 supporting computer science student mental health. Hi, my name is Chris Murphy and I'm a senior lecturer in computer science at Bryn Mawr College. The mental health of undergraduate computer science students is becoming a growing concern. As our community seeks to make CS education more accessible, it's more and more urgent for instructors to address student mental health issues and be inclusive of students who are living with ongoing mental health conditions. As CS instructors, we of course care about our students' education. We should also signal that we care about our students' mental health and create environments in which students feel supported. One thing I do is ensure the students know about campus mental health resources by listing them in my course syllabus, which destigmatizes their use and indicates that it's perfectly okay to ask for help when it comes to mental health. I also try to be aware of whether my course policies are unnecessarily contributing to student distress and recommend considering flexible policies for submission deadlines in late days or using evaluation approaches that allow students to drop a low score or to revise and resubmit work. It's also important to be thoughtful about the scheduling of things like exams so that they don't conflict with religious holidays and other classes deadlines. By signaling that academics is just a part of life and not the other way around, instructors can help students focus on learning instead of on grades. In addition to supporting the mental health of CS students in general, we must not overlook the needs of the growing number of students who are living with ongoing mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression. Students living with the mental health conditions may unexpectedly need extra time to treat their condition and flexibility in terms of attendance and deadlines can help ensure the students succeed in the class while staying healthy. Something I've recently started doing is providing options for things like in-class presentations and group projects. So the students are not forced into social situations that are unnecessarily distressing or even triggering and so they can achieve the course learning outcomes in a manner that suits them best. Last, instructors should demonstrate empathy toward their students and acknowledge the students who are living with mental health conditions face unique challenges. We're not advocating for lowering standards or reducing rigor, but rather suggest that instructors be willing to make adjustments as needed in order to help their neurodiverse students succeed. In addition to all this, it's important that we as CS instructors look after our own mental health too. After all, the best thing we can do to take care of others is take care of ourselves. We certainly hope that all members of the CS community will stay healthy while supporting our students' mental health. You can find more resources related to supporting students with disabilities at uw.edu slash access computing. Access computing is supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number CNS 213 7312. Any opinions or recommendations in these materials do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Copyright 2022, University of Washington. Permission is granted to use these materials for educational non-commercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged.