Introducing the Mary Christie Quadcast
This week, the Mary Christie Foundation launched our new podcast series exploring issues related to the behavioral health, wellbeing and success of college students. On the Mary Christie Quadcast, we’ll speak with experts and influencers in higher education and health care on issues relating to the health and wellbeing of our next generation of leaders.
Our first conversation is with Dr. Zoe Ragouzeos, Executive Director of Counseling and Wellness Services at New York University. With the disruption and distress of COVID-19, Dr. Ragouzeos led her team of counselors through the transition to remote mental health services; and the increase and complexity of student mental health issues during this unprecedented time. (This episode was recorded before the nationwide protests over racial injustice and police brutality, so the topic is not addressed in the conversation.) You can listen to our first episode here or on the Apple Podcasts app by searching “Mary Christie Quadcast.” New episodes will come out each month. We hope you’ll enjoy listening.
Black Lives Matter
In the aftermath of the recent deaths of unarmed black individuals at the hands of police, students nationwide are demanding colleges sever ties with police departments; Some colleges are reconsidering their involvement or have already made changes. The University of Minnesota quickly scaled back its relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department in response to George Floyd’s death. But in response to students pressing the University of Louisville to cut ties with local police, Neeli Bendapudi, the university’s president, said that ending its relationship with the department “would not make our campus or its constituents safer, and it would be an insufficient answer to a very complex problem.” In March, officers in the local department near the university fatally shot Breonna Taylor, a black, 26-year-old emergency room technician. Bendapudi promised to ensure the university police serve as the lead agency on investigations primarily involving a student or employee and reduce the need for external law enforcement at athletics events. She also wrote that the university will develop and mandate a “de-escalation and cultural sensitivity” regiment for any officer hired to work a university event.
The Hechinger Report and the Washington Post published a piece by Mari Chiles, a Yale University senior who grew up in Atlanta, about the nationwide protests. She wrote, “As a black woman, I am not just a college student but a student of the black community. Each and every day I am reminded that this country doesn’t care about me or value black life – that no amount of education, achievement or money will spare me or any black person from that violence. I share in the collective hurt and harm.” Of the protests, she says, “This is my generation’s civil rights movement.”
In the Hechinger Report, Liz Willen writes that it is time to hold colleges accountable for better supporting students of color. She calls the statements by some college presidents “tone deaf,” and asks for them to instead acknowledge the many ways higher education continues to leave black students behind. She asks if colleges and universities will now reconsider business decisions that hurt black students, such as sorting them into dorms and dining halls that separate rich and poor. Or if they will continue to dole out more merit aid money to higher-income students. She asks, “Will state legislatures maintain their record of big cuts in education spending, which will disproportionately hurt schools with higher numbers of poor students and students of color?”
A petition calling on university administrators and professors to make final exams optional in light of nationwide unrest had gained 2,000 signatures as of last week. The petition is part of a campaign called “Black Students: Assure Your Right To Grieve,” seeking academic relief in light of the emotional toll which current events are taking on students of color. The petition, authored by first-year Madeline Wright, argues that many students, especially black students, are unable to devote the usual amount of attention and energy to their studies due to their participation in protests or the distressing effects of the nationwide unrest. “Black students have spent the last two weeks seeing more than one death of another Black man or woman by police. Black students are exhausted, traumatized, and simply not focused on a final,” the petition reads. “By forcing students to take non-optional finals, professors and administration prioritize academics before the fears, emotions, and mental health of their students.”
In the Daily Emerald, the Associated Students of the University of Oregon Executive called on faculty to either cancel or make finals non-grade diminishing due to the influx of stress and emotionally harming events for black students in recent weeks. “Black students and students of color are undergoing emotions and stress that white individuals simply cannot imagine,” they write. “It is during these types of times in which we must come together as a university, and as a community, to protect the emotional well-being of our Black students and students of color.”
Amid protests and unrest following the killing of George Floyd, more than a dozen colleges have publicly responded with outrage over racist social-media posts by incoming students – and several, mostly private institutions, have rescinded admission offers. Marquette University, Xavier University (Ohio), the University of South Carolina, the University of Denver rescinded admission to incoming students when they learned the rising freshmen had used racist language in online posts or in videos about Floyd. USC President Bob Caslen said a social media post that endorsed shooting demonstrators and complained of “black thugs” does not represent the values of the university. The student who posted the message is no longer enrolled at the university.
Three Ohio State University students say they were shoved and pepper sprayed at point-blank range while covering a demonstration in Columbus, Ohio for the Lantern (the school’s newspaper), after identifying themselves as members of the press.
