Addressing the rising prevalence of mental health issues, particularly among young people.

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Perspectives

A new Princeton Review <a href="https://www.princetonreview.com/mental-health-on-college-campus">survey</a> examines colleges and universities’ mental health services, giving students and families an idea about the extent to which their choice of college supports their mental health.&nbsp; The report, sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation, is the first, readily available review of college mental health resources nation-wide, and will now be included in The Princeton Review's “Best College Guidebook” commonly used to help students make decisions about where to go to college.&nbsp;



The three-part survey polled college administrators, current students, and prospective students on the availability of, and opinions on, their college’s mental health services. Results reflect a significant variation in the availability of mental health programs and services among institutions and a strong desire on the part of students to know what those are.  Among the near 11,000 college applicants that were surveyed, “89 percent of respondents said information about the health, mental health, and wellness services would contribute to their decision to apply to (and/or attend) the school.” 



While stopping short of offering “rankings,” the survey report did include a “Mental Health Services Honor Roll” of 16 schools deemed to have a distinctively strong mental health support system.



“This is a crucial step to raise greater awareness among students and their families regarding the mental health landscape at the schools they are applying and enrolling,” said Jay Ruderman.&nbsp; “This will enable prospective students who prioritize mental health to get a keen sense of which campuses offer the strongest resources and programs that will meet their needs.”



The Desire for Data



The mental health survey initiative reflects the public’s growing demand for more transparency in higher education overall given the soaring price of attending college. But while the focus on public data has largely been on ROI-related metrics like job placements and first year earnings, the survey initiative indicates a growing concern about how a student’s mental health will be supported while they are in school.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
This will enable prospective students who prioritize mental health to get a keen sense of which campuses offer the strongest resources and programs that will meet their needs.
</blockquote>



“For many students, the college experience brings challenges that strain their overall well-being, their mental and physical health, and their ability to succeed in school,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s Editor and Chief. “With reports of high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and other issues among college students, campus mental health and wellness services have never been so necessary.”



David Soto, The Princeton Reviews’ Senior Director, Data Operations, and the lead on the project, said that the education services company was uniquely well suited to collect and communicate this information.



“We talk to a lot of guidance counselors, and we tend to know what’s going in in high schools that translate directly into college. We saw the effects of the pandemic on mental health, the stress and anxiety students feel about getting into their top choice and we believed we were the best resource to collect and surface this data for our profiles.”



The overall effort was advised by a group of mental health experts, including Dr. Sarah Lipson, co-principal investigator at the Healthy Minds Network, who identified criteria deemed to be essential for a strong mental health support system on campus. These include both responsive and preventative considerations from education and training for students and staff and accreditation of counseling centers, to how well the school serves students of varying identities and whether or not an institution has a Chief Well-being Officer.&nbsp;



The data collection phase was three-fold: the college administrator survey was distributed to about 2,000 schools, 250 of which responded completely; The Princeton Review’s annual survey of college students included four questions about campus mental health services; and The Princeton Review’s <a href="https://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/college-hopes-worries">2024 College Hopes and Worries Survey</a> which polled 10,800 college applicants and their parents included the topic of mental health services.



Among the results:



87% of the colleges have a website that consolidates information about the school’s mental health; 13% do not.



56% of the colleges have a fully staffed counseling center open year-round; 44% do not.



29% of the colleges have a counseling center that is accredited; 71% do not.



28% of the colleges conduct formal wellness screenings of their students; 72% do not.



Among student responders, 78% agreed with the statement “If I needed to seek professional help for my mental or emotional health, I would know where to access my school’s resources.



61% agreed with the statement “My college prioritizes students’ mental health; 10% disagreed with it; and 29% neither agreed or disagreed.



The “Mental Health Services Honor Roll” identified schools that, according to the report, displayed, “1. Overall administrative support for campus mental health and well-being through its policies including commitments to staffing and student support. 2. Students have a campus quality of life that is both healthy and attentive to overall well-being; 3. How well a school is empowering its students to address their own mental health through education programs and peer-to-peer offerings.” &nbsp;



Dr. Zoe Ragouzeos is the Executive Director of Counseling and Wellness Services at New York University, one of the 16 Honor Roll schools. She appreciates the recognition of years of hard work but notes that student mental health is an ongoing and evolving challenge for colleges and universities.&nbsp; “Mental health and well-being are primary components of university life,” she said.&nbsp; “It needs to be part of everything we do, inside and outside of the classroom.”



In addition to the “Best Colleges Guide,” the information is now available for free on <a href="http://www.princetonreview.com">PrincetonReview.com</a>  For the schools who chose not to participate in the survey, their summary indicates they “did not respond” which Soto said sends its own message.  He hopes the obvious lack of information will encourage schools to be more forthcoming with their information next year. 



“This is the start of an important effort that we hope continues to improve and strengthen each year,” he said.

The Best Schools for Mental Health

There is finally some better news about student mental health: this year’s <a href="https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/HMS_national_report_090924.pdf">Healthy Minds Study</a> shows for the second year in a row a drop in depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among college students. While the overall rates remain alarmingly high–more than a third of students say they struggle with mental health issues–this two-year decline suggests that increased pre- and post-Pandemic <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2023/04/11/survey-college-presidents-upbeat-despite">attention and support</a> may be making a difference.



More robust services alone, however, will not solve the student mental health crisis. I’ve witnessed it up close, as a faculty member and administrator at Bennington College, and at a remove, as a higher education program officer at Endeavor Foundation. It is very real. A college is not a treatment center, nor can it reasonably provide everything that students and their families require as they grapple with a tangle of issues.



Colleges and universities must simultaneously reinvest in the most powerful educational contributions that college can make to fortify student mental health: helping students discover their purpose and see beyond themselves.



Finding purpose–once understood as a primary aim of college–has been steadily squeezed out by the gradual and insistent equating of education and career preparation. Intense pressure for return on an ever more <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cost-us-universities-wildly-expensive-education-tuition-fees-america-2024-3">costly investment </a>has changed the face of U.S. higher education. The liberal arts, in particular, which emphasize discovery of self and the world, continue to strain under perceived lack of relevance to careers, despite<a href="https://stradaeducation.org/report/the-real-long-term-outcomes-of-liberal-arts-graduates/#:~:text=Liberal%20arts%20graduates%20have%20high,than%20workers%20with%20less%20education."> plentiful evidence </a>to the contrary. Unsurprisingly, the study of the humanities, the lifeblood of the liberal arts, is in precipitous<a href="https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-number-of-college-graduates-in-the-humanities-drops-for-the-eighth-consecutive-year/"> </a><a href="https://hechingerreport.org/proof-points-the-number-of-college-graduates-in-the-humanities-drops-for-the-eighth-consecutive-year/">decline</a>.



Further, we are compelling youth to determine ever earlier what they will study. Uncertainty has become a proxy for the waste of time and money. But many teenagers do not know what they want to do and–crucially–have not had enough exposure to the possibilities to make such determinations. College is meant to foster this developmental process through exploration and the ignition of interests and passions. This discovery has long been advanced by the liberal arts as essential to well-being, in service of both the student and civic and social good.



A recent <a href="https://8ce82b94a8c4fdc3ea6d-b1d233e3bc3cb10858bea65ff05e18f2.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/6a/c6/dd4610d942e58053e781c106654d/walton-gallup-gen-z-happiness-report-032724.pdf">Gallup survey</a> found that the happiness and satisfaction of Generation Z is directly linked to the belief that their life has significance. Yet, today, more and more students are making the choice of a major based on the salary that related jobs command, rather than freely choosing the fields they are most drawn to making their own. Across higher education, the number of bachelor’s degrees in computer and information sciences, engineering, health, and business has more than <a href="https://ktvz.com/stacker-money/2024/07/30/stem-is-the-new-liberal-arts-the-changing-trends-of-college-majors/">doubled over the past ten years</a>.



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the&nbsp;content&nbsp;of higher education is shrinking, and with it a primary pathway to finding well-being through fulfillment.
</blockquote>



Declines in arts and humanities majors are leading, on a macro level, to <a href="https://stradaeducation.org/report/the-real-long-term-outcomes-of-liberal-arts-graduates/#:~:text=Liberal%20arts%20graduates%20have%20high,than%20workers%20with%20less%20education.">consolidations and cuts of disciplines</a> at all but the best resourced institutions. Concurrently, liberal arts-focused colleges are <a href="https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/">disappearing</a> at a steady clip. Both dramatically and quietly, the content of higher education is shrinking, and with it a primary pathway to finding well-being through fulfillment.



The contraction of the liberal arts and humanities is also robbing students of opportunities to understand what it means to be human. While there is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/smartphones-social-media-mental-health-teens.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare">debate</a> as to whether the youth mental health crisis can be directly attributed to social media addiction and technology use, there is also widespread acceptance that both have radically changed how young people know, experience, and respond to the world. A stunning portion of teen’s social interactions are mediated by tech companies, their time displaced in the repeating reels of Tiktok and Instagram. The development of broad perspective, something at the heart of the liberal arts and humanities, is critical to releasing them from this algorithm.



Students need the span of knowledge, breadth of understanding, and portals to past human experience that a liberal arts orientation offers, whether at a small college or a large university, both for themselves and for society. Such far-reaching intellectual anchoring nurtures the ability to wrestle with the large, open questions that frame our existence and situate ourselves within them, individually and collectively.



Disciplines such as literature, history, and the arts are sourced from the human condition itself and particularly suited to opening the mind to new ways of understanding it. At the same time, to combat social isolation, students need common curricular experiences and co-curricular opportunities for engagement, debate, and dialogue. They need to be able to locate their very different individual selves as part of something larger, together.



But general education, the vehicle for delivering common content, has lost its vitality over time, weakened, in part, by demands for greater career preparation. Even at liberal arts institutions, core curricula—rendered fraught by decades-long political and ideological debates about their makeup—now largely privilege individual choice over shared, common experiences. As a result, students have fewer bridges to each other through common historical and societal knowledge, when what they need are more and stronger ones. Recognizing the opportunity to rebuild their educational frameworks around understanding of our shared humanity is one of the most significant steps that colleges and universities can take to strengthen student mental health.



At Endeavor Foundation, we are supporting<a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/endeavor-foundation-launches-national-collaborative-to-address-mental-health-crisis-on-college-campuses-302068166.html"> a project </a>at eleven small liberal arts colleges to do exactly that through collaborative efforts. Together, these colleges are infusing the personal and intellectual discovery they catalyze with new forms of support and inquiry. They are introducing initiatives to help students metabolize stress and build resilience, as well as bolster their real-time connection to others and draw out purpose through their studies. And they are helping students identify, prepare for, and secure future <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2024/07/17/teach-students-find-meaning-their-work-lives-opinion">work</a> born of what matters to them.



