Webinar: Rethinking Higher Education’s Purpose
The Mary Christie Institute and LearningWell magazine will host a webinar on Tuesday, November 14 at 1:00pm ET.
As higher education grapples with how to maintain public trust, colleges and universities have an opportunity to reshape their approach to preparing the next generation of leaders, prioritizing wellbeing to ensure that each student leaves campus not only with a diploma, but with the tools to embark on a meaningful life.
This webinar will invite a shift in perspective, exploring new initiatives to design (and redesign) our institutions to better serve the lifelong health and fulfillment of students. A panel discussion will explore how wellbeing factors into some of the most important questions on higher education today. Featuring academic leaders and experts in both higher education and wellbeing, the panel will touch on themes including: teaching to the whole person, the importance of equity and access, and incorporating new ideas into existing mental health programming with the goal of producing young people who thrive in their lives after graduation across all measures of wellbeing.
The webinar will be moderated by Marjorie Malpiede, Editor-in-Chief of LearningWell. Panelists include Randall Bass, PhD, Vice President for Strategic Education Initiatives & Professor of English at Georgetown University, Joslyn Johnson, PhD, Assistant Dean of Student Development & Career Initiatives at the University of Michigan, Daniel Porterfield, PhD, President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, and Eric Wood, PhD, Director of Counseling and Mental Health at Texas Christian University. Register today!
Mental and Behavioral Health
According to a recent poll conducted by Harvard University’s Making Caring Common initiative, anxiety and depression are twice as common among young adults as they are among teenagers, The Washington Post reports. Among young adults (18 to 25 years old), 36% experienced anxiety and 29% reported depression, compared to 18% of younger youth. The report suggests a number of drivers including the fact that many young adults started their careers or went to college in the midst of a pandemic and a faltering economy. They also had to deal with exorbitant housing costs, a lack of social support at work, natural disasters, false information that was made worse by social media, and a generation-wide epidemic of loneliness. Young adults face these issues with less resources for assistance than younger teenagers, who interact with parents, guardians, teachers, and mentors on a regular basis at school.
A profile in The Chronicle finds that professors are increasingly expected to act as first responders to students in mental and emotional distress. Some colleges urge faculty to include “wellness statements” on their syllabi, and many institutions offer training on responding to student mental health crises. But many faculty members find it difficult to identify what constitutes a crisis or are uncomfortable blurring the lines of “emotional professionalism” in academia. According to recent data from the Healthy Minds Network, only half of staff members felt they could identify a student who was experiencing emotional distress. A few faculty members voice their cynicism over the demands made of them and push back against what they perceive to be another uncompensated charge on their time and emotional resources. The article suggests that the burden of supporting the growing number of anxious and depressed students on college campuses is not distributed evenly, with female faculty, LGBTQ+ faculty, and faculty of color being more likely to report having had a one-on-one conversation with a student about their mental health in the past year.
Forbes reports that architectural firm KTGY has developed a student housing model to help combat mental health concerns among college students. Large, spacious living quarters that deter students from forming relationships and foster isolation are the result of student housing designs that put what students want over what they need, the firm argues. KTGY created a college housing concept called Thrive Hall, which emphasizes quality rest, an active lifestyle, connecting to nature, building community, purposeful study places, and mental health assistance, in order to address mental health and wellness. Through the creative use of sliding doors to create both visual and auditory separation and the provision of spaces inside shared living areas to divide the stress of studying from the serenity of sleeping, the proposal aims to foster a sense of community in college dorms while also offering quiet study spaces.
With the debut of the Well Ride program, students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill can now get free transportation for off-campus mental health treatments, Inside Higher Ed reports. The program will simplify access to mental health services for students who lack dependable transportation options. Approximately thirty percent of students who use UNC’s Counseling and Psychology Services (CAPS) are referred to off-campus treatment. The program will use Lyft to book trips and notify students via push notifications to summon the driver from one of three places on campus. The initiative is especially beneficial for new or first-year students who might find it difficult to get around campus on their own. Staff at CAPS are hoping to change the procedure to give students a Lyft pass, which would give them a set number of trips covered by the university.
