Mental and Behavioral Health
The Fresno State University athletics department launched #BulldogBraveBulldogStrong, a social media campaign aimed at addressing mental health among students, especially athletes. The campaign includes a short, black and white video featuring coaches, athletes and sports medicine staff acknowledging that mental health is not normally talked about in the college sports world. The video concludes with head football coach Jeff Tedford saying “Seeking help for your mental health is being Bulldog Brave Bulldog Strong.”
In an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News, Joanna Cattanach, a Democratic nominee for Texas state representative and a journalism teacher in Dallas argued that the state budget must reflect the priorities of mental health and safety in schools. Her argument cites recent moves by Republican lawmakers in the state including legislation to lower the gun permit age, allow open carry, lower gun license fees, and arm lunch ladies and librarians through a widely disparaged school marshal program. Three years ago Cattanach resigned her full-time college teaching position after the passage of the campus carry law in Texas.
Zach Okun, a former University of Oregon football player, is publicly sharing his struggle with mental health in order for others will realize that they are not alone, and that it’s okay to reach out for help. “I thought it was the tough thing to do,” Okun said. “My biggest mistake was that I didn’t ask for help. I kept internalizing things, until it came out.”
Jevon Moore, a University of Michigan graduate student and former NCS football player is working with the university’s Athletes Connected program, a collaboration between UM Athletics, the School of Public Health, and the Depression Center to shift the culture of college athletics and raise awareness of mental health resources at the school. Research has found athletes are far less likely than other college students to seek help for mental health issues.
Three more individuals have joined the class-action lawsuit against Stanford which claims that the University discriminated against students with mental health disabilities by placing students on leaves of absences in the face of severe mental health challenges without seeking sufficient accommodations. Along with an amended complaint incorporating these students’ cases, the Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) filed a motion to certify “all Stanford students who have a mental health disability” as a class, the plaintiffs as class representatives and the DRA as a class council. The amended complaint alleges that Stanford “maintains antiquated policies, practices, and procedures related to mental health that violate anti-discrimination laws.”
Diversity and Inclusion
Jabar Shumate, a vice president at the University of Oklahoma, says he was forced to resign after being accused of improperly using a state vehicle for personal reasons, a charge he denies. He contends that he was forced out due to his vehement opposition to the prospect of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity returning to campus after a racist incident. Shumate, a former state lawmaker and student leader at Oklahoma, was originally hired in 2015 to oversee diversity efforts after members of the SAE campus chapter were videotaped singing about how they’d rather see a black person “hang from a tree” than joining SAE. The video went viral, two students were expelled, and the chapter was disbanded.
Ben Trachtenberg, a former chairman of the Missouri Faculty Council on University Policy, has written one of the early scholarly accounts of the tumultuous period at the University of Missouri in 2015 when African-American students criticized university leaders for indifference or insensitivity to a deteriorating racial climate. That period of unrest, culminating in a graduate student’s hunger strike and a boycott by the football team, became a national spectacle and forced the resignations of the university’s president and chancellor. In a draft of his article, “The 2015 University of Missouri Protests and Their Lessons for Higher Education Policy and Administration,” Trachtenberg argues that the university’s race-related problems are not unique to higher education or the University, but that a “perfect constellation of dangerous conditions” caused the uncommonly contentious crisis.
As the one year anniversary of the Charlottesville white nationalist rally approaches, after which President Trump commented that that there were “very fine people on both sides”, University of Virginia faculty and students are protesting the appointment of Marc Short, Trump’s former legislative-affairs director, to a fellowship position at the university. As of 2 p.m. on Friday, more than 500 faculty, students, and alumni had signed a petition protesting his appointment to Miller Center, a “nonpartisan affiliate” of the institution that focuses on studying the presidency. The petition reads, “We are a community still in the process of healing. And someone who defended the president’s remarks after the violence here is a barrier to that process, a source of trauma in a still-traumatized community.”
