Summer 2021 Quarterly
We are delighted to release this summer’s Mary Christie Quarterly featuring some of the most interesting people in college student mental health, starting with the many students who have contributed to this issue. Our cover story on the difficult journey of Asian international students features young people and professors with lived experience who advise on how American colleges and universities can welcome back and retain this vulnerable group of students. Our feature on how the pandemic has impacted eating disorders features students who are facing their struggles and telling their stories in the hope of helping others. The MCI fellows contribute their reports on mental health dynamics among different population groups – Muslim American students and graduate students.
We also feature presidents, policymakers, and experts and are excited to bring you our first article under “Innovations in Behavioral Health,” a new peer-reviewed section of the Quarterly that features breakthrough research that supports the emotional and behavioral health of young adults. We hope you enjoy the issue.
Mental and Behavioral Health
Main Stories
The New York Times features an article providing expert advice to parents on how to support their young adult struggling with mental health. Dr. David Palmiter, a professor at Marywood University with a private practice in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania, advises parents to show empathy when discussing mental health in a sequence he calls “pain, empathy, question.” Lecturing and criticism, Palmiter says, shuts down communication, and parents who want to better understand how their young adult is hurting can begin by asking questions with language such as: “How’s your mood these days? You’re doing so much.” Mirean Coleman, clinical manager for the National Association of Social Workers, agrees and advises parents to normalize the discussion on mental health and offer guidance to mental health support services, just as they would with a physical ailment.
In a two-part event titled “From Diagnosis to Disability + Mad Justice,” Project LETS and the Center for Constitutional Rights will host a panel discussion and teach-in on mental illness and disability justice. The event offering comes in congruence with July’s disability pride month, bringing awareness to “mad, mentally ill, Disabled, and neurodivergent (MMIND)” folks. On July 21st from 6-8pm, the panel will focus on sharing experiences from medical and psychiatric industrial complexes. On July 28, the teach-in will focus on disabled and mad histories of pathologization and the movement towards justice.
Other News
A new nationwide study examining survey results from 596 undergraduate students majoring in music reports on the mental health needs of music students, including the fact that the majority of respondents reported never having been to counseling. Students in music programs can experience high levels of burnout from performance anxiety, perfectionism, and less time spent on sleeping or adopting healthy eating habits.
A community college provides training in mental health first aid. Over a hundred faculty members at Northern Essex Community College in Massachusetts completed the national Mental Health First Aid certification training at the college’s Center for Professional Development. After completing training, self-paced testing, and a test, participants can become Mental Health First Aiders.
Ohio State News reports from a study co-led by Ohio State University and Kenyon College that a third of young people reported worsening mental health during the pandemic. According to the Journal of Adolescent Health, the study found worsening mental health to be associated with subgroups: those with higher socioeconomic status, those who experienced decreased social connectivity, and older adults.
In an op-ed for Diverse Education, Gary Santos Mendoza, a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Research Methodology at Florida Atlantic University, shares his personal journey with receiving mental health care. Mendoza wrote, “The welcoming back of our students and their mental health concerns must be part of our new normal. Educators must remember, however, that they too must take time for themselves as well.”
Elon News Network’s student reporter Annemarie Bonner writes about mental health prior to the pandemic versus now. Bonner reports that as the university gets closer to normalcy, mental health concerns remain.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
On Tuesday, the MacArthur, Knight, and Ford foundations announced that they will be contributing a $5 million donation each, along with an anonymous donor, to fund Howard University’s Center for Journalism and Democracy. The newly established center will be led by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who said the $20 million donation will help increase diversity in journalism.
After a legislative analysis in April, an audit revealed that the state of Tennessee had failed to match federal grants for its HBCU, Tennessee State University. The missing funds sum to over $150 million. Tennessee’s higher education commission will need to establish a report draft by this September to detail the process in making up for the lack in funding.
After an “extensive review” of Howard University’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Laurence C. Morse, chairman of the HU Board of Trustees, announced that Howard will no longer have faculty, student, and alumni trustees, upsetting many among these groups. “The most inexplicable part of shutting student, faculty, & alumni voices out of Howard’s Board of Trustees – is that the choice replicates the elitism & supremacy of the structures that necessitated Howard’s creation,” said Paul Lisbon, a student at Howard Law School.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Diverse Education illuminates key findings from a recent study that examines why sexual assault survivors remain silent. In the study, “‘I’ve Never Told Anyone’: A Qualitative Analysis of Interviews with College Women Who Experienced Sexual Assault and Remained Silent,” published in the Journal Violence Against Women, Dr. Sandra Caron and Deborah Mitchell identified the main reasons to be self-blame, shame or guilt, wanting to believe it did not happen, fear of control loss over the situation, fear of not being believed, and more.
