ACE Pulse Point Survey
The American Council on Education (ACE) released its latest Pulse Point survey of college and university presidents on their views surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and seventy presidents responded on topics including summer and fall enrollment, fall instruction modality and balancing in-person, online, and hybrid course offerings, student mental health, and lessons learned from state reopenings. The survey was administered in early July.
The most pressing issue facing presidents at that time was “safety protocols for the fall related to COVID-19” (66%). Second most pressing was “fall enrollment” (56%), followed by “mental health of students” (39%). Presidents at private four-year institutions (71%) were most likely to say “safety protocols for the fall related to COVID-19” as among their most pressing issues, more than presidents at public four-year institutions (64%) and presidents at public two-year institutions (59%).
Presidents at public two-year institutions (83%) were most likely to select “fall enrollment numbers” among their most pressing issues, more than presidents at public four-year institutions (51%) and presidents at private four-year institutions (50%).
When answering what they have learned from their own states’ reopening experiences, many presidents indicated they learned that a “slow” or “phased” approach to reopening is important. While some reported learning that predominantly remote instruction or a hybrid model would be the best way to operate in the fall, others mentioned the importance of safety measures and protocols was one of the biggest lessons learned, as was constant, clear, and consistent communication.
Coronavirus Impact
The Boston Globe reports on the increased stress and anxiety among college students caused by the pandemic. A survey by Active Minds recently found that students are feeling disappointed, sad, lonely, isolated, and financially set back. Most also reported that they struggle to get enough physical activity or connect with others. Sarah Ketchen Lipson, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, told the Globe that the COVID-19 crisis exacts a particular toll on college students. “It’s meant to be the time for so many adolescents and young adults where they’re developing their autonomy and really coming into adulthood and really having more and more independence, and that has been cut off at this really pivotal time,” she said. Lipson also stressed that mental health treatment is especially important during college, as it is the age of onset for many mental illnesses. Meanwhile, colleges are bracing for the increased need for services. Boston College has added additional clinicians to its staff this year and an online mental health awareness module for new students to complete before the fall semester. Last year, Northeastern University implemented a new system with a free phone number students can call from anywhere in the world that immediately connects them to a mental health clinician who can assess their needs.
A report from UC Berkeley School of Public Health describes the “second curve” of the COVID-19 pandemic, a wave of mental health harms. The report, co-authored by School of Public Health associate clinical professor Deryk Van Brunt, suggests that social distancing, financial loss and lack of a vaccine are all associated with an increase in mental and emotional harm. “What the pandemic has done is exacerbate mental health issues that were mostly already there. Substance abuse, depression, anxiety, stress, etc. were already present in many of our students,” Van Brunt said “Sadly the pandemic has made many of these conditions more acute.”
Harvard Magazine reports on the university’s efforts to balance mental health needs and COVID safety in the fall, citing the increase in mental health issues amid the pandemic. “The shift to remote learning, though necessary to stem infections, has shattered protective factors for students’ mental health, including social connections, a strong sense of purpose, and regular sleep and exercise. Many students must cope simultaneously with isolation, economic insecurities, fear of contracting the virus, care for their families, and academic pressures,” said the article. More than 160 members of the Harvard community, most of them students, signed an open letter addressed to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Fall Planning Committee, demanding increased attention and improved care for students’ mental health. The letter reads, “We urge you to revise the Fall 2020 Plan to ensure that Harvard students’ mental health is protected. Merely informing Harvard undergraduates of the existence of CAMHS (Counseling and Mental Health Services) will not be an adequate response if the Plan actively puts students in a harmful situation.”
A new study published in JAMA Network Open shows that college students can safely live on campus if they are tested for the coronavirus every two days. The study was authored by researchers from the Yale School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, who found that even using tests that are not 100% accurate would ensure a safe environment if they are given with the study’s recommended frequency. The study estimates the cost at $470 per student per semester.
According to the Wall Street Journal, colleges are deliberating the triggers that would cause their campuses to close again after reopening, hoping that these guidelines will help avoid the chaos of the March closures. The University of Texas at Austin outlined the variables that will be weighed during the decision, including a student death, high rates of employee absenteeism, limited isolation facilities and a two-week upward swing in the percentage of tests coming back positive. Syracuse University has identified five levels of outbreaks and action plans for each from 10 or fewer cases to an outbreak of more than 100 cases where transmission is occurring at a significant rate and “there is no realistic strategy to contain or control the situation.”
