Mental and Behavioral Health
Most of the largest U.S. public universities do not track suicides among their students, despite making investments in prevention. The Associated Press asked the 100 largest public universities for annual suicide statistics and found that only 46 currently track suicides. Prevention advocates say that without that data, schools are not able to measure success and may be overlooking trends that could inform prevention initiatives.
In response to the AP report, health officials at the University of Wisconsin announced that they are finalizing a new database to track students’ cause of death. The university, which is among those that hasn’t formally tracked student suicides, says the database will link local information with CDC death data.
In response to complaints about a lack of diversity among its Counseling and Psychological Services staff, Duke University announced in a press release last month that six of its last eight hires-on a staff of 32-have been people of color. Duke CAPs director Danielle Oakley said that they are now serving students of color in the proportion that they are represented on campus.
Michigan State University’s international student leaders are concerned about the mental health needs of this group, which grew more pronounced in the months leading up to and in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. Leaders say they look toward opportunities in 2018 to make strides in mental health services for international students which make up a population group of over 6,800 from more than 130 countries.
At Ohio State University, visits to the counseling center continue to increase, and the number of urgent appointments at the school is growing at an even faster pace. In response to this growing demand for services, the school added 12 full-time clinicians last school year, and one this year. The center also has therapists stationed at certain parts of campus to help students better access support.
Diversity and Inclusion
About 65,000 unauthorized students who have been in the United States for five years or more graduate from high school annually, but only about 7,000 to 13,000 enroll in college. The Center for American Progress outlined the obstacles that unauthorized students face, including the high cost of tuition, inability to afford or access housing, and an increased risk of mental health issues.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on research that has shown an association between a lack of education and worse health overall. Though it is unclear how or why a college degree is associated with better health, it is clear that educational disparities and lack of opportunity makes people sick, and the situation is getting worse. Recent research has found that the health disparity is widening, and that in the past two decades, mortality rates for middle-aged white Americans without a college degree have increased dramatically. People with less education are twice as likely to die of lung cancer or COPD. Heart attacks and strokes are more common for those with less education – one study found that heart-attack rates for middle-aged adults who hadn’t finished high school were double those with a college degree. Factors contributing to diminished health among those with less education include living in more polluted areas, a lack of trust in science, and engaging in risky health behaviors.
According to a survey of 500 colleges by the Institute of International Education, the number of new international students declined by an average of 7 percent this past fall. Nearly half of the campuses surveyed reported declines. The increases in foreign student enrollment began to slow in 2016, in part due to the increased attraction to schools in other English-speaking countries. College administrators say that since President Trump was elected, his rhetoric and restrictive immigration policies have made the United States less attractive to international students. The Trump administration has indefinitely banned travel from some countries, made it harder for foreign students to remain in the country after graduation, and is more closely scrutinizing visa applications. The result of this downturn in foreign student enrollment is a decrease in the revenue stream to many schools. International students currently account for $39 billion in school revenue nationwide.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Adam Goldstein, a legal fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, argues in the Washington Post that despite the national debate about title IX and the ways that colleges address claims of sexual assault, very little is known about how well campus adjudications are handling the problem. Goldstein argues that privacy laws have prevented the collection of data on the effect of policy changes, and therefore, there is no metric to measure. According to Goldstein, reform of Title IX will require a reform of the student privacy law – specifically, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
College Affordability
The American Talent Initiative is an effort that began with 30 member institutions committing to recruiting more students from low-to-moderate income families. Last year, the initiative set a goal to add 50,000 high-achieving students with significant financial need by 2025, which organizers said would amount to an increase of about 12 percent. Dozens more selective colleges and universities have recently signed on to the effort, nearly tripling the number of inaugural institutions to a total of 86. New colleges include the University of Virginia, the remaining Ivy League schools, Allegheny College, several University of California campuses and Wake Forest University.
Hunger and Homelessness
According to a 2015 survey at the University of Minnesota, 10 percent of students reported that they had run out of money for food sometime in the previous year. The school is now one of 30 participating in a meal-share program called Swipe Out Hunger, which allows students to donate excess meal points to students who are struggling with hunger. Last month in its first two-week drive, 541 students at the university donated a total of 2,570 guest-pass meals from their own plans. The university’s health services is distributing five-meal cards to hungry students through its mental health clinics.
The Washington Post reports that, as colleges and universities across the country shutter their dorms during the holiday break, homeless students are faced with an urgent problem. While some colleges don’t allow for exceptions to campus housing calendars, others allow for some discretion. Jessica Jennings, a University of Maryland spokeswoman, said, “Special considerations are taken into account, and the university seeks to make accommodations for students experiencing hardship or homelessness.”
