Mental and Behavioral Health
In response to a University of Chicago letter to freshman reaffirming the school’s resistance to trigger warnings, The New York Times provides three experts’ responses to the question, “Do trigger warnings actually help students who have experienced trauma or suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder?”
The New York Times also published an op-ed by University of Chicago student Sophie Downes, who criticized the University administration’s letter that warned incoming freshman not to expect trigger warnings or safe spaces on its campus. Downes believes the letter “betrayed a fundamental misunderstanding of what the terms ‘trigger warnings’ and ‘safe spaces’ mean, and came across as an embarrassing attempt to deflect attention from serious issues on campus.”
The new book “ADHD Nation” by Alan Schwarz denounces the epidemic of ADHD overdiagnosis and the overprescription of stimulant medications. In a Wall Street Journal article, Schwarz places blame on overzealous physicians, parents nervous their kids will not excel, schools looking to rein in students causing trouble, and pharmaceutical companies pushing new drugs.
A recent study published in the journal Social Psychology of Education found that being bullied during childhood is associated with poorer mental health in college, especially for females.
Colleges across the country are embracing policies and practices that focus on safeguarding students who abuse alcohol or drugs rather than punishing them. Reed College tolerates student-to-student distribution of chemical testing kits designed to detect dangerous adulterants in illicit drugs. The school, which strictly bans illegal drug use, sees the practice as a way to promote safety on their campus. At Dickinson College, which hosts major concerts in its auditorium, students who feel sick from consuming alcohol or illicit drugs can go to a designated area to drink water and rest where they will be overseen by sober students and emergency medical technicians.
Diversity and Inclusion
The University of Northern Colorado will disband its bias-response team, which deals with complaints of perceived bias, including offensive speech. The group became the target of criticism by lawmakers and First Amendment advocates last year when it requested that a professor avoid discussing sensitive subjects in class, such as transgender issues.
Trustees of the State University of New York voted on Wednesday to completely remove questions about past criminal convictions from its general application starting with the fall 2018 admissions cycle. SUNY joins a number of private and public institutions that have decided to phase out questions regarding criminal histories, which are believed to discourage candidates with a record from applying.
“All the Different” is a new documentary that follows two black teenagers from Chicago hoping to escape the poverty and violence of their southside neighborhood by pursuing their education. Though the film shows the potential for success for young men of color from marginalized communities, it highlights the challenges they face in the process: the inequality of school resources and the bias that affects their access to opportunities. The documentary suggests that enrolling marginalized students is only the first step; schools also have to develop a supportive environment to help them succeed in college.
This week, the House of Representatives held several planned hearings that focused on whether universities could do more with their tax-exempt endowments to help lower the cost of college tuition, especially for students from lower income families. In recent months, wealthy universities in particular have faced criticism for raising tuition without using the money in their immense endowment funds. Congressional Republicans have asked private universities with endowments exceeding $1 billion for information about the use of those funds.
The University of Oregon will rename a dormitory originally named for a professor who was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. The change came following student protests last year and a unanimous vote by the University of Oregon’s board of trustees.
Descendants of slaves sold to benefit Georgetown in the 19th century responded to the University’s pledge to apologize for its role in the slave trade and give an admissions preference to descendants of the 272 slaves. Leaders of the nearly 600 descendants called for the school to do more to promote reconciliation and to create a $1 billion charitable foundation for “greater common good.”
Catharine Bond Hill, the recently retired President of Vassar College, addresses tuition affordability in a Washington Post op-ed, saying that the nation’s income gap disproportionately impacts middle class students.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A) stripped North Carolina of the seven championship sporting events it was to host this academic year in response to the state’s controversial bathroom bill. Despite the disappointment in a state that prides itself as a college tournament host, Governor Pat McCrory, who signed the law, has remained supportive of it. In denouncing the move by the N.C.A.A., he said, “Sadly, the N.C.A.A., a multibillion-dollar, tax-exempt monopoly, failed to show this respect at the expense of our student-athletes and hard-working men and women.”
Sexual Assault
An anonymous Harvard student who claims she was a victim of sexual assault on campus wrote an open letter to the college newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, explaining that when she reported the assault, she found that the school’s health center wasn’t equipped with rape kits – packages of items used for gathering physical evidence following an allegation of sexual assault. A study found that only one in four top colleges in the US offer rape kits through health services. There are no state laws requiring schools to do so.
A University of Richmond fraternity was suspended after an email with “grossly offensive language” was sent to about 100 students on campus, and later published in the school newspaper. The email promoted a party held last weekend, saying “Tonight’s the type of night that makes fathers afraid to send their daughters away to school.” The email was made public at a time when the University is grappling with its handling of sexual assault on campus: this month, two women wrote public accounts about their frustrations with the way the administration handled their complaints.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced last week that Frostburg State University violated Title IX in its handling of sexual-violence cases. After an investigation, the OCR found that the school failed to respond to complaints, including an alleged sexual assault, and did not end a sexually-hostile environment that impacted several students.
Socio-economic issues
A group of Boston University students have launched a social-media campaign about the difficulty of being a poor student at an expensive private college. #PoorAtAPrivateUniversity gives students from low income families a forum to commiserate about opaque financial aid packages, confusing policies, and the challenge of fitting in with more affluent peers.
