Mental and Behavioral Health
To help students manage stress and anxiety, The Ohio State University’s Let’s Talk program offers informal free mental health consultations without an appointment. Harry Warner, a clinical counselor at the Office of Student Life Counseling and Consultation Service, said “Let’s Talk is something that we’ve been doing for the past few years. It’s a drop-in consultation where students can come and talk to a licensed clinician about concerns that they’re having. It could be problem solving, it could be resource based. It’s basically face-to-face, a kind ear, pointing a student the right direction.” The service supports students who may not need traditional counseling, but who could benefit from one-on-one support and consultation. Sessions typically last between 15 to 20 minutes.
In the last three years, Rollins College has had a 55 percent increase in the number of psychiatric appointments, and an 18 percent increase in general CAPS appointments. This unprecedented demand for mental health services has overwhelmed the school’s Wellness Center. According to The Sandspur, some students in need of psychiatric help are waiting more than two weeks for an initial appointment. Dr. Connie Briscoe, director of the Wellness Center, said “We are trying to advocate for getting more resources, but there is a finite amount of resources out on a campus.”
Florida State University’s Resilience Project has won a national award from the American Association of University Administrators. The Resilience Project is an online toolkit that seeks to help students improve mental health and reduce stress. It uses interactive videos, audio and other resources from faculty and mental health providers to teach students how to healthily manage stress and adjust to college life. Resilience Project resources provide students with tools for coping with trauma and build on skills that promote mental health.
The Yale College Council announced a new project where they will be collecting student testimonials about their experiences with Yale Mental Health & Counseling in an effort to push for improved mental health services on campus next year. The Council released a Fall 2018 report on mental health outlining results from its fall survey, which found that 59 percent of students surveyed believed that the quality of care at Mental Health & Counseling was favorable, but 54 percent “disagreed” or “strongly disagreed” that wait times for mental health appointments were reasonable. The report also noted that 48.7 percent of the 2,181 respondents said that they believe Yale does not do enough to tend to students’ mental health.
Northwestern University students shared stories about struggling to find adequate mental health resources at a town hall organized by Fund Our Care Collective, an organization that was created to call for more action from the University in the wake of a student suicide. The group has a list of 10 demands for the administration – including decreasing the Counseling and Psychological Services ratio to 800 students per counselor by 2022 and making a majority of the requested new hires be people of color and members of the LGBTQ community. Students at the town hall shared stories of sexual assault, feeling suicidal and how the school has failed to provide adequate resources, especially for marginalized students. Some said CAPS failed to follow up with either them or their friends. Jessica Ogwumike, a member of the collective, said the group understood the budget deficit may cause a challenge for funding, but she added that the University should “get creative.”
In an op-ed in the Hechinger Report, Aya Waller-Bey a first-year doctoral student at the University of Michigan, argues that universities overlook graduate students’ mental health. According to Waller-Bey, the academic pressures to perform well in the classroom, publish and join a promising research lab – combined with the strains of additional financial, familial and racial stressors – are a formula for a mental collapse. She writes that universities should reevaluate the surface-level support they offer graduate students and offer counseling, provided by on-campus counselors trained to affirm the diverse experiences and backgrounds of graduate students, that counters the competitive, workaholic culture of higher education. Waller-Bey argues that because most on-campus counseling centers lack the capacity to support all students, there should also be visible, cost-effective alternatives and recommendations for students to seek support.
In an op-ed in the Cornell Sun, student Nick Matolka, argues that to improve mental health on campus, Cornell Health must incorporate an “upstream” approach in mental health services. According to Matolka, the university must consider the social, economic and environmental origins of mental health. Matolka offers several ideas, including the implementation of an educational program that would enable students to be proper mental health advocates for themselves. Matolka also suggests centralizing the university’s health services, and providing free transportation to Cornell Health.
