Mental and Behavioral Health
A new class at the University of Pennsylvania, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” will be the first large-scale undergraduate class at Penn that teaches positive psychology. Director of Education James Pawelski of Penn’s Positive Psychology Center hopes the class will help students define and apply different ways of developing happiness in their lives. Positive psychology classes at Harvard University and Yale University have been their most popular class among students.
The Wall Street Journal reports that athletic departments at colleges across the country are realizing the rising need for mental-health services. As a result, mental health services are growing into indispensable parts of athletic programs. College students in general are reporting more depression and anxiety than ever, and varsity athletes cope with those issues while under a spotlight and balancing studies with time-intensive training. The Journal reports that the growth in mental health services accelerated in 2016, when the NCAA’s mental health task force issued best practices for everything from protocols for athletes in crisis to promoting overall mental well-being.
Rochester Institute of Technology will increase the number of counselors in its mental health service and ensure the wait time for an appointment is not more than 10 business days, according to a Facebook post by university President David Munson. The announcement about changes to mental health services came less than a week after a student fell to his death in what the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office ruled was a suicide. Following the death, students called for change on social media, posting about their experiences with the school’s Counseling and Psychological Services. Several shared stories of waiting several weeks to see a counselor.
In an op-ed in Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim argued against the conventional wisdom that higher education is in the midst of a student mental health crisis. Kim urges a reframing of the growing utilization of campus mental health services as a positive development, seeing it as an indication of a more enlightened generation, willing to seek and receive help for challenges related to anxiety, depression, relationship problems and stress. Kim argues that while caring for our students is expensive, the alternative may end up being much costlier. He writes, “We are all proud when our school can invest in a new science building or can recruit a high-quality scholar/educator. Perhaps we should be equally proud when our institutions find the resources to invest in our students’ well-being.”
Northern Michigan University has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice after a student with a disability filed a complaint alleging discrimination. The complaint, filed in 2013 with the department’s Civil Rights Division, says the student told another student of her mental health struggles, which included being diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. She also shared that doctors were concerned that she was at risk for suicide. The complaint alleges the university violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it threatened to “dis-enroll” the student, require her to undergo a psychological assessment and sign a behavioral agreement, which prohibited the student from discussing suicidal thoughts with other students.
Diversity and Inclusion
David Card, an economist at the University of California at Berkeley, testified in federal court as a key witness for Harvard in the case brought by Students for Fair Admissions, an organization that opposes affirmative action and has alleged that the university discriminates against Asian-American applicants. Card described many findings from his statistical analyses of Harvard’s admissions process, explaining that the evidence does not support the claim of discrimination of the plaintiffs.
Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, author of The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action, and an expert witness for the plaintiffs in the case, argued in the Chronicle that Harvard could take steps towards diversity using race-neutral admissions strategies.
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, and the former undersecretary of education in the Obama administration, argues in the Washington Post that Congress must end the purgatory for ‘dreamers’ by passing legislation to protect their status in the lame-duck session.
U.S. enrollment of international students in American colleges and universities declined for the second year in a row. The number of new international students enrolling at American institutions fell by 6.6% during the 2017-18 academic year, on top of a 3.3% decline the year before, according to a report by the Institute of International Education. The Chronicle examines the idea that this decline is due to the “Trump effect,” or the combination of policies and rhetoric from the 45th president that some have said make international students reconsider coming to the United States amid a political climate hostile to globalism. But the organizations behind the annual “Open Doors” report – the Institute of International Education and the U.S. State Department – play down that narrative and say that it’s more complicated.
A student at Davidson College appears to have posted anti-Semitic and other racist messages online, according to an accusation on the Twitter account of the Carolina Workers Collective, which posted a series of tweets that linked the racist and anti-Semitic content to the Twitter account of Martha Gerdes, a student and teaching assistant in the North Carolina school’s German department. The institution scrambled to allay the fears of an anxious and paranoid campus. The institution’s Twitter account posted a message condemning “bigotry and racism as antithetical to our values and our mission,” without naming anyone.
A panel at the University of Pennsylvania entitled “Hate and its Aftermath: How to Preserve One’s Wellness in Challenging Times,” brought together students and administrators to discuss fostering wellness in an atmosphere of pain, hate, and fear. The conversation, which featured Penn Hillel Rabbi Joshua Bolton, University Chaplain Reverend Charles Howard, and LGBT Center Director Erin Cross, among others, discussed the ways in which the panelists were coping with a series of recent tragedies.
According to a new report from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, student affairs professionals don’t tend to closely reflect the demographic makeup of the student body they support, and these disparities are poised to grow.
A new American Council on Education report spotlights the University of Missouri at Columbia and the 2015 protests that have become a lesson in leadership turmoil across higher education.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
New Education Department Title IX rules will change procedures for campus sexual assault cases. According to the most recent draft, the new rules governing campus sexual-assault will require that accused students be allowed to cross-examine their accusers. In the earlier draft, the administration initially proposed providing schools with the option of incorporating cross-examination into their procedures.
Gun Violence
A mass shooting at a dance bar popular among college students in Southern California on Wednesday night left 12 people dead, including several local students, and shocked four nearby campuses. The shooting took place at the Borderline Bar & Grill, in Thousand Oaks, while the bar was hosting a dance night for college students. Pepperdine confirmed that a freshman, Alaina Housley, was killed in the shooting. There were 16 Pepperdine students at the bar during the incident. Two were hospitalized and released. Also among the victims was Noel Sparks, a 21-year-old student majoring in art at Moorpark College, a two-year institution, and Justin Meek, 23, a recent graduate of California Lutheran University.
According to a story in The Atlantic, college-aged Americans-most of whom were born in the late ’90s-don’t remember a time when school gun violence wasn’t a widely feared threat to young people. And while many college students think a lot about gun violence erupting in public places, others have grown up with the threat of gun violence so present that by the time they get to college, it barely registers.
Hazing
Bowie State University has suspended its marching band, days before a championship game, while it investigates allegations of hazing. University officials notified the campus: “First and foremost our top priorities are assuring the safety of our students and maintaining the integrity of the university band program. We have found sufficient evidence to confirm the existence of hazing activities; therefore, all performance activities remain suspended, including travel to the CIAA football championship game this weekend.”
Substance Use
Michigan State University is the first in that state to provide on-campus housing to students in recovery from substance use disorders. Currently, 1,534 students, or 3.2 percent of those enrolled at MSU, identify themselves as being in recovery. According to Dennis Martell, director of MSU’s Health Promotion department, on-campus housing provides an important resource because college stresses can threaten the recovery process. “Students no longer have to choose between recovery and their education,” he said. “Recovery housing through our Collegiate Recovery Community offers a safe, supportive environment where students can have a real college experience without alcohol or drugs. They form meaningful relationships based on sobriety, friendship and academic success.”
Student Success
Colleges across the country are seeking to not only teach students how to think, but also to thrive, providing support for programs that address “flourishing” or “well-being.” One of the more-ambitious efforts is unfolding at the University of Virginia, where the Contemplative Sciences Center, founded in 2012, is offering a first-year course, “The Art and Science of Human Flourishing,” that melds scholarly and practical explorations of what makes people thrive. Another project of the Center is a reconfiguration of residential life at the school to center around flourishing.
College Affordability
Arizona State University will join with Uber, the ride-sharing service, to provide fully funded tuition in its online program to drivers in eight cities. The partnership is among a growing number of tuition-free alliances between universities and corporations. Google, for example, together with 25 community colleges, is offering an IT-support professional certificate. And FedEx offers free tuition at the University of Memphis for the company’s local employees.
