Upcoming Webinar on New Survey of Peer Support in College Mental Health
The Mary Christie Institute is excited to announce an upcoming virtual event on peer support in college mental health.
This 90-minute webinar presents the findings of a recent national survey examining college and university students’ interest and satisfaction with peer counseling, motivations to provide support, and experiences with training that can guide policy decisions and inform program development.
In a partnership between Born This Way Foundation and the Mary Christie Institute, this live web event will include a presentation of key findings and implications, followed by a panel discussion providing expert commentary and placing this new data in the context of college life.
Mental and Behavioral Health
Main Stories
The Chronicle features an article on campuses delaying in-person classes and why some colleges have opted not to, citing college mental health as a top concern. College administrators across the nation are taking college student mental health into consideration towards their decision-making on campus policies amidst the surge of the Omicron variant. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the pandemic has led to a mental health crisis among young adults. With the realization that living with COVID-19 is the “new normal,” administrators remain hopeful to continue college student life in-person. “We have to learn to live with this,” said Donna J. Petersen, senior associate vice president at the University of South Florida and the leader of the school’s Covid-19 task force.
Other News
In an opinion piece for Inside Higher Ed, technical/professional writer and college writing consultant Jenna Scott covers the ways makerspaces can help students’ mental health. Often housed as DIY hubs in university libraries, makerspaces have 3D printers, laser cutters, arts and crafts, sewing machines, and other computer-controlled machines accessible to students and campus community members.
Inside Higher Ed reports on D’Youville College’s shift to a four-day work week to increase employee health and wellness. The new 32-hour workweek for staff and administrators will have no reduction in pay or benefits.
In an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, students debate the response to the new Covid variant, arguing the need to restore personal connections for mental health measures, campus policies, and safety concerns.
Inside Higher Ed reports on the growing number of Chabad centers on college campuses, which have provided student life for Jewish students from a range of backgrounds. According to Chabad’s national organization, Chabad centers on college campuses have grown substantially from 36 centers in 2000 to 258 today. These centers have been founded and led by husband-and-wife emissaries, or rabbis and rebbetzins. “People with minimal Jewish backgrounds are strongly attracted to Chabad for all kinds of reasons, not because they necessarily want to be practicing Orthodox Judaism, but because they find a very warm, inviting, fun, I would even say sort of hip and cool environment that they feel very comfortable in,” said Mark Rosen, lead author of the Hertog Foundation study and former associate professor in Brandeis University’s Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Inside Higher Ed covers Student Voice survey results on college students’ perceptions on diversity, advocacy and career-related activity. According to the report, “55% of students agree at least somewhat (11% strongly) that there was a noticeable increase in diversity of students and employees on their campuses this fall compared to pre-pandemic—with Asian and Latinx students being the most likely racial groups to agree.” Additionally, 28% of students said they were “more involved in advocating for causes of meaning to them in the fall than ever before (16%).”
Inside Higher Ed reports that at least eight historically Black colleges were targeted with bomb threats last week. No suspicious packages or explosives have been found and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been alerted to the incidents. Students and alumni from affected HBCUs have expressed their concerns online. Master’s student at North Carolina Central GeColby Youngblood stated that the threats have been “very triggering” for Black campus community members as it echoes historical violence Black communities have faced.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Higher Ed Dive reports on a newly proposed state legislation that would allow survivors of sexual abuse from a former University of Michigan athletics doctor to have a new window of time, outside the statute of limitations, to sue the institution. Former students who reported assaults by deceased Dr. Robert Anderson – who was employed by the university from the late 1960s until 2003 – could have a period of 30 days to file lawsuits. According to a university-commissioned investigation by legal firm WilmerHale, Anderson is believed to have abused about 1,000 students over his 37-year tenure, engaging in countless accounts of sexual misconduct.
Student Success
The Chronicle features an advice editorial for faculty on how to help students prepare for life after college. Rachel Toor, a professor of creative writing at Eastern Washington University, argues that faculty members can play a major role in career advising. Toor acknowledges that most faculty members have not applied for jobs in many years, and many may not have heard of the applicant tracking systems used by many employers in the digital age. However, after having conversations with hiring managers, Toor outlines which valuable soft skills and characteristics they search for in new college graduates.
Inside Higher Ed covers new findings, revealing that fewer high school graduates are attending college upon graduation. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s High School Benchmarks Report, first-year enrollment declined by 2.7% from last fall semester and 13.1% since 2019. The report shows that lower income students were disproportionately affected, enrolling immediately to college at a rate of 49% in comparison to 65% of higher-income graduates. Senior enrollment insights leader at Niche, Will Patch, said that Native American students, first-generation students and low-income students were less likely to say they plan to attend college; nonbinary and gender minority students were three times likely to say they plan on attending college, possibly due to less family or financial support.
Inside Higher Ed reports on a new paper on factors related to the significant decline in male enrollment at community colleges. Published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the paper found that “assembly, repair and maintenance programs, such as automotive repair or welding, commonly offered at community colleges, couldn’t move classes online as easily as other fields because they generally require in-person work.” As a result, providing safe, in-person courses limited availability and space. Sarah Turner, co-author of the paper and a university professor of economics and education at the University of Virginia, said loss of enrollment in these programs is “feeding into the shortage of trained workers in a lot of these trained fields.”
College Affordability
Inside Higher Ed reports on a new study that shows a link between United States’ income inequality contributing to rising net tuition costs. Published by the American Economic Review, the authors of the paper, Zhifeng Cai, an assistant professor of economics at Rutgers University, and Jonathan Heathcote, a monetary adviser in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, note that the growing income gap is driving college sticker prices. The report states that as more institutions must provide more financial aid for talented, low-income students, “the student body will tend to be a mix of relatively rich, low-ability students who pay relatively high tuition and relatively poor but higher ability students who enjoy tuition discounts.”
Inside Higher Ed reports that high school juniors who do not believe they can afford higher education are 20% less likely to attend college in 3 years upon graduating, compared to those who do not see affordability as a barrier. The U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics presented findings, showing that students were more likely to enroll in college if they believe their family can afford to send them. The analysis also examined parental education history and college enrollment numbers in relation to students’ perceptions of college affordability.
Covid Safety and Reopening
Inside Higher Ed reports that most colleges are resuming in in-person classes for the spring semester. Colleges report counting on vaccines, mitigation strategies, and indoor masking mandates in order to continue with in-person schooling as scheduled. Faculty and staff across the country, however, have raised their concerns about returning to in-person teaching. Administrators discuss ongoing plans and efforts to reimagine flexible and hybrid work in higher education for faculty. This week, some institutions have announced extending remote instruction due to spiking breakthrough infection numbers. Other institutions have also announced that they would be requiring medical-grade masks, instead of cloth masks.