The Chronicle for Higher Education is hosting a webinar exploring how colleges and universities can address the systemic problems with race and class on Thursday June, 11. Hosted by Michael J. Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College, and Scott Carlson, a senior writer with The Chronicle, the event will feature Devin Fergus, Professor of History and Black Studies at the University of Missouri at Columbia, Mildred García, President of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and G. Gabrielle Starr, President of Pomona College. You can register for the event here.
Campus leaders have responded to the recent protests by agreeing to lower confederate statues and cut ties with local police. These swift actions stand in contrast to the decades of delays that previous protests have been met with. In response to years-old complaints, University of Alabama trustees announced that they’ll move three plaques commemorating students who served in the Confederate army, and that a group of trustees will study the names of buildings across system campuses and recommend changes. For years, protesters have asked the University of Kentucky to remove a fresco that depicts slaves working in a tobacco field. On Friday the university’s president, Eli Capilouto, announced that it is coming down.
In the Chronicle, Aisha S. Ahmad, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto and chair of Canada’s Board of Women in International Security, writes that in 2020, college campuses must take steps to be a space for world-changing transformation, even in the pandemic. To ensure that Black, Indigenous, and other students of color are protected on campuses, Ahmad recommends giving students a seat at the table, meeting with student leaders, and making student health and safety the priority. “These steps – not a diversity statement on a website – constitute the bare minimum required to demonstrate a commitment to equity on a college campus,” she writes.
Coronavirus Impact
Last week, three college presidents testified before the Senate’s health and education committee, outlining their plans to reopen campuses for the fall term. They highlighted the need for robust testing, contact-tracing measures and social-distancing tactics. Two of the three presidents on Thursday’s panel, Purdue University’s Mitch Daniels and Brown University’s Christina Paxson, have been vocal about their desire to reopen campuses. Logan Hampton, the president of Lane College (an HBCU in Tennessee), said Congress should invest at least $1 billion in minority-serving institutions and double the maximum federal Pell Grant award to ensure disadvantaged students can return to college.
In the hearing, the Washington Post reports that Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the committee’s top Democrat, warned against rushing a decision that could jeopardize the health of thousands, and said schools must take into account health and economic disparities among racial and ethnic minority groups. “Colleges and universities need a detailed plan for how to keep the campus community safe, regardless of how the pandemic evolves,” Murray said. Paxson said that “issues of inequity are one of the main reasons (colleges) should reopen,” as institutions of higher education can better ensure equal access to education and health services on campus.
MLive highlights the uncertainty felt by students as they head to Michigan’s small colleges in the fall. One student asked, “The main concern is that, am I going to get the full experience like a regular student in previous years? Am I still going to get the full experience, the full education that I’m supposed to get as a freshman?” Leroy Wright, vice president for student development and dean of students at Albion College said the “new norm” will likely include wearing masks and doing daily health checks. “Students are definitely going to come back challenged with the new norms, but they’re expecting that there is going to be new norms,” Wright said. “In my mind, it’s not going to be that much of a challenge because they’re experiencing that every day.”
A recent NCAA study found that more than 50 percent of male and female athletes reported a sense of hopelessness at least once during the COVID-19 shutdown. The survey of more than 37,000 student-athletes showed that both male and female athletes saw a spike of more than 200 percent in feelings of anxiety in relation to previous studies.
In a survey by the Student Government Association, 58% of Elon students said their mental health was a concern during the university’s transition to online instruction. Mark Eades, a counselor at Elon Counseling Services, told Elon News Network that, “With that uncertainty not just with safety but with when can I get back to the things that feel good and not really knowing, that just naturally has a lot of tenseness and anxiousness for a lot of people who want certain answers,” he said.
Make4All, a research group at the University of Washington, is observing how the pandemic affects students with disabilities. While the analysis is still in progress, the research lead, Jennifer Mankoff said that students with disabilities are more concerned about their education going online.
Wisconsin Public Radio reports that in a meeting with the Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin Whitewater Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Artanya Wesley and UW-Superior Dean of Students Harry Anderson outlined some of the challenges counselors faced in providing mental health services when campus closed. Wesley said the first challenge was maintaining confidentiality during online counseling sessions with students. “Staff worked with I.T. partners to set up campus-approved laptops with encrypted and secure software to ensure the ethical and professional delivery of services,” said Wesley. She said other challenges included dealing with counselor licensing requirements, health information privacy rules, and how to provide counseling to students living at home in other states.
