Mental Health And Academic Life Committee
Protected: Mental Health and Academic Life Committee
About us: The Mental Health and Academic Life Committee addresses issues of student access to mental healthcare and the underlying problems that help make it necessary. We perform research and advocacy on problems with health insurance, Harvard’s institutions, the advisor-student relationship, student worker responsibilities and expectations, and more. We’ve been building partnerships with organizations across the university and on both sides of the river that are also interested in supporting graduate student wellbeing in their communities.
Our committee also works to support the ongoing contract negotiation process. Mental health and academic life issues are at stake at the bargaining table, where our union has worked towards:
- Reducing the financial burden of mental health care
- Expanding access to providers outside of Harvard
- Demanding recourse for situations of workplace abuse, bullying, and mistreatment
- Creating protections on workload expectations that exacerbate stress
- Ensuring student voice is heard in mental health policymaking
Getting involved: Contact the committee at hgsumentalhealth@gmail.com for more information and to join our mailing list! We meet frequently on both the Cambridge and Longwood campuses, sometimes in conjunction with partner organizations including Underrepresented Scholars in Neuroscience and the Chan School of Public Health’s Mental Health Student Alliance.
