Mental and Behavioral Health
Missouri State University is hosting the “Impact Summit: College Student Mental Health Conference”, where students, medical professionals and college personnel will come together to better understand important issues, learn more about best and innovative practices and research, and create awareness of statewide, local, national and campus resources.
In March 2017, The Student Life, the Claremont Colleges’ student newspaper, published a leaked report on student morale at Harvey Mudd College which included quotes from students commenting on the intensive workload and campus climate associated with its core curriculum. Some students said they felt so overwhelmed with homework that they didn’t have time for eating, sleeping, and showering. The report sparked protests, causing the school to conduct its own report on academic and student life, which found that the core curriculum was excessively strenuous for students, and that “except for the technical elective, HMC’s Core requires more study in each subject than either [the California Institute of Technology] or [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology].” Harvey Mudd has undergone a restructuring of its core curriculum that aims to continue to challenge students while prioritizing mental health, and has provided additional funding to diversity and mental health programs.
The Ohio University Student Senate passed a bill last week demanding that the school accept more responsibility for the mental health needs of student athletes. The bill requests the formation of a committee that would discuss specialized mental health support resources for these students. Emily Deering, Athletic Senator and primary sponsor of the bill, said, “Anyone considering suicide is an immediate danger. Mental health should be accessible, specialized and ongoing.”
In an interview with the Ohio State University student newspaper, the Lantern, University President Michael Drake, explained that he views the school’s mental health services as a “pathway to assistance and support” and a source of support during tough semesters, rather than a provider of the intensive, long-term mental health care that some students need. “What we want to do is to manage the mental health support of our students the best that we can,” Drake said. “CCS is not comprehensive mental health services. That’s done in the health care segment. It’s a pathway to assistance and support that we want to be. Over the past two years, the university has added 15 additional staff members, 13 clinicians and two support positions.
Students at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus are frustrated by what they perceive to be long wait times for appointments at the counseling center. Mental health professionals on campus are managing 40 percent more services than they were five years ago. Kolby Harvey, a graduate student said, “It’s really hard to get in to see someone. It was usually three to four weeks between appointments.” Following his initial appointment, he found scheduling to take so long that he stopped seeking treatment. CAPS Director Monica Ng told the Daily Camera that there are currently no wait times, and that mental health services have accommodated for the increase in students seeking help. However, because the appointment backlog has become such an issue for grad students, the graduate student advocacy group Committee on Rights and Compensation has flagged it as a priority to address this year.
According to a new study published in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, college roommates, though sensitive to their roommates’ distress, tend to underestimate the level of distress their roommate is experiencing. The findings suggests that roommates’ perception of each other’s distress levels could be useful for monitoring the mental health of college students, but students could be trained to be more accurate in perceiving emotional problems.
Diversity and Inclusion
After the election of Donald Trump, advocacy groups noted a rise in reports of hate crimes, with colleges becoming a focal point of hate motivated incidents. The U.S. Department of Education released new information regarding campus crime in 2016, which included the fact that the number of reported campus hate crimes increased by 25 percent from 2015 to 2016. Additionally, college-specific data collected by the FBI show a large spike in college hate crimes in November 2016, suggesting that the election itself played a role in the surge of reported cases.
Last week, the University of Pennsylvania hosted the 1vyG conference which gathered first-generation, low-income students from colleges around the country and featured panels and discussions on topics ranging from career advice to mental health awareness for FGLI students. Anea Moore, Penn junior and co-chair of the 1vyG Conference, said “We want FGLI students to grow as leaders because often they can be more quiet or more reserved. We’re trying to build them up because we do believe they have important things to say and they can be leading movements and other forms of activism on campus.”
University of California Davis Chancellor Gary S. May presented the 2018 Chancellor’s Achievement Awards for Diversity and Community to eight individuals at the school saying, “At UC Davis, we acknowledge and honor exemplary faculty, staff, students and community members who help to cultivate an atmosphere of inclusiveness. They speak to the heart of what makes our campus and region a great place to work, teach, learn, play and live.” The winners include the founding director of the UC Davis Mental Health Initiative and the Associate director, Center for Chicanx and Latinx Academic Student Success.
