When Dara Byrne became dean of CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College in 2022, she encountered a paradox. Some of the city’s most accomplished students were facing some of its heaviest burdens.
Macaulay students are among New York’s most talented and ambitious. They’re graduates of specialized high schools with top grades, scholarships, and big expectations for their futures.
But beneath all that are the daily realities that make the climb even harder: Many face long commutes across the city, family responsibilities, and the weight of being the first in their families to go to college.
“From the time they’re in high school, our students are told that they could go to medical school or become a lawyer, and in many cases, they will be the ones to lift their families out of poverty,” Byrne says. “That’s an extraordinary amount of pressure to carry.”
Even before Dean Byrne’s arrival, Macaulay had begun laying the groundwork for student mental health. The college’s newly established Counseling Center provided essential one-on-one support — especially during and after the pandemic, when demand for care surged. But with limited capacity, the focus remained on crisis response rather than the kind of proactive, community-based wellness programming that helps all students thrive.
“When I came in, it was clear that our students had needs, but we also had to understand what those needs were and how to meet them effectively,” Byrne recalls.
That’s where The Jed Foundation (JED) came in. Partnering with JED helped Macaulay better understand the mental health needs of its students, and design practical programs to meet those needs
“JED gave us the tools and framework to do what we always wanted to do — support students not just when they’re in crisis, but in their everyday lives,” Byrne says. “They helped us begin the work of building wellness into the very fabric of what it means to be part of the Macaulay community.”
That shift from crisis response to proactive wellbeing began when Macaulay first joined the JED Campus Fundamentals program — an 18-month program designed to help schools identify their top priorities and lay the groundwork for holistic mental health support. But school leaders soon realized the depth of change they wanted required more. That’s when they moved into the full JED Campus initiative, a multi-year partnership that guides schools through systemwide improvements.
The appeal wasn’t a flashy new resource; it was the promise of a process.
JED’s campus advisors helped Macaulay take a step back and look at the whole picture. What was working in their approach to student mental health? Where were the gaps? How could mental health support become part of the whole college’s DNA, not just the counseling office?
For Macaulay, JED’s recommendations became a roadmap for strengthening student support across the college.
With guidance from JED’s advisors, the college developed clearer steps to ensure students in distress could be identified and connected to help more quickly and consistently. One of the most important changes was the creation of a “postvention” plan — a set of campus-wide procedures for responding with care and coordination in the aftermath of a tragedy.
A “Red Folder” initiative equips faculty and staff with practical tools to recognize signs of distress and refer students to the right campus resources. Faculty are trained to identify early warning signs, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for student well-being.
At the same time, Peer Wellness Ambassadors are building bridges across the community through workshops, peer-led discussions, and events exploring topics like belonging, stress management, and neurodiversity. Regular needs assessments provide leadership with a data-informed picture of emerging trends and gaps. Expanded wellness programming through a new model led collaboratively by students and staff enables counselors to increase their capacity and devote more time to individualized one-on-one counseling.
Taken together, these steps fit in naturally with JED’s Comprehensive Approach to Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention — from fostering life skills and connectedness to ensuring access to care and preparing for crisis response — but they felt wholly like Macaulay’s own.
“It was like FEMA for higher ed,” Byrne says. “Not just rushing in after a disaster, but preparing for the future”
One of the clearest signs of change hasn’t come from administrators at all — it’s come from students.
Early on, Peer Wellness Ambassadors began organizing campus-based events to bring peers together around themes of connection, balance, and self-care. What started as small gatherings quickly grew in popularity, consistently drawing more students than expected. These events offer a non-stigmatizing way to talk about wellness, creating spaces for students who might otherwise feel isolated to find community, and encouraging those hesitant to seek counseling to take that first step.
Building on that momentum, Peer Wellness Ambassadors co-organize Macaulay’s Wellness Symposium, a large-scale, student-centered event focused on community and belonging. The first symposium drew a standing-room-only crowd and elevated the visibility of student-led wellness initiatives across the college. It also reinforced a core truth of Macaulay’s evolving approach to mental health: when students lead the conversation, participation deepens, stigma fades, and the entire community becomes stronger.
The cultural shift is visible in numbers as well as stories. Since beginning its work with JED in 2021, Macaulay has seen:
For Byrne, these numbers aren’t just impressive metrics; they’re proof that the work is reaching students who once might have slipped by unnoticed.
Today, wellness is not an add-on at Macaulay. It’s part of the College’s new strategic plan, guiding decisions across advising, academics, and student life. The systems built with JED’s framework are designed to last, and to keep evolving as new challenges emerge.
“We’re seeing a real cultural shift,” Byrne says. “Students are showing up for wellness events, they’re talking openly about their experiences, and they’re helping each other feel seen. That tells me the foundation we’re building is working—and that we’re moving toward a truly caring community.”
Learn more about bringing JED to your campus, or donate to help JED bring its lifesaving work to more young people nationwide.
If you or someone you know needs to talk to someone right now, text, call, or chat 988 for a free confidential conversation with a trained counselor 24/7.
You can also contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741-741.
If this is a medical emergency or if there is immediate danger of harm, call 911 and explain that you need support for a mental health crisis.
