Webinar Video: Rethinking Higher Education’s Purpose
A recording of LearningWell magazine’s November 14th webinar Rethinking Higher Education’s Purpose is now available for online viewing.
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 invites 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 explores how wellbeing factors into some of the most important questions in higher education today. The webinar is moderated by Marjorie Malpiede, editor-in-chief of LearningWell magazine. 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. Watch now!
Mental and Behavioral Health
In an op-ed for Time, Amanda Joy Calhoun, an Adult and Child Psychiatry resident at Yale School of Medicine and the Yale Child Study Center, argues that the youth mental health crisis is fueled in part by anti-Black racism in childhood and adolescence. The Biden-Harris administration has allocated $200 million to address the youth mental health crisis, which was declared a national emergency in 2021; however, Calhoun argues that racism has not been thoroughly examined as a contributing factor to the crisis. According to Calhoun, the current mental health system is inadequate to tackle this issue, with Black youth experiencing unprecedented rates of mental health issues. Zero-tolerance policies in predominantly-Black schools lead to expulsion, suspension, arrest, and increased rates of depression in Black males, contributing to the “adultification” and criminalization of Black youth. Calhoun contends that traditional medical education lacks training to address these issues and urges mental health experts and care providers to consider anti-racism as paramount to fighting the youth mental health crisis.
Many colleges and universities have developed wellness apps to increase students’ access to mental and behavioral health resources, Inside Higher Ed reports. These apps include the University of Texas System’s mindfulness-based Thrive at UT app, the University of Michigan’s Stay in the Blue app for monitoring alcohol use, and the University of Kansas’s BEST-U app for students struggling with eating disorders.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
The State University System of Florida has approved new regulations in compliance with Senate Bill 266 despite public opposition and student pushback, Inside Higher Ed reports. The bill prohibits public colleges and universities from using state funding for any activities related to DEI or “political or social activism.” Using language similar to that of the recent Texas Senate Bill 17, regulations define DEI as “any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation and promotes differential or preferential treatment of individuals on the basis of such classification.”
During a hearing on “confronting the scourge of antisemitism on campus,” House Republicans accused DEI programs of contributing to the increase of antisemitic rhetoric and incidents on college campuses, Inside Higher Ed reports. Republicans criticized the rise in antisemitism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, arguing that DEI programs promote hatred by dividing students into “either the oppressed or the oppressors.” Some lawmakers argued that Jewish students are neither supported nor considered by campus DEI programs, creating an unwelcoming and hostile environment that does not protect Jewish students despite protecting other minority groups.
Reporting from The Chronicle highlights the barriers to accessing higher education among Black high school students in rural communities. The Virginia College Advising Corps (VCAC), a member of the nonprofit organization College Advising Corps, focuses on helping teenagers from high schools that do not send many students to college gain access to opportunities in higher education. VCAC helped more than 8,000 students across the state attend college in 2021 and 2022. Reporters for The Chronicle traveled to Sussex Central High School, a majority Black institution in south central Virginia with high poverty rates. In 2023, 10% of potential graduates at Sussex Central had dropped out before earning a high school diploma. The College Advising Corps aims to increase college attendance among students from rural, underserved communities.
Access and Affordability
Inside Higher Ed columnist and former military officer Wick Sloane published his annual report on undergraduate veterans attending top colleges and universities. Sloane argues that a majority of selective institutions have taken no significant steps to increase veteran enrollment since he began publishing his annual report more than a decade ago. According to the Brown Cost of Wars Project, there have been 30,177 deaths by suicide among US service members and veterans of post-Sept. 11 wars. The number of homeless veterans is estimated to be around 33,000. Sloane notes that while Bunker Hill Community College enrolled 246 veterans this fall, Williams College enrolled 12; Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania each enrolled five; and some institutions reported no veteran undergraduates. Sloane urges these elite colleges and universities to “look out for the three million other people’s children that we, the people, have sent to war.”
The Biden administration’s plan to extend overtime eligibility to millions of American workers, including thousands in higher education, has caused concern among colleges and universities, who say they may have to increase tuition or fire employees. The Department of Labor’s proposal to increase the threshold for overtime pay by 55% is deemed necessary in order to guarantee equitable compensation for salaried workers who earn lesser wages, Inside Higher Ed reports. In higher education, the proposal will most likely impact athletic trainers, administrative personnel, counselors and advisers, admissions officers, and student affairs professionals, as a teaching exemption in federal labor law would protect faculty members. If the proposed regulation is approved in its current form, colleges and universities will need to either give exempt employees additional income to put them above the threshold or switch impacted employees to an hourly pay rate and set up procedures to track their hours. This may result in additional costs and budget cuts to services for students. Some colleges and universities have urged the Biden administration to gradually phase in the raise, create a lower threshold, or withdraw the proposal entirely. Institutions are requesting a minimum of 180 days to accommodate any modifications to the overtime policy.
