Our Depth section this week takes a look at stress among college students, especially in regard to Simpson students. What we found is that many of us have disproved the old cliché that college students dedicate their undergraduate years to just study and socialization.

We can thank admissions for the dedication of our student body. The typical Simpson student is immensely driven and often balances a full class load, several extracurricular activities, on- and off-campus jobs and, of course, friends.

But with such hard work inevitably comes stress.

Colleges are essentially stress factories. They put young adults who are just beginning to find their identity in a controlled environment brimming with deadlines, sexual attraction, immense debt and alcohol.

Because of this, an adequate system of dealing with stress and other issues in students’ lives is essential.

As is reported in Depth, there is a great demand for counseling at Simpson, but still not an adequate number of counselors.

In fact, there are only three.

Simpson is a growing campus community that carries a 14:1 student-teacher ratio – a ratio the college prizes. With successive years of record enrollment, how can Simpson justify not increasing its student-to-counselor ratio?

It’s important to remember that as the pool of students gets greater and greater, the number of students with disorders and those that just need help increases as well.

Simpson needs to hire another counselor who will focus on mental-health issues to help balance the supply and demand of on-campus counseling.