9/11 – 9/17

Mental and Behavioral Health

The Boston Globe reports on implications of a new law suit filed by the parents of Luke Tang, a Harvard University student who died by suicide in 2015 two weeks after arriving on campus for his sophmor year.  The parents are suing the university and several employees for allegedly failing to protect him from self-harm. The case builds on a 2018 ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that found schools have a “limited duty” to prevent suicides if they know a student is at risk. After a suicide attempt the previous year, school officials required that the 19-year-old sign a contract promising to follow his doctors’ treatment plan, and keep up with mental health services after going away for the summer. He didn’t, and Harvard officials apparently did not check up with him upon his return in the fall. His death prompted concerns about the particular vulnerabilities of Asian students at Harvard and other rigorous schools across the United States, and raises new questions about the responsibilities of universities to prevent suicides on campus.

In Salon magazine, Sophia A. McClennen, a professor of International Affairs and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University, explores why college students today are more stressed than other generations. A new study by the American Psychological Association (APA) reports that Gen Z outpaces all older generations in stress, with 9 in 10 Gen Zs between the ages of 18 and 21 reporting stress in the last month compared to around 75 percent of their elders. According to McClennen, many perceive the reasoning behind the phenomenon to be the fact that today’s students are “snowflakes” with a lack of resilience shaped by helicopter parents, smartphones, and a sense of entitlement. But McClennen examines recent research, finding that students today are stressed about the nation’s future, and particularly mass shootings, as well as student debt, heavy course loads, and part-time jobs.

Harvard College is opening its new Academic Resource Center, which replaces the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC) in providing academic support. The Dean of Undergraduate Education, Amanda Claybaugh, said the move marked a shift away from the BSC’s “hybrid model,” which sought to address both students’ academic and personal circumstances which led some undergraduates to worry that the new center won’t include mental health-related services, previously provided by BSC. Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Sindhumathi Revuluri said the BSC’s counseling was not in line administrators’ beliefs that the center should have a primarily academic focus, and that the BSC “came about at a time when we did not have institutionalized or robust mental health services. And so things like the Bureau of Study Counsel took on a much more kind of advisory, mentorship, pastoral role, which actually meant that there was a lot less focus on academic issues.” Since classes resumed, many of the office’s undergraduate noted their positive experiences with the BSC’s approach to academic counseling and cited long lines at Counseling and Mental Health Services.

The death by suicide of Gregory Eells, the relatively new leader of counseling and psychological services at the University of Pennsylvania and a mental health professional who held national counseling posts, has had reverberations on campus and throughout the country. The Penn community was jarred by the suicide of the man who oversaw programs for students designed to help prevent such acts. “If someone at the highest level of this resource ladder doesn’t have access to the resources they need to feel safe, I really do worry for everyone else,” said Melissa Song, 20, a senior neuroscience student from Tempe, Ariz., and director of Penn Benjamins, a peer counseling organization. At least 14 Penn students have died by suicide since 2013, spurring calls for the nearly 26,000-student school in West Philadelphia to improve its mental health services. The university has expanded counseling center hours and reduced wait times for an appointment and last year appointed its first “chief wellness officer,” charged with improving mental well-being. In addition, the university has begun embedding counselors in some of the schools so that access is easier. Students said they hope Eells’ death will lead to more introspection from the university community. Student government leaders across Penn’s campus are looking inward to improve wellness in their own groups and committing to campus-wide mental wellness initiatives. Student groups are also seeking to partner closely with CAPS to extend existing programs.

Missouri University held its annual Mental Health Summit featuring panels on resources for student veterans both on and off campus. Topics included suicide prevention and future research on the student-veteran experience. At a panel focused on adjusting to civilian life and the struggles that returning service members face, David Hammer, a Vietnam War combat veteran and founder of All the Way Home, an organization aimed at helping veterans, talked about his experience with late-onset PTSD and how fellow veterans struggle with seeking help. “The veterans cannot do it without the help of the community,” he said. “Without compassion or care, they’re walking a long, lonely road.”

