For the record...

[kellinator]

Apparently I am not as clear a writer as I hoped I was. I do not know how people are getting the idea that I think MIT should be dumbed down. Nor am I suggesting that students should be coddled and babied. My points are twofold. Let me spell them out in black and white (or purple, as the case may be in my LJ):

1. Refusing someone a position they are qualified for on no basis other than the fact that they have issues with mental health such as antidepressants or therapy is discrimination, pure and simple.
2. Institutions that provide physical health care (such as employers and universities) should have a moral, ethical, and in my opinion legal obligation to provide mental health care as well.

I would like to add, though this is more of an opinion than a firm belief, that the high-stress pressure-cooker environment so prevalent in our society, especially at the top universities and pretty much any sector that is high-powered, does little to increase productivity or knowledge, probably contributes to the sort of mental problems that cost billions each year in lost productivity, and to boot turns people into insufferable raging assholes.

EDIT: penguinicity makes a powerful point I forgot to mention: Statements like Dean Jones' are only going to discourage students who need help from getting it, creating even larger problems.

Comments

[ilexx.livejournal.com]

i think "correctly medicated" is part of the issue and problem that's umbrellaed under this generalization. there is a painful number of people out there who are INcorrectly medicated, or medicated instead of taught how to deal with stress and problems. there's a difference between legitimate chemical imbalances and spoiled/underdeveloped psyches, and the whole "drugs are bad, mmmmmkay?" generalization is a (poor, admittedly) reaction to the prozac bandaid generalization. NEITHER ONE IS THE CORRECT APPROACH.

again, the lady obviously has no way with words and should be duct taped at the mouth, but i seriously doubt that a school as huge as MIT is suddenly testing for prozac and turning people away.