Mental and Behavioral Health
According to a study by Unihealth Foundation (Unihealth), a health and behavior change communications company, university students in the United Kingdom are four times more likely to seek mental health advice on a telephone-based service than from a counselor. Researchers from Unihealth surveyed 1,027 first- and second-year university students, finding that about 28% said they would prefer to use a telephone-based service to receive wellbeing advice. These findings were reported in “Upwardly mobile: Can phone messaging plug the gap in student mental health support?”
Diversity and Inclusion
Michael A. McRobbie, president of Indiana University, spoke with the Chronicle of Higher Education about why international students are important to his institution and how antipathy toward foreign students is bad for higher education and the nation.
The University of Wyoming‘s Board of Trustees voted unanimously last week to approve a marketing campaign that had drawn objections from some faculty members, in part because of its slogan, “The world needs more cowboys.” The campaign prompted criticism from faculty members who said it excluded women and others who may not identify with the popular image of a white, macho cowboy. Some Native Americans on the campus also protested the slogan, saying that “cowboys” holds a negative historical connotation for them.
In an op-ed in the Chronicle, Mark G. Yudof, president emeritus at the University of California and a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, and Rachel F. Moran, dean emerita and a professor of law at UCLA School of Law, dove into the history of affirmative action and speculated what the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh may mean for its future.
This week, Brown University became the latest school to stop requiring prospective students to take SAT and ACT essay tests, joining a growing list of selective colleges and universities that have eliminated the requirement. Brown officials said the essay requirement may pose an impediment to students from low-income families.
In 2016, almost 40 percent of first-time, full-time freshmen reported that their colleges were less than 50 miles from their homes. Studying close to home, family, and community can be even more vital for nontraditional students, those who are older, have children, or work full time. Geographical areas where it’s difficult for students to get to a college – commonly known as education deserts – have drawn more attention in recent years, but knowledge is limited about their breadth and impact. The Chronicle ran their own analysis to find education deserts and measure their impact. The analysis found that 11.2 million adults, or 3.5 percent of the adult population, live more than a 60-minute drive from a public college. The median household earning for those living in education deserts is $47,368, compared to $53,844 in non-desert areas. Living in an education desert also means you’re slightly more likely to live in poverty. In deserts, 12.8 percent of adults live below the poverty line, compared to 11.4 percent in a non-desert area.
The University of Louisville will rename its Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium to formally cut ties with the pizza company’s founder, John H. Schnatter, after he used a racial slur on a business conference call.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Four former wrestlers say in a lawsuit filed this week that Ohio State University officials ignored repeated complaints about Richard Strauss, a now-dead team doctor, and failed to stop his “rampant sexual misconduct” that went on for nearly two decades. The lawsuit describes Strauss as “a prolific sexual predator” who might have assaulted 1,500 or more male students at Ohio State. The lawsuit states that athletes who alerted officials about Strauss felt their complaints were futile and that the doctor was above the law in the eyes of the university.
Substance Use
A new study published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association shines a light on the difficulty college administrators face when trying to decrease binge drinking on their campuses. Though students in the study expressed a willingness to sustain healthier drinking habits, they were not confident in their ability to buy less alcohol or remove it from their homes. Even after respondents said they’d monitor their drinking through mobile apps or diary entries, adopt new, alcohol-free habits like exercise, and ask friends and family for help in responsible drinking, most students were less willing to initiate responsible drinking, defined as one to two alcoholic beverages per day.