Ten black students at Washington University in St. Louis were stopped by the police and wrongly accused of leaving a nearby IHOP restaurant without paying before heading back to the campus. The incoming freshmen were in town as part of a summer program for new students who plan to study science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. University officials swiftly condemned what happened, Holden Thorp, Wash U. Provost, wrote on Twitter that he was “embarrassed to be a resident of Clayton.” Administrators have also met with the students involved. The Chronicle of Higher Education asked a Washington University administrator and several experts to weigh in on what else can be done in these situations.
A black student at Georgia Southern University introduced herself to her future roommate off-campus via text prior to arriving on campus. The girl responded with a racist text, accidentally sent to the wrong recipient. University President Shelley Nickel said in a statement that the school “shares the hurt our community has expressed following the use of a racial slur exhibited in a screenshot shared on social media,” adding that “there is no place for bigotry or racism on our campuses.” The university declined to confirm that the alleged exchange was between GSU students, citing federal law that restricts universities from sharing student records.
In new court filings in the suit brought against Harvard University by Students for Fair Admissions, the university rebutted an analysis of admissions data, claiming the group is offering a “misleading narrative” about the university’s methods and record in admissions. Also in the filing, the university reiterated that it has tried alternatives to race-conscious affirmative action to diversify its undergraduate student body, but that those efforts would harm the diversity and academic strength of the class. (The suit argues that Harvard hasn’t fully considered race-neutral alternatives to achieving diversity.) The university says race is one factor among many that it weighs in annually assembling a freshman class. Students for Fair Admissions is a nonprofit whose members include Asian-Americans who claim Harvard’s admissions process is unconstitutional and illegal under federal civil-rights law because it intentionally discriminates against Asian-American applicants and holds them to a higher standard.
Marvin Krislov, the president of Pace University, spoke with the Chronicle about how his institution seeks to improve the economic status of its students with an education that blends job skills with the benefits of the liberal arts.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
Amid an ongoing independent investigation at Ohio State University, the school announced that more than 100 former OSU students have alleged that Richard Strauss, a former sports doctor, sexually abused them. The allegations span the years 1979 to 1997, when Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, worked at the institution. Ten more former students have sued the university over the alleged sexual misconduct, accusing school officials of facilitating abuse by ignoring complaints and requiring some athletes to get physicals from him to maintain their sports participation and scholarships. The lawsuit accuses the university of having “a culture of institutional indifference” about students’ safety and rights and failing to appropriately address Strauss’ behavior in violation of federal Title IX law, which bars sex discrimination in education.
More than 200 former University of Southern California students are suing the university alleging that George Tyndall, a former campus gynecologist abused and molested them and that USC ignored and covered up complaints over the more than 30 years that Tyndall worked there. Amanda Davis, a former student who is suing the university, spoke with NPR.
Trump administration lawyers are defending their new rules on how campuses should handle cases of sexual assault. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued the new guidance last fall after scrapping Obama-era rules that she said were forcing schools to violate the due process rights of the accused. Survivors’ advocates filed a federal lawsuit arguing DeVos’ guidelines discriminate against accusers and discourage them from reporting assaults. DeVos’ interim guidelines allow schools to demand a higher standard of evidence that would make it tougher to prove an assault, permit schools to hear appeals only from the accused, and let investigations go on for an indefinite amount of time. In court papers, the Department of Education attorneys argue that a “handful of statements” do not prove “sexism” or discriminatory intent, and that the case should be thrown out on procedural grounds because the plaintiffs haven’t sufficiently established that they were harmed by the new guidance and because the guidance is only temporary.
Free Speech
In a speech at a summit for high-school students sponsored by Turning Point USA, a conservative group that rails against colleges and professors they believe are hostile to the right, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that colleges are creating and coddling “a generation of sanctimonious, sensitive, supercilious snowflakes.” Sessions’ Justice Department has made campus censorship a part of its agenda. In his speech, Sessions invoked stereotypes often favored by critics on the right, about college students. He said, “Through ‘trigger warnings’ about ‘microaggressions,’ cry closets, ‘safe spaces,’ optional exams, therapy goats, and grade inflation, too many schools are coddling our young people and actively preventing them from scrutinizing the validity of their beliefs. That is the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do.” Howard A. Gillman, chancellor of the University of California at Irvine and a noted First Amendment scholar, spoke to the Chronicle about free speech scuffles, admitting that colleges can improve the conversation about free speech, but stating that name calling is not a productive way to achieve that.