On Wednesday, a group of 21 Republican state attorneys wrote in an address to President Biden that the U.S. Department of Education had “misconstrued federal law” by announcing that Title IX protected gay and transgender individuals from sex-based discrimination. Last month, the U.S. Department of Education announced that federal sex discrimination law applies to sexual orientation and gender identity. The attorney generals wrote in a letter to the Biden Administration that the White House’s interpretation of Title IX “represents a 180-degree change from the [Trump administration’s] position.”
Student Success
The Chronicle reports on how pandemic learning loss could lead to achievement gaps in student success and graduation rates. Experts say that students without adequate technology and quiet environments to do their schoolwork struggled most over the last year, and schools are now contending with how to best support these students in the return to school this fall. Some schools plan to put money toward more academic support, prioritize strong orientation programs, or implement protocols for identifying at-risk students.
Terry O’Banion, president emeritus of the League for Innovation of the Community College, writes an op-ed for The Hechinger Report, appreciating President Biden’s efforts to increase funding for community colleges but suggesting that more attention should be paid to developing strong liberal education programs. O’Banion believes that, rather than focusing on workforce development alone, a liberal education is the key to students understanding themselves and what they want more fully. “If workforce training does in fact become the primary purpose of the community college,” he says, “the humanizing effects of a liberal education will be lost or relegated to such a low priority that we will sell our students and our society short.”
Diverse Education discusses a recent report from the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, stressing the need for more adults to complete postsecondary degrees. Despite efforts to increase adult participation in these types of programs, IWPR estimates that less than half of all adults in the US will have earned a higher education degree by 2025 — a statistic with particular implications for the next generation’s ability to succeed. The IWPR report thus includes policy recommendations to engage not only student parents but also adult students of color, who often hold degrees at a much lower rate.
Higher Ed Dive discusses the latest from the National Association for College Admission Counseling’s list of colleges and universities that still have open spots for students in the upcoming fall semester. While last year 775 schools advertised open positions after May 1, now only 532 have yet to do so. Still, some are hesitant to believe that these numbers reflect a renewed normalcy in enrollment patterns after the pandemic, as schools may not be reporting the extent of their open slots (or at all).
The results of a study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center indicate that the rate of “persistence” (i.e., how many first-year students go to any college for a second year) and “retention” (i.e., how many students return to the same college for another year) both dropped significantly in fall, 2020. More than a quarter of students evidently did not re enroll in any school after the 2019-20 school year — two points down from the preceding year — indicating the pandemic’s impact on educational outcomes. Community college students, as well as Black and Latinx students, were particularly vulnerable to leaving all forms of school after the first year. You can read more about the report here, here, and here.
College Affordability
Inside Higher Ed explains the Community College Student Success Act, a bill recently reintroduced to Congress that would devote funding to community colleges in order to increase retention and completion. By allocating $10 billion over ten years toward “wraparound services” for full time students and $5 billion for part-time students, the bill would ensure free tutoring and textbooks, as well as personal, academic and career advising. Advocates for the bill stress the necessity of supporting students throughout their entire college careers — including at schools that may not be able to independently afford to do so, particularly in light of enrollment drops since the pandemic.
The Wall Street Journal reports on the elite graduate programs that leave students saddled with extreme debt and without a post-grad salary high enough to pay it off. Because there are no limits on federal graduate loans and these loans can be forgiven after 20 to 25 years, students may remain in debt for decades but schools are motivated to continue expanding programs. In the end, students enticed by the prospect of a prestigious degree — and told that such education is the key to economic mobility — are actually left “financially hobbled for life” and pleading with school administrators to make a change.
Law students on financial aid often see their tuition fees adjusted in order to take into account their summer job salaries, according to WBUR. As a result, a majority of these salaries may end up going toward school expenses, rather than students’ basic or family needs. While this protocol has been in place at law schools for years, the additional economic stress of the pandemic has put more pressure on schools to adjust and accommodate low-income students.
In an op-ed for The Boston Globe, researcher Jodie Adams Kirshner discusses the particular barriers for low-income students who wish to attend, and graduate from, college. Despite President Biden’s plans to make community college free, Kirshner suggests that such programs are not a “cure-all” solution. Rather, she proposes that many students will feel pushed — or be counseled — into community college because of the accessibility, even though other, potentially more selective schools may be the better option for them.
Basic Needs
Given the particular need for housing among students, more community colleges are considering ways to meet demand by partnering with local housing organizations. Diverse Education brings to light the challenges of many community college students, who must study while facing high rent costs and food insecurity or supporting a family. Specifically, the pandemic put many students at risk for homelessness, and community colleges are now asking themselves how offering housing can best increase access and equity among all students.
Coronavirus: Safety and Reopening
The CDC is now recommending that all schools — including those that may not be able to comply completely with suggested safety guidelines — reopen this fall. While still encouraging schools to continue monitoring local virus levels, the CDC is sending a message about the necessity of in-person learning for kids, says The New York Times. Although some families continue to worry about the health risk of sending their children to in-person class, almost all schools have opened or plan to open with varying safety plans in the new school year.
