Dr. Marcia Morris: Advice for Returning Students and Parents on Addressing Mental Health Concerns on Campus
As college students embark on their return to campuses in person, parents may look for more resources to better support their children and address mental health concerns. This week’s Quadcast features college mental health expert and psychiatrist, Dr. Marcia Morris, who provides insight and advice for students and their parents as the pandemic, and its consequences, continue to impact the college experience.
Additionally, you can find and download the Mary Christie Institute’s Guide for College Students’ Parents featuring Dr. Morris’s four T’s (tips) for supporting your college student’s mental health.
Mental and Behavioral Health
Main Stories
With college students returning to campuses after a year of social isolation and disruption, a reminder to promote a positive culture towards kindness can ease the transition to social life and benefit students’ mental health. The Born This Way Foundation is gearing up for its annual #BeKind21 movement, which calls on participants to practice an act of kindness each day from September 1st to September 21st, helping to build kinder communities that foster mental health. This year’s campaign has been crafted to respond to the unprecedented season we are all in and encourages a culture of kindness and compassion in your community, including self-kindness. Last year, more than 5.3 million people participated in #BeKind21, including over 350 classrooms, schools, and school districts. Born This Way Foundation invites everyone to add #BeKind21 to their fall plans, marking this unusual and historic season with kindness and compassion. To take the #BeKind21 pledge, please sign-up here.
Other News
The Los Angeles Times reports on mental health concerns for the fall for the 2.7 million college students in California. The article describes students’ experiences with uncertainty, financial hardships, and other stressors stemming from the pandemic.
A new study of college students on leisure time found that students who viewed leisure as wasteful or unproductive were less happy and more depressed, as well as anxious and stressed.
In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Loyolan, interim opinion student editor Yukuna Inoue writes about looking after one another’s mental health when transitioning back to in-person college.
The University of Texas News announces UT Austin’s efforts to improve its university’s mental health crisis response. Starting this fall, the newly banded Mental Health Assistance and Response Team (MHART) will dispatch mental health professionals along with plain-clothed police officers to respond to crisis calls.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Inside Higher Ed features a new bill that would improve access to accommodations for students with disabilities. The Respond, Innovate, Succeed and Empower (RISE) Act would allow students to use documentation from high school as proof that they have a disability and need accommodations while attending college or university. The legislation is supported by both Democrats and Republicans and would remove cost barriers and wait time for documentation approvals. The RISE Act would likely be included in a renewal of the Higher Education Act.
In an Op-Ed for Higher Ed Dive, higher education communication consultants, Teresa Parrot and Erin Hennessy, write about DEI communication strategies for universities and colleges. Parrot and Hennessy say college leaders “should provide a substantive update on DEI work to their communities” as the fall semester begins, arguing against “oversharing plans for achieving a more inclusive culture before building the infrastructure… and other supports necessary for success.” Additionally, they state that diversity officers and other campus leaders, who are often excluded from leadership messaging, can provide depth and insight to better reflect campus needs.
Sexual Assault and Title IX
This week, students at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln are protesting against the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, known as Fiji, after news of a sexual assault emerged. According to the university campus police chief, a 17-year-old female student was sexually assaulted and escorted to a hospital’s emergency room where staff reported the assault to the Lincoln Police Department. The suspect is a 19-year-old male and member of the fraternity, reportedly no longer enrolled at the school. The fraternity house was already on probation for previous violations of alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct and was suspended from 2017 to 2020. On Wednesday, Chancellor Ronnie D. Green announced that the fraternity has been temporarily suspended; however, students are demanding that the fraternity be permanently banned, and a Change.org petition “Ban Fiji Forever” has garnered over 315,000 signatures.
Higher Ed Dive reports that colleges are now able to factor in testimonies outside of hearings in Title IX investigations, which was previously banned under the Trump administration’s regulation. Officials were only able to account for evidence and testimony provided during the hearing, which meant investigators would have had to exclude evidence of an accused student who may have confessed publicly. U.S. District Court Judge William Young found the rule to be unlawful, ultimately changing the practice as the Biden administration works on providing a new Title IX regulation.
Student Success
A new report found that the majority, or two-thirds, of first-year students struggled with virtual learning during the pandemic, many of whom had limited access to technology and resources. The data found that a third of students surveyed reported frequent issues with an unreliable computer, and 21% said they had unpredictable or no access to the internet. The report also found that 82% of students were concerned that “online learning during the pandemic would negatively impact their academic success this year,” with 76% reporting they believed there could be “long-term consequences.”
According to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, almost 200,000 fewer transfer students enrolled in college in the 2020-21 academic year. The number is about three times the decline of the previous year’s loss of 69,300 students. Students transferring from two-year institutions to four-year ones declined by 1.3%. The report found that highly selective institutions saw an upward transfer rate, increasing by 10.3%. The enrollment rate for Black transfer students declined by 12.9%.
College Affordability
On Tuesday, the U.S. Education Department published in a Federal Register notice to college financial aid offices that it would resume auditing of college students applying for financial aid, announcing that the weeks of flexibility would end for the 2022-23 application cycle. The FAFSA’s verification process to prove identity has been criticized as a major barrier for low-income students.
In an opinion piece for The Hechinger Report, Avery Davis, a Ph.D. student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, argues offering three-year degrees and lifelong learning can tackle the current college affordability issue. Davis argues that “instead of waiting for the federal government to address the student debt crisis” or “holding schools [more] accountable for tuition rates,” colleges and universities can deploy “innovative programs to address these problems” such as restructuring summer semesters and giving alumni lifelong opportunities to gain new skills from their alma maters.
Coronavirus: Safety and Reopening
The Washington Post covers the vacillating feelings of celebration and coronavirus fear on university campuses nationwide. The rise in Covid-19 hospitalizations and Delta variant cases this summer have altered campus reopening plans from what many hoped would be a full return to “normal” life. A growing divide between higher education institutions that have mandated vaccinations and masks and those that have not has sparked debate amongst faculty members’ reluctance to return to face-to-face teaching and how long students and professors should wear masks. The full federal approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and learned lessons from experiencing COVID-19 safety measures on campus last year has provided optimism for reopening.
In this week’s Live Coronavirus Updates from The Chronicle, the governor of Illinois signed an executive order mandating vaccinations at all institutions of higher education, the board of trustees voted to repeal the mask mandate at North Idaho Community College – despite the president’s advice, student journalists at James Madison University uncovered the university’s lack of Covid data, and a vaccine mandate has been halted for four seniors on the women’s soccer team at Western Michigan University.
When Cody Luedtke, a lab coordinator and instructor of life and earth sciences at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College, refused to teach in person without the ability to require masks, she was fired for “refusal to work.” While the University System of Georgia, comprising 26 public colleges, has encouraged all faculty, staff, and students to wear face coverings, instructors are not allowed to impose consequences on their students for not wearing masks. Luedtke was required to teach in the assigned mode “as identified on the schedule,” “was not eligible for remote work,” and “did not seek an accommodation under the university’s Americans with Disabilities Act employee policy,” said university spokesperson Andrea Anne Jones.
