Randolph Center, VT (01/25/2019) — Vermont Tech has announced that it has joined the JED Campus program in support of student well-being and mental health. The program is designed to identify opportunities to enhance emotional health as well as substance abuse and suicide prevention efforts on campus in order to ensure that colleges have the strongest possible safety nets for their students.
By joining JED Campus, Vermont Tech is demonstrating a commitment to the emotional well-being of its students. JED Campus schools all embark on a multi-year strategic collaboration that assesses and enhances the work already being done and helps create positive, lasting and systematic change for the campus community. JED Campus provides schools with a framework that supports student mental health, as well as the assessment tools, feedback reports, and technical assistance needed to run smoothly.
Vermont Tech Director of Residence Life, Mary Kathryn Juskiewicz, led this program implementation with other Vermont Tech employees; Sarah Billings-Berg, Jean-Marie Clark, Kim Crowe, Emile Fredette, Robin Goodall, Jay Paterson, Bob Sivret, and Alex Tyrell. This team represents different departments from Public Safety to Admissions and even Vermont Tech’s Center for Academic Success. Also on the team was Dr. Gus Meyer, Ph.D., clinical psychologist, and consultant to the Vermont Tech JED Campus Team.
Juskiewicz stated, “We are excited to be selected as one of the five Vermont colleges being funded to become a JED Campus. At Vermont Technical College we are always seeking new methods and best practices to meet the needs of our diverse student body. The JED model provides a nationally proven, comprehensive, and evidence-based approach to protecting the emotional health of college students and reduce the risks of substance abuse and suicide. The senior leadership at Vermont Tech appreciate the importance of these topics and have made this initiative a priority for our institution.”
“The college years are the age where many mental health issues first manifest, and it can be a time of significant stress and pressure.” Said John MacPhee, Executive Director of the Jed Foundation. “JED Campus helps schools by working with them to survey everything their university is doing to support their students’ emotional health, and find practical ways to augment these efforts in a comprehensive way. We believe that the implementation of a campus-wide approach to mental health will lead to safer, healthier communities, and likely greater student retention.”
Over the course of the next four years, Vermont Tech will collaborate with the JED Campus team to help implement enhancements. For more information on the JED Campus program visit jedcampus.org