Mental and Behavioral Health
According to an article in The Politic, Yale’s undergraduate journal of politics and culture, Yale students continue to face barriers to mental health services. The article noted the Yale College Council 2018 Mental Health Report which found that only 31.5 percent of students agreed that the length of time they waited before receiving help was reasonable. Some students reported waiting months for services. The report noted that students recognize that the school has taken major steps to improve student wellness on campus with initiatives like the Good Life Center, a space for naps, tea, and meditation. However, according to the Politic, Yale lacks sufficient resources to meet students’ increased demand for counseling. Practical limitations like the existing infrastructure of Mental Health & Counseling are barriers to expanding services. Heidi Dong ’20, the YCC vice president, explains that Yale Health’s building has a finite number of rooms and can therefore have only so many clinicians.
In the Rivard Report, Diane E. Melby, the president of Our Lady of the Lake University in Texas, discusses the link between mental health and graduation rates. She wrote that at OLLU and schools across the U.S., counseling centers are helping students with mental health disorders persist to graduation. Melby says she is “Challenged to find ways to reach students reluctant to seek mental health care and challenged to secure funding for more staffing at our counseling center.”
Grinnell College in Iowa has published a report by the Student Mental Health Task Force saying the college must “make a renewed, sustained, and broad commitment to student mental health.” The Task Force was charged in 2016 with analyzing and recommending solutions to understand and serve mental health needs at small colleges. The school has already begun improving mental health services on campus with the formation of an integrated student health and wellness model (SHAW), the creation of a Dean of Student Health and Wellness and the addition of new group therapy sessions. A newly developed partnership with the University of Iowa has introduced telepsychiatry services to supplement the shortage of psychiatry providers at Grinnell. The College has also increased spending towards mental health services in the past five years, from $226,000 to $605,000. The principal recommendation of the task force, as stated in the report, is that Grinnell.
Purdue University is addressing student-oriented challenges like rising enrollment rates and increasing student mental health concerns. The school is developing a new initiative that provides a comprehensive approach to overall well-being called “Steps to Leaps” which aims to equip students with tools and resources to build supportive networks, develop healthy habits and cope with setbacks. As demand for Purdue’s Counseling and Psychological Services increases, Steps to Leaps will provide a source of support in cases where clinician intervention may not be the best solution. Beth McCuskey, vice provost for student life said, “While we clearly want students who need mental health services to connect with CAPS, we also know that many students need a listening ear or reassurance and not necessarily mental health therapy.”
In the Villanovan, students share their experiences in dealing with their mental health on campus.
The University of Minnesota undergraduate student government hopes to address student mental health with professor engagement. The College of Liberal Arts Student Board held an event recently for students, faculty and administrators to speak about prioritizing mental wellness. CLASB created the CLA Classroom Inclusion Survey to gather student feedback on inclusion and equity environments, as well as mental health accommodations within CLA classrooms. Survey responses highlighted a “large gap” in CLA’s definitions of reasonable accommodations for mental health, what professors provide for mental health accommodations and students’ understanding of possible accommodations. The results could motivate further conversations about educating professors and students on equity issues and developing college-specific pronoun policies.
In what officials say is the first program of its kind in the country, University of Iowa will now require all new students to complete suicide prevention training. The module is part of an online course that educates students on adjusting to life on campus. In addition to learning how to navigate the surrounding city and how to find academic resources, students will be trained in how to identify suicidal tendencies among their peers.
College and university chaplains are increasingly focused less on liturgical services and more on secular services such as counseling. While most chaplains are trained to some degree in pastoral care or counseling, Jan Fuller, a chaplain at Elon University and president of the National Association of College and University Chaplains said that revelations about the scale and severity of the mental health concerns of many of the students they encounter has forced some to realize they are not adequately trained. Not only can they not provide the full suite of services students with mental health issues may need, they may not be aware of every issue facing them. For instance, Fuller says she only recently started considering how to accommodate students with eating disorders.
The second annual San Francisco State University Active Minds symposium, titled, “Staying Grounded with Self-Care for Students of Color,” focused on providing mental health help and coping mechanisms. The conference was sponsored by Associated Students, Inc. and Active Minds, a student-led organization that focuses on encouraging more students to seek help by overcoming stigma. More than 20 students participated in workshops, including art and writing activities, revolving around self-care and identity. Active Minds encouraged students to reflect on their identity and analyze how it affects their ability to access and use mental health assistance.
