A new Mary Christie Quarterly article features Dr. Colleen Conley’s important and fascinating work at the Loyola University Chicago IMPACT Improving Mental-health and Promoting Adjustment through Critical Transitions) lab, which is dedicated to moving the needle on adolescent and young adult mental health with new research and intervention programs. Read the article here.
Main Stories
Last week, Dartmouth College students painted administrative buildings with red writing in protest of how the college has responded to the deaths of three first-year students. After the death of a fourth student, students say the college is not doing enough to meet the needs of students who are struggling with academic workload, the pandemic, and the recent news of these events. The families of two of the students who died by suicide are seeking answers leading up to the deaths. Elizabeth Reimer ‘24 received an email from an assistant dean about an approaching deadline for a non-recording grade option. The administrator said she could withdraw from the first-year seminar course, but she would not be considered a sophomore until it was complete and would not be able to retake it until the winter of 2022. The family said an hour later, Reimer died by suicide. Administrators say they are working with the Dartmouth Mental Health Students Union and meeting with students to discuss concerns and initiatives to offer better support. The college announced that it would be hiring more counseling staff to address students’ pandemic-related stress and mental health concerns.
NPR reports that four-time Grand Slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka, age 23, was fined $15,000 by officials for refusing to take part in media appearances at the French Open due to concerns over her mental health. Osaka decided to pull out of the tournament completely, revealing that her decision to not speak to reporters at the press conference was due to her struggles with depression and anxiety: “The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018, and I have had a really hard time coping with that. Though the tennis press has always been kind to me, I am not a natural public speaker and get huge waves of anxiety before I speak to the world’s media.” Many world-renowned athletes shared their support and applauded Osaka for her decision to do so, sharing their own frustrations with the system’s culture in failing to provide support for athletes in times of mental distress.
In an opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed, Rabbi Isaama Goldstein-Stoll writes about how the mental health crisis has changed the fundamental understanding of her work as a campus rabbi. She says that while the increased demand for pastoral care may seem like the result of the global pandemic changing our normal lives, more students have been seeking one-on-one pastoral support for their mental health needs even before the pandemic. Goldstein-Stoll says, “I came to this work thinking that my job as a campus rabbi would mostly focus on teaching Torah, building Jewish community and ensuring that the students at my institution, Yale University, had a wealth of meaningful ways they could connect to their Judaism. … Now, however, I am working to make sure my students are seen.” For more on campus religion and mental health, read this article in the MC Quarterly.
Other News
The Daily Emerald at the University of Oregon shares the findings of its university’s participation in a study revealing faculty wanting additional training for student mental health concerns. Associate Professor Autumn Shafer says she has at least one student per course come to her with a mental health issue: “When I have had students who are in crisis, I will think about it. I will think about it as I wake up, I’ll think about it through the day, I’ll be looking at things online trying to accommodate or send the student resources.”
In an Op-Ed for Forbes, President of Pace University Marvin Krislov writes on his concerns for lasting impacts on student mental health after a challenging pandemic year. Krislov outlines several ways people can build their resilience and how families and faculty can help support student mental health.
The University of North Carolina system is investing in mental health care to expand services for students across the state. A $5 million grant from the Governor’s Emergency Education relief will be dedicated to rapidly increase mental health services for 17 of the institutions.
The Alabama Education Lab interviewed students in Alabama to discuss how the past year’s pandemic affected them. Students described how virtual learning can add pressure, stress and isolation to students’ mental health.
A new book, “The Canine-Campus Connection: Roles for Dogs in the Lives of College Students,” showcases evidence-based benefits of bringing together college students and dogs. Mary Renck Jalongo, Ph.D., says, “In studies that look at physiological signs of stress (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate) as well as self-report data gathered from participants, positive interactions between people and dogs tend to elevate positive mood, provide a study break and encourage conversation with peers and staff.”
In a Q&A with Dr. Sarah Lipson, co-Principal Investigator of the Healthy Minds Study, and the Association of College and University Educators, Lipson says, “While most faculty members are not clinicians, college and university professors can play an essential role in supporting students.” Lipson shares ways faculty can better support student mental health. See the new report on Faculty’s Response to Student Mental Health by the Healthy Minds Network, the Mary Christie Institute and the Boston University School of Public Health.
Inside Higher Ed reports on a new study from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, which highlights adult learners of color. The data shows that only about 27% of Black Americans and 19% of Latinx and Native Americans have completed their bachelor’s degrees in comparison to 42% of white Americans.
The Washington Post reports that after the state of Oklahoma banned the teachings of “critical race theory,” Melissa Smith’s community college course was banned for teaching “white privilege.” Oklahoma’s new law states that public school coursework should not include the teachings that “any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex.” Republican-led states have been following suit in banning “critical race theory” to prevent what republican supporters believe is a form of groupthink and shaming of white students or teachers as oppressors. In an interview on Friday, Professor Smith replied, “Our history of the United States is uncomfortable, and it should make us uncomfortable and we should grow from that.” Smith’s long-standing primary course on race and ethnicity was fully enrolled until it was canceled for the summer.
