Students are relaxed but motivated to learn when they have an instructor who provides direction and feedback and who is willing to accept it in return. Studies of college teaching support the view that the frequency and quality of teachers' contact with students, inside and outside the classroom, affect students' involvement in their own learning. Positive teacher-student relations have been linked to students' satisfaction with college, their educational aspirations, and their academic achievement. And when students perceive their teachers as partners in the educational process, they are more likely to take on new and difficult tasks. In general, students feel less stress and cope more effectively with stress if they feel they belong to the academic community.
Faculty can play a key role in introducing and welcoming students to that community.
While teachers are not therapists, they can be helpful to stressed students. By demonstrating friendly attributes, teachers can become aware when students are stressed and help them cope more effectively. Specifically, they might help students with stress reactions, maximize the outcome of meetings with students, recognize severe stress that warrants referral to professional mental health counselors, and disclose their own thoughts and feelings about the course work. The dropout rate between freshman year and expected graduation year may be as high as 50 percent. Suicide is a tragic consequence that possibly could be avoided by greater self-awareness.