Asli Yuksel

In light of the growing "student mental health crisis" and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of Computer Science (CS) must address student mental health concerns as it seeks to become more welcoming and accessible to students of all identities and abilities. As these concerns are often related to CS courses, it is necessary to get a sense of instructors' current perspectives before we can understand how to address them: do CS instructors feel responsible for supporting student mental health? do they actually consider it when designing their courses? how do these answers vary depending on instructor demographics? To answer these questions, we conducted a nationwide survey in which 69 CS faculty members shared their perspectives on student mental health. Although a majority of respondents are concerned about student mental health and feel responsible for supporting it, only around half actually do consider it when designing their courses. Further analysis reveals that instructors who identify as living with a mental health condition, women, and faculty members with less than 10 years of experience feel more responsible for supporting student mental health, indicating that there may be significant variations in faculty perspectives on this topic.

As our community seeks to make Computer Science education more accessible amidst a global mental health crisis, we must not overlook the unique needs of students living with ongoing mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression, who are often stigmatized, misunderstood, and marginalized in our field. However, these students' experiences are not uniform: not only is there variation in experience among different mental health conditions, but aspects of students' identity such as their gender, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc. also affect their sense of belonging and feelings of accomplishment. Thus, further exploration is needed to better understand these intersectional experiences so that structures and pedagogical approaches can be put in place to help these students thrive. This session seeks to explore ways in which current diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts in CS in higher education can be modified to be more inclusive of students living with mental health conditions by considering their intersectional experiences. We seek to create a space for a constructive and open conversation in which we will discuss how current outreach efforts, recruitment and retention strategies, community building, and career advancement can be broadened to meet the unique needs of these students, while at the same time seeking to erase any stigma and misconceptions that may cause others to marginalize and exclude them. Participants will have an opportunity to discuss issues around intersectionality, share resources, and describe efforts to foster a culture of understanding and support.