Mental and Behavioral Health
The family of Brennan Gaeth, a University of Minnesota graduate who struggled with addiction and died last year after a relapse, has helped fund a wellness room in the Law School where students can de-stress without the distractions of technology or homework. The space includes couches, yoga mats, coloring materials, water painting, blankets and a therapy lamp.
On Thursday, University of Pennsylvania students convened at an event organized by Active Minds Penn and Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention to discuss mental health in relation to the prevalence of sexual assault in media coverage recently, particularly news surrounding the Brett Kavanaugh hearings. The event also aimed to educate students on how they can help peers dealing with similar issues. Methods they suggested included taking a social media cleanse, participating in advocacy and marching, taking a break from news, and practicing self-care while also helping others.
Tulsa Community College received a $375,000 federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to fund the Mental Health First Aid program over the next three years. The program empowers people to help someone showing some warning signs of a mental health issue. Jessica Heavin, director of Wellness Services said, “It is especially important for us in this situation. Young college students, and nontraditional new college students, sometimes are dealing with a lot of stress. There are a lot of changes dealing with a new situation in college. Sometimes, they may come into this situation with some history of mental issues. Whatever the case, this is another way for us to prepare to help someone.”
On the UCLA “In the Know” podcast, opinion editor Keshav Tadimeti spoke to Kristie-Valerie Hoang, the Daily Bruin’s social media director, about UCLA’s Counseling and Psychological Services center, the counseling crisis, and the barriers that prevent CAPs from serving all students.
Washington University in St. Louis has piloted a new virtual-reality training program this year that aims to give faculty members the tools to identify and address students suffering from mental-health challenges such as depression. St. Louis on the Air discussed the new program, called At Risk for College and University Faculty and Staff, and the state of mental health on college campuses with Jordan Worthington, Washington University’s assistant director of mental-health outreach and programming, and Dr. Cheri LeBlanc, the executive director of the Habif Health and Wellness Center.
Cornell University‘s student-led Mental Health Task Force finalized its list of recommendations to improve the school’s mental health services and formally introduced them to the administration and gather signatures from the student body. The task force recommendations include hiring new counselors and mental health liaisons, new training for resident advisors and university staff, changes to leave of absence policies, and increasing access to off-campus mental health services.
New research suggests that many college students had “clinically significant” levels of stress after the 2016 presidential election. The study, based on responses by 769 Arizona State University students, found that a quarter of students had stress levels that were clinically significant. The average stress score of students was comparable to what witnesses to a mass shooting would report seven months after the event. Stress levels were highest among black and Latino students and among women. Non-Christians also reported higher stress levels than did others.
College athletic departments are connecting athletes to mental health resources at higher rates than ever. A 2016 National Institutes of Health study found that nearly 135 Division I programs had a mental health clinician, compared to the fewer than 25 programs that had a clinician in 2014. The increase in mental health resources has been partly spurred by more student-athletes demanding help. Justin Anderson, the founder of Premier Sports Psychology and the sports psychologist for the University of Minnesota said, “At the collegiate level, it’s more about overwhelmed counseling centers and coaches starting to say ‘we have people here that aren’t doing so well and we need that support and we need that support now.’
Diversity and Inclusion
The Chronicle reports that one week into a trial challenging Harvard University’s use of race in admissions decisions, the strategies of each side are starting to come into focus. On Friday, the plaintiff, Students for Fair Admissions, tried to make the case that Harvard College’s director of admissions had a bias against Asian-Americans. The university vehemently denies those claims. Harvard officials have said that they do consider applicants’ race when evaluating them; they say that it’s not something that can be divorced from a person’s life experience. But they insist that it is never considered a negative factor. Lawyers for Students for Fair Admissions have said that “affirmative action is not on trial,” but parts of their argument on Friday seemed to be making a case against any consideration of race in admissions. The Washington Post published all the documents entered as evidence in the trial.
The question of whether Harvard University could use socioeconomic status instead of race in admissions, and still have a diverse student body, was debated on Monday. Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, who testified for the plaintiffs, presented models that showed that Harvard would still be racially diverse if admissions officials did not consider the race of applicants, but gave a greater preference to applicants from low-income families. However, in each of the models he reviewed, the portion of African-American students admitted declined, from 14 percent to 10 percent or lower. The number of white applicants admitted stayed the same – at 40 percent – or decreased, and the number of Asian-American admittees increased, from 24 percent to around 30 percent.
