Mental and Behavioral Health
Northeastern University students now have access to Lean on Me, an anonymous peer support texting hotline, that pairs students from different colleges in their city to support one another in times of distress. The app, which is used nationally, was developed at MIT.
According to the most recent report by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, more than half of the students who visited college counseling centers last year reported experiencing anxiety. Anxiety, which overtook depression as the most common concern in 2009, has been steadily on the rise.
Emerson student Suzie Hicks is organizing the school’s first Out of Darkness walk for suicide prevention. “I think mental health in general is something that a lot of Emerson students struggle with,” Hicks said. “But you’re not alone, and this is literally a gathering in support of the fact that you’re not alone.”
University leaders and students in Florida were at the state capitol last week to make their case to the state legislature for increased funding for campus mental health services. The state schools are asking for $7 million to expand mental health services on campus.
The State University of New York system will pilot a 24/7 telecounseling program at five of its campuses if funding is secured through the state budget. Mental health professionals would provide counseling from SUNY’s four counseling centers via phone call or text.
Michigan State University is updating its current counseling center to reflect a more integrative health model, and will be renamed Counseling and Psychiatry Services, or CAPS.The new CAPS center will have a better student-to-counselor ratio and shorter wait times, both issues that were brought to the school’s attention by the student-run Coalition of Higher Mental Health Standards.
Diversity and Inclusion
In an effort to increase the diversity of its workforce, Google has invited 25 students from Howard University to train at its California campus. Over the course of five years, Google plans to expand the program to include up to 750 students from HBCUs across the country.
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s decision to change the name of a building from a KKK leader to the more neutral “Carolina Hall” has been criticized for acquiescing to white alumni. Many students and faculty wanted the building renamed Hurston Hall, after Zora Neale Hurston, the black novelist who unofficially attended playwriting classes at UNC before desegregation.
Boston College kicked off Concern About Rape Education (CARE) week with a discussion about intersectional identities and sexual violence. The event was hosted by the school’s Women’s Center. “I struggle a lot with listening to folks say that a person may have faced discrimination because they are a women,” event organizer and assistant director of the Women’s Center Rachel DiBella said. “No, they faced discrimination because of sexism.”
At Harvard, all-female finals clubs and sororities will be allowed to keep their gender focus for the next three years without violating the school’s new single-gender social group rules. Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana acknowledged that the historical inequalities faced by women at the college should be taken into account while implementing the new rules.
The Duke Chronicle interviews the new presidents of Blue Devils United, the largest student-run LGBTQ+ group on campus. The students discussed their goals: educational sessions, more collaboration with other student groups on campus, and improving the climate for queer students at a school in the South.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed a bill into law that repeals House Bill 2, which required people to use bathrooms according to their gender assigned at birth. The new bill puts a moratorium on local nondiscrimination ordinances until Dec. 1, 2020.
According to the Boston Globe, there have been more than 120 instances of white nationalist flyers, posters, or stickers on American college campuses since September 2106, with Texas, California, Florida, and Massachusetts experiencing the most instances. “These white supremacist groups feel that now is the time to strike,” says Oren Segal, director of the Anti Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. “They feel like their messages have been mainstreamed; they feel like there’s an opening for them now in a way that they haven’t really felt before.”
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Take Back the Night marches were held across the country on March 29. The marches, which began in the ‘60s, are a protest against rape, sexual assault, and rape culture.
At Texas A&M University, students attended Stand Up workshops to learn how to support sexual violence survivors. The program was developed with the acknowledgement that survivors are more likely to talk with a peer than a university employee or law enforcement official.
Guns on Campus
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a concealed carry bill into law, allowing people to carry guns on state university grounds.
Alcohol and Tobacco Use
In Texas, a bipartisan house bill proposed increasing the purchasing age of tobacco from 18 to 21. Around 28,000 adults die annually in Texas because of smoking-related illness, higher than the number of Texans killed by alcohol, murder, AIDS, cocaine, heroin, car accidents and fire combined.
West Virginia University’s student paper interviews Cathy Yura, director of the school’s Collegiate Recovery program, prior to Thursday’s National Alcohol Screening Day. Yura encourages students to take advantage of the school’s all free, anonymous, online screening tool to assess their use of alcohol and drugs.
Greek Life
Penn State announced steep restrictions on Greek life after a student was killed at a pledging event at the school’s Beta Theta Pi fraternity. The fraternity will permanently lose recognition at Penn State, and all Greek life must follow new rules including a ban on kegs, strict enforcement of underage drinking laws, and elimination of day-long events.
Auburn’s chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon will be eligible to re-apply for university recognition in two years, after being suspended for multiple hazing violations. Nationally, SAE has had nine deaths linked to drinking, drugs, and hazing since 2006, the most of any Greek organization in the country.
