Mental and Behavioral Health
A recent assessment of Missouri University’s student mental health and wellness programs found the services to be “predominantly siloed, largely uncoordinated and non-collaborative, confusingly duplicative and distantly located.” The preliminary findings of the assessment, which was part of an overall review of MU’s academic and personal support programs, showed the three health services – the Student Health Center, Counseling Center and Wellness Resource Center – need major improvements.
The University of Massachusetts Boston is striving to improve its mental health services by adding counselors, launching new mental health marketing campaign, and working with the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes mental health to prevent suicides on campuses. The school is also working to redesign parts of campus, such as the dorm rooms, to prevent suicide.
Diversity and Inclusion
The New York Times covers changing attitudes of students at Christian colleges and reports that these schools are grappling with a giant generational rift over what it means to be Christian. Students at Christian Colleges have become more accepting of LGBTQ individuals, more engaged in social justice activism, and comfortable with using social media to organize a movement.
Many colleges have added chief diversity officers to the list of essential employees. However, according to an article in The Chronicle, hiring a diversity professional is just the first step towards building a campus environment where equity, inclusion, and diversity become a part of everyday campus life. The Chronicle outlines seven steps towards this goal, including managing expectations, developing meaningful measures for success, engaging faculty members, and providing adequate support.
Asian-American students are at the center of two high-profile lawsuits against affirmative action, one at Harvard University and one at the University of North Carolina. The plaintiffs say the schools discriminate against Asian-American applicants, in an effort to achieve student diversity.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Former student-athletes from more than a dozen athletic teams, as well as other individuals, have now come forward to report allegations of sexual misconduct by a former Ohio State physician currently under investigation by the university. More than 130 people have come forward with information about possible misconduct by Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005.
According to a Wall Street Journal review of recent settlements, public university systems with schools in the nation’s five major athletic conferences paid out more than $10.5 million in settlements related to sexual-harassment claims in 2016 and 2017. The 59 settlements in the Journal review come from 22 universities and university systems, including all campuses in the Texas A&M and University of California systems, the University of Colorado and the University of Missouri. They include settlements for allegations by or against students, faculty and staff.
The Education Department is launching an investigation into the University of Southern California’s handling of sexual harassment allegations against a former gynecologist at the school’s student health clinic. Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported that the private research university had let gynecologist George Tyndall continue treating students despite complaints about his behavior. Hundreds of women have now come forward to report misconduct by Tyndall, who had been a physician there for more than 30 years. In a statement, the Department’s Office of Civil Rights said it will look into how USC handled “reports and complaints of sexual harassment during pelvic exams as early as 1990 that were not fully investigated by the University until spring 2016 and that the University did not disclose to OCR during an earlier investigation.”
Sexual Health
In an op-ed in the University of Oregon student newspaper, the Daily Emerald, the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) argues that Emergency Contraception should be more accessible on campus. According to the SHAC, access to EC is a matter of reproductive justice and increasing access on campus would contribute to a more sex-positive community. The Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) is in favor of installing a ‘wellness machine’ (a vending machine that has been implemented on other college campuses) that would make EC and other wellness products more accessible to all students.
Grace College and Seminary, an evangelical Christian college in northern Indiana has won its long-running lawsuit seeking religious exemption from paying for employees’ birth control under the Affordable Care Act. A federal judge issued a permanent injunction that stops the enforcement of a portion of the law related to providing contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization through student and employee health insurance plans. The Department of Justice under President Donald Trump no longer defends the measure, citing that it would violate the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Free Speech
The New York Times reports on the intensifying conversation around free speech on college campuses. Schools are struggling to balance the demand by some students to be protected from offensive speech while guaranteeing freedom of speech to others. While free speech is an issue colleges have grappled with for decades, it has taken on a new resonance since the 2016 presidential election and the increasing polarization of the country
Monday, the Department of Justice issued a “statement of interest” in a free-speech lawsuit filed against the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor by a group called Speech First. The department has filed similar statements in three other campus free-speech cases. Two involve colleges’ use of free-speech zones and permitting. The other concerns a group of conservative students at the University of California at Berkeley who say the university selectively enforced its speaker policy in an attempt to censor their right to free speech.
Greek Life
Colleges and states alike are cracking down on fraternities, implementing policies with harsher punishments for hazing. In May, eight months after the death of Louisiana State University freshman Maxwell Gruver, a pledge at the university’s now banished Phi Delta Theta fraternity chapter, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed into law an anti-hazing bill that would make it a felony for those involved in hazing that resulted in death, serious bodily harm, or life-threatening levels of alcohol. And students found guilty could land in a Louisiana jail for up to five years. This fall, following the death of Tim Piazza, a 19-year-old student, Penn State President Eric J. Barron, banned 13 organizations from his campus and instituted 15 reforms, including switching disciplinary oversight of the institutions from a Greek governing council to university administrators, requiring newcomers to take a pledge about their actions inside their organizations and deferring the initiation process for freshmen.
Fifteen Syracuse University students who participated in fraternity videos described by the school’s chancellor as racist and anti-Semitic were suspended last week, according to their lawyer. Some of them were suspended for one year and others for two years. The students are prohibited from any presence or activity on university property. Re-admittance is not guaranteed and is at the discretion of Syracuse. Five of the fraternity members are now suing the university, asserting that the videos were private and taken out of context. And the Foundation for Individual Rights In Education, a free-speech advocacy group known as FIRE, has strongly supported the students.
College Affordability
A new report from uAspire, a college-affordability advocacy organization, and New America, a left-leaning think tank, has found that financial-aid award letters, issued by colleges vary widely and are often confusing. The report, which examined more than 11,000 letters, found that some never use the word “loan” when referring to an unsubsidized loan, a type of loan that accrues interest while students are in school. Other letters did not include information about how much it would cost to attend the institution. Half of the letters did not explain what a student had to do to accept or decline the aid that was offered.
Student Success
The Washington Post reports on efforts to increase student retention and graduation rates citing the fact that fewer than 40 percent of students enrolling for the first time at a four-year college graduate in four years. According to the article, campuses are working to address the problem of student retention, and spending an increasing share of their budgets on student-success efforts such as technology that tracks performance, and hiring advising staff to assist in course selection. At the University of Texas, David Laude, a chemistry professor and senior vice provost, has been addressing this issue since the late 1990s. Laude realized that in his 500-seat chemistry class, students from first-generation or low income families were consistently at the bottom of the class. He pulled 50 of these students out and enrolled them in a smaller class, and assigned them advisers and peer mentors. The students in the smaller class achieved the same grades as those in the larger section. Laude is now working with a team at UT-Austin to improve the graduation rate for the entire campus. The efforts have shown positive results: the university’s four-year graduation rate rose from 52 percent in 2013 to 66 percent in 2017, and the growth spanned racial groups and family income levels.