Policy and Politics
Most Americans aren’t happy with the direction that higher education in the United States is headed, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The survey found about 61 percent of Americans think higher education is moving in the wrong direction. But the reasons why split down party lines. Of Republican respondents who disapprove of high education’s path, 79 percent were strongly concerned by professors’ introducing political and social views into the classroom. And about three-fourths said there’s too much hand-wringing about protecting students from potentially offensive viewpoints. More Democrats (92 percent) cited high tuition as a major concern. Both parties agreed that it’s more important to allow people on college campuses to speak freely than to guard students from objectionable ideas: Ninety-one percent of Republicans and 86 percent of Democrats.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced their proposal to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, the main legislation governing federal higher-education policy. Their bill, called the Aim Higher Act, is in stark contrast to the Republican alternative, the Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity Through Education Reform Act, or the Prosper Act, unveiled last year and awaiting action on the House floor. The two bills suggest changes in several of the same programs – but to differing degrees. These include simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, holding colleges accountable to their goals and their students’ educational outcomes, and enhancing access for more financially vulnerable students.
Substance Use
According to a study by researchers at the University of Rhode Island and Brown University, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications fail to improve cognition in healthy students and actually can impair functioning. When administered to healthy (non-ADHD) college students, the standard 30 mg dose of Adderall did improve attention, mood and focus but these effects failed to translate to better performance on neurocognitive tasks that measured short-term memory, reading comprehension and fluency.
According to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University, Oregon college students, including those under 21, were much more likely to use marijuana after recreational use became legal. Most of the increase in the post-legalization period was among students who reported using marijuana one to five times a month, not among heavy users. For the college study, researchers analyzed data from the National College Health Assessment survey, an anonymous voluntary survey that universities across the country distribute to a random sample of their students.
Four in every ten U.S. college students binge drink, according to a survey by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, whose findings were published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
College Affordability
In an op-ed for WBUR, Bob Hildreth the founder of Inversant, a college access and financial incentives program for low-income families and a member of the Attorney General’s Student Debt Working Group, explained that student debt is burdening younger generations, and until recently, the will to reduce the dependence on loans did not exist. According to Hildreth, because colleges receive the dollars and the students take on the debt, their financial model was built on the assumption that they could keep raising tuition with students willing to take on more debt to pay for it. However, this has started to backfire, leaving colleges with empty seats. The amount of student loans borrowed has reached $1.5 trillion, two-and-a-half times what it was a decade ago. Although they are extremely important to colleges as a source of revenue, 76 colleges nationwide have taken steps to rid their campuses of student loans. Included in the 76 are elite private schools like Dartmouth College and public universities like Michigan State University and University of Vermont. Some have succeeded in completely eliminating loans from their financial aid packages and others have adopted partial no loan policies for low-income students.
Next spring, a New Jersey pilot program launched by Governor Phil Murphy will offer free tuition to students attending select community colleges. The state invited its 19 community colleges to apply for the Community College Innovation Challenge, a program aimed at making higher education more accessible and affordable. The program will cover tuition and fees at chosen schools for students with an income of $45,000 or less and who take six or more credits during the semester.
Disabilities
The Center for Transition and Career Innovation for Youth With Disabilities is a new center at the University of Maryland that will help young people with disabilities move from an educational setting into the workforce. “We know what it takes to help students with disabilities become successful as adults,” said Richard Luecking, one of the researchers involved in the center. “We just don’t know how to apply it universally, to all students, with any disability. The center will be able to understand the circumstances where we could make that happen, across the board.”
Hunger
According to published studies, up to half of college students report that they were either not getting enough to eat or were concerned about it. Food insecurity is prevalent at community colleges, but it’s common at public and private four-year schools as well. Student activists and advocates have drawn attention to the problemin recent years, and food pantries have sprung up at hundreds of schools. Some schools are also using the Swipe Out Hunger program, which allows students to donate their unused meal plan vouchers, or swipes, to other students to use at campus dining halls or food pantries.