Inside Higher Ed reports new research from Stanford University revealing that in addition to the SAT and ACT correlating with family wealth, there is also a correlation between the college application essay and family income. The Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis looked at 60,000 applications that were submitted to the University of California campuses back in November of 2016. Across essay topics, punctuation, and grammatical errors, the research found that wealthier students write essays with “better” qualities.
Higher Ed Dive illustrates the ways colleges can help support student-parents. According to a new report from the Jed Foundation and the Aspen Institute, student-parents experience more stress than their classmates yet are less likely to know of, or afford mental health services. Researchers found that over 1 in 5 undergraduate students are parents. The report issues ways in which colleges can better support student-parents by offering on-campus childcare or developing programming for older student-parents to mentor younger parents.
Howard University has renamed its newly established College of Fine Arts in honor of actor and alum Chadwick Boseman. Actress and alumna Phylicia Rashad will be the new College’s dean, while Robert A. Iger, Walt Disney Company’s executive chairman, has volunteered to lead fundraising efforts for the facility. Howard University President Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick said, “Chadwick’s love for Howard University was sincere, and although he did not live to see [these] plans through to fruition, it is my honor to ensure his legacy lives on through the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts with the support of his wife and the Chadwick Boseman Foundation.”
The Chronicle reveals data that only a small percentage of Black women faculty at tenure. The fall 2019 federal data from public and private nonprofit four-year colleges revealed that amongst 251,921 tenured associate and full professors, only 5,221, or 2.1%, were Black women.
In an Op-Ed for Inside Higher Ed, Matthew Jerome Schneider, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, shares the difficulties he endured as a first-generation graduate student. Schneider writes, “It all came so easily to my peers. They participated in class when I had no idea what to say. They had no problem asking questions of scholars who came to present from outside the department. In this way, graduate school serves as a site in which inequality is again reproduced.”
Pennsylvania’s lawmakers are focusing on efforts to prevent campus sexual assault and promote prevention efforts. Former Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, dismantled policies from the Obama administration, which led to institutionalizing due process rights for students accused of sexual misconduct. Despite nationwide debates over these changes, Governor Tom Wolf announced Pennsylvania’s first “It’s On Us PA” grant to address campus sexual assault. Julie Kane, policy director for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, said public and private institutions can apply for these grants to use toward a range of sexual violence prevention strategies. Kane said the officials are gaining support from lawmakers for new proposed legislation that includes a bill proposing Pennsylvania colleges to have affirmative consent or “yes means yes” standards. Additionally, another bill requires dating violence education for middle and high school students.
The Hechinger Report highlights how public colleges are sending student debt to costly debt collection agencies, shocking students who are unable to pay. The added fees and interest rates can ruin students’ credits and deter them from finishing their college education.
In an Op-Ed for the Hechinger Report, Stacy Lyn Burnett, a formerly incarcerated college student, writer, and partnership strategist for College and Community Fellowship, a nonprofit that enables justice-involved women to earn their college degrees, argues that colleges must stop withholding transcripts over unpaid debt.
Lawmakers in Rhode Island have approved the Rhode Island Promise legislation, which would provide the state with free college tuition for up to two years. While the bill was originally designated for students graduating during the pandemic, the funding would be applied permanently if the governor signs it.
In an opinion essay for the New York Times, David L. Kirp, Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley and author of “The College Dropout Scandal,” says data-driven strategies must be implemented at community colleges in order to also achieve higher rates of student retention.
Nicole Lynn Lewis, founder and CEO of Generation Hope and author of Pregnant Girl, writes in The Atlantic about the obstacles parents must face in higher education that can prevent them from completing their degrees. Approximately 4 million college students are parents, and student-parents are significantly less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree within five years compared to their nonparent peers.
Inside Higher Ed reports on how colleges can help students emerge from unhealthy lifestyle routines post-pandemic. A new Student Voice survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse and presented by Kaplan revealed that 44% of students reported getting less physical exercise compared to prior to the pandemic. In efforts to increase student physical health and wellbeing, colleges are advocating for campus wide wellness communities and outdoor physical exercise events. A primary reason for those getting less physical exercise is cited to be loss of motivation from a third of the group’s respondents.
As 400 of the nation’s colleges announce vaccine mandates for the fall semester, many are expecting backlash. Public health experts are encouraging campus vaccination mandates. Ana Bento, an infectious disease expert at Indiana University-Bloomington at the School of Public Health and co-author of a study revealing increased infection rates from the reopening of college campuses last fall says, “College campuses, with massive events where people gather a lot, create opportunities for these massive transmission events. … The more individuals that are vaccinated, the less likely we are to have these mass super-spreader events.” Questions arise as to whether colleges and universities can legally require it.
The New York Times reports on the state of New York’s latest vaccination incentive. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that, “any state resident between the ages of 12 and 17 who gets a first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine starting on Thursday would be entered into a raffle to win a full-ride scholarship to a New York public university.” The raffle includes scholarships that would cover tuition, books, room and board, and even transportation. State officials will draw 10 names for five consecutive weeks.
The Chronicle is live-updating a list of colleges and universities that are loosening their mask mandates for the fall 2021 semester. In line with the new Center for Disease Control’s guidance, masks will only be optional for fully vaccinated people.