Diversity and Inclusion
Governing boards in two states have come under fire for picking presidential finalists at odds with faculty and student demands for diversity. In Colorado, support for the sole finalist in the presidential search for the public university system is beginning to fracture the Board of Regents, whose members had unanimously chosen Mark R. Kennedy, currently president of the University of North Dakota. Kennedy’s nomination to lead the University of Colorado system has sparked protests, initially because of his past opposition, as a Republican congressman, to same-sex marriage and abortion rights. In South Carolina, trustees of its public-university system decided that they would not make a choice among the four finalists and instead named a campus chancellor as interim leader. The board made that announcement after students and faculty members complained that a search committee had not included one woman among the 11 semifinalists. Equity and inclusion, in particular for racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ students, have become rallying cries on campuses across the country. The events in Colorado and South Carolina show that the demand for diversity has extended to expectations for campus and system leaders.
Last week, Washington state legislature voted to reverse an affirmative action ban that had been in effect since 1998. Following the decision, the University of Washington College Republicans staged a protest bake sale in which they assigned prices to cookies according to buyers’ race and gender. (“Affirmative-action bake sales,” a well-worn form of conservative protest, are meant to expose what organizers deem the absurdity of treating people differently because of their race or gender.) Ana Mari Cauce, president of the University of Washington, who was born in Cuba, condemned the bake sale as “crude and outrageous mockery” in a message shared with the campus, and said the event was not representative of all university Republicans and called for a serious, reasoned debate on the policies. Cauce spoke with The Chronicle about this moment on her campus.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
The Chronicle reports that a University of Georgia Math Professor has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least eight women. A Georgia spokesman said that the university cannot discuss investigations in progress, but that all complaints are thoroughly investigated, and penalties are imposed “on faculty and employees found to have engaged in sexual misconduct.”
A committee of faculty, staff and students from Harvard University‘s government department is asking for an external review of the school’s response to the alleged misconduct of a longtime professor who is now retired. Jorge I. Dominguez, who had been on the government faculty since the 1970s, left Harvard last year after several women accused him of sexual harassment over a period spanning decades. The university had found Dominguez responsible for “serious misconduct” in 1983 in a case involving a female professor who said he made repeated and unwanted sexual advances. The government department’s Committee on Climate Change wrote in a letter sent this week to Harvard President Lawrence S. Bacow and other university officials that, “Alleged instances of harassment and other unacceptable behavior had been ‘open secrets’ in the department since the mid-1990s.” According to the letter, “Generations of students warned one another about Dominguez’s behavior and developed coping strategies for interactions with him (e.g., wearing heavy clothing, avoiding late afternoon meetings). The committee, chaired by government professor Steven Levitsky, urged the university to appoint a “credible outside expert” to evaluate the university’s actions in what it described as “our collective failure to provide a safe and productive work environment for all members of our community.”
In an effort to re-examine their sexual assault laws in the era of #MeToo, North Carolina’s House of Representatives passed a bill last week to close some disturbing loopholes in its sexual assault laws. North Carolina is among fewer than 10 states with sexual assault laws that don’t recognize as victims people who were incapacitated because of their own actions. Currently, it is legal to have non-consensual sex with an incapacitated person if that person willingly got drunk or high. It is also legal to drug someone’s drink., The measure now goes to the Senate. North Carolina is also the only state where a person cannot revoke consent for a sexual act once it is underway. The bill passed Monday does not address this 40-year-old legal precedent.
Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights
According to a new study from the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the majority of Texas community college women are currently using contraceptive methods they don’t wish to use. The study found that Texas community college women are using condoms and withdrawal even though they would prefer to use more effective methods like intrauterine devices, or IUDs, and birth control pills. “What that tells us is that we could do a better job – we as in colleges, clinics – could be doing a better job in helping women to get the more effective methods they want to be using,” said Kristine Hopkins, the lead author of the report, which surveyed more than 1,000 Texas community college women in fall 2014 and spring 2015.
Hunger and Homelessness
Recent data indicate nearly half of college students at community and public colleges are food insecure. A survey released this week by Temple University’s Hope Center for College, Community and Justice found that 45 percent of student respondents from over 100 institutions said they had been food insecure in the past 30 days. In New York, the nonprofit found that among City University of New York (CUNY) students, 48 percent had been food insecure in the past 30 days. Food pantries have expanded on college campuses; there are now over 700 members at the College and University Food Bank Alliance. Efforts have recently expanded to include redistributing leftover food from dining halls and catered events, making students eligible for food stamps and other benefits, and perhaps most important, changing national and state education funding to cover living expenses, not just tuition.
