Mental and Behavioral Health
The Center for Collegiate Mental Health’s 2016 annual report, released last month, found that although demands for counseling on campus continue to rise, funding for counseling and psychological services on campus has remained stagnant.
Ariana Hammersmith, a junior at Northwestern, writes about her frustration finding a new counselor after the school’s Women’s Center stopped offering mental health services. “As a white, middle-class woman with health insurance at an elite university in the suburbs, I should probably be the person best positioned to access mental health care — and I still face significant challenges in doing so,” she writes.
Nistha Dube, a student at Virginia Tech, connects the rote memorization and heavy emphasis on testing in the K-12 education system with stress and anxiety in college. She argues for widening the definition of success and achievement to include personal accomplishments “as opposed to a percentage of correct problems on an assessment.”
The Daily, the University of Washington’s student paper, has an entire section dedicated to wellness with recommendations ranging from how to manage anxiety to finding the best locations to get a breath of fresh air.
In the Daily Bruin, Appurva Goel writes that social media often “glamorizes” mental illness in a way that may keep teenagers and young adults from properly understanding it and seeking help.
In the wake of four student suicides in the 2016-17 school year, Columbia is taking a hard look at how to improve the way the school addresses mental health on its campus. The school wants to focus more on prevention, making the entire campus — faculty, staff, and students — aware of how to help a student who may be struggling with a mental illness but not seeking help at the counseling center. “I would say whatever we’re doing, even if it were judged by someone as sufficient in some way, is clearly to me not enough,” Columbia College Dean James Valentini said.
Diversity and Inclusion
Texas Senator Royce West, D-Dallas, expressed concern after Governor Greg Abbott appointed another white member to the University of Texas board of regents. “In (its) 126-year history, only three African-Americans ever served on that board, out of over 240 to 250 or more regents,” West told the Daily Texan. “You can’t tell me out of four million African-Americans in this country, in this state, you can’t find one to serve on that board, and frankly all (boards) of regents?” The board makes decisions about programming and policies on campuses across the statewide system.
The New York Times reports that President Trump’s order to temporarily ban visa holders has brought previously hidden tensions between students from Middle Eastern countries and their peers who support tougher immigration laws to the surface.
In the wake of the Trump administration’s immigration ban, Johns Hopkins University President Ronald J. Daniels sent an email to his university community on Wednesday, saying, “One thing is clear: In barring entry or return to the United States by citizens of seven largely Muslim countries and refugees seeking escape from conflict and devastation, this executive order takes our country down the ominous path of erecting barriers not on the basis of a demonstrated security threat but on the basis of religion.”
When University of California police cancelled a speech by Breitbart journalist and alt-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos due to riots on campus, President Trump tweeted a threat of withholding federal funds from the school for stifling free speech.
Tens of thousands of academics, including 51 Nobel laureates, signed a petition letter denouncing the Trump immigration executive order, calling it “detrimental to the national interests of the United States.” Nearly 600 colleges and universities have signed a letter expressing concern about the ban.
In a series on rural America in college, The New York Times reports on the special challenges faced by young people from remote parts of the country.
The New York Times interviewed Shaun R. Harper, leading scholar on racial equity in higher education and author of “Race Matters in College” about fighting racial bias on campus.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
In the Daily Bruin, Clea Wurster argues that UCLA fraternities should eliminate the male-to-female ratios at parties. “This unofficial policy is inherently misogynistic and promotes rape culture by operating on the assumption that a higher ratio of women to men increases a frat boy’s chances of ‘scoring,’” she writes. “In an age when fraternities are trying to dispel negative stereotypes, they need to abolish sexist policies like the ratio.”
At Iowa State, the Story County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) follows a victim-centric approach to help students who are sexually assaulted. The multidisciplinary team provides STD testing, counseling, and access to the police should the victim choose to report.
Jaime Conlan argues that Georgia House Bill 51, which takes power away from universities in litigating sexual assault cases, would not help address the problem of assault on campus. Although universities make mistakes in handling these cases, Conlan believes that improvements to the process for reporting assault and supporting victims would produce better outcomes.
Substance Abuse
A UCLA study found that ibudilast, a Japanese anti-inflammatory drug, could be used to help treat alcoholism. Subjects taking the drug had fewer cravings for alcohol and better moods when stressed or exposed to alcohol than those taking the placebo.
Birth Control
In the Brown Daily Herald, Grace Johnson writes on the challenges women will face to obtain birth control if President Trump and the Republican majority in Congress make good on their promises to defund Planned Parenthood and Medicaid. “When a personal health choice like birth control is placed in jeopardy, it is a sure sign that our nation is in retrogression,” she writes.
