3  Recommendations
Notwithstanding that some universities have responded to the public health emergency, universities should continue to develop courses of action and public health messaging to better address collegiate mental health issues caused by the disruptions of education and career trajectory. First, in addition to remote education, student advising should continue and transition to telecommunication (e.g., phone call, online meeting) in order to provide academic support for students. Faculty and staff should consider offering virtual office hours to students, and they need to work together to maintain the connection and help students process and address academic concerns caused by the disruption of the semester. Second, for students whose internships or research projects were affected by the pandemic, internship site supervisors and research advisors should actively engage in helping students seek alternative plans, enabling them to work from home to maximize internship and research experiences. Third, universities should work on innovative methods to support students to move research projects and capstones forward so that students can fulfil graduation requirements; meanwhile, university career centers should switch to virtue services, continuing to facilitate career development for college students.
Of importance is that university counseling centers should set up options to continue to provide college students with counseling services at a distance (i.e., telemental health counseling) within the constraints of the pandemic outbreak. Telemental health has been found effective in treating anxiety and depressive symptoms (Brenes et al., 2015), and implementing telemental health will facilitate the delivery of counseling services to address students’ pressing mental health concerns (Dorsey and Topol, 2020). University counseling centers can also provide options for students to join online support groups that enable them to share common concerns and receive social support (Rollman et al., 2018). Further, university counseling centers and other departments should rally to develop and pass public health messaging onto students, sharing coping resources, and encouraging them to take action to protect their mental health.