Mental and Behavioral Health
Saint Louis Public Radio reports that The University of Missouri System is offering a mobile app to help students cope with stress, anxiety and depression. The app, called Sanvello, uses cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness principles and includes features like self-assessments, guided meditations, breathing exercises and behavioral studies. “It really is much more about what can people do to support and assist themselves with it,” said Christopher Sullivan, director of health at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. “It can be a very beneficial resource and support, but at the same time it does not take the place of professional assistance and treatment.
In an op-ed in the Chicago Maroon, the Campus Policy Research Institute, a student-run think tank dedicated to the study of issues critical to student life at the University of Chicago, argued for using evidence-based policy to address mental health on campus. According to the editorial, in the fall semester, the institute studied the status of student mental health as well as various policies that could improve mental health-related resources. Their study found that mental health services at the University are understaffed and underfunded. While 82.6 percent of responding undergraduates have considered using Student Counseling Service (SCS) services, only 49.8 percent have gone to SCS to receive help. Additionally, over 65 percent of students reported a wait time of at least two weeks before receiving SCS assistance, and the majority claimed to be “unsatisfied” after their appointments. The Institute advocated for funding student mental health projects. The program would create a grant-funding agency through which students and faculty can apply to finance their own independent mental health and wellness-related projects. Additionally, the Institute recommended the creation of a centralized academic planning office for students in need of academic exceptions due to stress, mental illness, or other personal-life factors. Staffed by mental health professionals rather than academic advisers, this office would allow struggling students to create academic plans that best suit both their academic and personal needs.
Meanwhile, The Chicago Maroon‘s Editorial Board asked the University of Chicago administration to listen to students about their own mental health needs and the holes in the current services, commit to additional public conversations about mental health, and actively incorporate student input. The Editorial Board argues that administrators’ approach toward mental health ignores student voices and is not transparent. According to the op-ed student demands related to mental health include cultural competency training for therapists, greater availability of counselors, shorter wait times for student counseling services, extended office hours, and changes in the referral process for outside providers.
In an op-ed in FSU News, Nicole van der Sommen wrote about the need for a conversation about mental health at Florida State University. Van der Sommen highlights the mental health advocacy group and peer-education program, Realizing Everyone Needs Emotional Wellness (RENEW), sponsored by the University Counseling Center. RENEW provides outreach, presentations, and individual instructional sessions on emotional wellness topics.
The Minnesota Daily Editorial Board argues that while the counseling center has made efforts to hire a well-trained staff to support students, significant work still must be done at the University of Minnesota. The Board writes that wait times are too long, on average two to three weeks after an initial consultation. They argue that the University should prioritize funding for Boynton Health.
Earlier this year, a poster was hung at Dartmouth College criticizing the way that mental health is addressed on campus. The poster faulted the ratio of counselors to students and lack of long-term individual counseling services. According to The Dartmouth, counselors at the school are now responding to the claims, saying that, in conjunction with other initiatives and student organizations, there is a range of mental health resources for students on campus. Bryant Ford, a Counseling Center psychologist, highlighted the Campus Connect initiative, a peer education program that aims to address suicide prevention. “It really builds from sort of teaching people how to develop empathy for people who might be in a crisis,” Ford said. Ford added the university offers other initiatives that can provide students with knowledge about general mental health topics, which can include anxiety, depression, eating disorders and substance abuse.
Diversity and Inclusion
Syracuse University lifted the suspensions of dozens of student protesters amid national attention to their occupation of the private institution’s main administration building. The protesters have been occupying Crouse-Hinds Hall, which houses the chancellor’s office, demanding that the university follow through on previous promises to crack down on racist incidents that have beset the campus for years. The students have also demanded the resignation of several university officials. Roughly 30 students were warned, written up, and eventually issued interim suspensions when they refused to leave when the building closed last Monday, at 9 p.m. Syracuse says that the students were not suspended for protesting, but for breaking the rules by remaining in the building after it closed.
Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg is promising that, if elected, he will stop colleges and universities from giving preferential treatment to legacy students. Legacy admissions are preferences schools give to relatives of graduates, a practice that helps in fundraising. Critics say it gives an unfair advantage to students from wealthy families and takes slots that could go to deserving students of lesser means. Bloomberg said he would limit access to federal funds if schools do not end legacy admissions.
The Hechinger Report writes that renewed concern about college completion rates have led to increased attention on the one in five college students who are parents. According to national data, parents of young children are 10 times less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree within five years than students who don’t have kids.. According to the article, high quality on-site childcare can help. The Borough of Manhattan Community College’s Early Childhood Center serves about 300 parents a year at the City University of New York’s largest undergraduate college campus. Childcare is offered on all of CUNY’s 17 campuses, a rarity at a time when many are cutting back.
The Seattle Times reports that mormon-owned Brigham Young University in Utah has revised its strict code of conduct to strip a rule that banned any behavior that reflected “homosexual feelings,” which LGBTQ students and their allies felt created an unfair double standard not imposed on heterosexual couples. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches its members that being gay isn’t a sin, but engaging in same-sex intimacy is. BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins said that the changes removed “prescriptive language” and “kept the focus on the principles of the Honor Code, which have not changed.”
