Webinar: Rethinking Higher Education’s Purpose
The Mary Christie Institute and LearningWell magazine will host a webinar on Tuesday, November 14th at 1:00pm ET.
As higher education grapples with how to maintain public trust, colleges and universities have an opportunity to reshape their approach to preparing the next generation of leaders, prioritizing wellbeing to ensure that each student leaves campus not only with a diploma, but with the tools to embark on a meaningful life. This webinar will invite a shift in perspective, exploring new initiatives to design (and redesign) our institutions to better serve the lifelong health and fulfillment of students. A panel discussion will explore how wellbeing factors into some of the most important questions in higher education today. The webinar will be moderated by Marjorie Malpiede, editor-in-chief of LearningWell magazine. Panelists include Randall Bass, PhD, vice president for Strategic Education Initiatives & professor of English at Georgetown University; Joslyn Johnson, PhD, assistant dean of Student Development & Career Initiatives at the University of Michigan; Daniel Porterfield, PhD, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute; and Eric Wood, PhD, director of Counseling and Mental Health at Texas Christian University. Register today!
Mental and Behavioral Health
A recent Harvard Graduate School of Education study found that 58% of young adults in the US feel their lives lack meaning and purpose, while half report feeling a “lack of direction.” Young adults were also found to report experiencing anxiety and depression at double the rate of adolescents. The report, conducted as part of the School of Education’s Making Caring Common Project, identified several key drivers of young adults’ mental health challenges, including financial stress (56%) and a “perception that the world is unraveling” (45%). Psychologist and project director Richard Weissbourd told Inside Higher Ed that while parents, educators, and mental health experts are “right to be concerned about teenagers,” he hopes the study will “put young adults front and center in the conversation about mental health.”
In an op-ed for Forbes, Dr. Lester Rápalo, president of Rockland Community College, explores the increased demand for comprehensive mental health care on community college campuses. College presidents “have a collective responsibility to confront this critical challenge head-on,” Dr. Rápalo writes, as presidents are in a powerful position to advocate for policy change and uplift student voices. By breaking stigmas, providing sanctuary to students, and fostering an environment that prioritizes mental wellbeing, community colleges can help pave the way for a society that prioritizes mental health.
College students are increasingly experiencing high levels of anxiety and depression, impacting their academic experience and learning opportunities. A survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse found that nearly half of students with mental health conditions believe their professors have a responsibility to help them. Some professors, like Caprice Quinones at the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in Miami, have learned the importance of meeting struggling students where they are and providing empathetic advice. This approach has improved students’ academic performance and emotional wellbeing.
The American Council on Education (ACE) has released a new brief addressing student mental health concerns in higher education. The six areas of focus include counseling center staffing, fostering degree pathways for aspiring mental health professionals, promoting positive action at the federal and state levels, implementing evidence-based practices, focusing on public health and trauma-informed approaches, and anticipating student expectations for mental health support on campus.
Generation Hope, an organization focused on student parents in higher education, has released a brief highlighting the impact of domestic violence on young parents’ academic progress and emotional wellbeing. The brief recommends that colleges and universities provide mental health counseling services and family-friendly spaces for students who may have experienced abuse, aiming to create more safe and supportive environments, according to Inside Higher Ed. In addition to being at a higher risk of experiencing abuse, student parents face unique financial and time constraints that can have implications for their mental and emotional health as well as their academic success.
DePaul University has developed Buddy Abroad, a multiplayer board game designed by the university’s Instructional Game and Innovation Lab (DIGI), Inside Higher Ed reports. The game aims to prepare students for studying abroad scenarios and teaches them how to overcome challenges by assigning eight students to travel together on a week-long trip where they encounter new and challenging events each day and report a wellness score at the end of the trip. The game-based learning model was effective in teaching students how to manage problems and foster relationships between players.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The University System of Georgia faces a federal lawsuit alleging chronic underfunding of three historically Black colleges, accusing the state’s public higher education system of diverting resources from HBCUs to traditionally White institutions, Higher Ed Dive reports. The lawsuit was filed by three HBCU alumni from Albany State, Fort Valley State, and Savannah State universities. State governments have historically underfunded HBCUs by not matching federal grants, a legal requirement under land-grant laws. The Georgia lawsuit follows the Biden Administration informing 16 governors last month that their states had collectively withheld public land-grant HBCUs of more than $12 billion in funding.
While race-conscious admissions in college were curtailed by the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University (SFFA), workplace diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) rules remained unaltered by the ruling. However, employers’ ability to promote diversity in the workplace may be limited by a case currently pending before the Supreme Court, according to an op-ed published by Higher Ed Dive. The Supreme Court is set to review Muldrow v. St. Louis next year, a case that questions the criteria of “adverse employment action” under Title VII, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Supreme Court’s decision in Muldrow v. St. Louis may limit employer decision-making that takes into consideration factors such as gender or race.
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education are collaborating to create a more inclusive classification system for colleges in 2023, The Chronicle reports. The goal is to better reflect diversity and encourage colleges to fill equity gaps, addressing challenges faced by regional and minority-serving institutions and “expanding recognition” of “different lanes of excellence,” including “institutions that are champions at racial equity and social and economic mobility but aren’t at the top of the research spending lists.”
