When Donna Musel started work as Buena Vista University’s disabilities coordinator only two students with illnesses requested classroom accommodations to help them do their college studies. “Now I have quite a few more than that,” Musel said this spring.
Mental illness is the most common invisible illness students deal with when trying to get a college education. Students with mental illness struggle when academic pressures get high, adding to their stress levels.
Professors at Iowa colleges and universities may teach the same class over and over but each semester brings a new experience with all kinds of students, particularly those with hidden disabilities or illnesses.
Illnesses students hide from public view challenge them in college, but also the colleges that have to accommodate those students, a special IowaWatch/Simpson College journalism report reveals.