There is no doubt that policy makers and educational leaders must address the skyrocketing cost of higher education. Students, most especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, can no longer be left with crippling debt or, worse, excluded from the very social mobility that college promises and–ultimately–delivers. At the same time, we must reset the narrative that career preparation is college’s main function and re-value students’ future mental health as an equally vital outcome.







Isabel Roche is the Executive Director for Special Programs in Higher Education for the Endeavor Foundation.

A Way Forward

This year’s Hazing Prevention Week brought more than just an important public awareness message about the dangers of a pervasive yet under-examined ritual.&nbsp; On September 27th, the bipartisan “Stop Campus Hazing Act” passed the House of Representatives, edging the country closer to eliminating hazing on college campuses where its strong hold on Greek life and other membership organizations has led to trauma and tragedy.&nbsp;



But while anti-hazing advocates applaud the new legislation, experts warn that enforcement efforts must be paired with evidence-based prevention strategies.&nbsp; Doing so requires an understanding of the complex context within which hazing occurs and proliferates.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Timothy&nbsp;J.&nbsp;Piazza Center&nbsp;for Fraternity and Sorority Research has been working on this challenge for several years. Founded in honor of a young man who lost his life to hazing in 2017 at Penn State University, the center engages researchers from several universities to examine how to prevent hazing while promoting a healthy and safe environment within fraternities and sororities as well as student groups and athletics.&nbsp; In September, researchers at the center published a new report in New Directions for Student Services:



<a href="http://el.wiley.com/ls/click?upn=u001.3YBR4Hwqxb0xKz1YXTwZEHL9-2BQ-2FJpBKF4CjfjmBrHiQ8wFVD22vfkisS2wFfXbHWHPHKLb7f2HkMAWcmkFH2gm3aR9F6G-2BCgILvrdMF70Ve7sI1sj8H9Ix9x6R-2Blix-2FVdaK7_Tt1FRhioDgxUQdRtpj3z0OMH3zluztsg9bPYx-2BT7I31hJHJ6eA6fRCEEFL9apze4gYyFLAEcm-2B2o6XTMVyQpfk0TaNXoJOT-2Fi5dBsslzVz1toX-2FxzZMT82h0Y1p3uMaWIAYv72urkzvyOV5Cq-2FOAlWCq8kUUxnlFbTegGOQFD-2FOTSGC-2BpFh0BQ5xjEO2Tn6mR8bYy44rawu3voIv31DuPTd-2BJdroE914H-2FeWwLSXqsMKsC7i-2B4xfp2YZ7QP-2BBZOiqd3KhPQnum-2BX2jSGtNlM6yIqpFbwkFMeSMH7ty4p248-3D">Volume 2024, Issue 187 </a><a href="http://el.wiley.com/ls/click?upn=u001.3YBR4Hwqxb0xKz1YXTwZEHL9-2BQ-2FJpBKF4CjfjmBrHiQ8wFVD22vfkisS2wFfXbHWHPHKLb7f2HkMAWcmkFH2gm3aR9F6G-2BCgILvrdMF70Ve7sI1sj8H9Ix9x6R-2Blix-2FVA3zj_Tt1FRhioDgxUQdRtpj3z0OMH3zluztsg9bPYx-2BT7I31hJHJ6eA6fRCEEFL9apze4gYyFLAEcm-2B2o6XTMVyQpfk0TaNXoJOT-2Fi5dBsslzVz0BmR45IrzKodqFJ5YNxkCQW-2BkwgAD2FQ-2B-2FqdDPGBL7eVOQlnqYMGeoSiQu6sUmBZO3UiyME4iMYcWUJfynJh-2Bw9QN1yNeD4Le9YZ99SLWqyoEQjKolx1r5Njhp-2BV-2BLVnKzYbawoQQaTwwQe5VMHycngubRJArXNmBjxD6zvD-2FZhmLqAYhlvFu1qdKCvLTF3n8-3D">Special Issue: Understanding and Addressing Hazing: Contextual Perspectives, Prevention Strategies, and Case Studies</a>



The monograph offers a literature review woven through eight articles, exploring the motivations for hazing and the complicated challenges involved in preventing it, including the lure of belonging and acceptance.&nbsp; “There is a human nature element to this problem that we really haven’t yet attacked” said Dr. Patrick Biddix, one of the lead authors on the report. “It is about people’s desire to belong – especially young and vulnerable people who will do whatever they feel is important to fit in.&nbsp; Hazing takes advantage of that vulnerability.”&nbsp;



Biddix is a research fellow at the Piazza Center, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and an advisor to a national sorority organization.&nbsp; In college, he held leadership positions in his fraternity and, later, spent many years as an advisor to fraternities and sororities at Washington University in St. Louis.&nbsp; The experience helped him both understand the nuances of hazing and conclude it needed to be prevented, not mitigated.



“In the past, we’ve approached hazing as helping students understand the difference between what is acceptable and what is high-risk behavior,” said Biddix.&nbsp; “But we quickly realized that it was confusing for students to pick and choose what may be ok. That is why we are now so focused on prevention.”&nbsp;



Another co-author on the report is Dr. Emily Perlow, Assistant Vice President and Dean of Students at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). She says a key part of her day job focuses on “ensuring that students are having a positive experience on campus that keeps them whole and helps them feel a deep sense of belonging.”&nbsp; As a student, Perlow was also a leader in her sorority and says she was motivated to produce the report to help support student leaders and practitioners on campus who are working on these issues.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We wanted advisers, coaches, and all those working in student organizations to have evidence-based information that was more widely accessible than a series of academic journals,” she said.&nbsp;



In doing their research, Perlow and Biddix soon found that the hazing literature, which was only a few decades old, provided information about the incidents of hazing and the demographics involved in it, but had very little in the way of prevention practices, unlike the prevention literature of other public health problems on campus such as sexual violence and excessive drinking.   Adding to the lack of evidence-based guidance on prevention, was the inconsistency in both the definition of the term “hazing” and the way in which people understood and perceived its risk.  



As the authors point out, hazing has “a storied past” reinforced by media images depicting romantic notions of young people bonding over shared adversity as a means of acceptance.&nbsp; But what is presented as “good old-fashioned college fun” is a significant safety threat on college campuses.&nbsp; Hundreds of families have experienced the unthinkable grief that the Piazza’s endured from “bonding gone bad” where life-threatening alcohol use and high-risk behaviors have injured, traumatized or killed young people in the spirit of belonging.&nbsp; In sororities, “mean girl” behavior and practices of exclusion cause emotional abuse. And yet, the practice persists.&nbsp;



The report states “At the college level, hazing, which includes high-risk drinking, social isolation, personal servitude, and humiliation, occurs across a range of student groups.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



And while hazing is wide-spread – more than 55% of college students involved in clubs, teams and organizations experience hazing – few students acknowledge or even understand they have been hazed. &nbsp; In other research cited in the report, “26% of students belonging to clubs, teams, and organizations indicated experiencing at least one hazing behavior, yet only 4.4% identified it as hazing when asked directly. This dissonance between student experiences with hazing and their ability to label it is problematic for prevention.”&nbsp;



For the authors, this is where words matter.  Differing and sometimes contradictory definitions of hazing have been unhelpful at best with legal terms or policies pertaining only to one organization leaving students with mixed or unclear messages. With misunderstanding comes an opening to sidestep accountability.  The report quotes students as concluding, “if everything is hazing, then nothing is hazing.”  



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Hazing is fundamentally about power. It’s about exerting power over less powerful individuals.&nbsp;
</blockquote>



With the input of experts like Perlow and Biddix, the Piazza Center has developed a definition for hazing that captures its complexities and motivations.



&nbsp;“Hazing is a power dynamic behavior aimed at screening, fostering bonds, or establishing standing in an organization that risks the health and safety of individuals, causing deliberate or unforeseen physical and/or emotional harm counter to organization purposes.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Perlow reiterates the message saying, “Hazing is fundamentally about power. It’s about exerting power over less powerful individuals.&nbsp; And it is not just about the joining process. It is also a way to establish status in the organization.”&nbsp; She believes the Piazza Center definition has distinct components that strengthen its effectiveness when used in prevention strategies, largely because it resonates in some way with students.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In including “unforeseen” harm, the authors allow for the many cases where carelessness or lack of maturity drive the behavior.&nbsp; “A lot of times students are not thinking about the risks inherent in some of the activities they are engaging in,” said Perlow. “It doesn’t take them off the hook – there’s still responsibility, but in some cases, it is important to understand there is not an intentional effort to harm.”&nbsp;



Another distinction written into the definition is aimed at getting students to understand that hazing practices are inconsistent with the organization’s mission and goals.&nbsp; In defining “counter to organization purposes” the authors offer an example.&nbsp; “You are not an athletic organization so why are you ordering forced calisthenics in a fraternity house basement?”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Perlow says students understand when the negative consequences of hazing overtake the desired&nbsp; intent. “I think there are some components of the hazing process that achieve really powerful outcomes,” she said.&nbsp; “You go through a really difficult, adverse situation and you feel a sense of closeness with others who went through that with you, but we really don’t need to be enacting trauma to create bonds with one another.”&nbsp;



In working with students, Perlow validates their desire to achieve positive outcomes from hazing – like having strong relationships with others -- while getting them to question and change their hazing behavior. “Students can wrap their brains around the idea that if they are not taking away the outcome they care about, they’re pretty receptive to changing the tactic.” 



Perlow’s behavior change example is part of a public health approach to hazing prevention that is outlined in detail in the new report. Like other public health challenges, hazing is largely affected by environmental factors including messages that include the tacit approval of authority figures. The authors argue that with the clear definition of hazing, “stakeholders can develop preventative strategies that empower students to challenge, reject, and reshape environmental messages that mischaracterize hazing as positive, normalized or expected.”&nbsp;

Power Play

Maaz Shaikh spent the summer before 11th&nbsp;grade at football camps, among college scouts, chasing hopes of a Division I career. Just a few weeks later, the wide receiver’s first ACL tear pushed his personal endzone, dreams of recruitment, down the field. When his senior season came and he underperformed, then tore his other ACL, he knew the clock had run out.&nbsp;



Shaikh’s plans for college needed to change, or so he thought. Growing up in Cambridge, Mass., he had his eye on nearby Boston College (BC) but would have relied on an athletic scholarship to open those doors. “I really wanted to go, but we weren't financially stable enough to afford a college with that high of a tuition,” Shaikh said.



