Quadcast Ep 6: Daniel Eisenberg, PhD and James Hudziak, MD
The third episode in a special series on Flourishing is out now. This week, we hear from Daniel Eisenberg, PhD, Director of the Healthy Minds Network and the Principal Investigator of the Healthy Minds Study; and James Hudziak, MD, creator and director of the UVM Wellness Environment. The experts discuss the need for innovation in college student mental health, focusing on a successful experiment in wellbeing at UVM and the need to measure and share data on initiatives such as these across institutions. This series is based on the report, “Creating Environments for Flourishing” released by the Mary Christie Foundation and Georgetown University. You can listen to the episode here or on your podcast app.
Mental and Behavioral Health
On October 22nd, the Healthy Minds Network is holding the 2020 Fall Mental Health Symposium: Advancing Mental Health Equity in K-12 and Post-Secondary Education: How Can Research Support Anti-Racism Efforts? This virtual event will be facilitated by Jesse Bridges, M.Ed., SVP of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at EVERFI, Sherry Davis Molock, Ph.D., M.Div., Associate Professor, Psychological & Brain Sciences at George Washington University, Erin McClintock, M.Ed., Head of Impact, Social and Emotional Learning at EVERFI and Sasha Zhou, Ph.D., MHSA, Assistant Professor at Wayne State University and Co-Investigator of The Healthy Minds Study.
In a new Active Minds survey, about 75% of students reported that their mental health has worsened in the pandemic. The survey of roughly 2,000 students was conducted in September. Most students (66.89%) also reported an increase in supporting others with their mental wellness.
Inside Higher Ed reports that at Missouri Valley College, students with mental health conditions who have asked to attend classes online have been denied the accommodation. Several students have asked to switch to 100% virtual learning due to their severe anxiety over the pandemic and the way their college is handling it. College officials say the students aren’t eligible, and that allowing students suffering from mental health issues to learn remotely during the pandemic is not a “reasonable” accommodation. Experts disagree saying the students are legally entitled to the accommodation under the Americans With Disabilities Act, the law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in federally funded institutions.
The American Council on Education released new survey findings that highlight the concerns of college presidents this fall. College leaders were asked to select their five top concerns from a list of 19 Covid-related issues. Fifty-three percent of presidents listed student mental health, and 42 percent pointed to faculty and staff mental health as being among their biggest worries.
The Chronicle highlighted ways that colleges are trying to support college students placed in quarantine on campus, including care packages, virtual drop-in counseling sessions, support groups and in some cases, limited outdoor time. Sarah Ketchen Lipson, PhD, co- Principle Investigator of the Healthy Minds Study and an assistant professor in the School of Public Health at Boston University, said that isolation, loneliness, and a lower sense of belonging are “highly predictive” of student well-being. Lipson said that students in quarantine could be experiencing “an accumulation of trauma” caused by not only loneliness, but also the fear and anxiety of contracting COVID-19 and other stressors like racial trauma. “It’s a really challenging time to be by yourself and alone with your thoughts,” she said.
The Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors released the result of their annual survey, which this year asked colleges to compare the first four weeks of this semester with the first four weeks of fall 2019. The survey found a 29-percent decrease in the number of students seeking counseling services. However, the majority of counseling directors (81 percent) reported increased student loneliness, and more than half (57 percent) reported higher student anxiety. Sharon Mitchell, senior director of counseling, health, and wellness at the University at Buffalo and president of the association, cautioned that the survey results do not explain the reasons for the decrease in students seeking services.
Two University of Connecticut students created an online platform, Refreshr to help their peers build supportive connections during this time of uncertainty and physical distancing. Refreshr uses a one-way video sharing platform to help students send words of encouragement to others they match with on the platform. “With mental health, it’s sometimes hard for students to support each other,” says Alex Kim, who co-founded Refreshr with friend, Jamison Cote. “Last semester was definitely just weird, and unprecedented, and crazy. Entering this semester and the coming semesters, it’s still going to be different – it’s a new way, how we learn and how we interact with other people. With such a drastic change, we still need to be able to be resilient as students and to be able to support each other, because we’re going to need it the most, especially during a time like this.”
The Daily Bruin highlights the mental health effect of UCLA students’ living situations this fall. Some students said that after months of separation from friends, they were concerned about the loneliness that would come from spending even more time away from campus. However, other students say the time at home provided them with much-needed support in the spring semester. Daniel Eisenberg, Director of the Healthy Minds Network and a professor of health policy of management at UCLA told the Daily Bruin that the effects of students moving back home from university varies from person to person, and the support students feel from their family will in part determine the state of their mental health.
Acclimating to college poses new challenges to this year’s freshman class as they navigate an unprecedented higher ed landscape. Many are finding that cultivating a meaningful college experience is challenging. Students say classes and club meetings over Zoom do not break up the monotony. One student said, “It’s really the isolation that gets to you. I just feel stuck all the time and have this feeling of existential dread. I know that this time last year, last year’s class was already making friends and being carefree, but we’re stuck here alone, basically locked in our rooms without familiar faces, without friends, with no else besides your roommate.”
