Image: As the problem of burnout continues for faculty and students, University officials say they have no good solution. (University of Minnesota Photo Library, Copyright © 2020 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.)
Despite the resources available, some faculty are at risk for burnout
By Emily Baude
In 2019, Lynn Eberly, associate dean for faculty affairs, decided to undergo training as a Mental Health Advocate. At that time, the relatively new program was designed to spread knowledge about mental health support strategies and resources among faculty and staff at the University of Minnesota.
While the training focused on supporting students, Eberly said it gave her the chance to think about faculty mental health. “I want students to know they can come to me, and I want faculty to know they can come to me,” she said, “It’s not enough to just sit in my office and have a sign saying I’m an advocate, right?”
Eberly said faculty need mental health support now more than ever. The problem of burnout among faculty was exacerbated by the pandemic, which brought extra work and isolation.
Student disengagement has also been shown to affect faculty. Professors empathize with students, but many admit that the feelings of exhaustion and anxiety they see among their students mirror their own.
In a 2021 survey of 1,685 faculty at 12 U.S. colleges and universities, conducted by Boston University and the Mary Christie Foundation, almost one-third of instructors reported at least two symptoms of depression. About 20% said supporting students’ emotional and mental distress has affected their own mental health. Nearly half said they wanted their institution to do more for their mental wellbeing.
Faculty say many of the benefits of working in person have still not returned, even as pandemic procedures loosen up.
“I miss the camaraderie and collegiality of seeing people in the hallways three or four times a week,” Eberly said. “Most of us are going back to campus two or three days a week, but there’s still some people I haven’t seen in person since 2020.”
Faculty at the University have a range of mental health resources available to them, including health insurance coverage, employee assistance programs and peer support.
The biggest benefit offered to staff is the health insurance coverage, according to Dave Fuecker, associate director for the Disability Resource Center (DRC). This includes substantial mental health care along with a host of other services. Employees of the University who work 67% of their maximum hours are eligible to utilize the University’s health insurance coverage for mental health.
Fuecker noted that another crucial program is the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which is a resource for faculty struggling with mental health. One convenience of the program, she said, is that it allows faculty to talk to someone without having to set up regular counseling, which can help with burnout.
Despite these resources, Fuecker said faculty burnout is something the University and the DRC don’t really have an answer for yet.
Although the Mental Health Advocate program gave Eberly the idea to think about faculty wellbeing, its training is not explicitly focused on instructors, said Kate Elwell, the senior health promotion specialist at Boynton who runs the program. Elwell declined an interview with AccessU: More Than Stress, but agreed to answer questions via email.
The topics in Mental Health Advocate training are “foundations of college student mental health; active and empathetic listening; resources, referrals, and professional boundaries as well as responding to student suicidality,” Elwell wrote. “Some of the policy, systems, and environmental changes participants in the Mental Health Advocate program implement to address sources of unnecessary stress facing students may also have a benefit to faculty wellbeing,”