Then his guidance counselor told him about Messina College, the two-year associate degree program at BC that would be welcoming its inaugural class in July 2024, shortly after Shaikh graduated from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Messina is BC’s ninth and newest college, created specifically for students like Shaikh from first-generation and low-income backgrounds. It offered him the financial aid he needed, along with the opportunity to transfer to a four-year bachelor’s program at BC afterward—no reapplying necessary—if he maintained a 3.4 GPA or higher.



As one of its first 100 students, Shaikh joins Messina in uncharted territory. While BC isn’t the first four-year university to offer an associate degree program, it is one of the most selective colleges to do so. Messina is also fully residential. With the will and the wealth, BC is able to invest in high-need students and their success in a way other low-cost, two-year undergraduate programs can’t afford. By the same token, its leaders are navigating challenges they can’t always predict with little by way of example.&nbsp;



The groundwork for Messina began in 2020, when BC merged with Pine Manor, a private four-year college in Brookline, Mass. that served mostly local first-gen and low-income students. Four years later, and located on the Brookline campus, Messina is following in the tradition of Pine Manor, as well as BC, whose Jesuit founders helped educate Boston’s immigrants, most of whom were Irish Catholic.&nbsp;



Fr. Erick Berrelleza, the founding Dean of Messina, said “human formation” is the mission that unites his college and BC as a whole. In the admissions process, BC recruits promising students perhaps short of qualifying for especially elite universities and standing to benefit most from Messina’s aid. All who finish the two years receive an associate degree from BC. Some will move onto a bachelor’s program. Others have the chance to get a feel for the undergraduate experience but may choose to move straight into their careers.



To fund tuition, Messina relies on federal and state aid but primarily BC’s contribution, including around $40,000 per student. (BC also put $35 million towards capital expenses to launch Messina.) This support distinguishes Messina from other associate programs, like traditional community colleges. Dr. Larry Galizio, President of the Community Colleges League of California, said there are constant funding issues within the system. Despite having the most low-income students, Galizio said, community colleges in California receive the least funding per student of any education sector in the state. “So it's just like the United States, where the people who have the most get the most.”



Messina tries to flip that theory. Through a mix of grants, loans, and work-study opportunities, the financial aid office meets 100 percent of demonstrated need. The same goes for BC’s four-year programs, although tuition there is nearly $70,000 per year, compared to Messina’s $30,000 (not including room and board). Those at Messina with the greatest need take out a maximum $2,000 loan. Everyone receives a free laptop and coverage for textbooks. If students end up transferring into a four-year program at BC, it will continue to meet their full need.&nbsp;



One condition to attend Messina is participation in summer courses. While building the residential community early on, this session gets students ahead on the 20 courses they need to take to graduate. Fewer classes during subsequent semesters help limit academic stress and offer more time for other activities amid the transition to college life.



Providing housing for all Messina students reflects BC’s core mission to teach to the whole student. “I think [formative education] happens in a residential environment,” Berrelleza said. Living on campus, students can get to know each other and staff and faculty in a way designed to identify anyone who may be struggling.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“It’s a big family,” said Maaz Shaikh, whose high school class was five times the size of his college one. “If I need help, I can reach out to whoever, and they would obviously help me.” He mentioned relationships with not only students but the student life administrators, dining staff, and janitors. Because the class size is capped at 100 students, there is little room to fall through the cracks.&nbsp;&nbsp;



If anything, Shaikh has had a “challenge with getting too much support,” he said, only half joking. Every time he passes the tutoring center, the director of student success checks in about how things are going for him. When Shaikh decided to change his major at the end of the first semester, he was able to set up a meeting and shift his entire schedule just days before the spring term.&nbsp;



He’s also been attending a weekly mentoring group and a similar forum called “Soul Circle,” run by his resident minister. In both settings, students share their issues, whether they are school-related or not. “I would say coming into college, I didn't really believe in that—that talking about my problems will make them ease off. But I would say I was completely wrong about it,” Shaikh said.



“In some ways, the least important part is the academic stuff,” Berrelleza said. “Even though they're doing that, and there's a tutoring center here… the most important work is just making sure we're responding to them and their needs as people.”&nbsp;



Yet the shared identity that bonds students at Messina’s Brookline campus can also be the barrier to feeling connected to BC’s main campus, a few miles away in Chestnut Hill, Mass. “It's a really good thing that all of us are first-gen because we all share the same goal of—I think of it as creating a legacy—of trying something new and helping out our families,” Shaikh said. “I would say that is the number one thing that motivates us all and brings us all together. Whereas if I go to Boston College and I just see a bunch of white people around me, it’s different. It's not the same.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“It's a really good thing that all of us are first-gen because we all share the same goal of—I think of it as creating a legacy—of trying something new and helping out our families.” 
</blockquote>



Students interested in transferring into a four-year bachelor’s at BC take a course on the Chestnut Hill campus during their second year. On the pre-med track, Shaikh is already attending class there. “It is very different when I go there. But I would say I don't get treated differently,” Shaikh said, adding that he’s “not a very picky person.” He also participates in a number of clubs in Chestnut Hill, including as Messina representative for the Undergraduate Government of Boston College and first-year representative for the Muslim Student Association.&nbsp;



All Messina students can engage in the spaces and extracurriculars in Chestnut Hill, except Division I sports, but some are more hesitant than Shaikh to do so. “For me, it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, we're the same.’ But I know some people on our campus usually either go home or stay at Messina [as opposed to visiting Chestnut Hill].” Because of his position in student government, Shaikh finds his fellow students approach him with their concerns about, in his words, “being this standalone campus that's mostly students of color.”&nbsp;



Other issues at Messina have been more logistical and easier to address. Early on, when Shaikh and his Muslim peers found they needed more room for prayer, Messina allocated a space. For next year, there are plans to address the lack of air conditioning during summer classes and add another shuttle to Chestnut Hill to accommodate the second and incoming class.&nbsp;



At this point, Berrelleza is focused on improving the existing Messina program, not growing it. Meanwhile, he’s taking calls from universities interested in implementing their own Messina-like work. Berrelleza encourages the effort but stresses the importance of replicating the residential element. “It's an investment. It's added resources to house and feed the students here, but I think it makes a world of difference for the type of education you can provide them.”



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“It's an investment. It's added resources to house and feed the students here, but I think it makes a world of difference for the type of education you can provide them.”
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As for Shaikh, who’s already started building a foundation in Chestnut Hill, his potential transfer to BC still presents questions. He wonders how his community at Messina, and the even smaller subset of students within it who want to pursue a bachelor’s at BC, will change, merge, or perhaps dissolve into a much larger campus. “Will I still be friends with the people that I'm not too close to over here? Or will I become closer friends with them because I know them more than everyone else?” he asked aloud.&nbsp;



“We'll see.”

BC’s Messina College

When Kevon Pascoe decided to apply for a part-time job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, it wasn’t primarily about the paycheck. He was nearly finished with his contract with the Marine Corps, which had paid for his bachelor’s degree at Norwich University in Vermont. He knew he wanted to pursue an MBA. And he’d just heard about the partnership between KFC and Western Governors University (WGU), an online-only institution.



“I heard about a new program that if you're an employee at KFC, they will pay for you to go to WGU,” says Pascoe, who emigrated from Jamaica with his brother in 2010. He’d always had a clear vision for his future, and it involved education, hard work, and hustle. When he looked into the details of WGU, he discovered a program that would allow him to work at his own pace, and complete courses quickly based on proving competency in the material. He got the job at KFC working nights while working days in the Marine Corps, and then completed his MBA—as well as a second master’s degree, in Management and Leadership—in one year.



“Some would say that that's impossible, but it’s because of how flexible WGU is. The concepts that I had within my MBA really kind of correlates with what I did in the Marine Corps as a logistics officer,” says Pascoe. “If I already knew the material, I could test out of it quickly. If I needed help, help was there. Everything was on my pace, on my terms, and that allowed me to find a rhythm and complete it on my own time.”



Pascoe now works for Pfizer full-time as an Incoming Material Testing Manager and is taking advantage of a Pfizer benefit that enables him to pursue an online PhD in organizational management. “That's kind of who I am, in terms of challenging myself,” he says. “I’m always in a state of learning.”



Kevon Pascoe’s story reflects the effectiveness of WGU for non-traditional students who are drawn by its flexible pacing, flat-rate pricing, and engaged mentoring. But additional evidence came to light when the university began partnering with Gallup to survey its alumni: The survey results revealed satisfaction levels that rival, and often exceed, those of traditional universities—both online and in-person.



WGU alumni, it seems, are not only pleased to have had their needs met with career-ready programs and a commitment to affordability. They are reporting higher levels of satisfaction with their career and calling their degree a worthwhile investment—noteworthy at a time when that investment is sometimes called into question by those mired in debt.



What is WGU?



In 1997, Western Governors University was conceived by 19 U.S. governors who envisioned a flexible university structure for underserved student populations—working adults and mid-career professionals who needed a flexible pathway to their degrees, particularly in high-demand fields such as nursing and IT.



Instead of relying on the traditional credit-hour model, WGU adopted a competency-based education (CBE) model, allowing students to progress by demonstrating mastery of material. This model was designed with flexibility in mind, ideal for adult learners managing jobs or family responsibilities who needed alternatives to on-campus programs to get the degree they were lacking in order to boost their responsibility, title, and earnings. The result was a fully online institution that could cater to students regardless of geographic location or time constraints.



WGU’s flat-rate tuition model enables students to complete as many courses as they can within a six-month term for a single fee. That plan is attractive to this motivated demographic; 93% of its students are over 24 or older (compared to 38% of those at U.S. bachelor’s-granting institutions), 95% are financially independent (compared to 29% nationally), and 57% are married (compared to 11% nationally)​. The average WGU bachelor’s degree student spends around $6,600 per year on tuition—nearly 40% less than the national average—and after graduation, carries an average loan of $8,228, compared to $18,775 for graduates nationally ($21,335 for those in private universities). On average, they finish their degree in 2.4 years, typically while working—a shorter path that translates to significant savings for adult learners, and an express lane to the job advancements they were seeking with those credentials. In 2021, WGU’s Michael O. Leavitt School of Health produced 17% of the nation’s registered nurses earning a BS in its hybrid prelicensure program (60 percent of the work completed online, 40 percent undertaken in hands-on clinical work in community-based settings).



Gallup Poll: WGU Restoring Confidence in the Value of a Degree



Pascoe’s sentiments towards WGU is not unique. The most recent Gallup survey reflects a level of alumni satisfaction unusually high for any type of institution, both online and traditional.