The University of Southern California Undergraduate Student Government released a statement reaffirming its commitment to campus mental health following the deaths of two students last week. The statement also emphasized a need for diverse and substantive mental health services. “Students from all backgrounds and experiences deserve accessible mental health resources that accommodate their needs,” the statement said. “We vow this commitment will be met with concrete actions … Senators are committing to working on and prioritizing initiatives that address this need on our campus and in our community.”

In an op-ed in the University of South Carolina’s student newspaper, The State, university President Robert Louis Caslen Jr. wrote about new initiatives at the school that will address mental health. The Resiliency Project is an effort to help residential students develop coping skills, build resilience and create connections with other students.  Another initiative backed by a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, aims to increase access to mental health and substance abuse services and resources, focusing on student populations including student veterans, LGBTQ students, students of color, students with low economic resources and students who display high-risk behavior.

In a letter to the campus, USC’s Office of Student Affairs announced a new mental health awareness initiative that provides wellness and self-harm education and incorporates weekly on-campus mental health activities to promote well-being. One of these activities includes Trousdale Outreach and Awareness, a joint effort between Outreach and Mental Health Services and Undergraduate Student Government to provide mental health information and a space for students to connect with others dealing with trauma. The program includes discussions with clinical professionals and  opportunities for students to participate in stress-reduction activities and personal skill-building. The announcement also introduced the #BeThe1To campaign as another source of mental health education. Created by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the #BeThe1To campaign is a five-step approach students can use to reach out and assist others contemplating suicide. The campaign stresses interpersonal contact, support of others and connection to external mental health resources. The letter, signed by Vice President of Student Affairs Winston Crisp and Student Health Chief Health Officer Sarah Van Orman, comes shortly after two students died by suicide last week and one student died following a vehicle collision during Welcome Week.

A series in the Wall Street Journal, This Future View, explores the sharp increase in depression, anxiety and suicidal thinking reported by college students over the last decade. The Journal asked current students about the causes of the mental health crisis on campus. Students listed technology, college preparation, and unhealthy competition as contributing factors. One responded, “Students today do everything they can to make the sacrifices of paying tuition seem worthwhile, but the uncertainty of the investment and the debt they are piling up loom over everything. The stress can be debilitating, especially after something starts to go wrong-a bad grade, a breakup, or the simple realization that time is running out on your college years. Maybe it’s not healthy for the stakes to feel so high.”

Last spring, following an increase in students seeking help, the University of Delaware Center for Counseling and Student Development (CCSD) instituted a new policy allowing for walk-in style appointments to increase access. Brad Wolgast, director of the CCSD, said that the first seven days of classes this year have seen even greater numbers of students coming through the door. According to Wolgast, the CCSD is in the process of creating easier access and more support groups for students of color and students of different identities so that there is an environment for people to feel comfortable in taking care of their particular needs.

Talkspace, a telebehavioral health company, announced a partnership with Williams College that will provide students with online messaging therapy with licensed clinicians year-round. Dr. Wendy Adam, Director of Integrative Wellbeing Services for Williams College, said, “At Williams, we are well-resourced and have a high utilization rate for our services, about 30% of our student population each year, yet we continue to pursue ways to reach students who may not choose to access traditional mental health services, who study abroad or have limited access to care when on school breaks.”

The family of a Georgia Tech student who was shot and killed by a campus police officer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the school, The Board of Regents, and officer Tyler Beck. In September of 2017, student Scott “Scout” Schultz was having a mental breakdown, holding a multi-tool, telling the campus police to shoot him. Beck shot him in the chest. The incident was captured on campus surveillance video.

Kathy and Jeffrey Schussler filed a wrongful-death case against Iowa State, partly in an effort to see the medical records of their son Dane following his death in November 2015. They learned that he was seen at Iowa State University’s overstretched counseling office by an unlicensed and unsupervised graduate student. During a session, Dane Schussler, who had no history of mental illness, told the counselor he was having suicidal thoughts for the first time that “led him to research information on suicide and possible methods,” according to court documents. The lawsuit claims the counseling center didn’t take adequate steps to respond to the sudden change in his mental health, “continued to provide him with an inadequately supervised counselor, and failed to refer him to a more appropriate source.” A jury found the state of Iowa 50% responsible for Dane’s death.

