Buckeyes ask for help
It can be tempting to look at other Buckeyes and be impressed at how well they are performing. But no Buckeye achieves success alone; we expect our students to recognize when they need help and seek help early.
Recognizing distress signs
Stress and distress can disguise itself in a lot of ways, especially during major life changes. Even good changes - like starting college - create stress since you’re spending more energy adjusting to your new situation. Here are some ways you may notice stress hiding in your life:
- If you have an existing medical or mental health condition, you may notice your symptoms get worse/more frequent/less predictable, are harder to manage, or need higher medication dosages
- You may notice major changes in daily energy levels (high or low) or sleeping too much/too little (not by choice)
- Others may mention your extreme concerns about what people think about you, or constant worrying
- You could experience emotional numbness, or frequent episodes of anger or sadness
- Friends may point out changes in your ability to focus on the things you’re doing (including missing class, misplacing items or forgetting things)
Finding support when you need it
OSU offers many resources to help you take care of yourself during this time and change. The good news is that any office is a good starting point to get help because they’ll get you connected to any other places that can meet your needs.
Personal Support
- Student Wellness Center - Wellness is a process that allows students to reach their full potential; it involves being happy and satisfied with life, having basic needs met and contributing to your community. From financial coaching to sober living, OSU’s wellness services cover a wide variety of areas.
- Counseling and Consultation Services - CCS provides individual and group mental health services, psychoeducation, prevention, and outreach services to currently enrolled students; most services are provided with no additional fees. Check out the PsychBites podcast for short skills building and tips, drop-in with a counselor during a Let’s Talk consultation, or check to see if there is an embedded counselor in your area.
- Disability Services – SLDS collaborates with students who have long- and short-term disabilities to coordinate support services. This could mean helping arrange disability parking/transportation after a foot surgery or ASL interpretation for Deaf and hard of hearing students.
- Student Health Services – SLSHS offering a range of health care services to the university’s student population. Some services are available to all enrolled students, while others can be billed to your insurance. Contact shs@osu.edu with questions.
- The Office of Civil Rights Compliance –a university-wide resource to receive, investigate, and resolve reports of discrimination, harassment, abuse, and sexual misconduct. They process ADA accommodation requests, connect students with support resources, and submit legally required reports to the appropriate authorities.
- Student Advocacy – the Student Advocacy Center helps students navigate OSU’s policies and structures to resolve issues that are preventing students from completing their studies. They could help students who experienced an apartment fire find new housing, or they may help a student file an Academic Misconduct appeal.
- Buckeye Link – the Buckeye Link office is your single point of contact for a variety of offices that students don’t usually interact with much. They can answer questions about Financial Aid, academic deadlines, transcripts, tuition bills, and more.
Academic Support
- Technology support – Ohio State is uses dual factor authentication to protect many of its systems, and also offers Microsoft 365 to all students. Getting logged in and set up can be challenging. If you have questions about your user ID, password, email, Microsoft account, or other related issues, IT support is available.
- Tutoring – If you’re struggling with understanding concepts in a course, consider attending tutoring. It helps if bring some specific questions or examples of the problems you’re stuck on.
- The Dennis Learning Center – Sometimes studying is a struggle because you never really learned good study habits (maybe because you never needed them). The DLC can help with study skills, time management tips, strategies to avoid procrastination, and more.
- The Writing Center - the Writing Center offers help with writing for any member of the university community.
Self-Help
An advanced help-seeking skill is knowing when you may be able to find your own answers.
For answers about rules, deadlines, and policies try the University Registrar’s website, and for answers about university processes check out the Academic Advising website.
You can also search your old emails for information that was sent to you such as deadline reminders or On Campus newsletters. Review recent emails from your advisor or advising office for events and drop-in hours; and don’t forget that your advisor will make notes about your appointments in OnCourse, so it can be especially helpful to review those for resource names or course recommendations.
In general, using the search bar on the Ohio State website will return multiple possible answers, and you could filter out the most useful answer based on whether it applies to your major.
If you’ve searched for your answer and can’t find it, contact your advisor. Let them know where you looked so that they don’t send you back to the same resources, and so that they can correct or make updates to the materials.
Check your understanding
If you explored the resources above, by now you should be able to:
- Send information about a campus resource or office to your friend that matches a specific need they may have
- Describe what the resource or office you've chosen does and how it can help your friend
- Explain how to contact or access that resource or office