Quadcast Ep. 44: Towards a Fuller Understanding of Health: Combatting Disordered Eating at Colleges with Dr. Samantha DeCaro, PsyD
This week’s Quadcast features Samantha DeCaro, PsyD, the director of clinical outreach and education at the Renfrew Center, a national residential facility for eating disorder treatment. Associate director of the Mary Christie Institute, Dana Humphrey, speaks with Dr. DeCaro about the unique stressors that can put college students at risk for new or exacerbated eating disorders. Particularly with the onset of the pandemic, conditions already correlated with disordered eating — isolation, disrupted schedules, and certain social media use — became more prevalent and destructive. Now, Dr. DeCaro reveals what experts have learned about disordered eating since the pandemic began and explores next steps for colleges hoping to foster positive eating cultures.
Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or Fireside.
Mental and Behavioral Health
Main Stories
The Hechinger Report highlights ways to support students and the future of mental health services. In a time where mental health needs are growing, educators and experts are reinventing strategies and experimenting with new ones to address youth mental health. New approaches include college re-enrollment programs, peer counseling, and hiring district mental health service coordinators. The Hopeful Futures Campaign published a national report card that grades schools on solutions such as hiring more mental health professionals at schools, training teachers and staff in mental health and suicide prevention, and regularly implementing universal screeners or well-being checks to identify those who need the most support.
The Hechinger Report covers students who drop out of college for mental health reasons, turning to expensive programs to return to campus. While there are designated programs aimed at helping students improve their mental health and returning to campus, many of them are expensive and cost-prohibitive for the majority of students. Experts are working on more accessible and shorter models that allow students to return to school and complete their degrees. Dr. Zainab Okolo from the Lumina Foundation points to the racial disparities prevalent in mental health care and the economic toll it can have on students.
Other News
Inside Higher Ed reports on University of Denver’s new campus in the Rocky Mountains, which opened to enhance academic programs and improve students’ mental health. The mountain campus will have nature trips, faculty retreats, and allow student groups to engage in activities like yoga and meditation.
In an op-ed for Psychiatric Times, psychiatrist Dr. He covers tackling mental health disparities and collaborative efforts at individual and systemic levels.
The Hechinger Report shares Paul Quinn College’s focus on mental health, which helps students work through trauma and stay on track.
An op-ed for The Daily Wildcat, University of Arizona’s campus newspaper, argues against the need to be productive every day of the summer.
A study by the University of Maine examines long-term emotional impacts of school bullying among girls, finding that some are able to find positive gains and growth by being nicer and more accepting to others.
Inside Higher Ed reports on new mental health initiatives at Cal State Long Beach that make resources more available. Strategies include diversifying campus counseling staff and creating more physical spaces for students to share private information.
WSU Insider reports on Washington State University’s Student Affairs Office taking steps to expand resources and strengthen student health and wellbeing. Changes involve bringing more inclusive care to the Cougar Health Services (CHS), access to digital mental health resources, and more discussions around the student health fee.
A blog for Forbes offers tips and advice on transitioning into college for students.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
The Washington Post features the narratives of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients and their take on the program’s uncertainty in the future. “As an undocumented student in high school, there were very limited resources. I would go to my counselors, and none of them could help me navigate the [college] process. I was on my own,” said Indira Islas, 24, whose parents were physicians and often targeted by local gangs in rural Mexico. Another recipient, Esder Chong, 24, described how she navigates post-graduation life, “When employers ask ‘where do you see yourself in five years?’ I can’t answer that, because I live in two-year increments. It’s hard to plan my future when the only temporary status giving me any safety and security is under threat.”
The Chronicle interviewed five professors of color who left their institutions after feeling underappreciated and misunderstood due to their racial identity. Microaggressions included an anonymous note to one professor who “talks too Black,” and colleagues habitually confusing faculty of the same race, and more experiences of feeling attacked, overlooked, and underappreciated due to their racial identities. Two professors described their final decision to resign as “death by a thousand cuts” or after “a thousand little needles over time.” One professor described not feeling safe on campus, and another described feeling unable to “really weather the low salary” with “a challenging package of expectations.”
The Chronicle covers how public universities should respond when elected officials impose their political views. Recently, the state of Florida passed a law requiring public universities to survey faculty and students annually on “the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented.” Other states, such as Idaho, have established anti-critical race theory laws and banned affirmative action and public universities. The American Association of University Professors reported that North Carolina’s oversight of key higher education leadership positions is “inappropriately seeking to expand [its] purview into the day-to-day operations of state campuses.”