Amid rising demand for mental health services, Vanguard University in Southern California has ramped up counseling and wellness services, The Los Angeles Times reports. The private Christian university held a Wellness Fair on its Costa Mesa campus to discuss mental health among students. The event, attended by professionals and experts, aimed to address the complex internal lives of adolescents and young adults. The university also introduced its Living Well Committee, consisting of students, faculty, and staff, which focuses on supporting the diverse spiritual, relational, physical, and emotional needs of the campus community.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute introduced new measures to repair the long-lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on young adults’ academic and social abilities, Higher Ed Dive reports. The university has revamped its orientation, advising process, and physical education requirements to provide students with a strong foundation for their lives after college. With the summer-long orientation programs, students may now form lasting relationships while also giving university staff members more time to interact with students and their families. Additionally, academic advisers will meet in small groups with students and their families to create a manageable course schedule suited to the individual’s academic background and interests.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Native American and Indigenous students are underrepresented in computer science degrees, according to a recent report from the American Indian Science and Engineering Society and the Kapor Foundation. The research outlines obstacles to their involvement in the technology sector and offers recommendations on how to better assist students from underrepresented backgrounds. The research notes that the percentage of Native Americans and Alaska Natives who are registered technical apprentices is only 0.6%; the percentage for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders is even lower, at 0.4%, Inside Higher Ed reports. The percentage of native students receiving doctorates is 0.1%. The increased popularity of computer and information sciences among four-year colleges is also highlighted in the report.
Substance Use
The University of New Hampshire has received $400,000 from the state to establish a peer support group for students in substance abuse recovery, Inside Higher Ed reports. Students in recovery and their families will have access to psychosocial education, sober social functions, counseling services, and family support from the program. The effort is led by the UNH Institute for Disability, which focuses on social science research and best practices to support adolescents and families. The group will convene for drug-free, recovery-focused activities that are tailored to the interests of the students.
Access and Affordability
The U.S. The Department of Education has proposed a set of regulations to increase federal control over financially unstable universities, Higher Ed Dive reports. The package expands the list of circumstances in which universities are required to provide a letter of credit to the government as a means of safeguarding their finances. The regulations are implemented as college expenses skyrocket, adding $1.6 trillion to the federal loan portfolio. Consumer protections are also included in the new regulations, which require universities to provide transparent financial aid offers that detail the various forms of help and the cost of tuition. Additionally, they prohibit colleges from keeping academic records of students who used Title IV financial help to cover the cost of their college education. The approach, according to critics, may make it more difficult for students to transfer to another college or find employment.
Inside Higher Ed reports that “period poverty,” or inability to afford menstruation products, is a growing issue on college and university campuses. According to a recent survey, 18.7% of female college students report having had to choose between buying menstrual products and paying for other expenses. An organization for menstruation equity in Massachusetts called Dignity Matters partnered with MassBay and Framingham State University to create plans to gather and distribute free supplies in each college’s restroom. In California, the Menstrual Equity for All Act requires all 23 campuses of the California State University system to provide free menstrual products on campus. MassBay and Dignity Matters, who provide menstrual products to about 15,000 women and girls in Massachusetts every month, hope for a similar law for Massachusetts universities.
Montana is introducing a new program called Montana 10, designed to help low-income, rural, and Native American students adjust to college, stay enrolled, and graduate on time, according to The Hechinger Report. The program offers academic, social, and financial support to help students cope with challenges such as extensive commutes from rural areas and financial difficulties. Montana 10 provides advising, career planning, academic help, and financial support like textbook assistance and scholarships. Students must enroll full-time, complete federal financial aid paperwork, and meet with program staff regularly to stay on track. The program has proven effective in improving rural students’ likelihood of staying in college and earning a degree. Similar programs may offer the same benefits in other states with a high population of students from low-income rural communities.
Sollers College, a for-profit college in New Jersey, will forgive $3.4 million in student loans to settle allegations that it created illegitimate loans and used dishonest marketing to increase enrollment, Higher Ed Dive reports. Officials from the Federal Trade Commission and the state of New Jersey had accused Sollers of falsifying the employment statistics of its graduates and fraudulently claiming that it could place students in positions with well-known corporations. Additionally, they said that Sollers had entered into erroneous income-share agreements, or ISAs, which let students pay for their tuition at little or no upfront cost by guaranteeing a portion of their monthly pay for a predetermined amount of time after they graduate. On Wednesday, representatives of the FTC and New Jersey made the $4.6 million settlement agreements public. Sollers and its president, Siba Padhi, are fined $1.2 million by the state.
