Mental and Behavioral Health
The Loyola Marymount University student senate recently passed a resolution to develop a peer-driven mental health program through Student Psychological Services. The proposed program would allow trained and qualified peer counselors to provide one-on-one confidential support to fellow students.
Last week, the University of Pennsylvania chapter of Project Let’s Erase the Stigma, (Project LETS), hosted a panel called “Living with Mental Illness at Penn”. Project LETS is a national nonprofit focused on offering peer support and advocacy to those who experience mental illnesses. The group is featured in the last issue of the Mary Christie Quarterly.
Iowa State University held its fifth installment of campus conversations last week, which centered around mental health and suicide awareness with a particular focus on eliminating stigma. Two officers from the Iowa State University Police Department spoke at the event about their roles as resources for mental health.
Stand Up for Your Sister, a new organization on the Kansas State University campus, seeks to raise awareness about mental health and provide resources to women affected by mental illness.
The Haven at College offers private, off-campus housing and outpatient clinical services for students in recovery for substance addiction. As it prepares to open a chapter at the University of Maryland College Park next fall, UMD student Mitchell Rock argues in an op-ed in The Diamondback, that though the program is exciting and necessary, the need for a private organization to create these programs highlights that the university itself is not meeting the mental health needs of its students.
The University of Maryland Student Government Association passed a resolution last week to support a bill that allows for a partnership with Crisis Text Line — a free 24/7 support line to connect students seeking mental health support with a counselor. Rohini Nambiar, director of the Health and Wellness Committee, said, “Mental health and mental illness and issues with that doesn’t happen 9-5. It’s not something that is timed — it’s not something just in the day. It’s something that can pop up at any time.”
Diversity and Inclusion
An independent review commissioned by the city of Charlottesville assessed the inaction of the University of Virginia Police Department at the white-supremacist rally earlier this year. The report delivers a scathing assessment of the department, not just for its failure to intervene during the torch-lit march through UVA campus, but for decisions that “set a dangerous tone for the events of the next day” and “emboldened people who intended to engage in similar acts of violence on Saturday.”
For the American Public Media podcast, Alex Baumhardt and Emily Hanford report on rural students, who are the least likely of any group to attend college, and the ways that these students are largely ignored as the country attempts to increase degree attainment overall.
D. Mark McCoy, President of DePauw University, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he argues, as the “president of a liberal arts college in a state that tilts right” that Americans must join together to protect the dreamers (DACA students), that doing so is what is best for America.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that James Allsup, the Republican club president at Washington State University who was spotted at the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and forced to step down had announced that he he had been re-elected. However, as the article indicated, the WSU College Republicans later issued a statement on Facebook saying that the vote had been “declared null and void” by their chapter adviser and the university office that supports campus organizations due to his graduation later this month.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
In the wake of the explosive New York Times story detailing the sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, at least a half-dozen allegations of sexual misconduct by male faculty members have come to light or received renewed attention. The Chronicle of Higher Education has created a timeline of the allegations in higher education.
The Berklee College of Music has been accused of having “a culture of blatant sexual harassment.” Last month, hundreds protested against the school’s inaction in the face of student allegations. Now, the college is trying to repair its culture and emerge as a model for other higher-education institutions, creating a working group of students, faculty, and staff to evaluate changes to prevent sexual assault.
The University of Virginia’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights announced last week that John Casey, a professor who is the subject of at least three Title IX complaints, will not teach in the Spring 2018 semester. Casey will not be able to serve as a mentor or adviser to UVA students until a Title IX investigation is completed.
Under the House Republican higher education bill released Friday, colleges would be allowed to delay or suspend their internal investigations of sexual assault allegations if police or prosecutors ask them to do so.
The Washington Post reports that a sixth woman has accused Howard University of mishandling a sexual assault allegation. Several months ago, five women sued Howard, accusing the institution of a “discriminatory and retaliatory response to multiple complaints of sexual assault and harassment.” The most recent allegations are detailed in court documents that seek to expand the lawsuit to include a sixth case.
Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student who served six-months in jail for assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, is appealing his conviction and asking for a new trial. Turner filed a brief last week arguing that the prosecutor incorrectly told jurors during the trial that the sexual assault happened behind a dumpster, rather than next to a dumpster. Turner argued that saying the assault happened behind the dumpster is “prejudicial” and implied that Turner was trying to hide what he was doing. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was widely criticised for what many believed to be a light sentence for Turner – six months in jail, three years of probation, and a requirement to register as a sex offender. Prosecutors had asked for six years in prison.
Sexual Health
With rates of STIs in Rhode Island at a 10-year high, Brown University student groups are working to spread sexual health awareness. The peer education program Sexual Health Awareness Group educates students by providing safe sex supplies and a confidential Q-and-A texting service, and hosting sexual health workshops.
College Affordability
The LA Times reports that graduate students at University of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles and Caltech joined national protests last week against the House Republican tax bill passed this month. The bill would significantly increase the taxes of many graduate student researchers.
College leaders spoke out in near uniformity against the passage of the Senate tax reform bill. Margaret Spellings, president of the University of North Carolina system and a former education secretary under President George W. Bush, wrote, “At a time when our economy is demanding more education for more of our citizens, we cannot erect new barriers for the millions of Americans who need affordable higher education.” Marjorie Hass, president of Rhodes College, in Tennessee, said, “It’s very disappointing that higher education is not being seen as an important aspect of growing the economy.”
Last week, House Republicans proposed a sweeping overhaul of the Higher Education Act of 1965, a federal law that governs almost every aspect of higher education. The legislation seeks to limit the federal role in higher education and reduce taxpayers’ role in financing it. The revamp would also mandate more transparency on graduates’ earnings and remove much of the existing regulation on for-profit colleges. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and a former Education Department official under President Obama, said he is “deeply concerned” the proposed legislation would make college less affordable. Some provisions are already being met with resistance, such as the elimination of debt forgiveness.
Physical Health
In an effort to become tobacco-free, the University of Pennsylvania is removing dozens of “smoker poles” around campus and replacing them with anit-smoking signage. Until recently, designated smoker poles were stationed outside certain academic buildings.
