Mental and Behavioral Health
University of Maryland students are advocating for increased mental health services for undocumented and immigrant students. The school’s Counseling Center has already encouraged its entire staff to complete the UndocuTerp Training Program, which informs staff and faculty how to effectively respond to DACA students’ needs. There is also concern that different cultural attitudes toward counseling may deter DACA and immigrant students from seeking counseling that could be helpful.
Northwestern freshman Chase Reed argues that strict attendance policies can be detrimental to students’ mental health. “Students sometimes make the choice to take time for themselves, and attendance policies often punish their inability to handle stress,” he writes, arguing that self-paced learning from online lectures supplemented by attending class only when prepared is just as effective as showing up in the classroom every week.
University of Virginia senior Matt Johnson helped bring mental health awareness to UVA’s architecture school by hosting events and hanging posters to remind students to take care of their mental health. “Studio culture is a big issue in architecture schools around the country,” Johnson said. “It is a notoriously intense and demanding field, and the work can become all-consuming if you let it.”
Diversity and Inclusion
Paul Griffiths, a professor of Catholic theology at Duke Divinity School, wrote an email to his fellow professors urging them to skip a racism and diversity training. The email read, “Don’t lay waste your time by doing so. It’ll be, I predict with confidence, intellectually flaccid: there’ll be bromides, clichés and amen-corner rah-rahs in plenty. When (if) it gets beyond that, its illiberal roots and totalitarian tendencies will show.” When Griffith faced discipline over the email, he resigned, and Duke Divinity School was thrust to the center of the nationwide debate over free speech, political correctness and racism on campus.
When Bethune-Cookman University announced that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos would speak at the commencement of the historically black university, students, professors and alumni denounced the decision. Protest petitions gathered close to 60,000 signatures, the state’s NAACP chapter called on the school’s President to resign, and alumni wrote on social media that they would mail back their degrees. Before the event, University President Edison Jackson defended the invitation in a letter to the campus community, writing, “If our students are robbed of the opportunity to experience and interact with views that may be different from their own, then they will be tremendously less equipped for the demands of democratic citizenship.”
On April 29th, a racist note was found on a St. Olaf College student’s windshield, adding to a series of hate-speech incidents at the minnesota college. Demonstrations were held in the days following, and classes were cancelled for several days. In a message to the campus community, St. Olaf College President David R. Anderson said that the note was found to be fake — “apparently a strategy to draw attention to concerns about the campus climate.”
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Chancellor James Schmidt is championing a new policy that requires that all staff and faculty evaluations consider the individual employee’s contributions to equity, diversity and inclusion on campus.
In Charlottesville, VA, home of the University of Virginia, a group of protesters, including white supremacist Richard Spencer, held a torchlight demonstration opposing the removal of a Robert E Lee statue from a park. The thinly-veiled demonstration was condemned by many, including Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer. “This event involving torches at night in Lee Park was either profoundly ignorant or was designed to instill fear in our minority populations in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK,” Signer said in a post.
The day after University of New Hampshire students voiced their concerns about the administration’s failure to address racism on campus, swastikas were found drawn in a dorm stairwell.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
After reports in February that the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter at Northwestern had drugged and raped female students at their house party, students have been challenging how the Interfraternity Council handles sexual assault prevention. Although all new members must attend an educational program taught by Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault, some fraternity presidents are reportedly resisting formal education with a “not my problem” attitude.
Also at Northwestern, a white T-shirt that read “F–k feminists” was found clipped to The Clothesline Project, a display of t-shirts with messages supportive of survivors of sexual assault.
Guns on Campus
New campus carry legislation in Georgia allows weapons permit holders to carry concealed firearms in most parts of the state’s college and university campuses. As the Atlantic points out, ambiguities in the law make implementation confusing and enforcement difficult, adding to the frustration of opponents.
The New York Times editorial board writes in opposition to the increasing number of states passing campus carry legislation. “Arming campuses is a political path of low cunning that despoils the very idea of a university,” they write. Arkansas and Georgia recently passed bills, bringing the number of states that allow guns on their university campuses up to 10.
Greek Life
Four years ago, Chun Hsien Deng, a freshman at Baruch College, died in a hazing incident during a fraternity initiation, when he fell unconscious and other members of the fraternity delayed seeking help. Thirty seven people were charged in connection with his death, with many facing counts of assault and hindering apprehension. Five of them, as well as the national fraternity itself, were charged with third-degree murder. Last week, four of the men pleaded guilty to reduced charges.
The parents of Timothy Piazza, who died in a fraternity hazing incident at Penn State, have been outspoken about their son’s death, calling it a “careless disregard for human life”. In an interview on the Today Show, Jim Piazza said, “It was horrific. This — this wasn’t boys being boys. This was men who intended to force feed lethal amounts of alcohol into other young men … They basically treated our son as roadkill and a rag doll.” Timothy’s parents now have a mission to change the drinking and hazing culture at Penn State and on other colleges, to make their son’s death meaningful.
Substance Abuse
The Wall Street Journal reports that more colleges are launching campus recovery communities to help young people with a history of substance abuse attend college, but buy-in from students has been slow. The four-year-old Collegiate Recovery Community at Ohio State University includes regular meetings, a house with 28 beds, staff offices, and study and meditation space. Starting last summer, Ohio State’s health-services center also began offering medication-assisted treatment to students with opioid addictions. However, no students haven’t used the in-house medically assisted treatment yet, and only half of the rooms in the house are occupied.
What can college presidents do to change the culture of drinking and substance abuse at college? Presidents who have dealt with the issue extensively say that a combination of education and consistent enforcement, along with a strong message from college leadership can create a focused and sustained conversation around the issue. But there is no quick fix; Changing the culture takes years.
Graduation Rates
A recent review of over 1,800 research studies on college students found that some of the most common approaches for promoting student success simply aren’t effective, such as performance-based funding for state schools. On the other hand, providing more money to support public colleges and universities, especially if used for need-based aid and student services, was shown to increase degree attainment.
Other Stories
A bipartisan bill was introduced this week that would overturn a ban on collecting individual student data that track enrollment, completion and graduate success. Advocates of the legislation say that the college outcome data would help make decisions about which schools and majors prepare young people for for successful careers.
