Mental and Emotional Health
In California, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District is expected to approve a program to educate k-12 teachers and students about ways to prevent youth suicide.
Dennis Heitzmann, Penn State’s CAPS director, is retiring after 33 years and a steady increase in the center’s position as an institutional priority in terms of student demand and funding. “I couldn’t have imagined all of this when I started, and couldn’t be more excited about the future of counseling services at Penn State,” he said.
A year after the suicide of a West Fargo Sheyenne student in North Dakota, a student council member at the school is raising money for mental health awareness.
As wait times at Florida’s public university counseling centers continue to increase, the schools made a second appeal to the state legislature to fund their overburdened mental health system and for the second time, lawmakers rejected the request. On Tuesday, at the Florida Board of Governors meeting, which governs the state school system, Norm Tripp, one of the Board members, responded by saying, “Just because we didn’t receive the funding doesn’t mean it slips off the list of priorities. In fact, it has prompted us to bring a greater focus and discipline.”
In an opinion piece for the Daily Kansan, Laura Werner (@laura_werner81) argues that the University of Kansas should provide peer support groups as well as formal counseling. Peer counseling is not currently an option at the school.
A survey at Berkeley High School, in Berkeley, CA, found that 58 percent of BHS students reported experiencing mental health challenges. The survey was conducted by students at the high school, and although their Community Health Commission partners were shocked by the data, the teenagers themselves were not. “ It appears that teens have normalized stress, along with the self-destructive coping mechanisms that many resort to in the absence of services,” wrote BHS senior and survey co-organizer Athena Chin.
Diversity and Inclusion
Z Nicolazzo, an assistant professor in the Department of Counseling, Adult, and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University, assembled an online, accessible syllabus to answer the question, “how can I do better/learn more about trans* issues in higher education?”
Over the past year, white supremacist activity has plagued colleges nationwide, and the University of Virginia is the latest to be caught in the firestorm. Alt right and Ku Klux Klan protesters have arrived in Charlottesville, home to the University, to protest the city’s decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. The hate groups’ proximity to the campus, combined with the area’s history, has created fear among many students, particularly those of color. The administration has warned students to avoid the KKK rallies.
The Chronicle of Higher Education explores how universities reconcile their ties to slavery and the Confederacy with the goal of becoming an inclusive campus. Administrators at some campuses have chosen to remove controversial monuments outright. The University of Virginia decided to add context to the standing memorials through the addition of a new monument recognizing the enslaved people who built the school.
Last week, Syracuse University’s Ad Hoc committee on DACA/Undocumented students released its recommendations on how to better support students amidst uncertainty related to immigration policy. These included: providing students with contacts for on-campus support, finding career advisers that recognize these students’ circumstances, creating an institutional emergency response team, and identifying a legal expert to provide guidance and assistance.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
A column for Inside Higher Ed addresses the potential downside of mandatory reporting of sexual assaults: employees must provide the name of the student who disclosed being raped or sexual assaulted to the Title IX coordinator, thus taking away the student’s agency.The column argues that for a sexual assault survivor, reviving a feeling of control over his or her choices is paramount, and that mandatory reporting removes that power.
A Duke graduate student sued the school for mishandling an alleged rape by the live-in partner of a Women’s Center employee.
A peer-to-peer counseling group at Vassar College called The Listening Center (TLC) provided confidential and anonymous resources to students and served as an alternative to the Vassar College Counseling Service. Last year, after 20 years of providing support, the school told TLC to stop taking calls. One TLC community member wrote in an op-ed in the Poughkeepsie Journal, “We had 125 calls over three years. Now, we receive almost no visits for our open hours. It is safe to assume those 125 students called us instead of the administration. This raises the question: Whom are students in need calling now?”
A University of Pennsylvania senior was rejected by the group Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault, sparking discussion about group exclusivity and the best ways to advocate against sexual assault on campus.
UC Berkeley’s first female Chancellor, Carol Christ says she doesn’t see her gender as her primary identity, but many on campus hope her leadership will be a positive change after the public sexual misconduct cases that occurred under the former Chancellor.
Substance Abuse
University of South Carolina students in recovery are behind the effort to have USC join at least 88 other colleges in creating a “collegiate recovery program.” Typically, the programs offer an on-campus lounge, a recovery-support group, and school-sponsored sober events. USC has considered the idea before, but says the funding is not there. In 2013, the University won a $10,000 grant to begin studying other programs and training staff, but a formal program would cost significantly more.
Guns on Campus
A new Kansas law now allows concealed handguns on the campuses of public colleges and universities. The law, which took effect Saturday, allows any lawfully eligible individual who is at least 21 years old to carry a concealed handgun on campus in buildings that do not have security measures such as metal detectors and/or armed guards.
Deborah Ballard-Reisch, a professor and the Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Chair in Strategic Communication at Wichita State University, has resigned citing concerns over the law. In a blog post, Ballard-Reisch wrote, “I cannot work in a climate in which students are fearful to claim their voices because the person next to them in my classroom may have both different views and a gun. I cannot work in an environment where I am fearful to challenge my students to reach their full potential because they may have guns. I find this law to be the antithesis of everything a civil society stands for.”
Hunger and Homelessness
The Chronicle profiles three students who were homeless in high school and are now pursuing degrees in college about the challenges they faced and how education was a way out.
College Affordability
Anya Kamenetz, NPR’s education blogger, did some of the math on college affordability and concludes that when you factor in minimum wages, living expenses, and the ever-growing costs of tuition, it’s no longer possible for students to work their way through college.