Substance Use
According to a new study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, party locations play a role in increasing the frequency of sexually aggressive behavior. The study followed the partying and hookup behaviors of more than 1,000 straight men over four semesters, from the beginning of their freshman year. It found that men’s attendance at “drinking venues”-that is, bars and parties-was a better predictor of their sexual aggression than simply binge-drinking or enthusiastic attitudes toward casual sex. According to Michael Cleveland, a professor of human development at Washington State University and the study’s lead author, research on campus sexual assault has long found that heavy alcohol consumption is linked to sexual aggression. But researchers were unclear about the mechanism behind that link. “A lot of research has shown that once you account for personality differences or individual differences, then the link between alcohol use and sexual aggression or assault kind of disappears,” Cleveland says. This is an example of “alcohol expectancies,” or the mind-sets that result from imbibing.
A new study published in the Journal of American College Health found that more than three out of 10 undergraduates reported using e-cigarettes. Researchers conducted an online survey of 371 students at the University of Kentucky in 2018. Of that sampling, 80 percent were familiar with Juul, a particular brand of e-cigarettes; 36 percent reported using them at least once; and 21 percent said they had used Juul specifically in the past 30 days. Researchers suggest this should sound an alarm given the growing body of research showing that the brains of adolescents and young adults are particularly vulnerable to changes caused by nicotine as well as the fact that early use can trigger lifelong use, increasing the risk of serious health problems, including cancer and heart disease.
Wellness
Western Connecticut State University was recognized by Exercise is Medicine for efforts to create a culture of wellness on campus. The University Health Service made physical activity a vital sign by asking students how often they exercise. In addition, the Health Promotion and Exercise Sciences Department coordinated with UHS and the Counseling Center to offer exercise counseling. These two initiatives helped WCSU earn gold-level designation from the Exercise is Medicine On Campus program.
Disability
An Oklahoma University graduate is suing the university after alleging she was forced out of OU’s master of health administration program three years ago. According to federal court documents, the complaint alleges OU violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by not accommodating for study times being affected by a health issue. Dr. Susan Rainwater, who is a current anesthesiologist, has a disability which required surgery. The lawsuit doesn’t identify her condition, but says it caused her to need extra time for her studies. According to court documents, her requests for more time because of her disability were met with hostility and discrimination which eventually forced her out of the program.
Hazing
Police arrested three Virginia State University students this week and charged them with hazing. Virginia State University suspended the Alpha Phi chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity after learning of the students’ alleged hazing at an off-campus event. The three students were also suspended from school pending conclusion of the criminal case. In addition, eight students who allegedly participated are facing disciplinary action from the university for student conduct violation. Hazing has continued at universities across the country, despite college and fraternity leaders’ efforts to prevent it, and despite fatal incidents in recent years at several schools.
Gun Violence
Authorities say that during the shooting at the University of North Carolina last week, 21-year-old Riley Howell knocked the assailant off his feet at a pivotal moment, saving the lives of others even as Howell himself received a mortal wound. Kerr Putney, chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, described Howell as “the first and foremost hero” in an incident that left two dead and four injured but could have turned out far worse. “But for his work, the assailant may not have been disarmed,” Putney said of Howell in a televised news conference. “Unfortunately, he gave his life in the process. But his sacrifice saved lives.”
College Affordability
In an op-ed in the SF Chronicle, Donald E. Heller, provost and vice president of academic affairs at the University of San Francisco, argues that the free college and debt forgiveness proposal from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren is the wrong approach. According to Heller, “While the concept of free anything has true appeal, not everyone is deserving of a large public subsidy. Warren’s proposal is simply an inefficient and ineffective use of federal dollars because it does not provide enough financial support for the students who need assistance the most.”
Greek Life
While the two Swarthmore fraternities voluntarily disbanded last week after student protesters drew national attention, protesters are demanding more and have begun a hunger strike in hopes of getting fraternities permanently banned from campus. Protests were set off by the leak of internal Phi Psi documents that showed brothers using racist, sexist, and homophobic language and referencing a “rape attic” in a neighboring fraternity. But the hunger strikers say they want the administration to shut down the organizations permanently-and they won’t eat until that demand is met. “A verbal response from the fraternities is not enough to guarantee an end to fraternity violence on this campus,” hunger-strike participant Tiffany Wang told The Daily Beast. The group wants the fraternity leases terminated and the houses reallocated to other groups on campus.
