Mental and Behavioral Health
Penn State’s student newspaper, the Daily Collegian, profiles two students struggling with mental illness.
Yesterday, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in a lawsuit filed against MIT by the family of graduate student Han Nguyen, who killed himself in 2009. The question at the heart of the case is, “Can a college be held responsible if one of its students dies by suicide?” Ngyuen’s family has argued that the school had a “duty of reasonable care,” and that it was negligent in its legal obligation to care for Nguyen and prevent his suicide. MIT argues that the college doesn’t have this liability, and that Nguyen was struggling with mental health issues for years and declined to use MIT’s support services.
University of Minnesota students can now get guidance and mental health support from fellow students. Helping U, a help desk that trains student employees to recognize when students are in distress, offers mental health support and provides information about the various resources available on campus for students struggling with mental illness.
An editorial in the UCLA student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, argues that to address student complaints about the University’s counseling services, from wait lists to staffing issues, the school should survey students about what they expect from the services. It also suggests students work with campus administrators to restructure services like to meet those needs.
A student petition to make counseling services free at the University of Texas at Austin received over 2,700 signatures. UT is one of the only major Texas universities to charge students for counseling sessions, the only other being University of Houston. Others — like Texas A&M University — provide free services included in tuition.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Wheaton College female soccer team is barred from competing in their conference tournament after one of the players was reprimanded for racist behavior. The player attended a Halloween party with her skin darkened with makeup to portray a black character from the movie “White Chicks.”
The Princeton and Slavery Project is investigating Princeton University’s racial history. On Monday, it published details about the institution’s ties to slavery on its website, some of which are striking. Of the project, a Princeton history professor said, “The history of Princeton is the history of America writ small. It makes us just like the United States of America. We are deeply, deeply American in sharing this history with our country in a larger scale.”
A Dickinson College fraternity is calling on the administration to investigate an incident that occurred the weekend before Halloween, when a student was photographed dressed as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. The photo shows the “quarterback” kneeling while another student held a gun to his head, which was later determined to be a fake gun.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
In an effort to better respond to sexual assaults and misconduct on campus, the University of Iowa created the Better Men, Better Hawkeyes program, a one-hour training workshop aimed at promoting healthy masculinity across campus. The project, which is conducted by UI police facilitators together with nine student co-facilitators, is based on research from three other programs: Mentors in Violence Prevention, Step Up Bystander Intervention, and Coaching Boys into Men.
Campus Climate
This week, two universities released results of their campus climate surveys, both showing some groups of students aren’t satisfied. While both surveys — at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and at the University of Wisconsin at Madison — reported a majority of students feel welcome on the campus, there were significant differences found across demographic lines like race and sexuality. Wisconsin’s chief diversity officer, Patrick Sims said, “This is crucial feedback from the people who experience life on this campus on a very personal, emotional level every day. To the students who reported negative experiences, I would say, ‘We’ve heard your concerns very clearly, and we will use this data to make our campus a more just and inclusive place.’” Michigan vice provost for equity and inclusion Robert Sellers said, “the results show that certain populations of the UM community report feeling less welcomed and having less positive experiences on campus than what we strive for as an institution. We are taking steps to improve the climate for these groups as well as for the campus community over all.”
University of Maryland is in the news for an administrator’s comment that angered many students. At a Student Senate meeting concerning a ban on “hate symbols”, Diane Krejsa, chief of staff in the general counsel’s office, told students that the campus is “not a home.” “If people are paying money to come to college because they want a home — where people all think alike and everybody has the same political views, and the same social views and the same views on sexual orientation and transgender and whatever religion or whatever it is — they should stay at home,” she said. Many on campus did not appreciate the comment calling it dismissive of students’ safety and inclusivity concerns. A spokesman for the university, said in a statement that Krejsa’s remark had been “quoted entirely out of context and in a manner that misrepresents the meaning.”
Substance Abuse
Last month, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein led the first of four collegiate council meetings within the UNC system to work with students on combating opioid addiction on college campuses. The meeting, held at Appalachian State University, included representatives from ASU, Western Carolina University, UNC-Asheville, East Carolina University, N.C. State, UNC-Greensboro, UNC-Pembroke and UNC-Chapel Hill.
Greek Life
Monday, Florida State University announced that all fraternities and sororities have been suspended indefinitely, a decision that comes after the death of a Andrew Coffey, a 20-year-old pledge at Pi Kappa Phi. FSU president John Thrasher said, “For this suspension to end, there will need to be a new normal for Greek life at the university. There must be a new culture, and our students must be full participants in creating it.” During the suspension, Greek groups will be barred from recruiting new members, conducting council or chapter meetings, and holding parties and social events, but students are able to remain residents of their greek houses.
Sexual Health
The University of Notre Dame’s insurance plan will no longer cover contraception for students and employees. The Catholic university’s decision follows new regulations on the Affordable Care Act issued in October by the Trump administration that weaken the Obamacare birth control mandate.
Free Speech
At Reed College, a small liberal-arts school in Portland, Oregon, an activist group called Remedies Against Racism (RAR), started boycotting the school’s Humanities 110 course last year. The course consists of lectures that everyone attends and small break-out classes “where students learn how to discuss, debate, and defend their readings”, and whose “primary goal” is “to engage in original, open-ended, critical inquiry.” According to students of RAR, the course perpetuated white supremacy and centers ‘whiteness’ as the only required class at Reed.”
David Bromwich, a professor of English at Yale University and author of Politics by Other Means: Higher Education and Group Thinking argued in the Chronicle that college students are the leading actors in the pressure for campus censorship, and that faculty and administrators are enabling them. Bromwich argues that the country is experiencing a crisis of free speech, and that the censorship of opposing views is dangerous for higher education.
Seven people were arrested on Tuesday night after a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, the controversial alt-right speaker, at California State University at Fullerton. At least two people were arrested when fights broke out between protesters and people attending the event.
The Chronicle recaps some of the lessons that college officials have learned from hosting controversial speakers on their campuses. In the new era of campus protests, student activists are influenced by protests across the country, their lists of grievances have grown longer, and protests and outrage spreads more quickly as activists voices are amplified by social media.
College Affordability
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, argues in the Washington Post that House GOP tax bill would increase the cost of college and discourage many from attending. According to Mitchell, the bill in its current form eliminates provisions designed to help middle and lower-income students finance a college education and is not in America’s national interest.
Wellness
University of Arkansas is piloting a new program called Wellness U, an eight-week course that covers eight facets of wellness: social, environmental, occupational, spiritual, financial, emotional and intellectual, in addition to physical. Students in the program receive an hour of academic credit, and the university is evaluating the program’s effectiveness in improving well-being.
