PASADENA – California Institute of Technology students staged their first protest in nine years Wednesday to decry administrators’ plans to address mental health issues on the campus.

About 60 students, dressed in orange T-shirts and holding signs that read, “Hear our voice,” took issue specifically with the administration’s plans to have adult “area coordinators” living in student housing.

“They’re planning on placing outside adults in our community with a lot of power,” said senior Pallavi Gunalan. “It feels as if they’re just going to be there to stop rowdy behavior.”

The plan came from Caltech’s Mental Health Task Force, created in the wake of the suicide of a 19-year-old student at the campus in June 2009. It was the fifth suicide at Caltech in 20 years, including one in 2007, according to a 2009 statement from the college.

Caltech officials said the live-in coordinators will be trained to recognize mental health issues and how to respond.

“We’re constantly discussing ways to address mental health issues,” said Anneila Sargent, vice president of student affairs. “It’s a very sensitive, high-level issue, and the committee sought a considerable amount of input. But unfortunately, most of the undergraduates that were invited did not come.”

Caltech junior and protest organizer Laura Conwill said students should have had more input on how the coordinators will be selected and what their function will be on the campus.

“This was just dropped on us…It’s all about having a voice,” Conwill said. “As students, we need to be well informed of what role area coordinators will play if they’re going to be living with us, and we’re not aware of any student input on their hiring.”

A document released by protest organizers said area coordinators “are not the most effective way to improve the safety net for students, especially with regard to mental health issues.”

Instead, the document stated, Caltech should increase the effectiveness of the upper-class counselor system, increase mental health training for resident advisors, and beef up the counseling center.

Sargent said the area coordinators “will be trained in developmental behavior and supplement the services” resident advisors offer.

A 2000 American College Health Association survey of 16,000 college students at 28 college campuses found that 9.5 percent had seriously contemplated suicide and 1.5 percent had tried to commit suicide.

Having trained individuals living on campus to identify any mental health issues can help officials reach out to at-risk students, said Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology.

“Lots of students are embarrassed or afraid to be seen going into the counseling center. They’re afraid of what they’ll be told or that they’ll be hospitalized,” Berman said. “There’s a lot of stigmas we still need to overcome when it comes to mental health.”

Risk factors for suicide among college students include depression, hopelessness, and stress, the 2000 survey found.

“It’s a deep-seated issue with many contributing factors,” said Sargent. “The changes will bring more attention to our student body and make sure there’s a safety net.”

After the protest Wednesday morning, Caltech officials said they would solicit more input from students regarding having live-in mental health coordinators on campus. The two sides then headed into a meeting to hash out the details.

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