Mental and Behavioral Health
Rice University student body president Jazz Silva contributes an op-ed to the New York Times voicing her concern over the Texas legislators passing a bill that allows guns to be carried on college campuses.
Students at UCLA started a theatre group on campus that will address issues in mental, sexual and emotional health. A similar effort at NYU, called the Reality Show, has been a successful vehicle for education and awareness around these same issues.
Student protesters at Johns Hopkins University are outraged over a change in policy that would no longer conceal the first-semester grades of freshmen. Students defended the current policy saying it helps students who struggle to adjust to the demands of college, suggesting the change would cause stress and anxiety levels that would exceed the capacity of student mental health services.
A recent study found that college students’ social media posts depicting alcohol use are associated with missing school or work and getting into fights due to alcohol, and are predictive of predictive of alcoholism.
Through the #SleepRevolution College Tour, college students are speaking out about sleep deprivation, classroom stress and the culture of exhaustion, shedding light on the mental and physical health consequences of sleep deprivation.
Inclusion on Campus
Ainslya Charlton, who graduated this month from Trinity College, spoke to The Atlantic of battling multiple forms of discrimination as a black undocumented student.
As Massachusetts state legislators are poised to pass a law banning gender-identity discrimination and allowing transgender people to use public facilities based on current gender identity, WBUR explains why “bathroom laws” are important, citing safety concerns for the transgender community.
As the debate over the controversial bathroom law (HB2) continues in North Carolina, UNC Chancellor Margaret Spellings said in a legal filing ““I have no intent to exercise my authority to promulgate any guidelines or regulations that require transgender students to use the restrooms consistent with their biological sex.”
The Washington Post reports that UMD President Wallace Loh and UMD Chief of Police David Mitchell separately sent letters acknowledging the distress, anguish and fear that resulted from a police incident involving pepper spray at a graduation attended primarily by Black students.
On Wednesday, a gunman shot and killed a UCLA professor, and then himself. Reports indicate the the school was well-prepared to handle the active-shooter situation.The resulting lockdown, while frightening, was very systematic and calm, with one student saying “This is just something that happens now. This is just a way of life.”
Crisis at Baylor University
After an independent investigation at Baylor University found that the school repeatedly failed to respond appropriately to reports of sexual assault, the Board of Regents made immediate personnel changes, including the demotion of former President Ken Starr, and enacted a number of new practices and policies meant to better respond to reports of sexual violence and maintain stronger oversight of the athletics department.
On Wednesday, Kenn Starr announced that he would resign his post, days after Baylor announced he would be demoted from President to Chancellor, saying it was a “matter of conscience.” And while he said that he willingly accepts responsibility for the school’s mishandling of multiple sexual assault cases, he maintained that he was unaware of what turned out to be a widespread problem.
The Chronicle of Higher Education published the transcript? Of an interview Starr gave in response to the damning report on ESPN’s Outside the lines.
Sexual Assault
A female Washington State University student was expelled after a male student accused her of sexual assault while they were both drinking. The woman maintains that she has been falsely accused, and that the man reported her to the college’s Title IX office after his friends made fun of him for sleeping with her.
Brigham Young University’s campus police department is now under investigation for its handling of sexual-assault reports after a student who reported a sexual assault faced disciplinary proceedings under the university’s honor code.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has created a Title IX Sexual Assault Investigations interactive tracking tool.