In Inside Higher Ed, Mays Imad, a neuroscientist and the founding coordinator of the teaching and learning center at Pima Community College, offers recommendations for professors for helping students thrive in class in times of trauma. Her suggestions include: Work to ensure students’ emotional, cognitive, physical and interpersonal safety; Foster trustworthiness and transparency through connection and communication among students; Facilitate peer support and mutual self-help in your courses; Pay attention to cultural, historical and gender issues; and Impart to your students the importance of having a sense of purpose.
According to Education Dive, the College Board is asking college admissions officers not to penalize students who weren’t able to take the SAT because of the coronavirus pandemic and to accept late scores. The testing provider also delayed plans to offer an at-home SAT this year because it would have required students to have “three hours of uninterrupted, video-quality internet.” Many colleges are no longer requiring SAT and ACT scores for admission.
The New York Times brought together administrators, professors and a union representative together on video conference to discuss the new realities of campus life and the conditions for reopening amid the coronavirus. The panelists included Dr. Michael V. Drake, is president of Ohio State University and a physician, Carlos Aramayois president of the Boston chapter (Local 26) of the union UNITE HERE, which represents 14,000 dining-hall staff members at colleges and universities, Mary Dana Hinton the incoming president of Hollins University in Virginia, Richard Levin, an economist and former president of Yale University who has co-authored a report on reopening higher-education campuses in Connecticut for Gov. Ned Lamont, David Wall Rice, an associate provost at Morehouse College, and Dr. Pardis Sabeti a biology professor at Harvard University whose work focuses on comprehensive approaches for detecting, containing and treating deadly infectious diseases. Levin said, “We’re in a global pandemic, and the idea that college life is going to be normal if we do reopen is just a fantasy. Our recommendation is to treat groups of students who share rooms or live in suites, in units of four to eight, as a family unit. Single rooms would go to immuno-compromised students if they want to be on campus. It does mean that if one person in the group gets sick, the others get quarantined.” Of the virus’ interaction with student behavior, President Drake said, “The virus waits for opportunities to exploit human behavior to allow people to infect other people. We expect that there will be those who will not follow the guidelines and that the virus will swoop in. We have to know how we’ll react when things fail and try to limit and curtail the brush fires that will break out.”
The Chronicle reports that as experts advise that college plans to reopen hinge on the ability to utilize two tools, widespread coronavirus testing and contact tracing, s. Some question whether that will be feasible. Kristen Pogreba-Brown, an assistant professor of epidemiology who runs a contact-tracing program at the University of Arizona, said, “There are some days where I think, OK, we can do this, we’ve got a good plan. There’s other days where you just want to throw your hands up in the air and be like, This is never going to work.” Many administrators are relying on the idea that newly developed tests will be available and inexpensive soon. Some schools plan to enhance old-school contact tracing with new technology including mobile apps, but there are real questions about whether they will work. “A lot of these apps have not been tested,” said Linda Niccolai, the epidemiologist at Yale. “Privacy issues are one thing, and I would not be dismissive of those. I would be equally concerned about effectiveness. If they are thoughtfully designed, then great.”
Inside Higher Ed reports that to reopen safely, a number of small liberal arts colleges are partnering with nearby hospitals and clinics that can help provide on-campus testing, telehealth, and temperature checks. Loyola University New Orleans recently announced a partnership with Ochsner Health, which has been helping the university create a plan for the fall. Tania Tetlow, Loyola’s president, said, “They sent a team to actually walk the campus and look at everything from our residence halls to our campus spaces and do planning around what social distance looks like on campus. That, and everything from where and whether we should have temperature checks to employee policies about staggering goings and comings — all of the enormous complexity it takes to run a university during a pandemic.”
Mental and Behavioral Health
EVERFI hosted a virtual Campus Prevention Network Summit. The second day focused on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as the mental health of Black women students. Jesse Bridges, senior vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at EVERFI, said colleges should use this moment to look toward the future through an equitable lens. Bridges also said colleges must put in place an inclusive excellence framework to “redesign the campus experience to be one that is safe, healthy and supportive of all students.”
Rep. Susan Wild (D, PA) is calling for legislative action on student mental health needs on college campuses. Wild’s proposed bill, Enhancing Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Through Campus Planning Act, would ensure that college campuses are equipped to deal with the mental health needs of students. In a press release, Wild said she is calling for her bill to be included in any upcoming COVID-19 package because mental health support is critical for the current and long-term health of our communities. “The evidence-based strategies outlined in my bill will go a long way toward meeting the increasing mental health needs of our nation’s young adults during and after this crisis,” she said.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Eighteen Democratic attorneys general have sued U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos over her new Title IX regulations governing how colleges should respond to sexual violence on campus. They argue the rules undermine the intent of Title IX by reducing the number of incidents colleges would need to review.