KQED explores the creative ways that colleges and universities are supporting their students’ mental health. In some cases, counseling staff drop into zoom lectures to let students know about counseling and workshops, or have asked professors to embed information about campus mental health services in their syllabi. Since they cannot legally offer out-of-state students therapy, they are finding nontraditional ways to provide them with services, like offering mental health workshops instead of counseling. Laura Horne, chief program officer at Active Minds, a nonprofit that focuses on mental health in young adults said that prior to the pandemic, the field had struggled to innovate beyond in-person therapy, which can be intimidating to some students. “Virtual therapy, I think, is an example of how we can get a little bit more innovative and meet students where they are and make it a little bit easier for them to try it without feeling like they have to commit right away,” she said.
Several colleges and universities have announced that there will be no spring recess in the coming semester. Students at Yale and Duke University are pushing back, saying that breaks constitute a much-needed break. “I’ve definitely seen the impact on a lot of my enrolled friends on what it’s like to be pushed for the full semester without having the usual October break,” one Yale student said. “That kind of constant push and lack of a boundary between work and relaxation seems to be definitely impacting people’s mental health and just general sense of well-being more than even during the normal school year.” In lieu of the usual spring break, Yale has planned five individual days off spread throughout the semester. In the Duke Chronicle, the Community Editorial Board wrote that they recognized the need to maintain the academic calendar, but asked for the university to do more to address their strains on mental health and create pandemic-appropriate academic policies-such as assignment-blackout days-by working closely with student representatives. “We Duke students are resilient, passionate about learning, and invested in the Duke community,” they wrote. “However, we need the Duke administration to take an active role in supporting student mental health during the coronavirus pandemic.”
At Vanderbilt, a petition calling for the university to offer a day off to benefit overall mental health gained 1,000 signatures in several hours.
In the New York Times, Laurie Santos, PhD, professor at Yale University and creator of Yale’s most popular undergraduate class, the Science of Wellbeing, shared her insights on self-care within the context of the pandemic, highlighting that it can and should include what she calls “other-oriented efforts.” According to Santos, small conversations with strangers, such as a fellow commuter or the cashier at the local grocery stores, can greatly improve a person’s happiness. Santos says she strives to produce these small mood-boosting interactions for her students by staying on Zoom after her class finishes to answer any questions and check in with them.
WPR reports that, during the 2019-2020 school year, more than 14,000 University of Wisconsin System students sought mental health counseling, some of which came after the universities closed and sent students home this spring. Sandy Cox, UW-Oshkosh director of counseling, told the UW Board of Regents that students using campus counseling services reported that the coronavirus caused additional worry about their own well-being and those of loved ones. Cox said students also reported new worries about their financial well-being, and that some say they have turned to substance abuse as a coping mechanism.
Michael Lai, a Hofstra alumni, created the apps “Cress” and “Callie” to support college student mental health. “Cress” offers confidential peer support by matching students in similar circumstances into group chats. Recent enhancements to the app include daily journaling, personal insights, and analytics from activity use. “Callie” is a personalized experience driven by artificial intelligence to assist students in creating and normalizing wellness habits based on one’s interests.
The Wall Street Journal reports that resident advisors and community assistants who are on the front lines of the pandemic response on campuses, are burning out. Many people in these positions, who help students navigate health systems and police student behavior, have resigned, fearing risks to their own health or becoming overwhelmed with the added responsibility. At the University of Michigan, RAs went on strike for nearly two weeks to protest for increased Covid-19 protections. At Cornell University, RAs called off a strike after administrators agreed to discuss their concerns.
In University Business, Alan Kadish, MD, president of the Touro College & University System and New York Medical College, and Robert Amler, MD, MBA, Dean of the School of Health Sciences and Practice at New York Medical College, described their approach to managing student behavior on campus during the pandemic. When faced with students breaking the college’s rules, the administration arranged interviews between the students and physicians and a psychiatrist to get to the root of why they were willing to jeopardize their own health, the health of others and potentially their future careers. “The overwhelming theme that emerged in discussions with our students was that they wanted to feel socially connected as they began their first year in school,” Kadish and Amler write. “They worried that missing this opportunity could impact their ability to form friendships, create a professional network and perhaps even hinder their future careers.’ Armed with this understanding, the university was able to tailor their public health approach to take student perspective into account, and work to create real, meaningful opportunities to socialize and connect, rather than strictly punishing students.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The Justice Department filed a lawsuit last week against Yale University, alleging the school violated federal civil-rights law by discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants in undergraduate admissions. The complaint alleges that for the past few decades Yale’s “oversized, standardless, intentional use of race has subjected domestic, non-transfer applicants to Yale College to discrimination on the ground of race.” The Justice Department has also supported legal efforts to end affirmative action at Harvard University. Yale University’s President, Peter Salovey said, “I want to be clear: Yale does not discriminate against applicants of any race or ethnicity. Our admissions practices are completely fair and lawful. Yale’s admissions policies will not change as a result of the filing of this baseless lawsuit.” He also said the Justice Department’s claims were “based on inaccurate statistics and unfounded conclusions.” Ted Mitchell, the president of the American Council on Education, called the Justice Department’s lawsuit “shocking and disheartening,” and said it contradicted decades of Supreme Court precedent that allowed for holistic admission processes.