Gallup surveyed nearly 2,800 WGU alumni who completed their undergraduate degree between 2018 and 2022, collecting information about graduates’ experiences while enrolled, as well as data on postgraduation metrics related to employment and wellbeing. The survey found that WGU alumni were nearly twice as likely to recommend their alma mater as graduates of other schools. Specifically, 76% of WGU alumni reported that they would “highly recommend” the university, compared to the national average of 41%​​. Three-quarters of WGU graduates trust their university to make decisions with students’ best interests in mind, compared with 39% of graduates nationally. The relationship WGU students have with the faculty and staff at the university is tangible, even though they are not physically together in the classroom: Eight in 10 graduates say they had a mentor at the university who encouraged them to pursue their goals and dreams, which is 28 percentage points higher than the national average (52%). And 73% of WGU alumni strongly agreed that their degree was worth the cost—compared to just 34% of graduates nationwide.



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The relationship WGU students have with the faculty and staff at the university is tangible, even though they are not physically together in the classroom.


</blockquote>



“Findings show that WGU alumni are far more satisfied with their undergraduate experience than bachelor’s degree holders nationally,” the report concludes. “Graduates are positive about WGU’s student support system, caring and committed faculty, inclusive learning environment and career‑relevant curriculum. Collectively, these factors contribute to why WGU alumni are twice as likely as other college graduates to recommend their alma mater.”



WGU graduates also go on to report high levels of well-being and workplace engagement. Gallup data reveals that 77% of WGU alumni rate their lives positively, a significantly higher proportion than among adults without a degree (50%)​ and are more likely to be enthusiastic and invested in their work, with 44% of alumni engaged at work compared to 35% of bachelor’s degree holders nationally​.



Stephanie Marken, a senior partner at Gallup who led WGU’s research, sees the university’s high satisfaction rates as a direct result of its pragmatic competency-based education (CBE) model, and the type of goal-oriented students who are aware of what they want from it.



“I think when you're designing curriculum with career in mind, you're designing very strategically to fit the student’s need. We know empirically, through the survey that Gallup had in partnership with Strada Education Network, that the relevancy of curriculum was one of the strongest predictors of self-reported value of experience,” she says. “And it's a simple reason, right? That people feel like, ‘I am going to be able to use this information. It is going to be inherently valuable to me in my career.’ And I think WGU is just very laser focused on that.” &nbsp;



For many prospective students, and first-generation students in particular, higher education is a mystery: How is admission decided, how are scholarships determined, how do you quantify how much is worth spending, and how do you know if there’s really a return on investment?



“Higher ed feels like a little bit of a black box. And anything we could do to make it clearer, to show the average outcomes, and what people expect when they graduate, demystifies things,” says Marken. Whenever students can draw a clear line to what was enabled because of a degree, they are going to report greater satisfaction with that degree, and with the choice they made to pursue it. “WGU prioritizes that clarity, which I think help explains the alumni satisfaction rates and self-reported wellness value.”



The Power of Mentorship



While the competency-based model is at the heart of WGU’s appeal, there’s more to it than just flexibility. One of the distinctive features of WGU’s model is its compulsory mentorship program, which provides each student with a dedicated mentor who offers personalized guidance and support. This mentor is solely focused on helping students navigate their academic journey, offering advice on coursework and even helping them manage personal challenges that might impact their studies—say, food assistance, childcare, housing, or other issues that can impact the ability and confidence to be successful.



“Every single student, when they start their program, is assigned a program mentor, and that mentor knows what your goal is. They know what classes you need to complete to get there, and they're going to help you out all along the way,” says Robert Sullivan, Senior Director of Alumni Engagement. “We are serving a lot of people who arechoosing their education for very specific outcomes, and we are very good at providing the support to make sure they get there.”



For Pascoe, this mentorship was crucial. Jeremy Little was assigned to be his mentor for the MBA, and Pascoe requested Little again for his MSML degree. “That man is awesome. He cheered me on in every aspect. He was there to let me know the results of a practice test, always checking up on me, there to remind me of the motivation, it doesn’t matter what time of the night,” he says. “His care, his commitment, and really his compassion in his job really helped my success in both degrees.”



After a year of an online mentoring relationship, Pascoe and Little were able to meet in person when both traveled to the WGU commencement ceremony. “It’s one thing to create a relationship virtually, but another thing to see that person in real life. Amazing,” he says. “It was just one of those moments where everything just fit together.”



Avoiding debt, aligning values



Students who are able to secure a degree without incurring significant loan debt know full well the bullet they are dodging.



An estimated 42.2 million Americans hold federal student loan debt with a total national balance of over $1.6 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. Higher education is supposed to improve quality of life, granting access to high-quality jobs that provide greater stability, higher salaries, and critical benefits like healthcare. But the burden of debt risks capsizing the benefits, while causing prolonged stress, anxiety, and feelings of shame.



A 2023 Gallup-Lumina study found that 41% of enrolled bachelor’s students had considered dropping out in the past six months, many citing concerns about paying for their education. And almost 40% of middle and high school youth say they are not interested in pursuing a postsecondary degree.



Helping students avoid that debt, and not be scared away from higher ed, is central to WGU’s mission. “Individual economic outcomes for students is critical,” says Marken. “A lot of their students tend to be underserved populations, and that makes affordable higher education an actual lever for economic mobility when it could have been a significant burden.” The relief and gratitude of alumni of not shouldering tremendous debt, she says, is a further reason for their high levels of satisfaction.



WGU commencement ceremonies take place seven times a year in locations around the country, Sullivan says, and represent the convergence of a few thousand people who have made a conscious choice to prioritize their higher education in a self-paced, self-motivated way. First-generation families. Students and mentors meeting in person for the first time. The first graduate of the KFC Foundation program, Kevon Pascoe, honored with a KFC bucket with his face on it.



“Watching these people walk across the stage to get their degree, it’s a pretty special moment, seeing these students and mentors meet. And the student speaker talking about their life and experience, will make you cry 100% every time, it doesn’t matter how many you’ve seen,” says Sullivan. “When students achieve this degree that made the difference in getting them over the hump to where they wanted to be, it’s no wonder they’re satisfied.”

Western Governors University

In the landscape of higher education, student fathers face a particularly stark lack of recognition and support. A new report by Generation Hope,"<a href="https://www.generationhope.org/empowered-dads-student-fathers-report">EmpowerED Dads: Amplifying Voices, Advancing Higher Education for Student Fathers</a>," sheds crucial light on the unique challenges and needs of these individuals. As we strive for a more inclusive and equitable educational environment, it is imperative that we amplify the voices of student fathers and advocate for policies that support their success.



Student fathers often juggle multiple roles, balancing their studies with the demands of caregiving and employment. This multifaceted responsibility is compounded by societal stereotypes that frequently cast fathers, particularly fathers of color, as absent or uninvolved in their children's lives. The report highlights that Black and Latino student fathers, in particular, face significant obstacles, including higher rates of basic needs insecurity and lower utilization of support services​.



Despite these challenges, student fathers demonstrate remarkable resilience and dedication. They are not merely pursuing degrees but striving to provide better futures for their families. However, their efforts are often overshadowed by a lack of visibility and recognition within the academic sphere. This invisibility can profoundly impact their self-esteem and academic performance, perpetuating a cycle of underachievement and disengagement.



The Need for Tailored Support



To address these issues, tailored support systems that acknowledge and address the specific needs of student fathers must be developed and implemented. Policies and institutional practices must evolve to provide flexible scheduling, accessible childcare, and financial assistance for this demographic. Additionally, mental health services should be made readily available to help student fathers manage the stress and anxiety that come with balancing their multiple roles.



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As we strive for a more inclusive and equitable educational environment, it is imperative that we amplify the voices of student fathers and advocate for policies that support their success.
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Furthermore, creating a campus culture that celebrates the contributions of student fathers can go a long way in fostering their sense of belonging and purpose. Universities should promote awareness campaigns and support groups that provide a platform for student fathers to share their experiences and build a supportive community.



Policy Reforms and Institutional Changes



Policy reforms are crucial in driving systemic change. Legislators and educational institutions must work together to ensure that student fathers are included in discussions about higher education support strategies. Financial aid policies should consider the unique financial pressures faced by student parents, and academic policies should offer greater flexibility to accommodate their schedules.



Generation Hope's report underscores the importance of including student fathers in the broader conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. By advocating for policies that recognize and value the experiences of student fathers, we can create a more equitable and supportive educational environment for all students.



A Call to Action



The journey of a student father is marked by resilience and a deep commitment to their families and education. It is time for us to recognize and support their efforts. By amplifying their voices and addressing their unique needs, we can help student fathers achieve their academic goals and secure better futures for themselves and their children.



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Brittani Williams is the Director of Policy, Advocacy and Research at Generation Hope.



<a href="https://www.generationhope.org/">Generation Hope</a>&nbsp;engages education and policy partners to drive systemic change and provides direct support to teen parents in college as well as their children through holistic, two-generation programming.

Seeing the Unseen

Life Lessons with John Bravman

Innovation and Financial Well-Being at CUNY

At a Boston College retreat, sophomores are asked three questions: What are you good at? What brings you joy? Who does the world need you to be? The exercise is part of a program called “Half-time” meant to help students begin a lifelong process of vocational discernment. For Jesuit universities such as BC, this type of formative education, defined as “educating whole persons for lives of meaning and purpose,” is part of the fabric. It is now the focus of a new academic department at BC called the Department of Formative Education (DFE).&nbsp;



The department extends BC’s leadership in formative education, expanding the focus from the practice of undergraduate education to research on “life-wide and lifelong” formative education. Housed within the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, DFE features an undergraduate major (Transformative Educational Studies), a master’s program (Learning, Design, and Technology), and the first ever Ph.D. program in Formative Education.



“Our programs tackle big formative issues,” said Chris Higgins, the Department’s founding chair. “How can we nurture vision and values?&nbsp;What are the dispositions that sustain democracy?&nbsp;How do we co-evolve with technological tools? How can we cultivate a sustainable relationship to the earth? What does it mean to flourish as a human being?”&nbsp;



Such questions, Higgins explained, demand an interdisciplinarity approach, spanning&nbsp;anthropology, design thinking, history, the learning sciences, philosophy, and the psychological humanities.



Stanton Wortham is the inaugural Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School. An anthropologist by training, Wortham spent several years at the University of Pennsylvania, where he worked with scholars of varying disciplines within the liberal arts on how their expertise applied to education. When he arrived at BC, he was able to continue this work of integrating the liberal arts into scholarly inquiry on education, with the blessing of BC President Father Leahy. In creating the new department within the Lynch school at BC, Wortham was inspired by the Jesuit reverence for the liberal arts and its emphasis on formative education.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Most of our education ignores the multi-dimensional nature of how people learn,” he said. “Formative education is this notion that people have several different types of development—social, emotional, ethical, spiritual—and all of those things are going on in a young person’s life at the same time.”  