Higher Ed Dive reports that Asian American and Pacific Islander enrollment plummeted at California community colleges. According to a new report by The Campaign for College Opportunity, enrollment for Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students dropped by 20% from fall 2019 to fall 2021. The report recommends that colleges and universities offer support systems to Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students who have been impacted by the pandemic and the increase in hate crimes towards their communities.
Higher Ed Dive interviews a DEI expert on disability rights and covers how employers can accommodate their employees from the start of hire. Kelly Hermann, vice president of access, diversity and inclusion for the University of Phoenix, says oftentimes American institutions, including employers, apply “the medical model” of disability when hearing the term. Hermann recommends employers acknowledge an open-door policy to ask questions and receive continual feedback. “You’re not going to get to a certain place and say, ‘That’s it. Everything’s accessible. I don’t have to worry about this anymore.’ There’s always going to be some work to do,” Hermann said.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Sexual Assault and Title IX
The Biden administration’s new Title IX proposal would retire a number of Trump-era regulations. To help colleges understand what to expect, Higher Ed Dive outlines five of the biggest changes.
One of Biden’s proposed changes to Title IX would create new protections for transgender students. According to The Chronicle, these changes are particularly promising, given the unique mental health challenges for trans students. At the same time, Biden’s proposal does not outline stipulations for the participation of trans students in sports, leaving the issue up in the air.
An additional proposed change would do away with mandated live hearings, stirring up questions about the future of due process. Another would allow the use of a single-investigator model, in which the same person can both investigate and decide the fate of a case. And a third change would offer new protections for pregnant students, the number of which is likely to increase with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Student Success
A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reveals an increase in persistence and retention for students that began college in the fall of 202o. Specifically, 75% of students who started college in 2020 returned for a second year — up 1.1% from the previous year, but still down 0.9% from before the pandemic. Read more about the study’s findings here, here, and here.
Diverse Education announces the development of a new partnership between education officials from Indiana, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Together, they will use postsecondary data to try to better understand student outcomes and, hopefully, improve them through policy change.
Diverse Education also reports on the lack of female representation in STEM apprenticeship programs and the U.S. Department of Labor’s efforts to increase their participation. Colleges across the country are investing in apprenticeship programs, which are a promising route for students to get experience in a range of industries; they can offer training opportunities and professional experience for a salary.
According to the Hechinger Report, two- and four-year colleges are coming together in transfer agreements that admit students to both schools at the same time. This change allows students to start out enrolled in a two-year college, knowing that they will eventually — and with less difficulty — be able to transfer to a four-year bachelor’s program.
Although most colleges did away with standardized testing requirements amidst the pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reveals that graduating highschoolers are opting to take the exams nonetheless. More students took tests this year compared to last year, many hoping that scoring well can give them an advantage in the increasingly competitive college admissions process.
College Affordability
NPR reports that around 200,000 student loan borrowers will benefit from a multi-billion dollar settlement with the Department of Education. In particular, veterans will see a major payout, alleging that schools targeted them for their GI Bill educational benefits and cheated them into “overpaying for useless degrees.”
Diverse Education reviews a recent study from the Center for Responsible Lending, revealing that women bear the majority (two-thirds) of outstanding federal student loan debt. This debt is particularly concerning in the wake of the pandemic, when women have less job security than before, and for women of color, who are also subject to the racial wealth gap.
Congress is currently considering a bill that would make short-term programs that lead to industry credentials eligible for Pell Grants. Higher Ed Dive reports that officials from online colleges and universities want Congress to expand the eligibility terms to include online programs. As it stands, the bill may risk excluding low-income students whose work schedules or other responsibilities bar them from in-person courses.
Basic Needs
After the University of California System mandated that each of its ten campuses house a food pantry, researchers surveyed students to find out if the initiative had an impact. Their study suggests that frequent visitors to the food pantry experienced improved well-being, specifically in terms of depressive symptoms, sleep, and physical health. The Chronicle considers how food pantries could offer an emergency solution for the food insecurity plaguing many college students.
Campus Safety
A Student Voice survey polled college undergrads about their concerns when it comes to campus safety. The survey assessed students’ sense of security at their schools, as well as what steps they would like to see their schools take to improve safety issues. Inside Higher Ed compiled the results to offer six approaches to making students feel more safe at school.
Policy and Politics
The Washington Post considers the implications of higher education legislation from Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Among other changes, the legislation regulates tenure processes, accreditation practices, and teaching about race. Some teachers are pushing back against the legislation, while higher ed experts wonder if other states will soon follow Florida’s example and institute similar reforms.