A fraternity house and a group of student athletes at Colorado State University are among the new COVID-19 outbreaks reported this week by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment. Seven residents of the Kappa Sigma fraternity house tested positive for COVID-19, one of whom had close contact with a CSU staff member who contracted the disease. At least eight student athletes also tested positive for the disease, and an additional nine are suspected of having COVID-19 and awaiting test results.
A survey conducted by Scholarship America, a provider of private college scholarships, found that college students’ concern about their personal finances has increased due to COVID-19. According to the survey, 64% of student responses said paying for school is one of their top concerns. Seventy seven percent said the pandemic has reduced their ability to earn income needed for their education and 64% said the pandemic has increased their need for financial aid. Nearly one third said they have lost a job needed to help pay for college due to COVID-19, and 28% said a parent has lost a job.
Colleges and universities using in person or hybrid instruction are starting to release their requirements for students returning to campus. Ohio State University released a coronavirus testing program and the “pledge” that university community members are expected to sign. Ohio State officials have said students will be required to wear face masks in indoor settings, participate in daily health checks, and complete health and safety training online before returning to campus. A new University of Colorado Boulder policy requires all students, faculty and staff to complete a health questionnaire every day. University of Tennessee Knoxville will require masks for in-person learning and daily health screenings and is giving students thermometers as well as free COVID-19 testing at the student health center.
The Chronicle examined the reopening plan for University of North Carolina, which public health experts say is insufficient to protect those on campus and the surrounding community. Last week, students began moving back to the dorms, which are being filled to their usual capacity. While many colleges are reopening for the fall semester, the Chronicle reports that the danger at Pembroke seems especially acute. The university is located in a county that has seen the state’s highest rate of coronavirus infections recently. Forty-two percent of Robeson county residents identify as American Indian, and 24 percent as Black, two groups that have been most likely to die of Covid-19. Pembroke’s plan for the fall does not include universal testing, but recommends students get tested if they feel symptoms of Covid-19, or if they know they’ve been exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. Due to space constraints, Pembroke will encourage students to return to their family homes if they test positive for the coronavirus, which links the school’s fate even tighter to that of the surrounding community. Fifty three percent of students at Pembroke come from the county or nearby counties.
In their latest coronavirus relief proposal, Senate Republicans earmarked about $29 billion for colleges, far below what industry groups like the American Council on Education have pressed for. A proposal put forward by House Democrats in May would provide about $37 billion to the higher education sector.
NPR interviewed Colette Pierce Burnette, the president of Huston-Tillotson University, a small, private HBCU in Austin, Texas, about her decision to proceed with virtual learning for the fall. “We must have looked at over a dozen different scenarios – from being fully online to being fully on ground here on campus,” she told All Things Considered. “The students’ health, the safety of our faculty, our staff, the people who work here, was paramount.” Burnette says she considered many factors in determining the school’s plan. “We followed the science. … We have a small, intimate campus. When you look at social distancing of young people, the age of the people who serve our students, the race of the people who serve our students, as well as the cost associated with the PPE [personal protective equipment], testing, quarantining, it becomes overwhelming for a small school such as us,” she said.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill launched a coronavirus dashboard to keep the college community updated on data related to the coronavirus. On the resource, students can see how much personal protective equipment is available and how many positive identified cases of the coronavirus there are in the community. As of Saturday, more than 100 students have tested positive for coronavirus since March.
SEC athletes expressed concern to officials about the plan to start the season at a meeting with “more than a dozen SEC football players, members of the conference’s medical advisory board and SEC officials, including Commissioner Greg Sankey.” On the call, one player asked whether or not an official would allow their son or daughter to play sports under these conditions. The student athletes’ concerns stem from the environment they are being asked to play under, interwoven with the student body who some athletes feel will not have the same level of concern about COVID-19 transmission as they do.
Mental and Behavioral Health
In the Chronicle, Lee Burdette Williams, senior director for mental-health initiatives at Naspa: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education and David R. Reetz, director of counseling and psychological services at the Rochester Institute of Technology and president-elect of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors offer advice to help counseling centers prepare for the surge of students who will seek help when classes resume amid Covid-19. They advise varying mental health services to match the varying mental health needs of students, outsourcing when necessary, and organizing more support groups. The also created a fall to-do list that includes: Communicate which mental-health services will be available and how to access them; Create a list of campus resources to guide faculty and staff members in referring students; Expand nonclinical mental-health services, like case management; and Devise a clear set of criteria to qualify for face-to-face clinical services.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Diverse Education reports that an investigation by an outside law firm has determined that systemic racism exists within the University of Iowa football program. According to the investigation, the program suffered a culture that “perpetuated racial bias against Black players and allowed some current and former staff members to demean and bully others.” Head coach Kirk Ferentz said, “This review brings us face-to-face with allegations of uneven treatment, where our culture that mandated uniformity caused many Black players to feel they were unable to show up as their authentic selves. I want to apologize for the pain and frustration they felt at a time when I was trusted to help each of them become a better player, and a better person.”