Access and Affordability
The College Board’s 2023 “Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid” report establishes that although average tuition and fees increased for the 2023-2024 academic year, the increase was less than the rate of inflation, Inside Higher Ed reports. The research indicates that the average published tuition and fees decreased in all three categories after accounting for the 4.5% inflation that occurred between the first eight months of 2022 and 2023. Before adjusting for inflation, public two-year colleges charged 2.5% more in tuition and fees for first-time, full-time, in-state students. After inflation adjustments, first-time, full-time students’ average net tuition and fees at public four-year universities decreased from $4,230 in 2012–13 to an estimated $2,730 in 2023–24.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported a 2.1% increase in undergraduate enrollment in 2023, primarily driven by community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities, according to coverage by The Chronicle. This is the first time that colleges have seen an increase in undergraduate enrollment since the Covid-19 pandemic began. However, freshman enrollment declined, with a 3.6% drop in public and private four-year institutions, reflecting sentiments of doubt and distrust voiced by Gen-Z students about the cost and value of higher education.
The Education Department has imposed a record fine of $37.7 million on Grand Canyon University for misrepresenting the cost of doctoral degree programs, Higher Ed Dive reports. GCU, a private Christian university, repeatedly informed both incoming and continuing doctorate students that the cost of their degree program would range from $40,000 to $49,000. According to the Education Department’s findings, however, those numbers did not account for the additional courses required to finish the dissertation program. Almost all (98%) of graduates required more than the 60 credit hours included in the cost estimates, leading to tuition increases of up to $12,000. In a statement to Inside Higher Ed, the university “categorically” denied the Education Department’s allegations.
State financial aid programs are adapting to the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which will adjust its methods of calculating financial aid eligibility, Higher Ed Dive reports. The new FAFSA will abandon the Expected Family Contribution formula in favor of the Student Aid Index (SAI), a calculation that aims to simplify the process of determining out-of-pocket contributions. A third (33%) of students are expected to receive larger Pell Grants, while 1% will see a decrease.
Title IX and Sexual Assault
A study from It’s On Us surveyed 1,152 college men and found that 45% had not received sexual assault prevention training from their higher education institution, and up to a third were unprepared to identify and intervene in potentially violent encounters or relationships, according to The Hechinger Report. It’s On Us proposes several measures, including sexual assault prevention education, bystander training, and a uniform definition of consent developed by policymakers. Most colleges and universities do not offer comprehensive sex education based on the expectation that students received it prior to attending college, though only 24% of college men reported learning about “dating, sex, and relationships” in their K-12 education.
The US Department of Education has warned colleges that their duty to investigate Title IX complaints against faculty continues even if the accused professor resigns or transfers to another institution, The Chronicle reports. An agreement between the department’s Office for Civil Rights and Arcadia University found that the private institution violated its Title IX responsibilities when it failed to investigate years of complaints from students and faculty that an Arcadia professor had been sexually harassing female students, dropping its inquiry when the professor quit his position at the university. Arcadia University must now follow up on reports that the professor had retaliated against students who had complained by accusing them of cheating in his classes, in addition to engaging a third party to complete its formal complaint inquiry against the professor.
Substance Use
Some colleges have installed campus vending machines to provide easy access to Narcan, an opioid overdose-reversing drug, and fentanyl testing strips, Inside Higher Ed reports. In six months, over 200 doses of Narcan have been distributed from a vending machine at Oakland University in Michigan. The university is located in Comanche County, which saw a 48% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2012-2016 to 2017-2021. The vending machines, which have become a commonplace harm-reduction tool in many other countries fighting the opioid epidemic, provide anonymity, are accessible at any time of the day, and offer life-saving intervention.
Academic Freedom and Free Speech
Florida State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues demands campuses disband their chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, accusing it of supporting terrorism, Higher Ed Dive reports. The decision comes after consulting with Governor Ron DeSantis. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said in a statement that Chancellor Rodrigues’ memo was unconstitutional, writing that “if it goes unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government suppression.”
Faculty, Staff, and Administration
A new study comparing Canadian adjuncts with American adjuncts has found that American adjunct professors are “woefully under-supported and poorly compensated,” according to The Hechinger Report. The research, published by the Chegg Center for Digital Learning, found that more than one in four American adjuncts earn below the federal poverty level for a family of four, and more than three-quarters are guaranteed employment for only one term or semester at a time. More than a third of adjuncts in the Center for Digital Learning study said low pay and lack of benefits or job security affected their ability to connect with students and worry that student learning and engagement may be compromised as a result.
In an op-ed for Higher Ed Dive, Beth Martin, president of Notre Dame de Namur University, a Roman Catholic university in Belmont, California, writes that “higher education faces an existential threat from forces like rapidly changing technology and generational shifts.” The pandemic has highlighted the need for quality distance education, especially for underserved groups, Martin writes. Gen Z students are vocal in wanting a practical education that provides real-world work experience, and this generation of incoming students is more skeptical about the value of higher education than generations past. Martin advises that the “enrollment cliff,” a decline in the college-age population expected to begin in 2025, will require colleges and universities to cater to “nontraditional” students, including older individuals and traditionally underserved populations such as single parents and women of color, as well as reframing the mission of higher education from a traditional liberal arts education to a skills-based methodology that prepares students to meet the demands of a changing job market and world.
Student Buzz
An op-ed in Dartmouth College’s student-run newspaper The Dartmouth argues that the college’s broad mental health services are insufficient in quality, scope, and accessibility. Dartmouth offers a free teletherapy service to provide long-term, confidential counseling; however, the student argues that the digital nature of teletherapy sessions may be less effective than in-person therapy, which is more difficult to access on campus. The writer urges Dartmouth officials to implement more accessible, long-term, in-person care options for students struggling with their mental and emotional wellbeing.
The University of Hawaii at Manoa announced a collaboration between the university’s Center on Disability Studies and the Hawaii Department of Health Developmental Disabilities Division to offer trauma-informed assistance to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families who have suffered trauma during the Maui wildfires, UH News reports.
