Mental and Behavioral Health
An editorial in the Indiana Daily Student, the student newspaper of Indiana University, argues that millennial anxiety should be taken seriously rather than dismissed as evidence of them being “too soft” or “crybabies.”
In an op-ed for the Daily Texan, UT Austin sophomore Ian Simms writes that the school should devote part of freshman orientation to educating students about mental health services on campus, as well as those within the Austin community. UT Austin’s counseling center, like many across the country, is understaffed and underfunded. “UT would better serve its students by connecting students to resources throughout Austin as soon as possible — without students first having to book an appointment at the CMHC,” he writes.
Diversity and Inclusion
Evergreen State University was forced to move its commencement ceremony 30 miles from campus for safety reasons, more than three weeks after professor Brett Weinstein’s objection to a suggestion that white students and professors leave campus for a day, a twist on the school’s Day of Absence tradition. The response to that objection was swift, with student protests breaking out, videos of which were later shared widely online. Threats of violence on social media and calls to the local sheriff forced the school to close for several days. Conservative protesters arrived on campus last week, and the final days of the term were marked by the presence of metal detectors, barricades, and riot police. In an op-ed in the New York Times, Jacqueline Littleton, a student at the university, blames the media attention brought on by Weinstein’s multiple news interviews for the presence of alt-right protesters.
The Trump administration’s decision this week to continue allowing young, undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States on two-year renewable terms was cautiously welcomed by so-called Dreamers who still worry about their long-term status.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Barnard named Molree Williams-Lendor as the school’s new Title IX coordinator and executive director of equity. Williams-Lendor came to Barnard from the the University of Bridgeport, where she was Title IX coordinator and director of disability services.
Last week, the Department of Education outlined changes to civil rights investigations, setting aside existing rules that allowed a single complaint about a complex issue to trigger a broader investigation into a pattern of discrimination at an institution. The new rules give regional directors of the Office of Civil Rights more discretion on cases, with the aim of reducing case backlogs. Civil rights and sexual assault victim advocates fear that the policy will result in less consistent findings of systemic discrimination at colleges.
Substance Use
In light of a bill introduced to the New Jersey senate this May, The Daily Princetonian examines what could happen on campus if the state legalizes marijuana. If the bill is passed, it would be the first time a state legalized marijuana through the legislature instead of a ballot measure. On Oct. 17, the Mary Christie Foundation will host “Substance Use on College Campuses: New Solutions to a Perennial Problem” at the University of Maryland-College Park. The event is co-sponsored by the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
In a column for the Iowa State Daily, Julissa Garcia writes that alcohol culture in college is dangerous, encouraging students to drink more than is healthy. “Though there are some benefits in consuming alcohol, the bad outweighs the good, with the many risks involved with it, especially in a college environment,” she writes.
Free Speech
In an article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania professor Jonathan Zimmerman writes that Harvard’s decision to rescind admission for 10 students who posted racist memes online is a loss for free speech. “Offense is always in eyes of the beholder,” he writes “I don’t want a university administrator making that judgment for us. Do you?” Read our Q&A with Zimmerman in the December 2016 issue of the Mary Christie Quarterly.
Guns on Campus
Erik Gilbert, a professor at Arkansas State University, writes that his support for campus carry laws stems from his belief in the right to self-defense, not because he believes students should be expected to stop a mass shooting. “If legally permitted faculty members or students want to carry a gun to school because they think, rightly or wrongly, that it makes them safer, it’s hard to see why anyone else has a legitimate interest in preventing them from doing so,” he writes. Arkansas is one of the states that recently legalized campus carry.
Retention
The Wall Street Journal covers a new review of school enrollment data by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, which found that college students are staying in school at higher rates than they did a few years ago. The report notes, however, that the increases vary widely by students’ race, ethnicity, and whether they are enrolled full-time or part-time. Overall, 73.4 percent of students who entered U.S. colleges in fall 2015 went back to school the following fall, with 61.1 percent returning to the same institution. Both those numbers have increased about 2 percentage points over the past six years.
Affordability
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor President Mark S. Schlissel spoke with The Chronicle of Higher Education about what the school is calling the Go Blue Guarantee. Starting in January 2018, the school will guarantee free tuition for all in-state undergraduates with a family income below $65,000.
