Mental and Behavioral Health
A Columnist for the Indiana Daily Student speaks on the lack of mental health resources on college campuses, and the need to address stigma in student life and university policy.
Recognizing a rise in demand for mental health services, the University of California system increased funding to the mental health budget, and added 85 mental health clinicians across the system, complementing outreach and prevention efforts.
Student activist Dior Vargas told an audience at Georgetown University that “A lot of students of color, when they’re entering into a space of higher education, they’re usually the minority, and they feel uncomfortable seeking help and reaching out to people” According to The Hoya, the event was sponsored by Georgetown University Student of Color Alliance and Center for Multicultural Equity & Access and was aimed at outlining the unique mental health struggles of many students of color on college campuses. (The Hoya). Also last week, the Black Student Union at the University of Michigan held a forum to discuss mental health issues within the African American community on and off campuses, the stigma associated with those issues, and the availability and awareness of resources.
“I feel tremendous pressure to bring him through this intact.” A college counselor recalls his experience with a suicidal student for WBUR.
“I was comfortable talking about any visible pain I was feeling on the outside. I was not comfortable talking about the invisible pain I was feeling on the inside.” A University of Michigan student wants conversations about mental health to be as accessible as those about physical health.
Sexual assault
According the Chronicle of Higher Education, keeping athletic departments out of sexual assault allegations, has improved the likelihood of disciplinary action.
The American Association of University Professors claims the government has been using Title IX to stifle free speech. In a report released last week, the organization finds that the government has been using Title IX to regulate, not just sexual conduct, but also sexual speech on campus.
Reproductive Health
The battle over religious exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate continues in the Supreme Court, the results of which may affect female faculty and students at religious colleges.
Associated Students of University of California passed a resolution urging University Health services to implement medical abortion services at the UC Berkeley health center.
Inclusion on campus
The Washington Post reports that a former University of Mississippi student, who admitting to hanging a noose and Confederate flag around the neck of a statue of the institution’s first black student, pled guilty to a federal civil-rights crime.
Academic leaders in North Carolina are quietly concerned about the new state law requiring public colleges to segregate bathrooms by biological birth gender, forcing transgender students and faculty members to use facilities that don’t reflect their identities. Many see the legislation as hostile to transgender and gay people, which could deter prospective faculty and students from coming to the state’s colleges and universities.
“For so long we talked about diversity as an access issue. Now there’s more understanding that it has a greater connection to other areas of our organization.” The University of Missouri system’s first chief diversity officer speaks to the Chronicle of Higher Education about the work ahead of him.
Health
In a new report, a George Washington University student researcher found that the University’s student health insurance plan is “harmful” to students who can’t afford its steep cost, and that it is significantly higher than similar plans at peer universities. In a 20-page report, Cara Schiavone, found that because the plan costs much more than health coverage at similar universities across the country, reliable health care is “out of reach” for many students. The report states, “It is harmful for students who cannot afford the plan to go without health insurance coverage, and it is harmful for both students and the University to have a large population of uninsured students who are unable to seek preventative care.”
Zach Lenatsch argues in the University Star that Texas State University should require physical education, which it did until 2014. Lenatsch writes, “The university’s decision to remove the requirement was not ideal for the health, experience and education of students and it would be beneficial to reintroduce the measure for future students.’
The University of Wyoming has been named a “Gold-Level Campus” by the national Exercise is Medicine, or EIM-OC program. The program calls on universities to engage in the promotion of physical activity, and encourages faculty, staff and students to work together toward improving the health and well-being of the campus community. This is done by making movement a part of the daily campus culture; assessing physical activity at every student health visit; providing students the tools necessary to strengthen healthy physical activity habits, and connecting university health care providers with university health fitness specialists to provide a referral system for exercise prescription.
Politics
Emory University student newspaper reports on protests last week over a series of pro-Trump chalkings on campus.
