By Elizabeth Flores | Staff Reporter
No one finds joy in talking about it, but we’re all feeling it—students are facing increased levels of stress and hopelessness as their basic rights, safety, and security are being threatened.
A collective fear and an amalgamation of anxieties about the job market, reproductive health care and political shakeups is overtaking student mental health—a fact made especially clear in interviews with mental health counselors and data provided by the Student Wellness Center at WSU Vancouver.
Julie Dembo, mental health counselor at the Student Wellness Center, expressed concern for the mental and emotional wellbeing of students. Immigrants face the possibility of deportation, and many other students from marginalized and vulnerable communities anticipate or have already experienced an increase in discrimination due to the Trump administration’s influence and worry that their safe spaces will be removed.
“We definitely see an increase in [students seeking] mental health services since the time of the election,” said Dembo. “There is stress and anxiety for students in how policies will affect them…Stress is impacting concentration, day to day responsibilities, socializing affects their security when their basic needs and rights are at risk,”
Student life is clouded with uncertainty about surviving the cost of living and inflation, as well as belonging in society, purpose, and personal freedoms in a changing landscape. In short—global existential dread.
“There’s uncertainty for a lot of people graduating and with the state of the job markets,” said fellow mental health counselor Simeon Kulp. “I hear a lot of fear and uncertainty [from students], like, ‘I’ve spent all this money and all this time, really working hard to get my degree. I was promised that I would be successful or have a future…Am I going to be able to find work that’s meaningful and can provide for me?’ ”
According to recent data from Kulp, there has been a significant increase in the number of scheduled and attended mental health appointments at the Student Wellness Center over the past few years.
From August 2024 through March 2025, the number of scheduled and attended appointments (643) have already exceeded the total number of scheduled and attended appointments in 2022–2023 (550), and is expected to exceed the total number of scheduled and attended appointments in 2023–2024 (799)
The data directly from Kulp is as follows:
From 8/19/24 to 4/1/2025:
- Counselors had 643 scheduled and attended appointments
- Counselors conducted 123 intake appointments
- Counselors conducted 470 individual counseling appointments
- Counselors conducted 23 urgent counseling appointments
Last year from 8/19/23 to 8/18/24 (12 months):
- Counselors had 799 scheduled and attended appointments
- Counselors conducted 146 intake appointments
- Counselors conducted 621 individual counseling appointments
- Counselors conducted 32 urgent counseling appointments
Two years ago, from 8/15/22 to 8/18/23 (12 months):
- Counselors had 550 scheduled and attended appointments
- Counselors conducted 77 intake appointments
- Counselors conducted 361 individual counseling appointments
- Counselors conducted 63 group counseling appointments (due to lack of interest in group therapy counselors discontinued offering group therapy for the ’23 and ’24 year to be able to offer more individual counseling appointments)
- Counselors conducted 49 urgent counseling appointments
Maggie Ruiz, Student Wellness Center Coordinator has also noticed more student traffic.
“I have noticed more students interested in medication management in the last six months,” she said.
Counseling services currently has two counselors, Dembo and Kulp. The center is open for in-person or virtual appointments Monday through Friday, allowing one space a day for walk-in appointments.
Healthcare concerns were already on the rise since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, but have been further amplified since the 2024 presidential election.
Kelsey Lander, nurse practitioner at the Student Wellness Center, noted that more students are coming in seeking information about birth control methods as well as medication management, and she anticipates more of these conversations to come.
“Depression, anxiety, insomnia are the main reasons students are coming in for medication management,” said Landers.
According to Lander, the Student Wellness Center’s services overall are underused, but they have increased marketing and outreach efforts to inform students about medication management and other resources they offer. The center also works to refer students to resources and services outside of campus as needed.
Federal directives have forced many institutions across the country to cut funding, resources, and staff in areas at odds with the Trump administration’s priorities. In February, the “Dear Colleague” letter from the federal Department of Education ordered preschools, K–12 schools, colleges and universities to eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion). This will not change how the counseling services at WSU Vancouver operate, according to Kulp.
“Inclusivity is a huge part of my ethics as a counselor, that’s always going to be my first and foremost kind of way that I practice,” said Kulp. “As a counselor, creating inclusive counseling for everybody that is culturally sensitive comes from a lens of cultural humility and that supports all students in accessing care no matter where they come from or how they identify… I’m still going to bring those values into my work on a day-to-day level, despite what’s happening up there.”