Faculty Views on College Student Mental Health: Implications for Retention and Student Success

Faculty members play key roles in successful college student retention and degree completion. In recent years, investigators in a variety of higher education disciplines identified numerous factors associated with improving retention and graduation rates, including college student mental health. Faculty members play vital roles in supporting college student mental health, including recognizing and referring students to resources. In this phenomenological study, researchers investigated the lived experiences of faculty members who had active lived experiences with supporting college student mental health. A structural description included five emergent themes, which support and extend the extant literature surrounding the utility of faculty members for supporting college student mental health and retention.