On Thursday Nov. 16, a new mental health tab was launched on Auburn students and faculty’s Canvas LMS browser through a collaborative effort by Auburn’s Student Government Association (SGA), Auburn Cares, the Biggio Center, and Student Counseling and Psychological Services.
The tab is located on the left side of the Canvas browser, providing easy access to the mental health resources offered by the university. Users can find information about Auburn Cares and Student Counseling and Psychological Services including relevant phone numbers and website links. Additionally, the tab provides guidance for mental health emergencies.
Throughout the day of the launch, SGA was tabling on the Haley Concourse to engage with students, inform them of the launch and gather feedback.
In addition to the launch, a Mental Health Tab Launch Workshop was held, featuring Dr. Jocelyn Widmer, a faculty member from Texas A&M University who successfully piloted a similar project on their campus. Recognizing the prevalent issue of poor mental health on college campuses, Widmer emphasized the significance of providing students with easy access to mental health resources.
“Mental health and wellness is something that we can really start to dig deep and think about how we can navigate it on our campuses,” Widmer said.
During the workshop, Widmer explained how the idea for the tab was conceived, highlighted the success of the project and discussed the challenges.
The concept for the mental health tab originated with Texas A&M student Ellie Richter, who serves as the 2023-2024 student body vice president. Recognizing the need to provide students with an accessible way to access mental health resources, Richter collaborated with Widmer to create the tab and launched it on Texas A&M’s Canvas pages on Feb. 13, 2023.
Widmer explained that after the launch data was collected that demonstrated that the tab was a huge success.
Texas A&M’s accomplishment with the mental health tab inspired Auburn's SGA president, John David Jones, senior in biomedical sciences, to launch the mental health tab at Auburn.
During the SGA Exchange over the summer, where representatives from all SGAs in the SEC gather, Jones spoke to a member of Texas A&M’s SGA and learned about the mental health tab. Based on how successful the tab was at Texas A&M, Jones believed it would be perfect to initiate at Auburn.
Jones shared that Auburn's SGA has received extensive feedback from students concerning mental health on campus. They noticed many students were unaware of the mental health resources offered on campus, were unsure how to access the resources and experienced considerable miscommunication regarding the availability of the resources.
Jones wanted to remedy these issues and has been working with other members in the Auburn community for the past four months to launch the tab on Canvas.
"A lot of times at Auburn, you can be in a situation where you really need someone to turn to,” Jones said. “This platform gives access to what resources are available to students.”
The full impact of the Canvas tab cannot be seen yet; however, Jones and the rest of SGA hope it will be a success and enhance the mental well-being of students and faculty.
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