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“Most of our education ignores the multi-dimensional nature of how people learn.”
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Wortham believes the optimum form of human development is when all these dimensions are aligned—a state he refers to as “wholeness.” The other two pillars of formative education are purpose, which helps young people explore what will bring them both meaning and a living; and community, the recognition that this discernment about life’s purpose happens together with others. Character and ethics are naturally woven in.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Too often at an institution, we tell young people that if they just learn a lot of stuff and get a good job, then everything is going to be fine. And it’s just not true if you’re not connected to something that has bigger meaning,” said Wortham. “We can’t tell students what to believe, but it is our job to help them ask questions about what is ultimately important to them.”



Wortham envisioned a department known both for its research and its teaching. He wanted to convene a group of liberal arts faculty that would bring diverse disciplinary perspectives to the study of formative experience, practice, and aims. This research on holistic development then enriches courses aiming to inspire students to think about education in this formative way.&nbsp;&nbsp;



To lead the department, Wortham recruited Higgins, a philosopher, who had been leading the Transformative Education Studies program (TES). Now part of the Department of Formative Education, TES is growing with 95 majors to date. “‘Transformative education’ names both what we study and how we study,” Higgins explained.



“Our courses explore questions about personal and social transformation. Questions such as, what does it mean to be an educated person? And what kind of schools do we need in a democratic society? At the same time, we want these classes themselves to be transformative experiences, spaces where our students can reflect on their own efforts to form themselves into somebody who can lead a flourishing life.” 



Higgins shares Wortham’s perspective that education has grown too narrow and instrumental. His recent book,&nbsp;Undeclared, calls out the contemporary university, with its “credentialing mindset,” for paying only lip service to the idea of general education. Far from being encouraged to explore, students get the message that they had better “pick a lane and step on the gas!” Instead, he offers a vision for an educational renaissance in which “soulcraft,” described as “the quest to understand, cultivate, and enact ourselves in lives worth living,” is the primary focus.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Higgins’ creative energy is reflected in the department itself, down to its name which he said is intentionally ambiguous. “Formative education is open for interpretation,” he said. “I don’t want to determine the kinds of questions that my colleagues want to explore.”&nbsp;



Those questions are wide-ranging and include topics one might not immediately think of. Professor Marina Bers studies how children can develop ethically and interpersonally through engagement with coding and robotics. Caity Bolton, a cultural anthropologist, is studying what holistic human and social development looks like through Islamic education in East Africa and the Arab World. DFE affiliate faculty member Belle Liang has developed a “purpose app” for college students.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Just in its second year, the DFE doctoral program is already producing notable research. For example, Ph.D. student Harrison Mullen has received a grant from the N.C.A.A. to study the experience of athletes forced to retire from the sport that has been so central to them. Framing the issue in formative terms, Mullen considers how practices such as sports help us make sense of what it means to lead a worthwhile life. In interviews with retired athletes, he explores the deep sense of loss that accompanies this life transition.



At the Department of Formative Education, as at BC overall, personal reflection is fundamental. “It’s the Jesuit thing,” said Higgins. “We are devoted to careful study of the ‘what’ and the ‘how’—but we also never forget the ‘why’ and the ‘who.’&nbsp;Why&nbsp;does this matter? And how does this help you understand&nbsp;who&nbsp;you are and what you stand for?&nbsp;



Higgins offered examples of TES courses and their activities. “In ‘The Educational Conversation,’&nbsp;we invite students&nbsp;to reflect on their key formative influences through an educational autobiography.&nbsp;In ‘Spiritual Exercises,’ we introduce students to a range of spiritual practices, starting with the exercises devised by the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius of Loyola.”



For Wortham and Higgins, the time is ripe to reconsider the hyperfocus on academic achievement. They believe educators in a variety of settings are looking for a richer, formative language to describe their practices and aims. To this end, the Lynch School is launching the Transformative Education Lab, which will share research and best practices around whole-person education. Wortham and Higgins hope that the lab will extend Boston College’s leadership in formative education to new audiences, helping to recenter questions of meaning and value in educational debates.&nbsp;



“Academic achievement is critical. Subject matter knowledge is critical,” said Wortham. “But these students we are teaching and testing are people. We need to consider their mental health, how they will build relationships with others—all the things that make them thrive as human beings.”

Formative Education at Boston College 

I started at the University of Wisconsin in the fall of 2001, just a week before 9/11. For me, and so many other first-year college students, this was a defining feature of the next four years. I was busy with work, internships, and other activities at a large public university and found that while I had many great professors, I don’t recall developing significant relationships with any of them, nor did I in graduate school, with the exception of one class.&nbsp;



While attending the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in 2006, I was selected for a seminar course led by former Vice President Walter Mondale and supervised by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hhh.umn.edu/directory/larry-jacobs">Professor Larry Jacobs</a>. The class was featured in the documentary&nbsp;<a href="http://frozenfeetfilm.com/fritz/">Fritz: The Walter Mondale Story</a>. As part of the class, students identified different sections of Mondale’s biography and did original research based on his newly released papers at the Minnesota Historical Society. I chose to research his role as campaign manager for his friend and mentor Hubert Humphrey, who had waged an unsuccessful presidential bid in the tumultuous year of 1968. It was a fascinating experience to learn about such an important period in American history with so many epic characters like Bobby Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Eugene McCarthy; and to get a sense of what life was like in a year of protests, assassinations, and war. I’ve always wanted to turn my paper into a book (someday).



Mr. Mondale was an engaging professor, generous with his time and willingness to share his personal experiences. In one of my memorable email exchanges with him, I asked him what lessons he took with him from 1968 that he used in his own campaigns. Besides the need to run a disciplined campaign (Humphrey’s campaigns were an apparent study in disarray), Mr. Mondale stressed the need to be yourself, work hard, and be kind. He remembered Hubert Humphrey as one of the most gifted orators of the 20th&nbsp;century, a superlative he said he would emulate but never achieve. In his email, he wrote:



“Humphrey was a magnificent speaker and performer. I couldn't match that so I tried to compensate by working carefully on my speeches, doing some of my own research and reading, and connecting with people through friendship and kindness. We were very close friends but very different personalities. I did not try to be a Humphrey clone; I tried to be myself as unimpressive as that was and is.”&nbsp;



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"From him, I learned that you don’t need to be gifted to do great things.”
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Besides his obvious humility, I was struck by his comment about “connecting with people through friendship and kindness” and the need to be diligent and work hard. From him, I learned that you don’t need to be gifted to do great things. As a fellow small-town Midwesterner interested in a career in public service, I was really inspired by him and could relate to his approach. I found him to be the ideal of what I thought of a public servant to be—honest, grounded, generous, smart, and always focused on improving people’s lives. He also had a great sense of humor that most people didn’t know. The class was a defining experience of my time in higher education.&nbsp;

Walter Mondale and me

Ana Mari Cauce has been president of the University of Washington for nine years. During that period, she has steered the public research university through rising rates of mental health issues among college students, a global pandemic, student protests over war and injustice, and declining public faith in higher education. But while these challenges have made many higher education leaders justifiably reticent, Cauce remains forthcoming and remarkably clear. &nbsp;



In an interview in her office on the Seattle campus, Cauce considers a host of questions within a context drawn from research as well as her own experiences in life. She weaves stories about her family, her early career, and her own education through serious topics like free speech, DEI and careerism in higher education. In doing so, she demonstrates the important skill of learning one’s truth, which has earned her a reputation for being the real deal.









Cauce believes guaranteeing free tuition relieves a psychological barrier for students and families who are fearful of “sticker shock” and the debt students incur as a result. In addition to free tuition, most Husky Promise students receive additional aid to cover cost of attendance, including housing, transportation, and books. However, none are offered aid to cover the full cost of all expenses and are responsible for some costs, although they can be covered through jobs, which can be provided on campus. Cauce says it helps with retention because students have skin in the game and is an important message for taxpayers who support the school.



Low-income students also have a host of supports at UW from basic needs to academic advising. Cauce is adamant that getting in is not enough. “We are serving a class of students that weren’t making it to the university, and they need more help,” she said. The support is paying off. When asked what she is most proud of at UW, Cauce mentions closing the graduation gap. There is very little difference between the school’s Pell-eligible and non-Pell-eligible 6-year graduation rate.



Struggling to pay for college is something Cauce has personal experience with growing up in a college-going home with financial challenges.&nbsp; Her father was the minister of education in Cuba before the family fled to Florida in the 1960s where he then got a job in a factory. Cauce lived at home and worked while on scholarship at the University of Miami.&nbsp; Her brother started out in community college and eventually earned a full scholarship to Duke only after a mentor recognized his talent and helped him apply for aid.



“There was no question that we were going to college,” she said. “The real question was how were we going to pay for it. My parents didn’t understand the system.&nbsp; School was free in Cuba.”



When she graduated from university, Cauce intended to take on the world as an investigative journalist a la Woodward and Bernstein but changed course when a good paying research job emerged in a lab.&nbsp; Her love of research and human development led her to a career in clinical psychology and a PhD from Yale.



But Cauce says her experience as a minority student in an elite institution left her with “zero self-esteem,” and no doubt contributed to her passion for inclusion.



“I say to students all the time, the world is not small and private. It is big and public,” she said.



Indeed, Cauce’s down-to-earth style is refreshing for someone working in a sector increasingly viewed as out of touch with everyday people. While she defends the support students of marginalized identities receive through DEI programs– “That’s what those offices are there for.&nbsp; This work must be done” -- she is less concerned about how they are organized. She also sees the need to view diversity more broadly.&nbsp; “I’m not sure higher ed has done a good enough job at that,” she said.



As a clinical psychologist, Cauce addressed the rising rates of mental health issues among students early on in her presidency with increased clinical supports. But in discussing mental health, she also emphasizes the need for coping skills.&nbsp;



“Nine out of ten times what messes you up is not the problem itself, it is the way you cope with it,” she said.



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I say to students all the time, the world is not small and private. It is big and public.




</blockquote>



The university has a Resilience Lab which promotes wellbeing through research, education and strategic programs and initiatives. It includes a six-week program which equips participants with cognitive skills to manage stressful emotions and situations, and mindfulness skills to strengthen self-awareness and empathy.



Asked how to create a sense of belonging in a school so large, Cauce says there are myriad ways for students to “find their people” and believes navigating large environments like a public university teaches important life skills.&nbsp; “I wonder if we don’t do our students a disservice with too much handholding,” she said.&nbsp;



Cauce is predictably pragmatic on the debate about the value and purpose of college.&nbsp; “We do have to justify what we’re doing and why it makes a difference if we’re getting public money, and all of us do,” she said.&nbsp;



As to the question of whether you go to college to get a job or to grow as a person, Cauce said, “I think this idea that it’s careerism versus knowledge for life is a false dichotomy. It’s really important not to be narrow-based in our teaching because we need to be giving people an education where they are life-long learners and informed citizens.&nbsp; But there is nothing wrong with the fact that our students want jobs. As DuBois said, ‘It’s not just about making a living, it’s about making a life. But if you can’t make a living, you can’t make a life.’”



