Mental and Behavioral Health
Western Michigan University is hosting an event series called “Mental Health Matters: College Student Mental Health in the 21st Century, ” intended to respond to issues that are rising in frequency and severity among students. On February 7th, “The ‘S’ Word,” a film about young adults and suicide, will be screened on campus, to be followed by a panel discussion. The film aims to open conversation, reduce the shame and silence around suicide, and take steps toward prevention.
In Florida, Rep. Emily Slosberg (D) is working on a bill that would address mental illness, including the unique issues faced by college students. Jon Carter, the Government Relations Director for student government at Florida Atlantic University helped to bring about the bill, which provides resources for support and awareness.
Students who arrive on campus with complex mental health problems often find themselves faced with a system that is tailored to fast-track crisis intervention rather than in-depth therapy. According to a recent article in Salon, this leads many of them to drop out of counseling prematurely. Jennifer Callahan reveals that premature termination of psychotherapy in college counseling centers approaches 80 percent, while rates in private practice and community clinics fall between 40 and 60 percent.
Earlier this month, the Associated Press surveyed the nation’s 100 largest public universities for their annual data on student suicides, finding that many were not collecting data at all. University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is one of the schools that has been collecting suicide data, and uses it to identify trends, such as a delineation of suicide among certain school or colleges. Identification of these trends can be helpful in providing resources to areas where they are lacking, which was done last year on the school’s North Campus.
This weekend, University of California Davis will hold its second Mental Health Conference. The event, an entirely student-led initiative, aims to “engage students in destigmatization and education efforts, prompt attendees to organize around mental health issues and offer them the opportunity for self-reflection and healing through mental health discourse.” Mental health experts will offer keynote speeches and workshops, and attendees will be given access to diverse therapeutic techniques such as coloring activities and digitally-guided meditation in a “healing space.” Suicide prevention training and certifications will be offered, as well as modules focused on personal healing and growth, including topics such as yoga, anxiety management and compassionate communication.
A new short essay by Scott White, a college counselor in New Jersey who works both in high schools and in a small private practice, argues that demands over number of college-level courses are distorting high school students’ pre-college experience and creating excessive stress. Commonly repeated advice to high school students is to “take the most rigorous schedule of courses possible to impress colleges to which you apply.” White believes this encouragement to outdo one another with as many Advanced Placement courses as possible is the source of student depression, despair and hopelessness.
The newly-released 2017 Annual report of the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH) highlights many of the issues faced in addressing the increases in college students seeking mental health treatment. It suggests that that in order to adequately meet rising demand for mental health services with limited resources, college and university counseling centers must align their policy and funding decisions with institutional priorities like supporting survivors of sexual assault or managing suicidality in students of concern. Furthermore, the report finds that addressing the growing prevalence of anxiety and depression will require colleges and universities to work with their counseling centers to develop a continuum of services to educate and support the student body and those seeking treatment.
Diversity and Inclusion
A group representing the top administrators of more than 200 colleges wrote to Congressional leaders last week calling for a “narrowly tailored solution” to the possible lapsing of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. On September 5, President Trump ordered that the program be rescinded in six months if Congress takes no action to enshrine the program in law.
Last week, the College Board, a nonprofit created to expand access to higher education, announced that it would contributing $100,000 to the African Leadership Academy, an organization that prepares students across the continent to attend the world’s best colleges. College Board president and chief executive officer David Coleman said the organization is looking for similar opportunities to support students from Haiti and Central American countries. The College Board’s announcement was aimed at sending a message to students from Africa, Haiti and Central America: Please come to the United States to further your education – a messages that counters President Trump’s alleged reference to “shithole countries” in a meeting discussing the fate of certain immigrants.
Last week, a crowd of over 50 people gathered at the Webster’s Bookstore & Café at Penn State to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. The event was presented by No Hate Penn State, a small group of students who push for inclusivity. Their goal was to promote the kind of civic engagement MLK championed.
In his October inauguration ceremony, Ohio University President Duane Nellis expressed his wish to make OU a national leader in diversity and inclusion. As part of this effort, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion released an audit of university activities related to these topics with a list of recommendations for improvement. The Post Athens highlighted some of the key takeaways from the report, including that OU’s student body is still overwhelmingly white but that faculty diversity is improving.
The Atlantic highlights the difficulties that single mothers face when attending college and concludes little help is on the way. More than 60 percent of single mothers in college live at or below the federal poverty level, and only 28 percent of single mothers who start college complete their degrees. Meanwhile, the Trump administration aims to cut a federal-aid program that provides money for campus-based child care programs, the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS).
Sexual Assault, Harassment and Title IX
In November, The Boston Globe published a story about accusations against Berklee College of Music, detailing the way the school mishandled sexual misconduct and assault cases. In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Sky Stahlmann, a freshman at Berklee College of Music commented on the current environment at Berklee, which she describes as “volatile.”
Last week, Georgetown University launched an online reporting form for sexual assault and misconduct concerns and an online resource center. The new resources, developed in response to findings from the 2016 Sexual Assault and Misconduct Climate Survey, are intended to help guide students during the reporting process, to enable students to communicate incidents of sexual assault in a more comfortable and easily accessible manner.
A report stemming from a three and a half month investigation at the University of Rochester found that professor T. Florian Jaeger’s behavior was inappropriate, unprofessional, and offensive, that he exhibited “gross lapses of judgment” in getting sexually involved with students. However, the report states that he didn’t violate any university policies in place at the time of the incidents. Some have said that the report, which at least partly vindicated the university over its handling of the case, may discourage women from coming forward with harassment complaints, while others believe the report reinforces the importance of due process.
Free Speech
A supporter of the white nationalist Richard Spencer is suing the University of Cincinnati, claiming the school’s president violated Spencer’s right to free speech. While the university did agree to allow him to speak – something many universities declined to do in the wake of the torchlit march and subsequent violence in Charlottesville, VA – the suit claims that school officials required a nearly $11,000 security fee for the event. This is the latest lawsuit that has sought to force a public university to allow Spencer’s controversial message on campus.
Widener University President Julie E. Wollman does not believe colleges are suppressing free speech, but says she has observed how discourse has broken down on other campuses. She sees this as an opportunity for her institution, which has campuses in Pennsylvania and Delaware, to demonstrate how to do better. Last fall Widener kicked off a new “common ground” initiative, in which students and faculty members work to create spaces for people of opposing viewpoints to have productive conversations. Ms. Wollman discussed that effort with The Chronicle.
Sleep
A new study suggests that though driving while sleepy is as dangerous as driving while intoxicated, college students see it as unavoidable and not legally risky. Study leader Dr. Kenneth Beck of the University of Maryland in College Park said “Drowsy driving is increasingly being recognized as a source of crashes and deaths on highways.” Researchers conducted four focus groups with 26 undergraduate college students in 2016. Students were surveyed about their driving habits, perceptions about risky driving behaviors (such as driving while drunk or using a phone), and strategies to improve safety around drowsy driving.
Hunger
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Sara Goldrick-Rab, a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University, argues that colleges have a responsibility to help students who are struggling with food insecurity, and that financial aid must be reformed to address the real price of college, which cannot be calculated without factoring in food and shelter. The Op-ed reports that an estimated half of all college students struggle with food insecurity, even at elite flagship universities like the University of California, Berkeley, and selective private schools like Northwestern University. Food insecurity is strongly linked to lower graduation rates.