The New Yorker asks what colleges owe their most vulnerable students during the pandemic, which has exacerbated the already-significant disparities among students. Closed dorms and dining halls have created a crisis for students that rely on them for stable housing, regular meals and internet access. Anthony Abraham Jack, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who studies low-income students said, “It was my hope that colleges would do two things this fall. First, go one hundred percent remote. And, second, invite back any undergraduates who cannot be full students if they are away from campus.” Many schools have stepped in to buy laptops and Wi-Fi hot spots for disadvantaged students. Some have created emergency funds. Bridgette Davis, a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago who studies low-income students says that universities should go further, and use this unprecedented moment as “an opportunity to prioritize these students.” She said, “You could have a cohort of three hundred high-need students come to campus and be their own pod, and you could have faculty engage with them in person.”
The New York Times highlights the dire issues facing low income students, with many dropping out, and other scrambling to find housing amid campus closures and job losses. “Every part of this pandemic is hitting low-income students hardest, and they were already in bad shape to begin with,” said Sara Goldrick-Rab, the founding director of the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University, which studies the economic challenges facing college students. While some colleges and universities have increased financial aid to students in need, others say they cannot afford to offer more. A March federal stimulus package provided $7 billion for student expenses such as food, housing and health care, but has been largely depleted. Republican lawmakers have balked at passing further relief.
College access groups and high school counselors are finding innovative ways to reach students to help them fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as FAFSA, which states and colleges use to determine need-based and some merit-based aid. Normally, college counselors can remind students to apply and guide parents through the process. According to the Post, students miss out on billions of dollars in federal grants, work-study, subsidized student loans and state scholarships every year by failing to complete the form. Some counselors are holding FAFSA nights in parking lots with WiFi to let parents remain in their cars while advisers walk them through the application. Others are hosting virtual sessions or beefing up websites with video tutorials and infographics.
The tightening of state budgets has caused cuts to some college promise programs, which financially support low income students through their education. A budget cut to a college promise program in Oregon occurred after the release of awards, and the organization had to rescind offers, causing significant disruption to students’ lives . Other programs will likely face budget cuts over the next several years.
Saint Mary’s University’s Student Diversity Board held the first installment of its annual speaker series which focused on mental health and stigma. St. Mary’s senior Brianna Kinyanjui said discussion is key in reducing stereotypes about student mental health. She said, “Sometimes we tend to shy away from the hard topics such as mental health in the BIPOC communities, but it is important we have these conversations to uplift and validate others and start working towards raising awareness in these communities.”
Inside Higher Ed reports that two colleges are halting diversity efforts in response to the White House’s recent executive order against “divisive” training in federally supported programs. The directive forbids federal grantees from teaching certain ideologies, such as that the country is inherently racist or sexist. The Labor Department also noted that implicit bias training is banned if it teaches that any individual, by virtue of their race, sex or national origin, is oppressive or prejudicial, consciously or not. In a letter to campus, the University of Iowa’s interim associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, Liz Tovar, said, “Let us state unequivocally that diversity, equity and inclusion remain as core values within our institution.” However, she continued, “after consulting with multiple entities, and given the seriousness of the penalties for non-compliance with the order, which include the loss of federal funding, we are recommending that all units temporarily pause for a two-week period.” John A. Logan College in Illinois and Texas State University also suspended planned diversity events. The American Council on Education wrote to President Trump this week urging him to rescind the order, arguing it “is creating concern, confusion, and uncertainty for federal contractors and grant recipients across the country.”
The Chronicle reports that the order has colleges nationwide scrambling to respond or wondering how to. Peter F. Lake, a professor of law at Stetson University said that the executive order is such a broad statement that many will spend a lot of time trying to understand it and guessing what the government will do. “That’s where the chilling effect comes in,” he said.
Education Dive reports that new changes to the H-1B visa program could deter international students from studying in the U.S. The Trump administration’s overhaul of the visa program narrows its eligibility requirements and increases how much U.S. organizations must pay foreign employees.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Ohio State University will pay $5.8 million to settle lawsuits by another 23 men who alleged sexual misconduct by the late university physician Richard Strauss. The settlement is the university’s second agreement involving Strauss’ accusers. In March, the university agreed to pay $40.9 million into a fund for 162 plaintiffs.
Student Success
A new report from The Aspen Institute and the Community College Research Center (CCRC), identifies common elements of dual-enrollment programs that have strong outcomes for underrepresented students of color. Efforts include evaluating equity gaps and setting goals to close them, advertising to communities of color and proactively supporting struggling students.
Slightly more than half of nearly 300 college presidents surveyed by the American Council on Education (ACE) say their campuses’ enrollment is lower this fall than in 2019. Community colleges have experienced enrollment drops more than four year institutions. Seventy percent of four-year college presidents reported decreased international student enrollment.
Physical Health
An NPR analysis found that, of the colleges and universities that have chosen to hold classes in person this fall, most are not conducting widespread testing of their students for the coronavirus. NPR, working with the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College, which tracks institutional responses to the pandemic, examined data on more than 1,400 schools.
