My Creators Syndicate biography names education among my fields of expertise; yet, since I started my regular weekly opinion columns in September 2020, I had not written on the subject. I feel compelled to do so this week, addressing what I believe is the most pressing problem in American higher education: the decaying mental health of our college and university students.

As a university professor with over three decades in the classroom, I am painfully aware of another raging epidemic: the mental health crisis among the nation's university students. It has been decades in the making and sadly will retain its virulence long after we vanquish the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot mask or vaccine our way out of it.

Scores of studies document the skyrocketing incidence of anxiety, depression and other emotional and mental illnesses. A large-sample, longitudinal study of undergraduate students found that the rate of moderate to severe depression increased from 23% in 2007 to 41% in 2018. Moderate to severe anxiety, meanwhile, jumped at a sharper rate, from 17.9% in 2013 to 34% in 2018.

Studies by the American College Health Association from 2018 and 2019 revealed that 6 out of 10 students experienced overwhelming anxiety, while 4 in 10 reported bouts with severe depression.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated an already dire situation. A study cited by science journalist Sujata Gupta showed that, as early as the first weeks of the pandemic, 85% of students endured "moderate to high levels of distress." In January 2021, PBS NewsHour reported grim statistics from the CDC: 3 out of 4 individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 reported poor mental health associated with the pandemic, and 1 in 4 had had thoughts of suicide in the previous 30 days.

These and similar studies show the hidden nature of the actual, day-to-day suffering of millions of young men and women, real students we teach or hear about. Some show signs of mental distress; others mask — figuratively and, in recent times, literally — their pain with seeming cheerfulness; still others stop attending classes, some incapacitated to the point that they can't even accomplish the simple task of formally withdrawing from a course, let alone reaching out to their professors for help.

Since the massive shift to remote teaching and learning during the pandemic, it has become harder to tell who among our students is showing emotional problems. For all its merits in terms of access and convenience, distance learning is NOT the same, nor as effective, as what is now called presential education. Who thought it necessary to coin such a term? This has become increasingly evident since the start of the pandemic. One of the studies cited above includes among the most at-risk groups those who spend "eight or more hours in front of computer, smartphone or television screens."

While psychology consistently ranks among the most popular undergraduate majors, with few exceptions, faculty members lack formal training in the field. At most higher education institutions, including my own university, however, we receive instruction and guidelines on how to identify symptoms, approach individual students on the subject and refer them, when deemed necessary, to student health services or other campus offices that provide help.

At the very least, we are there to let them know they are not alone, we care about their health and there are available resources. The more classes you teach and the more students you have, the harder it is to identify psychological distress. Not even the best clinical eye will allow a psychology professor to spot distress in a student who sits way up in a class auditorium.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated most of our preexisting problems, and we are barely beginning to understand its social, educational, economic and health (including mental) short- and long-term consequences.

Part two of this column will discuss specific ways in which the ongoing pandemic has and continues to affect the health and well-being of America's over 20 million college students.

Readers can reach Luis Martinez-Fernandez at [email protected]. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.