Shattering the Stigma: President Weiner Speaks with Students About Mental Health Awareness
On a recent Friday morning, a small circle of students came together to read and discuss the stories of those living with disability and mental illness. Professor Lucia Knoles’ ENG 271: Illness, Disability, and Healthcare in Literature course invites students to study these stories for a greater understanding of what that experience is like, and how to better engage and serve people experiencing these challenges—particularly the many nursing students enrolled in the class.
That morning, a surprising guest has joined the class, President Greg Weiner, who has openly shared his mental health journey with students, including Le Provocateur, the student newspaper. Weiner is one of only a select few college presidents who has so vocally, and personally, advocated for mental health awareness and support.
And when Weiner and Knoles connected by chance about his experience with clinical depression, she invited him to share his insight with the class.
Settling into a chair at the front of the class, Knoles asked Weiner when he or someone in his life first noticed that he was struggling.
“The first time I went to a doctor about depression was when I was thirty,” he said. “I went to my primary care doctor, and I raised the issue with him. He said, ‘I’m glad you’re here, because it doesn’t have to be this way.’ That simple statement was a wake-up call. I just thought this was how it was. Not until I was thirty did it occur to me that this was not how life had to be.”
Weiner went on to describe his time in college, saying that it was the first time he had experienced severe depression.
“I would say I crashed and burned in college, in terms of what I would call debilitating depression. I went to a big state school in Texas, and nobody noticed—it wasn’t anybody’s job to notice, it’s not like anybody did anything wrong. I wish I had gone to a small school, like Assumption, where we notice.”
He also spoke about the physical symptoms, saying, “The inability to get out of bed is gravitational. It is a physical symptom in a lot of ways.”
Weiner went on to talk about higher education today, and how its transformation has been to the detriment of students’ overall mental health.
“I do listening sessions in the residence halls, and a few years ago students were describing feeling stressed. And I was thinking to myself, ‘I don’t remember feeling stressed. I don’t remember day to day anxiety,’ and I started probing them about why. And what I observed is that there is a constant chain of preparation for the next thing, but nobody knows what is at the end of the chain,” he said. “The fact is that these four years are such a gift that some of you are giving to yourselves, some with help from family, to enjoy the beauty of literature, of art, of ideas, of discovery, and we’ve turned it into a manufacturing system. Shame on my generation for what we’ve turned education into for your generation. Shame on us.”
He noted that openly discussing mental health can help someone who is struggling.
“Conversations like this are important in the sense that, in my experience, stigma comes from silence. You just don’t know that it doesn’t have to be this way. It’s about noticing one another and seeing one another as persons with complexities that none of us have any way of knowing about. It’s a very hard thing to do, to put yourself in the shoes of another.
“Talk to each other. If you’re experiencing depression or any other psychiatric symptoms or know people who are, talk about it the same way you’d talk about a fever or any illness. It’s not any different. The more we’re talking to each other, the more that stigma lifts.”
Knoles, along with students from the class such as Kayla McCormick ’27, praised Weiner for his candor in the class, saying it was an experience that they will never forget.
“The ability to talk about one’s innermost feelings and struggles, especially at such a high and honorable position with immense pressure and attention, is an extremely admirable quality, spreading much needed awareness to being able to talk about our mental health and personal journeys,” McCormick said. “President Weiner’s talk with our class, which focuses on properly understanding and responding to peoples’ suffering, was so meaningful, as one may not ever have known the struggles, he too, deals with on the daily.
“I admire his ability to talk about such powerful moments in his life that have shaped him into who he is today, and commend him for being so brave to talk about topics that can be difficult to explore; as that is the heart of what this class represents: being able to discuss the humanly aspects we share and all deal with on the daily in our own ways,” she continued.
“My students will never forget the story he shared with us that day, and neither will I,” said Knoles. “I have hosted a great many speakers who have talked about a great many difficult experiences, but none has shared in a more personal or thoughtful way than President Weiner. When, at the conclusion of the event, a student asked for his advice on how to remember to look around at the beauty of life, he responded: ‘Thank you for reminding me to do that.’”
Assumption Counseling Services is committed to supporting students’ health and wellbeing by offering free, confidential, short-term counseling for full-time undergraduate students. Last year, the University launched its own Red Folder initiative, a nationally recognized program designed to help higher education staff and students recognize and respond to signs of students in distress or crisis. If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, immediate, confidential, and free help is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988 in the US.