An op-ed in the Atlantic argues that the plaintiffs are simply testing out their arguments to see which ones prove most effective of a potential appeal to the Supreme Court. According to the editorial, once their line of attack has been determined, they will likely have a major opportunity to present their arguments before an amenable Supreme Court made up of a majority of justices who are skeptical of affirmative-action policies.
According to a line of U.S. Supreme Court rulings, colleges and universities are expected to consider race-neutral admissions policies before they can take race into account in evaluating undergraduate-student applications. In a federal courtroom on Tuesday, lawyers scrutinized whether Harvard University officials had done enough to determine that race-neutral alternatives would not work for them.
The New York Times reported that the Trump administration is considering defining gender as a biological condition determined by a person’s gender at birth. The change would basically eliminate federal recognition of 1.4 million Americans who have chosen to identify as a gender other than the one assigned at birth. That definition could be adopted by Betsy DeVos’s Department of Education, which is reviewing rules on how to deal with complaints of sex discrimination at schools and colleges. If the Education Department integrates the new definition into its new regulations, expected to be released this fall, it seems likely that a transgender student would not have recourse to complain to the federal government about discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
A study conducted last spring by TheDream.US, an organization that supports DACA students with scholarships, found that 71 percent of DACA students work in some capacity while attending college and 29 percent work full time. Of the employed students, approximately 89 percent are also full-time students, according to a report on the study released on Monday. By contrast, 43 percent of all undergraduates work in some capacity. Based on the study’s findings, TheDream.US’s primary recommendation for colleges and universities is to establish resource centers with staff members who can provide professional, academic, and legal counseling specific to the needs of undocumented students. The group also recommended that campuses provide mental and physical health services to immigrant students. Some schools are listening. The University of California at Davis was the first to build a center for undocumented students, in 2014,that among other things, provides free legal services to students and their parents through a legal fellow from the university’s law school. Metropolitan State University of Denver’s Immigrant Services Program serves international students and refugees. About 70 to 90 percent of the 330 students registered with the program are DACA recipients.
Julie J. Park, associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, College Park spoke with Inside Higher Ed about her new book, Race on Campus: Debunking Myths with Data, and the widespread misconceptions about the state of race relations in higher education. With her book, Park seeks to enable educators and others to have a better-informed discussion on race.
University of Cincinnati senior Megdelawit Habteselassie made history as the first African-American woman to serve as student body president in UC’s 199-year history. “I wish it happened sooner,” said Habteselassie, 22, from her office in the Steger Student Life Center.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Patients of George Tyndall, a former University of Southern California gynecologist accused of conducting inappropriate examinations and violating the campus’s harassment policy may receive up to $250,000 each in the settlement of a class action. The university announced that it had reached an agreement to settle the lawsuit for $215 million. All former patients who received women’s health services from the gynecologist will receive $2,500. Former patients who share more details about what happened to them may receive up to $250,000. The university knew of Tyndall’s behavior since at least the 1990s, according to the complaint.
Physical Health and Wellness
The University of Iowa adopted a tobacco-free policy in 2008, including but not limited to cigarettes, cigars, pipes, e-cigarettes, and any non-FDA approved nicotine-delivery device. The university has since offered several cessation programs for members of the community. As more students shift from using combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes, UI Student Health & Wellness cessation program attendance has declined and the policy has become even more difficult to enforce.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Student Health Service Flu Clinic saw an over 50 percent increase in the total number of students vaccinated at the three-day clinic, which offered flu shots for free for the first time this year.
Substance Use
Last month the North-American Interfraternity Conference, which represents 66 national and international fraternities, called on its chapters to ban hard liquor at all facilities and campus events. Under the new rule, the member fraternities have until September 2019 to ban all drinks that exceed a 15-percent alcohol content, except when served by a third-party vendor. The Chronicle highlighted how similar bans have gone at the University of Missouri and Purdue University. Mizzou fraternities have been disciplined for violating the hard-liquor ban five times over the past four years, according to the campus’s “Community Conduct History” list. During the same period, fraternities have committed 83 other alcohol-related violations. There have been some signs of improvement at Purdue’s fraternities since their ban took effect. Since 2010 the fraternities’ cumulative GPA has increased, from 2.91 to 3.11, he said, and their membership has grown.