Stanford University recently announced efforts to better support student mental health and well-being, including more counselors, services and training for faculty and staff. Vice Provost for Student Affairs Susie Brubaker-Cole announced the new initiatives earlier this month, writing that the changes are “rooted in the clear need to redouble our efforts in Student Affairs to improve student mental health and well-being, alongside equity and inclusion.” Stanford has faced public criticism in recent years for its handling of students’ mental health needs. A high-profile class-action lawsuit alleges the university violated anti-discrimination laws through their leave of absence policies.
In an article in the Washington Square News, some New York University students complain that they experienced three-week to month-long wait times for their first appointments, and sometimes in between appointments. Of the wait times, Zoe Ragouzeos, the director of Counseling and Wellness Services said, “Our system for serving students is designed to prioritize students who are most at risk, resulting in some students being placed ahead of others when scheduling appointments based on the severity of their need.” Ragouzeos also noted that in line with what is common in the healthcare field, students’ need for assistance is evaluated based on a triage process. Students who show safety issues at the time of triage are scheduled to meet with a counselor within one week. Students who don’t present safety issues may wait during busy times of the year. In mid-March, Counseling and Wellness Services sent out a voluntary and anonymous Patient Satisfaction Survey to 9, students who have used campus mental health services. The survey received about 500 responses and feedback was generally positive. According to Ragouzeos, 78% of students said that they believe their original appointment was scheduled promptly and 93% agreed with the statement, “I feel that my clinician respects me as a person.”
Diversity and Inclusion
The New College of Florida is facing criticism for an admissions practice that flags students with mental health challenges. If an applicant writes an essay about issues with psychological challenges, the admissions staff places a red flag on the application and it receives another view. Notably, this happens even if the student has received a score (in a formula largely based on grades, high school curriculum and test scores) that qualifies the applicant for automatic admission. And some of those applicants have been rejected. New College says the red flags were just part of a holistic admissions process (generally used for those who don’t qualify for automatic admission) and didn’t assure rejection of anyone. Two students who had jobs in admissions complained about the practice last year, saying that it amounted to illegal discrimination against people with disabilities. New College conducted an investigation and determined that the practices were legal. On Friday, Donal O’Shea, president of the college, posted a statement to social media in which he said that the issue would be investigated again — this time by an outside group.
The Washington Post reports on the negative impact of so few Puerto Rican high school graduates entering college on the mainland or abroad. Only 694 high school graduates from all of Puerto Rico left the island for college in 2016, the last year for which the figure is available from the U.S. Education Department. According to the Post, that low percentage (about 2 percent) means that too few people have the skills to work in knowledge-economy jobs. And without those skilled workers, industries that might encourage other Puerto Ricans to go to college won’t come to the island, or stay and expand. Mari Aponte, former director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, which represents the territory in Washington, said, “It is not good policy to keep Puerto Rico economically on a downturn in what feels like an endless loop of economic underperformance. The only way I know this can be changed is when there’s access to higher education.” Aponte also served as U.S. acting assistant secretary of state and who has become an advocate for sending more high school graduates from Puerto Rico to college.
Young people leaving foster care face extreme barriers to attending college. Great Expectations, an 11-year-old initiative at Virginia’s community colleges, has developed a program focused on building trust and support to get foster youth to college and help them succeed. Based on recommendations from the Casey Family Programs, an advocacy group for children, and with funding from the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and other sponsors, the program has coaches at 21 Virginia community colleges. In a video, The Chronicle highlights the program at Virginia Highlands.
Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights
The California state Senate Education Committee approved Senate Bill 24, also known as the College Student Right to Access Act, which would make the state the first in the U.S. to require that public college campus health centers offer medical abortions, or nonsurgical abortions, to students.
Gun Violence
Two people were killed and four others were injured after a shooter entered a campus building at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and opened fire. It was the last day of classes for the school year. The university’s chancellor, Philip L. Dubois, called it “the saddest day in UNC Charlotte’s history.”