Campus Safety
Tensions on American college campuses have increased since the Hamas attack on October 7th, with protests escalating into physical altercations and both Muslim and Jewish organizations reporting threats and attacks, The New York Times reports. Students who support Palestine assert that they are speaking up for the oppressed and disenfranchised Palestinian population in Gaza, but critics say that many of the protests’ catchphrases and messages actually encourage antisemitism and terrorism. Jewish students point to the use of antisemitic language like “Glory to Our Martyrs” at George Washington University and “The Jews R Nazis” at the University of Pennsylvania, stating that these slogans use the atrocities of the Holocaust to incite hatred toward Jews and Israel. Pro-Palestine students argue that criticism of Israel and Zionism is not anti-semitic, but a reaction to the decades-long devastation wrought by the Israeli government’s actions, which displaced 700,000 Palestinians in 1948 and has killed more than 10,000 people in the current invasion of Gaza. A lack of consensus around acceptable language may explain why university administrators are finding it difficult to control the escalating tensions.
Belmont University student Jillian Ludwig died in an off-campus shooting last week, NBC News reports. Shaquille Taylor, 29, was identified as the suspected shooter and taken into custody. Taylor had been criminally charged multiple times in the past, including in 2021 when he was charged with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The charges were dismissed and Taylor was released after he was found medically incompetent to stand trial due to severe mental illness and developmental disability. A day prior to Ludwig’s death, Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk had urged the Tennessee Legislature to make it easier to commit someone to a mental institution.
Academic Freedom and Free Speech
Twenty students at Brown University were arrested following a campus sit-in protesting the Israel-Hamas War, The Boston Globe reports. The students, BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now, called on Brown University President Christina Paxson to promote an immediate ceasefire and divest the university’s endowment from companies that manufacture weapons or enable war crimes in Gaza. The students reportedly received multiple trespass warnings leading up to their arrests.
Columbia University has suspended two pro-Palestine student groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, for violating campus event policies during an organized walkout, Inside Higher Ed reports. The suspension will be in place through the end of the fall term. Despite warnings, both organizations staged an unapproved event on Thursday that critics say featured intimidation and threatening words. The protest, “Shut It Down! For Palestine,” was characterized as a nonviolent art installation. Critics of the suspension say it violates the students’ rights to free speech.
Columbia University student Yusuf Hafez is suing conservative organization Accuracy in Media for publishing his name and photograph online under the headline “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites,” Inside Higher Ed reports. Hafez was one of dozens of students captured on camera when AIM’s founder drove a “doxing truck” across campus, targeting members of the six student organizations who signed a letter blaming Israel for the Hamas attacks.
Student Success
A new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences examines the value of a college degree in the humanities across different states, according to analysis by The Chronicle. The study finds that graduates in every state who majored in humanities fields outearned people with no degree, had a median income at least 40% higher than that of workers with only a high school diploma, and, in seven states, out-earned those without college degrees by at least 80%. Humanities majors had the same unemployment rate as other college graduates (roughly 3%, about half the average unemployment rate for people without college degrees). As humanities programs face budget cuts in some states, colleges and universities hope the data will convince state lawmakers that humanities majors have positive career outcomes.
As faculty members report a rise in classroom disruptions and conflict, some colleges and universities are grappling with students’ increasing demands for flexibility, The Chronicle reports. Administrators and experts say the changes are caused by a rise in mental-health challenges, a lack of interaction during the pandemic, students’ growing use of social media, political divides, and a shifting power dynamic where students feel more comfortable advocating for their needs. To address these challenges, student-affairs staff recommend looking at life factors, such as long commutes, work hours, and difficulty with time management. Services could include academic coaching, help finding scholarships or on-campus jobs, and transparent course design.
Student Buzz
In an op-ed for The Poly Post, the student-run newspaper of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, a 23-year-old male college student argues that stigma surrounding men’s mental health exacerbates daily loneliness and suicidality among young men. A survey by the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment found that 63.1% of students feel lonely during the last 12 months of college, and men are less likely to receive mental health treatment or diagnosis. Men are also four times more likely to commit suicide than women, with gay and bisexual men under 25 at a higher risk of attempting suicide than the general population.
A profile in the GW Hatchet, George Washington University’s student-run newspaper, highlights graduate student Emily Htway’s efforts to expand the Office of Health Promotion and Education’s sexual education resources as the university’s first-ever sexual health specialist. Htway established the “GW Love Hub” in the Student Support Center, which provides free safe-sex products to GW community members, as well as a website that offers educational guides on topics related to sexual wellness, including information about consent, contraception, and STI testing.
