Suggestion to Improve College Mental Health

I enjoyed Dr. John Oldham's presidential column in the July 15 issue that discussed college mental health. One of the complicating factors related to college mental health is that most colleges and universities are too large these days; even Louisiana State University, which had 9,000 registered students when I arrived in 1966, now has about 30,000 at the Baton Rouge campus. A large student body can "overwhelm" faculty and staff—and particularly those caring teachers who want to help adolescents make the transition to adults and separate and individuate themselves from their family of origin, not uncommonly dysfunctional.

One possible solution to consider is to break up these mega universities into houses or "colleges" (like Oxford and Cambridge) and require all freshmen and sophomores to live on campus in dorms at their "house." And after careful selection, new, enthusiastic professors could be required to live in the dorms with the students.

Finally, thinking back on my own career as a full-time college psychiatrist at three schools, I wonder where are the likes and inheritors of Dana Farnsworth, Benson Snyder, John Wilms, Syd Schroeder, and John Curtis these days?

JOHN L. KUEHN, M.D.

Medina, Ohio