Physical Health
As California and the country grapple with the largest outbreak of measles in 20 years, two universities in Los Angeles quarantined more than 700 students and faculty who couldn’t prove that they’ve been vaccinated against the infectious disease. The Los Angeles County health officials issued mandatory, legally binding quarantine orders for students, faculty, and staff from the University of California, Los Angeles, and California State University, Los Angeles, who might have come in contact with the measles virus. It’s possibly the largest measles quarantine in state history, according to the California Department of health. On Thursday, UCLA said that it had reduced its quarantine from 127 students and staff to 82. The next day, only one student on campus remained isolated and less than 45 others, including one staff member, who had not yet had their immunity status confirmed “have elected to self-isolate in their own off-campus residences.” On Friday, Cal State LA announced that 550 students and 106 staff members were under quarantine orders and told to stay home and avoid contact with others as much as possible. The school cleared about 130 others who “provided the required proof of immunization.” The quarantines could last for up to 21 days, the department said.
College Affordability
The Chronicle published a list of the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates’ stances on free college and the cost of college more broadly, a resource that will be updated as more contenders outline their proposals. While helpful, the candidates have varying stances on what “free” means. Broadly, free-college plans fall into two categories: tuition-free and debt-free. The former would waive the cost of tuition, typically at community colleges or two-year programs, while the latter aims to cover all of the costs associated with attending a public college, so that students don’t have to take out any loans.
The New York Times reports that Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan to provide free public college and debt clearance for the majority of student loan holders has invited criticism and raised long-simmering questions about the cost, quality and responsibility of higher education. Sandy Baum, an expert on college affordability at the Urban Institute believes that $50,000 in debt clearance was too much. Forgiving $10,000 in loans would eliminate debt for a third of borrowers, she said. “That is virtually all the borrowers who are low-income, who don’t have a bachelor’s degree, who dropped out of college, who are struggling most,” as opposed to those who are in a better position to pay off their loans, Ms. Baum said. The average federal student loan debt is $32,000, according to federal data. Some critics questioned the value of such a huge investment in tuition and loan cancellation, and whether bailing out people with college degrees was the best way to spend nearly half the proceeds of Ms. Warren’s proposed wealth tax. Still others felt a one-time clearance of debt would not address the root causes of the nation’s student debt crisis. Matthew Chingos, director of the Center on Education Data and Policy at the Urban Institute, suggested that the plan was not forward-looking enough. Warren campaign officials argued that overall student debt would shrink because many students would opt for free public college, and that competition would then drive down the price of private school tuition.
Last year, California lawmakers approved the creation of a publicly-funded, fully online community college with an ambitious agenda not only to train low-wage workers for better jobs – free of charge – but to find employers to hire them. Although state leaders are working to open the online college by an October 1 deadline, they have yet to fill several executive positions to support the operations of the online learning experience The time frame to solidify a management team has left some Board of Trustees members and other critics concerned about the quality of students’ learning experience.
Student Success
D.C.’s public schools are rolling out an intervention that will provided high schoolers with a document that tracks their progress towards graduation requirements and gives them information about college and career options. The district is calling the document, which is personalized for each student, the “Guide to Graduation, College, and Career.” The guides, which will be mailed and available online, are part of the district’s efforts to boost college and career readiness among its students – and part of a larger movement across the country to make education data more available and accessible.
To ease the transition into college and empower students to achieve success, Triton College is offering the FREE iLaunch Summer Bridge Program for incoming freshmen. During the innovative six-week program, students will meet and develop friendships with future classmates, familiarize themselves with campus and brush up on subjects including math, reading and writing. Triton’s iLaunch lab will create an environment for students to engage in activities designed to help them develop a college work ethic, learn how to take advantage of available resources and determine which degree or certificate program is best for them. The program will also allow students to meet with academic advisors to help ensure they are registered for the upcoming fall semester classes. “If a student is serious about college but maybe isn’t quite ready to jump right in, this program will give them an idea about what college life is,” said Richard Zelenka, iLaunch program coordinator.
