Mention and Behavioral Health
BU Today is republishing a three-part series it ran on mental health last year in light of a sharp increase in the demand for mental health services on campus. The number of students coming to the school’s behavioral health clinic spiked from 647 in the 2014–2015 academic year to 906 last year.
In a Boston Globe op-ed, the President of the University of California, Janet Napolitano, provides a history lesson in free speech – from the First Amendment to the free speech movement of the 1960’s. In criticizing the trend to censor uncomfortable or controversial topics on campus, she argues that, “the way to deal with extreme unfounded speech is not with less speech – it is with more speech, informed by the facts and persuasive argument.”
The Tufts Daily reports that its president has launched a new university task force focused on student mental health. The task force will examine what resources and services are available to the students as well as what policies and procedures are in place at the administrative level. At the University of Michigan, all faculty will be surveyed on their perception of student mental health. This is the first time the school has collected data on the topic.
The Black Student Union at George Washington University is explicitly making the mental health of its members and other multicultural students a key priority this year by hosting panel discussions and other events that encourage conversation on the unique stressors faced by people of color. “Every day when you are experiencing people that are dying, that are people of color like you are, it affects you,” BSU President Abeke Teyibo said.
In a column for the Daily Pennsylvanian, Aaron Cooper discusses the danger of the phrase “Penn Face,” commonly used on campus to describe the strained and stressed expression of Penn students and frequently associated with poor mental health. “When we use the phrase ‘Penn Face,’” he writes, “we implicitly tell struggling, vulnerable freshmen that their problems are institutional, which can cause them to feel like a face lost in a crowd. . . When someone struggles with mental health, we have to treat them like individuals, not institutional symptoms.”
Diversity and Inclusion
In the Chronicle, John McCumber, a professor of Germanic languages at the University of California at Los Angeles, argues that the humanities teach us how to expand our understanding of other people and cultures and, as a result, create a better society. He fears that disciplines like marketing, economics, or the STEM fields do not teach students how to assess societal evils like racism or anti-Semitism, leaving those students uncertain of how to identify or avoid them.
An Ole Miss student who made a comment about lynching on Facebook voluntarily withdrew from the university this week. The post two weeks ago led to student protests on campus. “We as a university condemn the use of language that is threatening or racist, and we are committed to protecting our students and faculty. We also believe in the power of higher education to transform individuals,” University of Mississippi Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter said.
Following a spate of racist incidents on the University of Michigan campus, President Mark Schlissel announced that he would move toward appointing a Chief Diversity Officer for the school.
In the Daily Gamecock, the student paper of the University of South Carolina, Andy Wilson argues that a top-down punishment for microaggressions — an often unintentional but offensive comment or action directed at a minority or other nonwhite group — will lead to less interracial interaction. Instead, he argues, students should take it upon themselves to explain why the slight was offensive. “The civil explanation of offended feelings within the context of a relationship can bring about behavioral change without making white people apprehensive about interacting with other races for fear of racial missteps,” he writes.
Hunger on Campus
A recent survey finds that more than half of college students who reported experiencing hunger also had jobs, financial aid, and a meal plan. The findings reveal that the current methods most universities use to alleviate hunger are not fully solving the problem. The study surveyed about 3,800 students at eight community colleges and 26 four-year colleges in 12 states. A Boston Globe op-ed argues for more data on the problem, which is currently not assessed formally by the federal government through either the Department of Education or the Department of Agriculture. The author argues for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren to request the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress, to initiate a study.
Physical Health
The UC Berkeley Disabled Students Readiness Program, which helps students with disabilities gain employment upon graduation, closed this week. The closure was attributed to changes in federal regulations that resulted in a higher cost of operation, but as an opinion piece in the Daily Californian notes, the price tag on keeping the program running is less than the school spent on a campaign to improve the chancellor’s “strategic profile.” The Mary Christie Quarterly covered the importance of making the connection between school and jobs for students with disabilities in our fall issue.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
The Daily Tar Heel collects students’ accounts of catcalling on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. Many of the incidents went beyond an annoyance and made the students feel unsafe and threatened.
S. Daniel Carter, a campus security consultant and victims’ rights advocate, argues that colleges needed to lower the standard of evidence in sexual assault cases when the “Dear Colleague” letter directives were codified. Carter, who provided input on the letter, believes that it protects the civil rights of survivors and allows them to continue with their education.
