8/1 – 8/7

Mental and Behavioral Health

This summer, a Florida Polytechnic University student died by suicide a month after the school laid off their only mental health counselor, raising questions about whether the tragedy could have been avoided.

In an op-ed originally posted in The Conversation, Meghan Duffy and Carly Thanhouser, researchers who study mental health and mentor graduate students at the University of Michigan, argue that critical changes need to be made at universities and within graduate programs and departments to better support the mental health of graduate students.

The California Community College system, which is made up of 114 institutions is turning to technology to provide its students with mental-health services and to better understand their challenges. The system partnered with the Crisis Text Line in 2017 to offer students a free and anonymous way to get help during mental health emergencies. A year later, nearly 2,800 students have engaged in 4,500 conversations through the texting service. Data from the text line has already illuminated alarming trends; anxiety and stress are the top issues facing students who use the service, representing 43 percent of instances. Other common issues include relationship struggles, abuse, depression and sadness, and isolation and loneliness. Data also showed that students in the community colleges in California were far more likely than other institutions the company works with to report homelessness or financial troubles.

According to a new report by the University of Kansas Student Affairs department, the school has seen an increase in demand for student mental health services. Counseling and psychological services had a total of 120 visits in May, up more than 73 percent from May 2017.

The University of Waterloo in Canada hired seven additional mental health staff in response to a student walkout in March, after a student suicide.  Kai Butterfield, a fourth-year student and organizer of the walk-out in March, said hiring seven more staff members is not enough because they want counsellors who can represent the “diverse student population” and understand “the realities” of their lives. “We need counsellors who represent racialized students, Indigenous and international students, students from the LGBTQ+ community and students with disabilities,” Butterfield said. “After five months, the university has been focused on streamlining their response to student deaths but have made very few cultural changes that affirm the lives of students at Waterloo.”

Diversity and Inclusion

At Smith College in Massachusetts, an employee called the police on a black student who was quietly eating her lunch while taking a break from her job on campus. The student then posted about her ordeal on Facebook, and is now leading the charge to identify the person who called the police to report “a suspicious black male” who “seemed out of place.” The officer found nothing suspicious about her. The student, Oumou Kanoute, wrote on the social media site, “I am blown away at the fact that I cannot even sit down and eat lunch peacefully,” she wrote.  “I did nothing wrong, I wasn’t making any noise or bothering anyone. All I did was be black.” Smith College has since defended the student, noting there was “nothing suspicious about the student’s presence,” and that the school “does not tolerate race- or gender-based discrimination in any form.” The college also announced that the employee who called police has been placed on leave, and that they have hired an outside investigator to look into the incident.

The New York Times reports that colleges are accepting more transfer students for a myriad of reasons: including revenue and overall yield, or how many students who are accepted actually enroll. Transfer students also offer the racial, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity schools are seeking. Of the 13 transfer students Princeton University accepted this year – 10 of whom are enrolling in the fall – eight served or are currently serving in active duty in the military and eight, as the university put it in its news release, “self-identified as people of color.”

Proposals to institute a random-selection admissions process have reemerged in response to a lawsuit alleging that Harvard’s admissions system penalizes Asian American applicants. The Atlantic explains this proposed lottery system, in which a school would set a standard that is “good enough” and then use a lottery to choose who is admitted.

According to The Charleston Post and Courier, the College of Charleston began to once again practice race-conscious admissions policies after a hiatus of about two years. The papers reported last week that the college had “quietly” stopped using its race-conscious admissions practices in 2016, a change that hadn’t been voted on by the Board of Trustees, or been explained to advocates for underrepresented students on campus. Days later, the newspaper reported that the use of race-conscious admissions at the college was reinstated. It is unclear why the changes occurred or where the directives came from on campus. The institution insists that no changes have been made to its admissions policies.

After a five-year examination into the history of slavery at the University of Virginia, the President’s Commission on Slavery and the University has concluded that slavery played an integral role in the founding, construction and operations of the public university “Slavery, in every way imaginable, was central to the project of designing, funding, building, and maintaining the school,” the report concluded. Jefferson, who designed the school, “believed that a Southern institution was necessary to protect the sons of the South from abolitionist teachings in the North.” A new commission will continue the examination of race by studying the years of segregation there.

Higher Ed Policy

Professional associations are concerned that the Trump administration’s new rules on health insurance could raise the cost of plans that institutions offer — and lead some college students, particularly graduate students, to pay significantly more for health care. The administration released the rules allowing Americans to purchase cheaper, shorter-term health-care plans that last up to a year and are renewable for up to three years. While the premiums for these plans — which were disincentivized under the Affordable Care Act — are much more inexpensive than those for ACA plans, the plans also don’t provide the same coverage options, and could impose annual or lifetime dollar caps that the ACA forbids. The concern is that students will switch to shorter-term plans instead of those offered by their school, said Steven Bloom, director of government relations for the American Council on Education, which could drive up the cost for students who remain on the university plans.

Greek Life

The Chronicle profiles the shared experiences and mutual goals of Eric Barron, President of Pennsylvania State University, F. King Alexander, President of Louisiana State, and John Thrasher, President of Florida State who have all experienced leading their schools through the tragedy of a student dying at a fraternity party. The three men are among a small, but growing, cohort of college presidents who say they are tired of worrying every weekend that a student is going to die at a fraternity event. Led by Barron of Penn State, they are trying to spur a national charge against the dangerous behavior that has become synonymous with such organizations.

A judge has sentenced a former leader of the Penn State fraternity to three months of house arrest over the hazing death of Timothy Piazza last year. Ryan Burke, who was in charge of recruitment at Beta Theta Pi fraternity, is the first person to plead guilty in the case, admitting to hazing and other crimes. He is one of more than 20 defendants to face charges after investigators recovered evidence from a night in February 2017, when Piazza, 19, suffered serious injuries from a fall after being forced to drink large amounts of alcohol in a short span of time. Burke was also ordered to serve more than two years of probation, perform community service and pay more than $3,000 in fines.

Substance Use

According to the spring 2018 National College Health Assessment survey, alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use is up among a sampling of University of Iowa students, as are suicidal thoughts and actions. When compared to a national sample of college students, UI students were more likely to use alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine; engage in high-risk drinking; and be sexually active. However, UI students were more likely than the national group to be a healthy weight, feel safe, and get enough sleep. Also, high risk drinking, defined as consuming five or more alcoholic beverages on one occasion in the last two weeks, decreased slightly; 49.6 percent reported engaging in high-risk drinking in the previous two weeks, which is a slight decrease from 50.5 percent in 2017. The average number of drinks consumed per occasion is reported at 5.3, which is also a small decrease from 5.4 in 2017.

Sexual Assault and Title IX