When students arrive on campus with their parents, both parties often assume that the school will function in loco parentis, watching over its young charges, providing assistance when needed. Colleges and universities present themselves as supportive learning communities—as extended families, in a way. And indeed, for many students they become a home away from home. This is why graduates often use another Latin term, alma mater, meaning "nourishing mother." Ideally, the school nurtures its students, guiding them toward adulthood. Lifelong friendships are formed, teachers become mentors (导师), and the academic experience is complemented by rich social interaction. For some students, however, the picture is less rosy. For a significant number, the challenges can become overwhelming.
In reality, administrators at American colleges and universities are often obliged to focus as much on the generation of revenue as on the new generation of students. A troubled or even severely disturbed student can easily fall through the cracks. Public institutions in particular are often faced with tough choices about which student support services to fund, and how to manage such things as soaring health-care costs for faculty and staff. Private schools are feeling the pinch as well. Ironically, although tuition and fees can increase as much as 6.6 percent in a single year, as they did in 2007, the high cost of doing business at public and private institutions means that students are not necessarily receiving more support in return for increased tuition and fees. To compound the problem, students may be reluctant to seek help even when they desperately need it.
Unfortunately, higher education is sometimes more of an information delivery system than a responsive, collaborative process. Just as colleges are sometimes ill equipped to respond to the challenges being posed by today’s students, so students themselves are sometimes ill equipped to respond to the challenges posed by college life. Although they arrive on campus with high expectations, some students struggle with chronic shyness, learning disabilities, addiction, or eating disorders. Still others suffer from acute loneliness, mental illness, or even rage.
We have created cities of youth in which students can pass through unnoticed, their voices rarely heard, their faces rarely seen. As class size grows in response to budget cuts, it becomes even less likely that troubled students, or even severely disturbed students, wilt be noticed. When they’re not, the results can be tragic.

Why may American colleges and universities neglect troubled or even severely disturbed students()