Q&A with Nicholas Zeppos, Chancellor Emeritus at Vanderbilt University
In a new Quarterly Q&A, we interview one of the MCI Presidents’ Council members, Nicholas S. Zeppos, JD who made student mental health one of his key priorities at Vanderbilt University. Compelled by strong empathy towards the mental health struggles of his college students, Zeppos vowed to build Vanderbilt better – as a more supportive and compassionate university. How he went about these cultural and systemic changes within a high-achieving environment is instructive for other leaders who prioritize student flourishing.
Mental and Behavioral Health
Florida State University researchers present a new study revealing the critical role family ties play in Asian American mental health. In researching how family and cultural factors impacted major depressive disorder, general anxiety disorder, and substance use disorder, Amy L. Ai, professor in the College of Social Work at Florida State University who led the interdisciplinary study said, “Understanding the protection of collective cultural strengths for, as well as the impact of negative factors such as discrimination on the mental health of Asian-Americans, is relevant due to a recent spike in violence against them. We hope that this type of understanding leads to further prospective research and the adoption of more culturally sensitive health interventions in care for Asian Americans.” According to StopAAPIHate, over 6,600 hate incidents have been recorded between March 2020 to March 2021.
In the student newspaper Diamondback News, University of Maryland students Rachel Hunt and Sofia Garay outline ways to nurture mental and physical health from the Diamondback’s 2021 Orientation Guide. The student writers share their perspective from their own experiences in mental health, advising to set better boundaries within living spaces, manage self-accountability, and filter media consumption. They also describe scheduling time to take better care of physical health and maintaining a hobby to produce daily joy outside of academic coursework.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Four authors spanning the political spectrum co-write an op-ed for The New York Times, coming to the consensus that the recent wave of “anti-critical race theory” laws — which they call “speech codes” — is fundamentally dangerous to liberal education. They criticize efforts to avoid teaching content in schools that might make students uneasy, arguing that “Any accurate teaching of any country’s history could make some of its citizens feel uncomfortable (or even guilty) about the past.” Meanwhile, another New York Times op-ed from columnist Ross Douthat discusses how racism is currently taught, with an emphasis on the ideas of “structural” or “systemic” racism. He is wary, however, of some theories of antiracism, viewing them as “ideological extremism” that will ultimately work against the liberal agenda.
On Tuesday, Nikole Hannah-Jones announced that she would be joining Howard University faculty after controversy over her denied tenure at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hannah-Jones, known as a renowned journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, faced disapproval from UNC’s trustees due to her founding of the 1619 Project, a longform journalism project aimed to reshape the narrative of American post-slavery history. After public outcry lamenting UNC’s decision to not extend tenure to Jones earlier this summer, the issue raised awareness for representation of black women faculty members and the lack of their tenures in higher education. Hannah-Jones will lead Howard University’s Center for Journalism and Democracy.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
The New York Times reports Shannon Keeler, former student of Gettysburg College, spent years trying to get authorities to further investigate her sexual assault in 2013. On Wednesday, her assaulter, Ian Thomas Cleary, 28, was charged with sexual assault. Keeler, now 26, revealed a series of Facebook messages from her attacker years later, one of which stated, “so I raped you.” At the time of the report, authorities told Keeler it would be difficult to move forward prosecuting cases when the victim had been drinking. Last year, the rape kit from the police investigation was destroyed once the case was believed to be closed. Keeler stated, “While I am moved to tears by this result, which I have waited for over seven years, I am mindful that this moment came because I went public with my story, which no survivor should have to do in order to obtain justice.”
Former actress and newly appointed dean of Howard University’s College of Fine Arts, Phylicia Rasha tweeted out (and then deleted) her support of the decision to acquit Bill Cosby of three charges of aggravated indecent assault which caused controversy on and off campus. With almost 60 women accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting them, Howard community members and others quickly called out Rashad’s tweets. As the University works to support student victims in the wake of a 2017 lawsuit, it acknowledged the insensitivity of Rashad’s comments, according to The Chronicle.