Ana Mari Cauce will retire from UW in June of 2025.

Learning from President Cauce

What if higher education made student wellbeing a goal on par with graduation rates and GPA’s? That is the organizing vision behind the Flourishing Academic Network (FAN), a group of centers, institutes, and universities across the United States and Canada dedicated to embedding flourishing throughout higher education for the benefit of students, communities and society.



The idea to gather like-minded institutions into a flourishing collaborative grew from the pioneering efforts of four big thinkers at three separate universities. David Germano, a religious historian at the University of Virginia and former Director of the school’s Contemplative Sciences Center, was determined to connect the work he was doing in mindfulness and flourishing to the emerging crisis in college student mental health.



Germano was joined in this purpose by colleagues Richard Davidson, William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin; Mark Greenberg, former Director of the Prevention Research Center at Pennsylvania State University; and Rob Roeser, the Bennett Pierce Professor of Caring and Compassion at Penn State. The scholars came from different disciplines but shared a common belief that embedding flourishing concepts into the college experience was both a pragmatic approach to addressing mental health issues among students and a moral imperative for higher education.



A major contribution of the alliance was the creation of “The Art and Science of Human Flourishing,” an interdisciplinary course they created that helps students develop skills and perspectives that support individual and collective flourishing, defined as “living a fulfilling life of meaning, purpose and a sense of belonging.”&nbsp;



The course was launched in 2017 at all three universities. With consistent outcome data showing significant improvement in mental health symptoms among participants, the collaborators soon formed what they called “The Flourishing Academic Network” to welcome more colleges and universities into the learning community. But like so many initiatives thrown off course by the pandemic, the 2020 national conference of interested universities was delayed until 2022. The changes within FAN schools that occurred during that gap brought starts and stops to the new network but the desire to work collaboratively to apply the science of flourishing to the lives of college students remained strong among the group.



While still nascent, the Flourishing Academic Network is now finding its footing with plans for in-person convenings and ongoing collaboration among 20 or so members.  Some believe the current vulnerabilities within the sector may be an opening to include student flourishing as a primary goal of higher education, though not without disruption.



The FAN charter underlying the organization’s mission states, “We believe centering student wellbeing and flourishing, bridging the gap between student affairs and academics, and changing how higher education systems operate and are designed can establish new pathways for flourishing.”



The following is the first in a series of features on FAN member institutions.



The Renée Crown Wellness Institute:



The administrative backbone of the FAN is now at the Renée&nbsp;Crown Wellness Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder.&nbsp; With a mission “to promote the wellness of young people and the systems and adults who support them through interdisciplinary research-practice partnerships,” the Institute is one of 12 research centers within the university.&nbsp; It was founded in 2019 just months before the onset of the pandemic and while many organizations immediately shut down, the Crown Institute went to work providing resources that were in high demand. In the fall of 2020, undergraduate students within schools at CU Boulder were required to take a course, developed by the Crown Institute and its collaborators, called “Health, Society and Wellness in COVID-19 Times.”&nbsp;



Designed by faculty members of diverse disciplines working collaboratively with undergraduate students, the course not only supported the CU Boulder community during stressful times, it put on display the methods and mission of a very different kind of university research institute.&nbsp;



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Some believe the current vulnerabilities within the higher ed sector may be an opening to include student flourishing as a primary goal, though not without disruption.&nbsp;
</blockquote>



Dr. Sona Dimidjian is the Director of the Crown Institute, and a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder. She has both a PhD in clinical psychology and master's in social work and worked as a therapist with adolescents for many years. “Our research is really focused on action,” she said. “We are interested in changing systems in classrooms, in healthcare settings, in living rooms and dorm rooms because we want a bigger and faster change in young people's lives.”



The term the Crown Institute uses to define its work is “interdisciplinary research-practice partnerships.” In this sense, the Crown Institute is less of a lab than it is a workshop where those for whom the research is intended (young people, parents, educators) are involved in solving real world problems. Collaborative design is informed and influenced by the expertise and experiences of community partners who work alongside the university researchers. Its intent is to disseminate and apply that research back into the community and on behalf of the partners who have been engaged.



“We believe that our research products are much more sustainable, meaningful, and equitable when the intended audiences of research are included in the design,” said Dr. Leah Peña Teeters, Outreach and Education Director for the Crown Institute and point person for the FAN at CU Boulder.



The Crown Institute has three research strands: children and young people; families and communities, educators and schools, all of which apply the same approach. Consider “Alma,” a peer-to-peer program for new and expectant mothers who are struggling with anxiety and depression. Moms and their peer mentors meet six to eight times utilizing peer support strategies that are informed by the science of behavioral activation. The Alma team developed the program collaboratively, grounded in Dimidjian’s many years of conducting research on the mental health of parents. In assessing their interventions, Crown Institute researchers have found a significant reduction in anxiety and depression, leading to the program’s expansion in other communities.



The children and young people research strand is at the center of the Institute’s work and its primary connection to the FAN.&nbsp; Here, active initiatives like The Mindful Campus Program have broad appeal among Gen Z students who, as a cohort, continue to report significant mental health issues. Co-designed with undergraduate students, The Mindful Campus Program aims to increase access to mindfulness and compassion-based practices that have proven to support the mental health and wellness of students.&nbsp; Other programs include the mind.body. voice. program, which promotes body acceptance, belonging, and leadership while reducing vulnerability to disordered eating among girls and young women in middle, high school, and college. Another program, The CU Well Brainstudy, examines how CU Boulder undergraduates experience wellness and cope with stress.



Each of these initiatives includes the deep participation of young people.&nbsp; According to the Crown Institute, young people serve as both participants and designers of its work, providing vision and feedback to inform the iterative design of its programs and practices. The Crown Institute directs an Undergraduate Research Fellows Program where Psychology and Neuroscience students begin a three-year research journey at the start of their sophomore year, leading to independent research projects in their senior year.&nbsp; Students, who are given a stipend to compensate for their time apprenticing and working in research labs, are matched with faculty and work closely with them as mentors.



“We are focused on training the next generation of researchers, scholars, and practitioners with the skill sets that really center wellbeing and flourishing across disciplines,” said Teeters.&nbsp;



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The Crown Institute is less of a lab than it is a workshop where those for whom the research is intended are involved in solving real world problems
</blockquote>



Alison Ofori is a third-year integrated physiology major at CU Boulder.&nbsp; She joined the mind. body.voice. project as a peer facilitator after one of her favorite professors suggested she would be a great addition to the team. As a pre-health student, she had always been interested in doing research but felt like working in a lab or a hospital fell a little flat.&nbsp;



“When I heard about this opportunity, I was like ‘Yes! this is really different.&nbsp; I get to work with real people.’”



Orofi is particularly energized by the work she is now doing with high school and middle school girls on external vs internal beliefs.&nbsp;



“We have the girls come in and engage with our curriculum and we ask specifically tailored questions that help them connect with their mind and then what society may be telling them.&nbsp; For example, we might ask ‘what do you think the perfect woman is?’&nbsp; A lot of times they’ll answer first with everything society tells them. And then we’ll reframe the question and ask it based on what they think is suitable for them, not society, and we’ll get different answers.”



Orofi, who is the eldest of three sisters, says the work she has done with the Crown Institute has helped her evolve personally.



“I am very mindful now of how I speak to myself, how I talk to other people,” she said. “What Crown is trying to remind us about is that we all go through these struggles and it’s important to bring some conversation to that.”



Like many institutions within the FAN, the Crown Institute also focuses on the teaching of flourishing through specifically designed curricula.&nbsp; Dimidjian teaches a course through the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience called Flourishing, Belonging, and Liberation that is anchored in the work of other institutions in the FAN as well as the Mindful Campus Program in the Crown Institute. Specifically, the course is an adaptation of The Art and Science of Human Flourishing course, adapted at the Crown Institute at CU with doctoral student, Caitlin McKimmy, and Professors Donna Meija and Natalie Avalos. It examines psychological science to explore, define, and apply the construct of human flourishing, defined as “an existence filled with wellness, purpose, connection, and justice.”&nbsp;



Dimidjian says the feedback she receives from the students who take the course is consistently inspiring.&nbsp; “I have had so many students say to me ‘I've never had another class like this in my entire time at college’ or ‘I've been waiting for a class like this.’ I had one student say to me ‘I can't wait to come to this class. No matter how exhausted I may be from work and classes, I always feel rejuvenated.’”&nbsp;



Dimidjian believes the FAN connections have been important to the design and offering of the flourishing course: “We rely on the expertise and generosity of our friends and colleagues in the FAN. It is exciting to share our learning about how to bring a focus on flourishing into all the facets of our campuses.”



The Crown Institute’s mindfulness work closely aligns with the FAN, which has strong roots in contemplative science. Teeters underscores that mindfulness is only part of the pathway to what she calls “the crosswalk between the inner and outer resources needed for flourishing.”



“We recognize that in human flourishing, we can support individuals with contemplative practices, and we also need the systems change work that supports the creation of more just systems in which to practice and thrive. The two go hand in hand and can be mutually informing.”



Teeters sees her coordinating role for FAN within the Crown Institute as a natural extension of her work in outreach and education. She hopes with more opportunities for interaction and scholarship, each institution will learn from one another and enhance their own work as a result.



“I think there’s a lot to be learned from what works and doesn’t across institutions and across settings and one of our hopes in the next iteration of FAN is to bring more youth and undergraduate voices to the direction and leadership of student flourishing.”



Dimidjian concurred.



“There are amazing colleges and universities represented in the FAN currently and deep dedication among all the individual members to the flourishing of students, staff and faculty on our campuses. This work is just at its beginning in many ways, and I think everyone is enthusiastic about the potential for moving from intention to action.”

The Flourishing University

Listen Here: 



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They are familiar culprits: smartphones, social media, the decline of in-person social connection that began before, bloomed during, and held firm after the COVID-19 pandemic. A growing reserve of data and reporting raises the alarm about Gen Z’s age of discontent, always coming to the same conclusion: it doesn’t look good for the digital generation. As panic descends over what the Surgeon General has labeled a mental health emergency and, more recently, a <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/03/new-surgeon-general-advisory-raises-alarm-about-devastating-impact-epidemic-loneliness-isolation-united-states.html">loneliness epidemic</a>, few accounts of Gen Z’s state of mind manage to foreground what I suspect is at the root of my generation’s distress: the shrinking of three-dimensional life, and with it, the loss of risk, adventure, and thrill.



