Active Minds on a New Quadcast Episode
On the Quadcast this week, our topic is students taking the lead in creating change in college mental health. We spoke with Laura Horne, Chief Program Officer of Active Minds, a nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for students, as well as two current college students – Raisa Alam, Senior Advisor at the Columbia University Chapter of Active Minds, and Kama Sharma, Active Minds Chapter President at the University of Pittsburg. Launched this fall, the Active Minds Your Voice is Your Power campaign called on mental health advocates to help establish a campus culture of caring and support for BIPOC students. Laura, Kama and Raisa discussed the campaign, the initiatives undertaken by chapters this fall, and the challenges of grassroots advocacy.
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Mental and Behavioral Health
Stephan Bisaha of Kansas News Service spoke with four college students who reflected on a semester marked by distance, isolation and the challenge of meeting or connecting with their peers.
For Colorado Public Radio, Avery Lill profiled 16-year-old Jak Rogoff, who was a peer leader for a suicide prevention program, Sources of Strength, before the pandemic shut down schools. In this role, he worked to raise awareness about mental health resources and help students’ strengthen their support networks. According to Rogoff, the pandemic has taken a toll on his mental health, and the social isolation has been particularly difficult. He talks about the ways he copes with the new normal, playing piano, boxing, and using social media, something his parents had discouraged prior to COVID. Rogoff says his parents now let him use apps like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook. “That helped so much because I was able to connect with people that I hadn’t talked to in years,” he said. “It’s crazy to be able to talk to so many people on just a couple of different platforms.”
Here & There’s Peter O’Dowd interviewed University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto about the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing students back to campus and now, getting a vaccination program up and running. Capilouto says he is deeply worried about the mental health impacts of the pandemic-induced isolation, realizing the importance of the normal social infrastructure of college life. And while he says he knows that students are hurting, witnessing their resilience in the face of enormous challenges has been gratifying.
The Williams Record highlights the way that student groups have begun to fill mental health care gaps on campus, addressing the unique challenges brought by the fall semester. Last spring, Williams launched a branch of the Unmasked Project social app which provides a forum for anonymous discussion posts. Additionally, while a lobbying effort for a mental health day on election day was unsuccessful, the college did recently add three “Health Days” to the calendar for the spring semester. Dean of the College Marlene Sandstrom met with students to discuss their vision of what these days should provide for students.
According to a recent survey, college students enrolled in online and hybrid learning reported mental health struggles at a higher rate than did in-person students. Students also reported decreased focus and engagement, and increased concern about their future.
In the Collegian, Penn State students express concern that the wellness days offered by the university will not make up for a spring break, and that their professors will still assign work on the off-days.
The State News reports on the ways Michigan State University professors are supporting student mental health, adding resources into syllabi, checking in on students and even devoting an entire section to emotional self-care.” We’re not just conveyors of information,” one professor said. “We want our students to thrive and be able to move forward. Mental health care can be daunting in many levels and it inhibits progress forward.” Another professor said, “Toward the goal of trying to destigmatize these things, I think it’s important to advertise what’s available, make it more accessible to people, make it easier to sign up.”
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
President Biden has proposed immigration reform that would make it easier for international students who earn graduate degrees in STEM fields to stay in the United States after graduation. According to the Chronicle, the legislation was hailed by higher-ed groups who see the benefit of the policy in recruitment efforts.
According to the Hechinger Report, college diversity equity advocates are hopeful about the shift to make the SAT and ACT optional during the pandemic. One in four universities were test-optional at the end of 2019, but the pandemic has caused that to increase – two-thirds of four-year higher education institutions were test-optional for this year (though the changes in most cases are not necessarily permanent). according to research conducted in collaboration with the National Association for College Admission Counseling, eliminating the test requirement can increase the number of low-income, first-generation students, and students from underrepresented minority groups without affecting graduation rates.
The Washington Post reports that gains in Latino student college enrollment in recent years could be undercut by the pandemic. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showed a 5.4% drop in Latino undergraduates in the fall, and a 26.4 percent decrease in high school graduates from schools with a high percentage of Black and Latino students going straight to college, compared with 2019. And a Washington Post analysis found declines in the number of Latino students applying for financial aid to attend college in the fall.
Student Success
The Washington Post published an article by Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, writing that President Biden can and should move quickly to double the maximum Pell Grant. The Pell Grant program provides financial assistance to students from low- and moderate-income families who could not afford to pay for higher education on their own.
WBUR reports on students changing their college plans due to the pandemic. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, two-thirds of students who reported changing their college plans last semester canceled all plans to take college classes in the fall. The more common reasons given were being sick with or worried about COVID-19 and not being able to pay for courses due to changes in income. Jonathan Keller, senior associate commissioner for research and planning at the state Department of Higher Education, says he is concerned about the dip in first time enrollment, particularly among low-income, Black and Latinx students. “The big concern is: Are we going to permanently lose this first time cohort? Will they come back?” he said.
College Affordability
According to Higher Ed Dive, more than 1,000 students at Columbia University aren’t paying tuition as they demand the school reduce the cost of attendance and increase financial aid. Other changes the students are pushing for include the end to expansion in its neighborhood, divestment from companies with human rights violations, halving the campus police’s budget and redirecting funds to social and health services, and bargaining “in good faith” with unions.
Higher education groups want the U.S. Department of Education to clarify that colleges can give coronavirus relief money to international and unauthorized immigrant students. The Trump administration restricted emergency grants from the first major coronavirus relief package to students who were eligible for federal financial aid, excluding these groups.
Higher Ed Dive reports that the California State University system is freezing tuition for the 2021-22 academic year, following California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to tie funding increases for the 23-campus system to keeping tuition and fees flat.
Rhode Island’s House speaker and Senate president want to enshrine the state’s free college program into law. Proposed legislation would remove the September expiration date for the Rhode Island Promise, which guarantees up to two years of free tuition for some Community College of Rhode Island students.
Coronavirus: Safety and Reopening
State University of New York at Oneonta, which in the fall had the worst outbreak of any public college in New York, began in-person classes Monday. But some students, parents and faculty members weren’t happy, feeling there was not enough consensus about the reopening plan. The New York Times reports that a petition started in protest accumulated more than 700 signatures. “Learn from your Fall 2020 mistakes!” wrote one alumna who signed the petition. In the fall, the college shut down weeks after the semester began, after about 400 students tested positive for the virus. According to the spring plan, students who live, work or study on campus must provide proof of a negative test before arriving. Students also were asked to complete a daily health questionnaire for the 14 days before they arrived on campus and a quarantine for seven days before arriving. Additionally, on campus students are required to participate in weekly pooled surveillance testing, and consequences for breaking the rules were strengthened.
According to the Hechinger Report, more than a third of prospective college students said they were reconsidering their higher education plans in a December poll, as residential colleges continue to struggle with the decision of whether to bring students back. Many have come under criticism for their chaotic and uneven coronavirus responses.
WGBH reports that at least eight colleges that were online in the fall, including Holy Cross, Smith and Berklee are going in-person or hybrid in the spring. Across the country, nearly 200 colleges are making the switch though some higher education researchers say they are deeply skeptical of the decision to come back. “We have as many deaths as there were in World War II, and yet institutions are still planning on re-opening,” said Chris Marsicano, who directs the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College in North Carolina. “It is miraculous to me that institutions that were so concerned with the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths in August seem less concerned now,” he said. But college leaders argue that transmission in classrooms has been negligible. “Fall semester went quite well,” said Rich Doherty, president of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts.