The University of Virginia chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI on Campus at UVA, has launched a petition calling for better mental health education and improved mental health resource allocation. The petition calls for the implementation of educational programs, increased funding for mental health resources and an initiative to coordinate mental health efforts. NAMI organizers plan to submit the petition to the Board of Visitors, University President James Ryan and Provost Liz Magill for consideration when they reach their target goal of between 300 and 400 signatures.

Davidson University rebranded and restructured the Student Counseling and Health Center  – changing its name to the Center for Student Health and Well-Being and hiring several new staff members, including a therapy dog named Pepper. “We wanted to expand our outreach and promote ourselves as a center that offers more than just basic health and counseling necessities,” said Dr. David Graham, the new Director of Student Health and Well-Being. “We were trying to be intentional in our name, and we realized that the key word we were missing was well-being.” The center will continue the Mental Health Ambassador (MHA) program, created last year. Student volunteer MHAs raise awareness and implement programming about mental health issues that are specific to the college experience. Additionally, Health Advisors are student volunteers who implement campus-wide health education and peer support. Georgia Ringle, the Center’s Health Educator said, “The MHA and Health Advisor programs are two groups that offer lots of programming and support to students. It can be easy to get isolated in the center because we are busy working with students behind closed doors,” she acknowledged. “We want to increase our outreach and work more with student groups and organizations to better help serve their needs.”

Diversity and Inclusion

University of Arizona police charged two white students with misdemeanor assault, after they allegedly beat and yelled racial slurs at a black Arizona student outside a residence hall. The accused students, Matthew Frazier, and Matthew Rawlings, were identified in university police records that described the incident as having “possible bias,” but they were not charged with a hate crime — only federal authorities can pursue this charge in Arizona. The victim and witnesses said Frazier and Rawlings used the N-word several times and tackled, punched and kicked the victim, who is unnamed in police records.

The New York Times Magazine published an article adapted from the new book by Paul Tough, “The Years That Matter Most: How College Makes or Breaks Us.” The article explores the world of college and university “enrollment management” offices. According to Tough, “the biggest barriers to opportunity for low-income students in higher education is the universities themselves, and specifically in the admissions office.” Tough claims that enrollment managers at elite colleges regularly reject deserving low income students, not because they don’t want to admit them, but because they can’t afford to. Tough writes, “In public, university leaders like to advertise the diversity of their freshman classes and their institutions’ generosity with financial aid. In private, they feel immense pressure to maintain tuition revenue and protect their school’s elite status.”

An op-ed in the Hechinger Report also explores Tough’s new book, which, according to Justin Snider, “explores the real and terrifying idea that what you do (or don’t do) between the ages of 18 and 22 – or even 16 and 25 – profoundly shapes the course of your life. It’s no wonder that young people in this country seem to be suffering from unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression. According to Snider, Tough’s book also considers whether higher education in America is more an engine of, or an obstacle to, economic and social mobility. Tough thinks it’s more hindrance than help, serving to reinforce rather than reduce social stratification.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it plans to collect social media handles of travelers, including students, to the United States. In a notice of a proposed rule, the department says such information is needed to validate applicants’ identity and to determine whether they pose a law-enforcement or national-security risk.

Through the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education and it’s InclusiveU initiative, Syracuse University offers a comprehensive college experience for students with intellectual disabilities including individualized coursework, person-centered planning, professional internships, and social and extracurricular activities.

Colorado State University students seek reform on campus after the school’s lack of response to a racist photo on social media. Four CSU students posted an Instagram story in blackface.

Sexual Assault and Title IX

A week after a University of Florida student was accused of sexual assault and arrested on charges of battery and false imprisonment, a judge released him without bond, granting a motion from the 21-year-old’s attorney that called the student “high-achieving.” In court documents, the attorney, Ronald Kozlowski, told the judge that the student is a double major slated to graduate in May with plans to attend law school, that he had “personally performed more than 210 hours of community service in the last two years” and that he was a member of two honor societies on campus. Keeping Milaski in jail while he awaits trial, the attorney argued, would jeopardize his academic standing.

Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights

The California State Assembly voted overwhelmingly to pass legislation to require public universities in the state to offer medication abortion at on-campus student health centers. 34 college campuses in the state would be affected by the legislation, if passed by the Senate, which seeks to require “each student health care services clinic on a California State University or University of California campus to offer abortion by medication techniques.”

Student Success

The Chronicle asked 10 scholars and administrators from across the academy about meritocracy, whether it has failed, and if universities should rethink the definition of merit. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat said, “On the evidence we have, the meritocratic ideal ends up being just as undemocratic as the old emphasis on inheritance and tradition.” In The Meritocracy Trap, Daniel Markovits, a professor of law at Yale University, wrote, that “meritocracy – formerly benevolent and just – has become what it was invented to combat. A mechanism for the concentration and dynastic transmission of wealth and privilege across generations.”

In the New York Times, Anthony Abraham Jack, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the author of “The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students,” tells the story of his transition from growing up poor to life on Amherst College’s campus. According to Jack, while colleges have made racial and class diversity into virtues with which they entice students and alumni gifts, “students of color and those from lower-income backgrounds often bear the brunt of the tension that exists between proclamation and practice of this social experiment.” Jack writes that college administrations must make a sustained effort to understand the stress and isolation that can define everyday college life for these more vulnerable students.

College Affordability

In an op-ed in the Chronicle, Brian Rosenberg, the president of Macalester College, argues against the policy of free public college. According to Rosenberg, the greatest and most destructive issue in higher education is the inequality of access on the basis of race and economic status, and the goal of any public policy should be to use finite public funds to reduce this inequality. And Rosenberg argues that free college, while benefiting many lower-income students, would also, possibly to a greater extent, benefit students from the upper-middle and upper classes.

The Trump administration is pushing to make college costs, outcomes and other information more accessible as an alternative to regulating institutions with high costs and poor results. But researchers are discovering that some of the data being made available through or linked from the College Scorecard, the principal federal higher education consumer website, is inaccessible, inaccurate or out of date. “The information we need to provide has to be accurate, has to be verifiable, has to be comparable. It has to be visible to students, and it has to be usable,” said Debbie Cochrane, executive vice president of the Institute for College Access & Success. “Misleading information is not helpful. Perfectly valid information that can’t be found is also not helpful.”

Within the last few years, flagship universities like Universities of Arizona, of Michigan at Ann Arbor, of Wisconsin at Madison, and of Texas at Austin have announced need-based-aid programs. College affordability and access have long been a concern of policy makers and education activists, and research shows that many flagships have priced out low-income students. In recent years, however, tackling those concerns has become a greater priority of a handful of the nation’s top public universities. Sarah Turner, an economist at the University of Virginia who studies education policy, said the institutions are adjusting some of the pricing policies they adopted in the wake of the Great Recession. “That is a huge factor in terms of what is going on in regard to the pricing of tuition and financial aid at public universities,” Turner said. “Universities, and particularly the flagships, faced large cuts in appropriations during and after the recession … One of these responses that has been particularly marked at the flagships – the most selective institutions – is to increase the sticker price.”

According to a report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, colleges aren’t doing enough to let their students know about ways that child care expenses can be eased. About one in five undergraduate students is also raising a child, according to the most recent data from the Department of Education. More than half of those students – typically women, and disproportionately women of color – dropped out before they could finish their degrees. In many states, child care can be even pricier than in-state tuition at a four-year public university, said Melissa Emrey-Arras, who led the GAO’s review. For students with children, that price tag could make the difference between completing a degree and dropping out.

Substance Use

Marijuana use by college students hit a 35-year high, according to the annual Monitoring the Future panel study, a joint effort by researchers at the University’s Institute for Social Research. The study found that, in 2018, 43 percent of full-time college students said they used marijuana at least once in the previous year, while one in four said they had used it in the last 30 days. The national survey also showed that binge drinking and other types of illicit drug use had decreased among college students.