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott announced that she donated tens of millions of dollars to historically Black colleges and universities across the U.S. The gifts to at least four of the donations are the largest single gifts in the respective schools’ histories, and reflect a pattern of increased giving to HBCUs.
Senate Democrats are scrutinizing an emerging practice used by private student lenders of using education data to determine creditworthiness for student loans. Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown (OH), Kamala Harris (CA) and Elizabeth Warren (MA) say these practices may have a disparate impact on minority groups and constitute educational redlining by raising the price of credit for historically marginalized groups. Lawmakers’ concerns center on lenders factoring in where borrowers attend college or what they study to assess the risk of extending credit and the appropriate interest to charge.
In Diverse Education, Dr. Autumn Green, a research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College, and Dr. Wendy Wagner Robeson, a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women write that closures of early childhood care and education programs, some of which were located on college campuses, have dealt a major blow for college students who are parents. These students are disproportionately low-income and students of color, especially Black women. One in three first-generation college students is a parent.
California State University is requiring all students take an ethnic studies or social justice course in order to graduate. “This action, by the CSU and for the CSU, lifts ethnic studies to a place of prominence in our curriculum, connects it with the voices and perspectives of other historically oppressed groups, and advances the field by applying the lens of social justice,” CSU Chancellor Timothy P. White said in a press release. “It will empower our students to meet this moment in our nation’s history, giving them the knowledge, broad perspectives and skills needed to solve society’s most pressing problems. And it will further strengthen the value of a CSU degree.”
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, linked the forgiving of student debt to addressing racial inequities in the country at the virtual convention of the American Federation of Teachers. “We still have Black college graduates five times more likely than white graduates to have to default on their student loans because of their financial circumstances,” he said. When asked by Marguerite Ruff, a Philadelphia classroom assistant for special needs children, what he planned to do to reduce disparities, Biden reiterated his campaign pledge to eliminate large portions of student debt. HE has proposed forgiving the student loans of those making $25,000 or less.
In a recent study published by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), more than 5,000 students from 17 historically Black colleges and universities shared how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting their lives and enrollment plans for fall. Over 80% of students prefer to return to campus for some level of in-person instruction for the fall semester. Of that number, 55% prefer to return to campus for in-class instruction this fall, while 33% prefer a mixture of online and in-person classes. More than half of students (54%) are experiencing financial challenges as a result of COVID-19. More than one-third of students reported a decline in their mental well-being due to COVID-19.
Student Success
The George Washington University Black Student Union announced a mentorship program aimed at guiding and supporting freshman students entering their first year. The BSU Big Brother, Big Sister Matriculation Program will pair Black first-year students with upperclassmen who share similar majors and interests to “foster a strong sense of community among all of its participants,” according to the announcement. Devon Bradley, the president of BSU, said the executive board wants to implement a mentorship program as part of the organization’s goal to support its members.
The Hechinger Report highlights the City University of New York’s College Bridge for All program, which is part of an effort to support the more than 50,000 new graduates of New York City public high schools. One of the goals of the program is to prevent “summer melt,” an annual phenomenon in which students who enroll in college in the spring fail to show up in the fall. The program hired 80 CUNY students on top of the 120 it normally takes on in the summer to mentor younger students, helping them fill out financial aid forms, enroll in classes, cope with changing campus scenarios for the fall and, for some late deciders, apply for admission. “These college coaches are the people who need this work the most, and also the most qualified to be doing this work,” said Laura Myers, associate director of college counseling initiatives at the City University of New York.
Greek Life
In recent weeks, hundreds of Vanderbilt University students have dropped out of their fraternities and sororities and started pushing for abolishing Greek life. The group has been gathering virtually, using group-run Instagram activist pages writing searing op-eds condemning their own organizations for the student newspaper, and petitioning the administration to ban Greek organizations from campus. The mass action has been accelerated by several racist incidents that have surfaced on social media, but students say the movement is rooted in the exclusion, racism and misogyny that are perceived features of Greek life, which is seen as resistant to reform due to the hierarchical nature of the national Greek organizations. Similar “Abolish Greek Life” movements have sprung up at other universities around the country, including at the University of Richmond, Duke, Emory, American University, Northwestern and the University of North Carolina.