In an op-ed in the Hechinger Report, Andre Perry wrote on the importance of appointing black college presidents which can spark further racial inclusion. Perry cited research from the American Council on Education which showed that individuals who identified as something other than white held just 17 percent of college and university presidencies in 2016, while representing 42 percent of students enrolled in 2015. Among the presidents of color, 36 percent led two-year associate, or two-year, colleges; only 5 percent identified as women of color. According to Perry, presidents have the authority to change administrative structures that thwart others from reaching the role.
Students for Fair Admissions, a group opposed to the use of race in college admissions, urged a federal appeals court to overturn a judge’s ruling that Harvard University does not intentionally discriminate against Asian Americans in undergraduate admissions. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs ruled in Harvard’s favor in October, ending the first phase of a closely watched affirmative-action case that may be headed to the Supreme Court. Students for Fair Admissions is arguing that the judge’s ruling was flawed and that the evidence shows Asian Americans suffer a penalty when Harvard reviews their applications for undergraduate admission.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has proposed amending the rules for enforcing the gender-equity law known as Title IX to guarantee the right of people accused of sexual misconduct to cross-examine their accusers through a representative. The Chronicle reports that some institutions are already required to have those measures in place. Colleges in states covered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit – Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee – must allow live hearings in cases of sexual misconduct as a result of a 2018 court decision, Doe v. Baum. Before punishing a student for sexual misconduct, Doe v. Baum mandated a college or university must hold a hearing and allow the accused to cross-examine the accuser if credibility is in question. Advocates say the practice protects due-process rights, but opponents say in-person hearings can retraumatize victims by forcing them to answer questions from their alleged abusers. The Chronicle covers the wide-ranging interpretations of Doe v. Baum’s mandate.
Education Dive reports on the uncertainty surrounding Title IX, as significant court decisions and pending regulations stand to change how institutions report and investigate sexual violence. According to Education Dive, higher education law experts say colleges will likely revise their policies and increasingly turn to outside consultants for help.
College Affordability and Free College
The University of Southern California announced that, starting this fall, incoming students from families earning $80,000 a year or less will be able to attend tuition-free . The university also will no longer consider home equity when determining students’ financial need. According to the New York Times, the move comes as USC is attempting to draw students with more socio-economic diversity, competing with both the University of California system and prestigious private universities that offer generous financial aid programs.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga will offer students from nine nearby states a tuition discount beginning this fall, expanding a regional tuition credit that already applied to students from certain areas of Georgia and Alabama. University officials say the move aims to boost enrollment and attract talent to the region.
The Seattle Times reports that nearly 1,800 teens, half of Seattle Public Schools’ class of 2020, applied to attend community college through the city’s free tuition program. The applicants represented the first class in the newly expanded Seattle Promise: As of this academic year, students from all of the city’s 17 public high schools were eligible to apply. That number surpassed the goal of 1,360 applications that city officials set for the program.
A new study from the Pew Research Center finds that nearly two-thirds of Americans (63%) support tuition-free public college for all U.S. students. Education Dive reports on the study, which shows the country’s opinions are divided by political party. While 83% percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults Pew surveyed favor free college, 60% of Republicans and those who skewed Republican oppose the concept. Just over half of white Americans (53%) favored free public college, compared to 86% and 82%, respectively, among black and Hispanic adults.
Hunger and Homelessness
The 2019 #RealCollege survey led by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University, reveals a real and continuing problem with food and/or housing insecurity affecting college students in the U.S. The survey was completed by more than 167,000 students at 227 community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. Seventeen percent of students who answered the survey reported being homeless at some point in the previous year, 39 percent said they were food-insecure and 46 percent said they faced some level of housing insecurity. Reasons that college students are facing insecurity in basic needs include the failure of financial aid to keep up with the cost of living and hesitancy among some employers to hire students who may have complicated schedules. Advocates for homeless students say the biggest hurdle in addressing the housing needs of community college students stems, in large part, from public confusion over who attends these two-year institutions. “Popular perception of the community college student is that he or she lives at home and enjoys family support,” said Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor at Temple University and founder of the Hope Center.
Student Success
The New York Times highlights Brooklyn College’s Magner Career Center, which offers students an array of services to help them succeed. Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York system, serves many students from working class families, often first-generation college students, who typically do not have access to the “infrastructure to help them with internships and jobs.” Marge Magner, the centers’ namesake and initial donor, said the center acts as “the aunts and uncles, the friends of the family that these kids don’t have.” Since its inception, the Magner Center has had an impact: According to an annual survey of recent graduates by the college, the percentage of students who had internships while attending Brooklyn College rose to over 40 percent in 2018, up from 23 percent in 2003 (the year before the center opened).
Jan Yoshiwara, executive director of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, says she wants to set an ambitious goal: doubling completion rates at the state’s two-year schools by 2030. Community college leaders across the state also say there is a particular urgency to close completion gaps between white students and underrepresented students of color. “Our goal is to move those completion rates faster than the other completion rates,” said Jan Yoshiwara. “The whole issue of eliminating equity gaps is the central theme around our new vision statement.”
The Benefit of a Degree
According to a new study appearing in the American Journal of Public Health, continuing education beyond high school reduces the risk of early death. As part of the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which followed a cohort of 5,114 black and white men and women for 29 years, researchers found that each level of education attained is associated with 1.37 fewer “years of potential life lost.” The authors also note educational disparities grew wider between 1990 and 2000 and persisted or worsened during the 2000s. They suggest policymakers adopt city-level policies focused on reducing inequalities, such as high-quality early-childhood education.
