As crisis calls to its counseling center rose during the pandemic, Norwich University administrators started looking for new ways to ease the adjustment from home to campus.

"Students were at a place where they couldn't really handle what was going on in their lives," said Nicole Krotinger, director of counseling and wellness at the Northfield military college.

Health providers knew that students nationwide were struggling with conditions such as anxiety and depression — problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 lockdowns. Post-pandemic, that unease persists.

Norwich's response: a new class, held in a 200-person auditorium, that teaches skills such as mindfulness, conflict resolution, problem solving and stress management. In the semester-long, for-credit class, called Resilient Bodies, students aim to develop skills that can head off problems before they derail learning. They break into groups to explore scenarios — for example, an argument with a roommate — and discuss strategies for managing their feelings.

"These are skills that are valuable to you as a person who wants to be a leader someday," said Kylie Blodgett, an assistant professor of health science at Norwich who helped create the curriculum last year. Faculty and staff are welcome, and sometimes they participate. "These skills can serve you wherever you are in life, and you can practice them and get better at them," Blodgett said.

Research shows that today's students are more likely than earlier generations to disclose emotional problems, as the norms around discussing mental health have evolved in recent years. In response, emotional wellness has become a priority on Vermont campuses, and many schools have started offering classes and seminars on topics such as conflict resolution, mindfulness and emotional regulation. The preventative care approach is also more cost-effective, at a time when counselors are in short supply in this largely rural state.

Experts say the conflict and division in society at large, as well as social media usage, have contributed to students' struggles. Nearly half of college students are diagnosed with a mental health disorder at some point, according to a study last year by the national research organization Healthy Minds Network. Depression and anxiety were common, the study found. Suicide, which the Kaiser Family Foundation says rose among teens and young adults in the decade ending in 2021, has become an area of growing concern.

Added together, this widespread mental malaise is "the defining public health crisis of our time," U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has said. He pinpointed community as the ingredient that is missing in many people's lives. As he wrote in a column in UCLA Health last spring, the resulting loneliness "is a corrosive condition with grave consequences," putting people at greater risk of depression, anxiety and suicide.

"We are hardwired to live in community," Murthy wrote. "Connection is the essential glue of our lives."

The college campus, once seen as a place where friendships formed easily, has become more isolating and divided, college counselors say. The long-term costs of the resulting alienation can be steep. Research shows that students who are struggling with anxiety and depression have more difficulty with their academic work and are more likely to drop out. Addressing mental health means better student retention, a critical goal for administrators.

Many colleges have added to their counseling offerings. But most don't have the capacity to expand the traditional one-on-one assistance that has been a staple for years on campus.

"Colleges and universities aren't able to staff their way out of this," said Kimberly Jessup, president of the Association of Vermont Independent Colleges, which held a conference on student mental health in early January. "There are simply not enough psychiatric care providers to meet demand."

Instead, schools are bolstering services with community-based programs that bring students together to learn life skills. Bennington College, in southwestern Vermont, and Sterling College, in the Northeast Kingdom, are part of a national group of 13 colleges that were awarded a $3.2 million grant to share strategies for improving student well-being. The funder, a New York City nonprofit called the Endeavor Foundation, gave each small college $100,000 last year and has pledged another $75,000 this year, said Laura Walker, president of Bennington College. The schools will use the money to research and share new ways of integrating wellness education into campus life, including through the curriculum.

The University of Vermont, which has an array of mental health and wellness programs, offers an online form that members of the community can use if they're concerned about someone they know. After a sophomore died by suicide last month, a UVM administrator sent a campus-wide letter that reminded students about the form, known as CARE — Concerning And/or Risky Event.

"If you think someone is struggling, do not keep that information to yourself," wrote Erica Caloiero, vice provost for student affairs.

Some of the problems that students face on campus haven't changed much over the years. When Annika Hawkins-Hilke, assistant vice president of student health and well-being at Champlain College in Burlington, taught a conflict-management class last year, a discussion about laundry sparked one of the most robust conversations of the semester.

"You have 30, 40 young adults doing their laundry alone for the first time and only three washers," Hawkins-Hilke said. "It seems like nothing, but the conflict might be that you went to do your laundry, and it's full, and that person is nowhere near, and you don't know how to handle it."

Another common subject: disagreements with peers. In a group setting, students often get tips from classmates who have gone through similar situations, such as a roommate who stays up until 3 a.m. listening to music.

"It's a stress-management issue," said Blodgett, the assistant professor at Norwich. "That's the biggest thing we see missing: They're not de-escalating themselves before they try to address a problem."

While these problems are not new, health professionals say they're causing a new level of distress. Erika Lea, Champlain College's coordinator of first-year transitions and well-being initiatives, said she thinks that as parents have become more hands-on — and easier to reach, thanks to mobile devices — they've taken on some of the problem-solving work that kids used to do on their own. She said that when well-meaning parents walk their children through problem-solving strategies, it can stifle the students' abilities to handle those problems alone.

"The intensity of parenting has changed," she said.

Students are also juggling more demands on their time and attention than in the past, mostly as a result of social media use, Hawkins-Hilke said.

"Their brains are used to constant stimulus coming from everywhere; they don't know how to pause and think, This just happened. I need to think it through," she said. "There are a lot of attentional demands on all of us."

Another new challenge is online bullying and shaming, which can turn small problems into big ones, said Alisa Del Tufo, who teaches a class on restorative justice at Bennington College.

"Many students end up in counseling services because of the isolation and shame that they feel from being canceled," she said.

For colleges that are competing for the region's dwindling supply of young people, mental health preventive care can serve as a selling point.

"One of the reasons I went to Bennington was because they put so much emphasis on mental health and well-being," said student Ade Byron, who is graduating this year. When Byron was looking at colleges, it was apparent that Bennington integrated mental health care into the academic work. "It's talked about inside and outside of classes, and people are very open about it."

Byron, who is studying conflict resolution and restorative justice, led a grief support group after two Bennington students died by suicide last spring. The school also has a therapist on call at all times.

"Going to Bennington has given me language to explain and talk about what I was feeling, which was something I didn't have beforehand," Byron said. "There is an expectation that mental health comes before academics, and the professors and other staff and faculty are very respectful and mindful of that."

Krotinger, at Norwich, thinks the school's sharpened focus on mental health is having an impact.

"We had zero crisis calls in the first two weeks this year," she said. "Historically, we'd have around 10."

In fall 2022, Champlain College started a 10-week program called Champ 101 to help new students ease into life on campus with required workshops and activities. One of the professors is Kimberly Quinn, an expert in cognitive and positive psychology who also teaches a popular class called Mindcraft: The Psychology of Optimal Human Functioning and Life Satisfaction.

Quinn shows the first-year students where the counseling center is and takes the Champ 101 class to Ben & Jerry's to help them bond.

"We inject some fun icebreaking games into it," Quinn said. "It's basically helping them make the leap from high school to college."

Lea, who runs the Champ 101 program, uses examples of minor crises — such as a romantic breakup — to spur brainstorming on how to handle stress.

It's hard work, but there is laughter in the meetings, too, Lea said. Activities end with a discussion about how conflict can be an opportunity for growth, "which is something I don't think I realized until I was in graduate school for social work," Lea said.