Forty-two percent of Gen Z suffers from depression and feelings of hopelessness, a rate almost <a href="https://www.waltonfamilyfoundation.org/stories/foundation/generation-z-is-waging-a-battle-against-depression-addiction-and-hopelessness" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">twice as high</a> as that of American adults over 25 (23%). On the climate crisis, 56% believe <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00278-3/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">humanity is doomed</a>. Since 2010, anxiety among American college students has increased by 134%, depression by 106%, bipolar disorder by 57%, and anorexia by 100%. In a 2023 poll of <a href="https://www.gallup.com/education/509231/college-students-experience-high-levels-worry-stress.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">college students</a>, 39% said they had experienced loneliness the previous day, ranking it above sadness (36%).&nbsp;



As our parents’ generations had fewer children and nurtured them longer, we were raised to be risk-averse. Emergency room visits for accidental injuries—falling off a bike, breaking an arm, spraining an ankle on the soccer field—have <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/data-finder.htm?&amp;subject=Unintentional%20injuries">declined</a> significantly among children and teenagers born in the early aughts. That sounds like a good thing—fewer broken arms means kids are safer, right? But while accidental, play-related injuries have gone down, emergency room visits for self-harm have <a href="https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/research/the-evidence">increased</a> 188% for adolescent girls and 48% for boys since 2010. We are not safer; not with ourselves.



As Gen Z grows up, our adulthood shows signs of <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28925063/">developmental delays</a>. We go on fewer dates and have <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-08-03/young-adults-less-sex-gen-z-millennials-generations-parents-grandparents">less sex</a>. We are getting our <a href="https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/teens-are-becoming-adults-later-than-they-used-to-1513305588">driver’s licenses</a> later or not at all; we are living with our parents longer. We <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/509690/young-adults-drinking-less-prior-decades.aspx">drink less</a> and go to fewer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/10/meet-generation-stay-at-home-dont-pay-to-go-clubbing-watch-it-at-home-on-your-phone">parties</a> than past generations. Our abstinence from risk is not a reflection of strict moral influences or time redirected to other, “safer” ways of interacting with the three-dimensional world—far from it, we are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/opinion/gen-z-adulthood.html">less likely</a> than past generations to engage in hobbies, play and <a href="https://www.fandomanalytics.com/post/the-next-generation-fandom-survey-from-the-emory-marketing-analytics-center">watch sports</a>, or <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/04/opinion/gen-z-adulthood.html">work</a> after-school jobs. We are, quite simply, doing less than any generation before us.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter is-resized"><img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXfYf020qbZ-IfpH-yzYHoZhDZZc_cwLnthAXfsAjWw3D7nvsMTj7FTEvHOTxTsYHbHO5gjI13qF7Z9Oi8cBbL4KJUn-VFN0AritOne_BnecxDM_AQOXtxltY-4V4ghSZOoIG0j60baDiEcFwMNb3oxKVmk?key=DukyNi8GP42rlrOVVIuO6g" alt="" width="610" height="510"/></figure>



Chart: Zach RauschSource: <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iO7D7uaELibyM2SiW_2MaGSi9Z91CXdG0y9QzfLaswk/edit#gid=295927474">Monitoring the Future</a> Get the data <a href="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DHuIn/2/#embed">Embed</a> <a href="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DHuIn/full.png">Download image</a>



Social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation Jonathan Haidt argues that our increasingly two-dimensional lives are the result of “the end of play-based childhood” and its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/smartphones-social-media-mental-health-teens.html">replacement</a> with “phone-based childhood.” During a <a href="https://youtu.be/laR1eSWAMKw?si=16LliF2SZC2N2pIn">recent talk</a> in London, Haidt asked audience members of the Gen X and Baby Boomer generations to think back to their childhoods. He asked them to remember the things they did with friends, the adventures they had, and then imagine removing 70% of those encounters – remove hobbies, then risks, thrills, and adventures where you might have gotten hurt—imagine 80% of that gone, he said. Now imagine growing up with what’s left. That is the extent to which Haidt believes smartphones gutted Gen Z’s childhood and adolescence. Our lives are now smaller, hollowed out, contained within digital software.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter is-resized"><img src="https://live-learningwell-wp.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/IMG_3449-1024x782.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2013" width="586" height="447"/></figure>



“The fact that risk-taking activities like drinking are going down is a broader sign that young adults and adolescents are engaging with the world far less,” says Dr. Jessie Borelli, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Becoming an adult involves risk. Making mistakes, including through risk-taking behaviors, is practicing being an adult.”&nbsp;



Moreover, she says, “Getting together in person is effortful. You have to endure a certain amount of discomfort, whether it’s the cost of leaving the house, encountering traffic, or the time it takes to put on different clothes.”&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
We are not safer; not with ourselves.
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For a subset of the population who grew up on social media and spent some of their most formative developmental years taking classes and interacting with peers only online, any effort at real-life interpersonal connection carries inherent risk — embarrassment, rejection, heartbreak, abandonment. When we weigh the decision of whether to engage effortfully with the world or just stay home, it’s no wonder we gravitate toward the option that involves less risk.



What that cost-benefit analysis is missing, however, is the fact that loneliness and isolation have profound consequences for not just our emotional wellbeing, but our <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/25663/social-isolation-and-loneliness-in-older-adults-opportunities-for-the">long-term physical and cognitive health</a>. “Social isolation and loneliness increase a person’s risk of heart disease, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, dementia, depression, anxiety, suicidality, and premature death,” says Shannon Vyvijal, the Communications and Programming Coordinator for the <a href="https://www.social-connection.org/">Foundation for Social Connection</a>. The upside, Vyvijal says, is that “social connection is really both a remedy and a preventative measure. In addition to making us healthier, it makes our communities safer. Socially connected communities have lower rates of gun violence and drug deaths. It makes communities more prosperous and helps local GDP. It leads more people to volunteer in their communities. It helps us become more civically engaged. We begin to trust institutions and one another again.”



Gen Z knows it’s lonely. “Loneliness is a discrepancy between how connected we are, and how connected we want to be,” Vyvijal says. “If, like many members of Gen Z report, you are someone who wants to date and hasn’t yet, or you are on dating apps and not satisfied with the level of connection they provide, that discrepancy is contributing to loneliness.” The disconnect between having and wanting connection often sets in motion a self-fulfilling prophecy, with the stigma of social undesirability increasing a person’s tendency to retreat from others. “The lonely brain continues to self-isolate,” she explains.&nbsp;



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They—we—are not content to live in a purgatory of risk-averse, adventureless post-post-adolescence.
</blockquote>



Even as hyper-individualism in work and school swells and spills over into life after-hours, Gen Z is begging for community. We are begging for risk. Signs of our accelerating desperation occupy every corner of the Zoomer internet. In the r/GenZ subreddit, an 18-year old appeals to their peers for advice on <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/hd865a4GvK">how to make friends</a>; a 21-year-old college student laments her campus’s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/offmychest/s/mnxv33MZLF">lack of community</a>; a 19-year-old worries she’s a “loser” for having never gotten drunk or <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GenZ/s/kQbbJ4L6CE">gone to a party</a>.&nbsp; On Facebook, young adults post <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/friendship-applications-gen-z-loneliness/">friendship applications</a>. A Gen Z woman complains of the <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@princess_milkyy/video/7298522177152814378">death of clubbing</a> in a TikTok video that amassed over 3.5 million views. A viral <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/tiktok-videos-single-women-crying.html">dating deep-dive</a> from The Cut shows young women crying on camera while describing their longing for partnership.&nbsp;



Not far behind, tech companies roll out solutions for Gen Z to cure our loneliness without looking up from our phones. Tinder backs a new “<a href="https://www.heyvina.com/">dating app for friends</a>.” On Bumble BFF, users <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BhulRftj6X4/?igsh=b2FkanNoZW91eTNm">swipe right</a> on pictures of prospective friends. Still lonely? Try downloading Replika, “<a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/replika-ai-friend/id1158555867">THE chatbot for anyone who wants a friend with no judgment, drama, or social anxiety involved</a>.” No risk, all reward.



But Gen Z is getting older, in spite of its delayed adulthood, and making the move toward real-world community as a form of generational healing. The tide of self-isolation appears to be turning as loneliness and boredom reach a fever pitch, with a growing number of young adults taking the matter offline and into their own hands. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/jun/23/run-clubs-australia-social-clubs-gen-z-activities">Running clubs</a>, singles parties, book clubs, wine nights, and self-made social events are on the rise. A new trend emphasizes the importance of <a href="https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&amp;context=clcom_facpub">third places</a>—communal spaces like public parks, libraries, and coffee shops where people can come together and fill the time between work and home. They are taking their <a href="https://news.samsung.com/uk/social-media-fuels-rise-in-alternatively-awesome-hobbies-as-gen-z-embrace-their-creativity-online">hobbies</a> offline. They are <a href="https://www.bhf.org.uk/what-we-do/news-from-the-bhf/news-archive/2023/august/gen-z-most-likely-to-gift-time#:~:text=to%20gift%20time-,Boom%20in%20young%20volunteers%20as%20survey%20shows,most%20likely%20to%20gift%20time&amp;text=We%20have%20seen%20a%20boom,than%20any%20other%20age%20group.">volunteering more</a>. They are urging moral awakening over self reinvention. They—we—are not content to live in a purgatory of risk-averse, adventureless post-post-adolescence.



I can’t say I wish playground injuries on kids or hangovers on college students. I do hope, however, that we will return to a margin of risk where it’s OK to fall off your bike, get your heart broken, dance badly at a party—because that’s part of the deal of living in the three-dimensional world. If we watch from a safe distance, that world will keep outgrowing us.

Where Did All the Good Times Go?

Given his background, Dr. Estevan Garcia might be considered an unusual member of a college president’s cabinet. But as Dartmouth’s new Chief Health and Wellness Officer, the physician and public health expert works directly with President Sian Beilock on an issue she has made a well-publicized priority in her first year in office – protecting the mental health of students, faculty and staff. Garcia, who is a pediatrician specializing in emergency medicine, came to Dartmouth from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health where he helped led the effort to address the behavioral health crisis in emergency departments during the pandemic.



It is now Garcia’s job to lead Beilock’s health and wellbeing agenda, most specifically through the implementation of the school’s comprehensive strategic mental health plan called the “Commitment to Care.”&nbsp; The origins of the plan predate Garcia’s arrival and was informed by a collaboration with the Jed Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting emotional health and preventing suicide in young people. Beginning in 2020, the Dartmouth community lost several students, including by suicide, as the pandemic eclipsed college life.



