King Studies Pressure on Students; Asks for More Data From Colleges

Rather than exam period, the most stressful point in the freshman year is the selection of a set of roommates and a House for the upperclass years, stated Stanley H. King, Director of Research at the University Health Services, in an article in the winter issue of The American Association of University Professors Bulletin.

King's article, entitled "Emotional Problems of College Students," stated that in order to help college students and college pyschiatrists, more data on the emotional problems and backgrounds of students is needed. King is project director of the Harvard Student Study, a group that has been established for the purpose of gathering this data.

However, King stressed that the current project at Harvard is "concerned with normal students as well as with students who are emotionally disturbed."

Richard and Katherine Gordon's book. The Blight of the Ivy, is causing a major amount of concern today among psychiatrists, King stated. The book, he said, causes a false feeling of alarm to students and administrators by decrying the "alarming rate of increase of psychiatric disorders" among college students.

In contast to this charge King commented "there is some evidence to suggest that the rate of mental illness seems to be fairly constant over time and among different colleges. The major difference perhaps lies in the fact that more of our colleges now feel a responsibility to help students. . .and the services these colleges provide are being utilized."

The primary need, King reminded the American Association of University Professors, is the assembling of reliable data about "the problem as a basis for planning programs on campuses."