UC San Diego

The standard response to the student mental health crisis has been to expand clinical capacity by hiring more therapists and increasing funding. We challenge this approach. Through a two-part study with 154 undergraduate students and 9 campus providers at a large US university, we found that students considered physical and mental health a lower priority than other factors in their daily life. Universities offer a wide range of wellness resources, but most students simply unaware of their existence. Our findings suggest that the core issue is not necessarily a supply shortage, but rather fragmented access and limited visibility of resources. We argue that institutions should focus on building aggregator platforms that help students discover and navigate the support already available to them, as a means for a sustainable solution. This reframing suggests universities should rethink resource allocation: designing for student discovery and access to holistic well-being support beyond the clinic.