Student Success
The Hechinger Report describes some of the ways that community colleges have partnered with employers to help students find jobs after graduation. Specifically, one bill being re-proposed to Congress — the Assisting Community Colleges in Educating Skilled Students (ACCESS) to Careers Act — poses to help fund community college workforce training programs. While the pandemic disrupted some of these programs, experts encourage schools to continue developing not only new partnerships but courses that provide transferable skills.
The Chronicle discusses some of the potential explanations for the diminishing number of men enrolled in colleges and universities — a trend only worsened by the onset of the pandemic. The gender enrollment gap is widest between students of color in community college, with the most significant drops affecting Black and Hispanic men in two-year public colleges. And while some schools try to develop new ways and programs to attract men, others are hesitant, still believing men to be more privileged.
College Affordability
NPR reveals that a newly revised federal TEACH Grant program helps aspiring K-12 teachers pay for college if they agree to teach a “high needs subject” in a low-income community for four years. The program now allows eight years for students to complete the teaching requirement before turning any grant money into loans. Previously, grants had also turned to loans if recipients missed strict paperwork deadlines, leaving some teachers in low-income areas suddenly burdened with thousands in debt.
In an op-ed for The Hechinger Report, Brookings Institute fellow Andre Perry writes about the rapidly growing student debt problem, suggesting that the wealth gap between Black and White Americans needs to be front and center in policy considerations going forward. As Black students take out more student loans, the wealth gap persists, and entire neighborhoods are being affected. Advocating for cancelling all student debt, Perry says, “The more debt is cancelled, the greater the racial wealth gap is reduced at every wealth percentile.”
Higher Ed Dive discusses a survey of around 1,000 high school college students, revealing that two-thirds of respondents do not believe that higher education is worth the cost. As colleges and universities face the uncertainty of enrollment in the wake of the pandemic, many students are questioning the value of higher education in tandem with concerns about job prospects: Three-quarters of respondents are worried about getting a job after graduating, while two-thirds have tuition and other financial-related anxieties.
Inside Higher Ed covers a report that indicates an odd incongruity in the Department of Education’s impulse to hound individual students for their unpaid debt, rather than higher education institutions. According to numbers procured by Student Defense, these institutions owe the Department of Education over $1 billion, around half of which is outstanding since 2018. Other specialists contend, however, that the Department does not show preference to institutions, and any other message is misleading.
Substance Use
The Denver Post reviews the results of a survey of around 4,800 rural Colorado high school students, who reported diminished suicidal thoughts and drug use in Fall, 2020 compared to a group of their peers one year earlier. The exception, however, was Black students, who experienced an increase in suicidal thoughts and attempts, although the survey notes having a particularly small pool of Black student respondents. Some researchers are unsurprised by the lower rates of drug use during the pandemic, reasoning that students spent more time at home and less time exposed to peer pressure.
Basic Needs
WESA reports that campus food banks in the Pittsburgh area are still contending with increased demand for their services since the pandemic. The initial onset of the pandemic indeed magnified food insecurity for many students, and now both on- and off-campus food pantries are working to extend their services and ‘get creative’ to support the student need.
As research finds that one in ten students in the US deal with period poverty, student groups and nonprofits are increasingly working to increase accessibility to period products and end stigma. With period products difficult to afford or find for free on campus, many students also report missing out on academics because of their periods. Diverse Education reveals that some organizations have recently focused their attention on bringing resources and awareness to HBCUs, recognizing that period poverty disproportionately impacts Black — in addition to Latinx, first-generation, and immigrant — students.
Coronavirus: Safety and Reopening
After Arizona State University announced that all unvaccinated students this fall would undergo additional testing and need to wear masks on campus, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey put forward an executive order to ban vaccine mandates and certain protocols for unvaccinated people at public colleges. According to Inside Higher Ed, the executive order will likely become law as part of a higher education bill reviewed by the House and Senate earlier this week. Over a dozen other primarily Republican-controlled states have issued similar executive orders for public institutions, varying as to whether they apply to educational spaces.
Inside Higher Ed discusses how different schools have come to formulate their vaccine-related protocol for the upcoming academic year, specifically considering what vaccines to accept. As international students may have access to varying types of the vaccine, many schools have decided to accept versions approved by both the FDA and WHO (World Health Organization). But for students who will not be fully vaccinated in time, schools face yet another choice: how to house and treat them when they first arrive on campus.
