, a dedication and passion for serving young adult students with mental health conditions.”

Mullen noted college students who struggle with mental health are not necessarily dropping out because they have poor grades or substandard academic performance but because of the rigor of today’s higher education.

“It has been long suspected that college students with mental health conditions leave college because of their mental health symptoms affecting their ability to achieve good grades,” Mullen wrote. “However, in our research, and in other published research, students with [mental health conditions] have relatively good grades, around 3.0 GPA. It is our suspicion that the problem is not these students’ ability to achieve good grades, but rather the difficulty with managing the competing demands of higher education because [of] the way their condition affects their ability to develop executive functioning skills, such as organization and time management.”

Mullen mentioned other resources on campus that are designed to help students through the demanding nature of higher education, but they are often neglected due to the lack of ability to fully utilize them by students, which HYPE aims to fix.

“The issue is to help bridge the gap in services provided to this population by developing skills necessary to build academic persistence, meaning students successfully finish a semester and return the next semester,” Mullen wrote. “In the absence of these skills, students ‘white knuckle’ it through the semester trying to do the best they can, which can lead to cycles of ‘crashing and burning.’”

Dianne Gray, director of SDD, is hopeful that the evidence-based model and methods in the HYPE on Campus program will improve retention rates for students who struggle with mental health.

“This is a research project, so we will have data on outcomes,” Gray wrote in the email. “That is certainly the hypothesis. I am very excited about our role and the prospect of helping these students successfully navigate college and career.”