The debate over diversity on college campuses, which often focuses on racial and ethnic minorities and students from low-income families, ignores the group who attend college in the lowest proportions – rural high school graduates. According to the National Student Clearinghouse, 59 percent of rural high school students start college the fall after graduating, a rate that is lower than the 62 percent of urban and 67 percent of suburban graduates. The problem is not necessarily lack of academic preparedness; rural students score better on the National Assessment of Educational Progress than urban students, and graduate high school at a higher percentage than the national average, according to reports from the U.S. Department of Education. Reasons for the low college attendance of rural students range from regional economic competitiveness, causing them to start working locally immediately after high school graduation, to widening political division that have sewed a distrust of academic institutions in rural communities.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has introduced a new bill, the Accountability of Leaders in Education to Report Title IX Investigations Act, or the “Alert Act,” that would hold campus leaders accountable for sexual abuse that happens at their schools. The new legislation would require college and university presidents to certify annually that they have reviewed all incidents of sexual misconduct reported to their campus Title IX coordinator, and that they have not interfered with investigations of those incidents.
On Valentines Day, the San Diego State University Well-Being and Health Promotion Department organized an “Every Kiss Begins with Consent” event intended to educate students about safe sex and the need for consent. At the event, students participated in games like “Do I have your permission,” which allowed students to practice talking about consent. The event was co-hosted by the peer health education programs FratMANers (Fraternity Men Against Negative Environments and Rape Situations), and SISSTER (Sororities Invested in Survivor Support, Training, and Ending Rape culture).
Public Health
Research has shown that higher education is linked to health; that attending college leads to healthier outcomes, and that without higher education levels, people are more likely to face a range of health problems. When the Chronicle asked experts in health, education, and economics what colleges can do to address this issue, they suggested devoting resources to serving more low-income students, focusing on research-based strategies, recognizing racial disparities in health outcomes, and emphasizing retention.
Substance Use
According to a survey by Bowdoin’s student newspaper, the Orient, eleven percent of seniors have used cocaine during their time at the school. The survey showed that the use of the drug among the class of 2018 substantially outpaces the other class years and represents an increase from the last Orient survey on drug use, conducted in 2013.
Despite Vermont’s recent legalization of marijuana, Middlebury College will continue to prohibit its use and possession on campus. Hannah Ross, the college’s general counsel, sent a school-wide email reiterating the policy, citing the risk of losing federal funding and a concern for student health as motivation. “Middlebury is at risk of losing federal dollars, including Title IV financial aid funds for students, if we allow cannabis on campus,” she wrote. “We also are cognizant of the research done at UVM and elsewhere which indicates that even recreational use of cannabis has significant negative impacts on knowledge retention and brain development of individuals under the age of 29.”
An off-campus treatment center for students in recovery for substance abuse will open at the University of Maryland in the fall. It is brought to the school by The Haven at College, a company that provides housing and addiction recovery services for college students. The Haven co-CEO Sharon Weber said, “We’ve been collaborating with UMD administrators for two years now. It feels exciting and satisfying that we’re able to start engaging with students well before we officially open. It’s worked at other universities to start connecting with students early.”
Ahead of spring break, Pepperdine University’s Counseling Center and Health and Wellness Department will host an outreach program about the use of alcohol and other drugs. The program will include an anonymous screening with a counselor to address students’ own drinking behaviors and what action they may take if they encountered someone experiencing alcohol poisoning.
Sexual Health and Contraception
University of California San Diego has approved a new campus “Wellness Vending Machine” that will sell the morning after pill, along with a number of other health-related items including Advil, pregnancy tests and condoms. The move makes UC San Diego the third UC campus to sell the morning-after pill via vending machine, following UC Davis last March and UC Santa Barbara in 2015. Students can access the vending machine 24/7 and need to present their student ID card, as the vending machine will only accept TritonCash.
College Affordability
A new study by the Brookings Institution found that most student borrowers who left school owing at least $50,000 in loans in 2010 had failed to pay down any of their debt four years later. Their balances had on average risen by 5% as interest accrued on their debt. Large-balance borrowers such as these represented 17% of student borrowers leaving college in 2014, a number up from 2% of in 1990. Large-balance borrowers owe 58% of the nation’s $1.4 trillion in outstanding student debt.
