By Elianna Novitch
While many are calling it a lame-duck period when it comes to the upcoming congressional session, Big Ten student leaders did not sit back, doing nothing.
Instead, they joined to urge Congress to bring mental-health bills to vote in the upcoming session by launching the social-media campaign #UnitedForMentalHealth. The campaign includes leaders from the University of Iowa Student Government and student leaders from the Association of Big Ten Students.
Indiana University Student Association President Sara Zaheer said the campaign was prompted in part by the results of the presidential election. She said there is now a sense of urgency with this opportunity while lawmakers are still considering mental-health legislation.
“I got in contact with [UISG President] Rachel [Zuckerman] to get her take on the plausibility of it all,” Zaheer said. “And discussed it with others and decided that the best thing to do would be to make a lot of noise, because if we don’t talk about it now, all of the legislation that is in this session expires.
“From what we have seen, it seems like health-care priorities are going to shift elsewhere under this new administration and congressional representatives, so now was the time to do something.”
The Association of Big Ten Students launched the social-media campaign Nov. 21, urging Congress to bring two mental-health bills to vote. Students called upon legislators to back the Mental Health Reform Act and Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act.
Zuckerman said after talking to congressional staffers, Big Ten student leaders knew the Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act was not likely to happen, and the Mental Health Reform Act was likely to be adjusted to a more bipartisan solution.
“Our message [to lawmakers] was, that while we had specific bills we were calling out, that mental health is a priority for college students and that it should be a shared priority for the House, the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike,” Zuckerman said.
The #UnitedForMentalHealth campaign was predominately communicated via social media and consisted of calling, emailing, and tweeting at legislators.
Lawmakers responded to the campaign and moved on voting on a bill that contains proposals relating to mental health.
Zuckerman said there has been movement on the bill, and it should get a vote this week.
“It’s hard, of course, to say that our push is the reason that it happened, but we know for a fact it didn’t hurt, and we are now seeing the movement we were hoping for,” Zuckerman said. “This is truly a historic moment for the country in starting to put us on the track to value mental health at the level we value physical health.”
Kelin Silber, president of Active Minds, a UI student organization that advocates for mental health, said action on mental health is needed.
“I hear stories all the time from people that they are making appointments to meet with counselors that take two months, and that’s absurd,” Silber said. “That’s just one reason why we need mental-health legislation.”
Another result that came from the campaign was unity among the Big Ten schools over an issue they all deemed important.
“[Big Ten intuitions] came together across the nation to be united for an issue that we’ve deemed a shared priority for the past few years, and we’ve hopefully have made an impact by doing that,” Zuckerman said.
