Mental and Behavioral Health
In 2013, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development updated the Fair Housing Act to require that schools accommodate requests for emotional support animals (ESAs) in dorms. Since then, there has been an influx of student requests for ESAs as colleges and universities work to improve their mental health resources and policies.
The University of Pittsburgh Athletics Department announced a new partnership with Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC to add two full-time mental health counselors to the department’s staff to interact with student-athletes on a daily basis. The new program will include one-on-one counseling and focus on techniques for practicing mindfulness and stress reduction. Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke said the partnership will “provide early intervention for mental health and wellness issues in student-athletes.”
The parents of Washington State University quarterback Tyler Hilinski, who died by suicide at 21 in January, have revealed that he had the degenerative brain condition chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In a statement to NBC News, Washington State University said it had many safeguards in place to protect students before the tragedy and is adding more. “A second formal mental health screening for all members of the football team (was added) after we lost Tyler, along with meetings with all varsity athletes to help identify individuals who might be at risk for mental health issues,” the university said in the statement.
Diversity and Inclusion
Lawyers for Harvard University on Friday asked a federal court to seal information about individual applicants and specific details of its admissions process. In their filing, the lawyers argue that publicly disclosing several kinds of documents would compromise students’ privacy and jeopardize the university’s “commercial interests.” The anti-discrimination lawsuit brought by Students for Fair Admissions, accuses the university of discriminating against Asian-American applicants.
The Trump administration’s travel ban barring travelers, including students, from a half-dozen predominantly Muslim countries, was upheld by the Supreme Court in a 5-to-4 decision on Tuesday. In siding with the Trump administration, the ruling stated that the order fell within executive authority over immigration and national security, despite the president’s sometimes incendiary and bigoted rhetoric about Muslims and foreigners. Jill Welch, deputy executive director for public policy at Nafsa: Association of International Educators, said in a written statement, “Today, the United States can be seen as a country that bans people from our shores, not on the basis of what they have done, but for where they are from.” The travel ban and Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric seem to have had a chilling effect on international student enrollment. About half of all colleges reported foreign-enrollment declines last fall according to the Institute of International Education. And a recent survey by Intead, an international-student marketing company, found that three-quarters of Chinese parents were less interested in having their students study in the United States because of Trump’s policies.
In an opinion piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Rich Saunders, a the pseudonym of an assistant professor at Spring Hill College in Alabama, writes that despite the argument that making the SAT and ACT optional for admission is a step forward in leveling the playing field for “first-generation and rural students”, the ACT and SAT actually help disadvantaged students get into college. The argument follows the University of Chicago’s decision this month to make the ACT and SAT optional.
CollegePoint, an initiative funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, provides virtual college counselors for high-achieving, low-income students. When a high school student with a GPA of 3.5 or higher takes a standardized test and scores in the 90th percentile, and their families make less than $80,000 a year, they are offered a free virtual adviser. Each year, about 75,000 students meet those criteria. CollegePoint advisors educate students about their options and help them navigate paying for college.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Michigan State University’s trustees voted last week to keep John Engler, the school’s interim president in place despite intense pressure to replace him. The former Michigan governor was hired in the wake of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal that led to the resignation of the public university’s longtime president in January. Recent comments Engler made about the abuse victims generated outrage, leading to calls for his resignation from both U.S. senators from Michigan, other political leaders and more than 100 women who alleged they were abused by the former Michigan State sports doctor. On Thursday, Engler apologized. “When I started this interim position in February, it was never my intent to have an adversarial relationship with some of the survivors,” he wrote. “My speculation about the lead plaintiff receiving kickbacks or referral fees hurt her deeply and for that I am truly sorry. She and the other survivors suffered greatly and they are entitled not to have their sincerity questioned, either individually or as a group. I apologize to her and her sister survivors.”
Sexual Health
Earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed a new rule prohibiting clinics that receive Title X funding from giving referrals and counseling on abortion. College students would be one of the groups most affected by such restrictions.
A new study by Ohio University’s Reproductive and Sexual Health Initiative (RSHI) found that eighty-five percent of a sample of college students reported engaging in risky sexual behavior. Additionally the results showed no significant difference in STI knowledge scores between participants who reported engaging in risky sexual behavior and those who did not.
Free Speech
At the annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, higher-education lawyers, especially those at public universities, shared their fears of a free speech crisis coming to their campus. Campus general counsels are on edge after a chaotic 2017 filled with high-profile tensions surrounding visits by speakers who espouse views that are either hateful or offensive or are perceived that way.
Campus Safety
According to Campus Safety Magazine, colleges and universities’ outdated student honor codes have created an opportunity for social media harassment to proliferate without recourse due to a failure to consider the evolution of digital communication. The article states that the highest rate of stalking victimization occurs among people in their early 20s and often involves students using social media as the primary tool to track and harass others. Additionally, research shows that harassment has a serious impact on students’ mental health and education. The article suggests that colleges and universities have the authority to intervene early, but only if their student conduct codes are properly crafted to justify intervention.
