Aiden Salk | December 31st, 2024

Each year, millions of high schoolers apply to an array of colleges. While researching each college on their list, one will likely develop a set of preferences about the college’s campus. Some preferences include either a large or small student body, an urban or rural setting, and the amount of green space on the campus. Though these seem to be merely preferences at first glance, it is possible that these preferences may have an impact on our health.

Do green spaces impact mental health?

A green space is commonly defined as “urban land covered by vegetation of any kind”. It has previously been shown that living in urban areas with more green spaces correlates with lower anxiety and depression, greater well-being, and healthier levels of cortisol, the hormone that the body produces in response to stress. This begs the question: does attending a college that has one or more green spaces impact students’ mental health?

Recent studies have shown that having green spaces on college campuses does impact mental health. One investigation compiled data from numerous studies and found that overall, there is a positive correlation between the two because nature lowers stress and improves mood. 

It is noteworthy that in this study, non-English language studies were excluded and 80% of the studies analyzed were from colleges in Europe and Asia. This may have impacted results for a few reasons. For one, in other countries and cultures, individuals may tend to have a different relationship with the environment and nature. Furthermore, the geographic landscape and climate may differ significantly in other countries, and one may feel differently about the local nature if it is much colder or mountainous compared to a warm, grass-filled environment. Thus, more research still needs to be done on the correlation between mental health and green space as well as what specific landscape characteristics and arrangements best benefit students’ mental health. 

Vanderbilt students’ opinions

Vanderbilt differs from other campuses that have green spaces in that it is classified as an arboretum. In fact, Vanderbilt’s campus contains over 6,000 different trees and shrubs, including approximately 190 species. 

I asked Vanderbilt undergraduate students if and how Vanderbilt’s arboretum nature has affected their college experience. Here are a few of their responses.

“I am a nature lover and love spending time outdoors,” said junior Aditya Bhatt. “Being on a campus that offers so much nature in terms of the diversity of trees, flowers, and shrubs — especially when you are in an urban city like Nashville where you don’t get too much of that unless you drive further out — is nice to have around you.”

“I grew up near the country, so I was around a lot of trees,” said junior Gloria Carter. “Having that similar environment at Vanderbilt kind of helped with the adjustment, and it also helped make it a more positive place. The nature providing us with squirrels is also very fun to see.”

“My old university was somewhat rural and had a lot of brown colors without many trees or flowers — there was just something kind of missing on campus,” said junior Andrew Blakemore. “But here at Vanderbilt, I’m in a photography club, and as I’m taking photos of different trees around campus, I’ve started to notice that I stop to take in the presence around me more. I notice how much of a role the nature that makes up the arboretum plays in my life as a student here. I may not always notice it as I go from class to class, but when I take a second to stop and look around, I realize how meaningful it has been to me so far.”

There haven’t been many longitudinal studies that have tracked the physical and mental health of students living in colleges both with and without green spaces over the course of their college experience, but it is evident based on these anecdotes that there are many benefits to green spaces on college campuses. There are so many factors to consider when choosing a college, but having green spaces present may one day prove to be one of the most important.

Cover photo courtesy of Isabella Bautista

References

Aghabozorgi, K., van der Jagt, A., Bell, S., & Smith, H. (2024). How university blue and green space affect students’ mental health: A scoping review. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2024.128394

Barton, J., & Rogerson, M. (2017). The importance of greenspace for Mental Health. BJPsych. International, 14(4), 79–81. https://doi.org/10.1192/s2056474000002051

Davitt, A. (2023, February 3). The importance of green spaces in an increasingly gray world. Sustainable Earth – Where People and the Planet Thrive. https://sustainable-earth.org/green-spaces/

Vanderbilt University. (1970, October 13). Facts about the Arboretum. Vanderbilt University. https://www.vanderbilt.edu/trees/about/