Basic Needs: Hunger and Homelessness
The California Senate’s Select Committee on Student Success kicked off its 2019-20 college tour at Sacramento State this week, the first stop on a fact-finding mission to understand how California colleges and universities are meeting students’ basic needs. The legislators toured the new CARES Office and Associated Students Inc. (ASI) Food Pantry and the Student Health Center. They also attended a briefing about Sac State’s efforts to improve its four-year graduation rate, and visited the Basic Needs Fair, where students learned about campus and community resources. During a hearing, several students shared personal stories about daily challenges that, without the basic needs services on campus, might cause them to leave school. They talked about anxiety, depression, rising rents, homelessness, emergency expenses, and issues with financial aid. The students praised the school’s programs, such as CARES, the Food Pantry, emergency housing, and emergency grants, services that have allowed them to continue with their studies and work toward graduation.
Free Speech
Three University of Arizona students, Denisse Moreno Melchor, Mariel Alexandra Bustamante, and Marianna Ariel Coles-Curtis, were issued misdemeanor citations by the university police this month for interfering with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution. Moreno, 20, was also cited for threats and intimidation. The students were protesting the presence of Customs and Border Protection on campus. The Pima County Attorney’s Office dropped the charges against the students, but they are still being investigated for possible violations of the student-conduct code. Emotions remain raw at this Hispanic-serving university in a deep-red state with some of the nation’s toughest immigration laws. At the first public forum since the event, the university’s president, Robert C. Robbins, began by assuring students that he recognized both their First Amendment right to protest and the very real fears of both documented and undocumented students. “We have to make sure we provide support and safety for those who don’t feel safe and who have fear,” he said. “But at the same time, there are rules, and we will obey the law.” He went on to say that he “absolutely” supports free speech and the right to protest. “Without question, it’s the bedrock of our democracy,” he said. Students who were angry about the university’s decision to arrest the students demanded an apology from the president and an assurance that future protests would be allowed, and that Border Patrol visits would not. While Robbins conceded that unspecified mistakes had been made, he offered no apology and could give no assurance that the Border Patrol wouldn’t show up again.
Wellness
The University of Pennsylvania will implement three new initiatives next fall to improve wellness on campus. The decision was made at the final round of the “Your Big Idea” wellness competition, which called on Penn-affiliated people to submit ideas to enhance wellness at Penn. At the pitch event, 14 semifinalists made their cases to the panel of judges and an audience. The initiatives chosen were “weekly themed walks” open to all Penn staff, faculty, and students that would be lead by experts at Penn talking about different topics, “Nature Rx,” a program that would encourage health providers on and near campus to prescribe time in nature to students seeking help, and the Penn Food Hub, which would act as an urban farm operated partially by Penn students, faculty and staff volunteers.
The Pac-12 Conference has announced a series of research projects selected for funding by the Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being Initiative‘s grant program. Totaling over $2.7 million in funding, the seven research projects will further broaden information and understanding surrounding important student-athlete health issues, including head trauma, mental health and injury prevention.
Greek Life
Two Swarthmore University fraternity chapters say they are closing their doors in response to allegations of racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior against past members. Demonstrations erupted at the school after two campus publications released hundreds of pages of sexist, racist, and homophobic documents that apparently describe Phi Psi’s “meeting minutes” and rituals for initiating new members, from 2012 to 2016. In the leaked documents, there are jokes about date-rape drugs, sex acts with intoxicated women, and transgender people. At one point the house’s single bedroom – only one fraternity member resides there at a time – is described as a “rape attic.” On a Facebook page, the Phi Psi fraternity wrote, “We were appalled and disgusted by the content of these minutes, which led us to question our affiliation with an organization whose former members could write such heinous statements. We cannot in good conscience be members of an organization with such a painful history.” The Delta Upsilon fraternity also made its announcement on Facebook.