Student Success
An op-ed in The Chronicle argues that colleges and universities need a clear and thorough plan for measuring and ensuring student success. The author cites the Gallup-Purdue Index which identifies several key experiences for college students: having a professor who makes them excited to learn, having a faculty mentor who cares about their personal development, working on a long-term project, doing an internship, and participating actively in extracurriculars. Some colleges have readily adopted Gallup-Purdue-based strategies, such as Furman University, which has a 72-percent graduation rate for low-income incoming students, placing it within the top 5 percent of institutions for return on investment for low-income students. Experts urge colleges and universities to implement these known pathways for student success in order to ensure that all students feel engaged in their community and have a positive vision for their post-college lives.
In an effort to reduce equity gaps and boost student retention throughout their first two years of college, eleven universities are collaborating with the Gardner Institute to implement student success measures, Inside Higher Ed reports. College administrators have long been troubled by the fact that most students who drop out do so in their first two years of study. New studies indicate that colleges and universities should not only focus their efforts on first-year students, but extend retention efforts into students’ second year, when they are more likely to drop out than in subsequent years. The Gardner Institute launched its new program, Transforming the Foundational Postsecondary Experience, with the goal of closing performance gaps and improving student outcomes by helping colleges analyze data about their students and redesign their student success initiatives. Over the next five years, the institute will work with these institutions to develop long-term, sustainable plans to increase metrics of success, including course completion, retention, and graduation rates.
Faculty
According to a recent study, women are more likely than men to resign from their faculty positions, The Chronicle reports. Women with tenure and women in fields outside of STEM leave their positions at the highest rates. Women in their early careers are more likely to quit because of problems with work-life balance, while women in later stages of their careers are more likely to leave because of a hostile work environment. Men typically give reasons related to their jobs, like a lack of resources or assistance. The study looked at a census of employment records gathered by the Academic Analytics Research Center between 2011 and 2020, and it was published in Science Advances. It was discovered that across all professional stages, women were more likely than men to leave their faculty positions.
Student Buzz
Dartmouth College’s student-run newspaper The Dartmouth reports on the college’s new “Commitment to Care,” a strategic plan for the mental health and wellbeing of students. , The plan intends to prioritize student welfare and create resources for wellness during their time at Dartmouth. It was created in response to the college’s partnership with the JED Foundation to address the student mental health crisis. The proposal calls for upgrading medical leave regulations, eliminating fees for overnight stays in the health service center, and appointing a chief health and wellness officer. Dartmouth intends to fund faculty mental health education, evaluate peer support program gaps, and offer services to students with a range of life circumstances. The proposal also recognizes the national mental health issue and lists stresses that college students face, such as gun violence, systematic racism, and climate change.
Bowdoin College’s Counseling and Wellness Services and Active Minds co-hosted a meet-and-greet event for World Mental Health Day to highlight on-campus mental health resources, The Bowdoin Orient reports. The event aimed to create face-to-face connections with students, promoting awareness of counseling and wellness resources. The event comes after BSG announced 700 free subscriptions to Headspace, a meditation and mental health support app, to support mental wellness at the College. Counseling and Wellness Services is seeking to expand its presence on campus and involve more students in organizing programming to engage with students on campus.
University Counseling Services (UCS) at Howard University is facing staffing issues and a low student-to-counselor ratio, resulting in long wait times for students seeking help, according to the student-run newspaper The Hilltop. The services offer medication management, group therapy, and individual therapy, but some students report that they are “still waiting for a response years after contacting” UCS, The Hilltop reports. The student-to-counselor ratio at Howard is one full-time clinician for every 1,340 students, and students argue that limited counseling services and long wait times may deter students from seeking help.
The Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Polytechnic University has built a wellness space to support student and faculty mental health, Virginia Tech News reports. The room provides a calm environment where faculty, staff, and students can concentrate on their mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The area is available in 15-minute increments and is equipped with natural light, frosted glass panels for privacy, and yoga and light exercise equipment. Its purpose is to provide enough study space within the library and to accommodate those seeking rest and rejuvenation. The wellness room is a new addition to the Small Animal Teaching Hospital’s proposed expansion, which advocates for the provision of quiet spaces that enhance wellbeing and foster productive workplaces.
