Mental and Behavioral Health
In response to a dramatic increase in the number of students seeking crisis counseling, East Carolina University has introduced a new program, “Recognition, Insight, and Openness.” The program, known as RIO, teaches students how to cope with life’s challenges with lessons in self-talk, journaling, mindfulness, and other stress management techniques.
As school years renew on campuses across the country, so does the debate over trigger warnings, microaggression and free speech with ample media coverage on all points of view.In a New York Times opinion piece, Yale lecturer Jim Sleeper argues that the “frenzied” way that conservatives portray these issues is is the real problem, not the students or the changes they are asking for. He points to the fact that coverage and commentary around politically correct objections on campus rarely show the real value of the students’ concerns, such as “the hundreds of white students having their first frank conversations about race with minority classmates” that followed an incident at Yale.
The Boston Globe writes that the proliferation of trigger warnings on sensitive material stems from several compounding issues; As tuition costs grow, students increasingly view themselves as customers and expect treatment reflecting that. And a declining tenure has left professors more vulnerable to student complaints against them. It also points out that the fear of the proliferation of trigger warnings may be overblown, as a recent survey of college professors reported that only 1% of respondents’ institutions had adopted formal rules.
Kate Manne, a philosophy professor at Cornell, defended “trigger warnings” on WNYC’s On the Media, saying “The key really is to think about trigger warnings as preparation for people to engage rationally, calmly and fully with the material. They’re not designed to foster avoidance.”
Diversity and Inclusion
This year, orientation at Clark University included conversations about racism and diversity, another example of how colleges and universities across the US are stepping up education around diversity and cultural sensitivity.
The University of Kentucky will remove a veil from a controversial mural on campus depicting slaves pricking crops, after having covered the mural last year in in response to student protests. University President Eli Capilouto said the school would surround the mural with “other works of art from a variety of perspectives that provide a larger narrative of our history, our aspirations, our shortcomings, and the progress we still must make.”
Texas A&M University at San Antonio now requires faculty and staff to take ‘cultural competency’ training in an attempt to bridge the gap between academia and the military, an often-overlooked culture on campus. Similar training is now standard at many schools for other underrepresented groups, such as black, hispanic, and LGBTQ students. School officials say that their faculty must be aware of the challenges faced by students with military connections in academic settings, where the two cultures often present severe political, cultural, and philosophical divides.
Georgetown University’s recent attempt to make amends for its involvement with slavery follows a number of other institutions that have undertaken similar efforts. In 2006, Brown University pledged to take measures to acknowledge the school’s connection to slavery and foster scholarship in the field. In 2012, Brown fulfilled that promise by opening the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice, and later, in 2014 it dedicated the Slavery Memorial on campus. The high profile move by Georgetown has inspired hope among scholars of slavery at other institutions, who believe that the University has raised the bar for other institutions when they tackle similar challenges.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
A group of 15 University of Pennsylvania students posted fliers on campus protesting an email that was sent to female freshman by an off-campus fraternity. The email, titled, “Wild Wednesday” invited freshman women to a party, requesting only “the fun ones” and asking them to “please wear something tight.” The on-campus flyers pictured a screenshot of the email, with the phrase “this is what rape culture looks like” superimposed over it.
A University of Richmond student Cecilia Carreras has filed a federal complaint against the institution, and published an essay in the Huffington Post describing the University’s mishandling of her sexual assault complaint against a student athlete. In response to her essay, the University sent a campus-wide email dismissing her claims against them, saying they “do not reflect the manner in which reports of sexual misconduct have been investigated and adjudicated at the university.” In response, Carrera posted a second article with what she claims are screenshots of emails and text messages that back her version of events.
Supporting Students with Families
At a voter registration event at the University of South Florida this week, Hillary Clinton reaffirmed her commitment to fund child-care programs on college campuses. This comes after The Institute of Women’s Policy Research found that the number of colleges providing child care is decreasing as the number of student parents grows. 49% of four-year state colleges provide child care, compared to 55% in 2003. At community colleges, only 44% of schools offer child care, down 9% from 2003.