<figure class="wp-block-image alignleft size-large"><img src="https://live-learningwell-wp.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Estevan-Garcia-1-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-2085"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Dr. Estevan Garcia</figcaption></figure>



Four years later, the Jed Foundation featured Dartmouth as a success story in its impact report and Garcia is now focused on the longer term outcome data that will provide a more precise evaluation of their recent work.&nbsp; He views the plan as a pathway to a wellness culture at Dartmouth that prioritizes self-care, community care and mental health innovation. With an increased staff and budget behind him, Garcia is addressing a number of wellbeing issues often associated with elite institutions, particularly ones like Dartmouth, located in remote areas with less community resources.&nbsp; These include the stress of perfectionism among high-performing students and the lingering lack of belonging many students feel, particularly those with mental health issues and/or those with diverse identities. As the fall semester brings new and familiar challenges to students’ wellbeing, Dr. Garcia is ready and at the table.



LW: What was the thinking behind having a new position in this area reporting directly to President Beilock?



EG: I think her vision for the role was to elevate student mental health and wellness as a high priority but also to bring under one umbrella campus-wide health and wellbeing. Part of my portfolio is faculty and staff health and wellness so it was important to President Beilock to have that direct communication on all of the activities in this area across campus.



LW: How has your background in public health prepared you and/or motivated you to take on the position of Chief Health and Wellness officer at a college?&nbsp;



EG: What brought me to this work came from what I saw in emergency departments during, and predating COVID, with adolescents and young adults in crisis. To me, that was really shocking.&nbsp; When I started in the Department of Public Health {in Massachusetts} I partnered with the Mass Department of Mental Health through the community behavioral health programs, providing options that would divert the mental health crisis from emergency departments when appropriate.&nbsp; I spent those two years heavily involved in the work we were doing to create an actual road map for behavioral health in Massachusetts.&nbsp;



My background is in emergency medicine. &nbsp;I useasthma as an example of the way we look at illness in the emergency department.&nbsp; You would come to the emergency department after you had gone through your asthma action plan – “I'm a green, I'm a yellow, I'm a red,” -- here's how I step up my care so by the time you came to us, you had exhausted your plan.&nbsp; Westarted to view behavioral health in the same way.&nbsp; “I'm at home fighting with my parents, or “I'm depressed, I can't leave my room” or “I'm in crisis, potentially I'm suicidal” – all of those scenarios have varying degrees of illness and severity.&nbsp; Ifwe treated them all as emergencies, we would be failing our patientsand our ability to manage true crisis and emergencies.



LW: Do you have a similar strategy around health and wellbeing that you are utilizing at Dartmouth?



EG: When I first came here, it was important to explain to my colleagues what we mean by health and wellness because not everyone understands this. One of the things I did was develop a pyramid that shows the different degrees of mental health needs. The base of the pyramid is the 70% of the students we have here – very successful, high achieving – experiencing the stress that comes with that.&nbsp; There’s another 20 to 25% who could use some clinical support.&nbsp; The final piece at the top of the pyramid is the group of students who were most clinically concerning, potentially suicidal, and these are the student we need to act quickly to support and get into the appropriatesetting.&nbsp;



The goal of this kind of structure is to understand that much of what we do is at the base – that 70% of our students need easy access to services and almost no barriers to the many wellness activities we should be providing across campus. The idea is that college is the right timeto experiment with wellness and to build your portfolio of activities and support strategieswhen you are successful – when you are at the base - so you can manage the challenges that will come your way. &nbsp;You will be more prepared when you fail a test, or break up with your girlfriend, or have other challenges– all the things that challenge yourequilibrium andcould push you into crisis.



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“College is the right timeto experiment with wellness and to build your portfolio of activities and support strategies&nbsp;when you are successful –- so you can manage the challenges that will come your way.”&nbsp;&nbsp;
</blockquote>



For the 20 to 25% in the middle, we have clinical &nbsp;supports that help themmanage their illness, while also providing access to wellness activities.&nbsp; With the smaller group, my job is to really help identify them as their situation evolves and get them the support that they need, and this can be a protective setting in a hospital if that’s necessary.&nbsp; And it is really important that we don’t make them feel that they are alone.&nbsp; You have to care enough about the students that require services outside of the college to partner with them – to give them time away, with support, and then bring them back with the appropriate accommodations. This is how I see my job.



LW: What have been some of your early priorities?



EG: President Beilock has recently completedher first year as presidentbut was very involved in the creation of the strategic plan for mental health and wellness before that. I would say the majority ofmy work since I came to Dartmouthhas been to implement that plan.&nbsp; It has multipledeliverables and my job was to take that on and run with it, delivering on health and wellness as a priority for the president and for the campus.



Part of those deliverables involved new permanent staffpositions – across ourstudent health and wellness divisions.&nbsp; It was really a huge investment by the college and we had to make sure those were the right positions and we were utilizing them in the right way. &nbsp;



The Dartmouth community has faced several challenges since I arrived.&nbsp; I think it is helpful to have a clinician at the table.&nbsp; Health and wellness staff arenot enforcers, but supporters.&nbsp; We arevery much there to support students, and help them engage in tough conversations. I think partnering with students has been one of the strongest game changers for me personally. I worked with them before as patients but now they are really partners to me in the work we are doing around health and wellness.



LW: What was the history behind the Commitment to Care plan?



EG: When Covid started, we (in reference to Dartmouth) were doing the best we could, but clearly it was very isolating on this campus and colleges across the country.&nbsp;It was not your normal college experience by far here and of course everywhere.&nbsp; Beginningin 2020, we had several student deaths including bysuicide, and it was clear they needed to address what was happening.&nbsp; In the summer of 2021, they brought the Jed Foundation in and that led to a major mental health review - &nbsp;campus visits, survey data, all of that.&nbsp; Additionally, the provost at the time set up a steering committee to work on an all-Dartmouth strategic plan on health and wellbeing from May 2023 to September 2023, that was the foundation of the Commitment to Care. It was across all campuses – undergrad, grad schools, professional schools.&nbsp;



What makes it unique is that it is very stakeholder-driven, very student-driven and the result is this multi-year, campus-wide engagement with actual deliverables. What I found interesting when I first came to campus, folks would introduce themselves – students, staff, faculty – and they would say “I was on the committee for mental health” or “I was on the committee for health promotion.”



LW: What are the elements of the plan? &nbsp;



There are five pillars to the plan which drive the many activities and initiatives that we are working on. &nbsp;(From materials): Center wellbeing in all we do both inside and outside of academics; Create an inclusive community to foster mental health and well-being for students with diverse lived experiences; Equip students with the resources and skills to navigate both success and failure with strength and confidence; Proactively address mental illness to aid students in reaching their goals; Invest in innovative applications of evidence-based approaches to respond to changing environments and needs.



It is a very broad approach involving all aspects of the college.&nbsp; Regarding the second pillar, we pride ourselves on attracting first generation students and students with diverse lived experiences, and it is important for us to center those lived experiences in what happens on campus, particularly here in rural New Hampshire. This includes how we address mental health and wellness and creating a sense of belonging.



President Beilock was clear that focusing on wellbeing is critical to a successfulacademic career. One of the key pillars for us is helping students navigate success and failure, this is number three.&nbsp; There is an understanding that our students are incredibly driven. They are gifted and they are used to being at the top. They are not used to failure. But failure is part of succeeding and it is how you pick yourself up and move forward that is important.&nbsp; We call it normalizing life.



Regarding wellness services, we have made significant gains here.&nbsp; One of the first things I did was to move wellness to be a separate divisionwith a director reporting to me. &nbsp;Our health services are really top notch and I wanted wellness to be on equal footing.&nbsp; Additionally, we are arural community sometimes makingrecruitment difficult.&nbsp; To better meet the needs of our students, we needed to find ways of extending and diversifying our services.&nbsp; We partnered with a tele therapycompany, that gives us 24/7 behavioral health support for students and that made a big difference in accessibility when our team was not in the office.&nbsp; We have several hundred students who have engaged with the service.&nbsp; We have unlimited access to 30 minutes therapy slots any time of day or night and will beexpanding that to 50 minutes for those who need it.



The addition of the tele service didn’t lower our need for in-person services but it enabled other students to access therapy who might have been uncomfortable doing so before.&nbsp; We know that a quarter of our students utilize our mental health services and that is similar across our student groups.&nbsp;&nbsp;That is a significant point since historically, underrepresented students seek help less frequently.&nbsp;



And the other piece – which I think is one of the harder ones – is thinking about data analysis and evidence-based approaches to make sure that what we are doing is impactful. This is really important because as we are delivering on a lot of these initiatives, we need to know what is helpful and not helpful and then redirect our time, energy and resources accordingly.



LW: You have said that some of your work is inside as well as outside the classroom.&nbsp; What has been your experience there?



EG: There are a few tracks to this work, one involving academic policies and calendars that students have said would be meaningful to them in terms of reducing their stress levels over academics.&nbsp; There’s also some interesting things faculty are doing in their classrooms by integrating mindfulness techniques in their academic disciplines including physiology and languages.&nbsp; &nbsp;These are just some of the ways we are partnering with academic leadership, and I will say it does make a difference now that we are at the table.

Dr. Estevan Garcia is at the Table

LearningWell Radio in Conversation with Alex Kafka

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“The Real World of College,” Continued

Eric Mazur gives lots of talks on how to teach.&nbsp;



Often, he starts with a quiz, which goes something like this:



Think about a skill you’re really good at. Something you’re proud of — that other people respect you for.



OK, now try to remember how you got good at that skill.



Was it trial and error?



Practice?



Hearing lectures?



Getting an apprenticeship?



“Nobody chooses lectures,” says Mazur, a physics professor at Harvard. “Nobody, nobody, nobody chooses lectures. Then I show a picture of me lecturing — an old one, because I don’t lecture anymore — and I say: ‘Don’t we have a problem here?’”



It’s a problem Mazur has been trying to tackle for more than thirty years, ever since he realized that lectures — which are the classic way that physics is taught —aren’t actually that effective at teaching physics.



That realization came in the early 90s, after Mazur read an article in The American Journal of Physics about professors who gave thousands of students an unusual test. The test lacked textbook jargon and fancy equations. Instead, it used simple language to ask about basic physics principles, like the magnitude of the force that’s exerted when a light car collides with a heavy truck.&nbsp;



When the students took the test, they did poorly — even students with award-winning teachers. Mazur was shocked. Could his students at Harvard do better? He hoped they would.



But they didn’t. Which is when he started to question the whole idea of lecturing. He realized that students who simply hear information from a talking head might not effectively learn that information. 



Of course, as a student, Mazur had been lectured to, as have generations of students, stretching back centuries. But suddenly, that started to seem like a terrible mistake.



At the time, Mazur was coming up for tenure at Harvard — normally, not a moment when one might adopt a side project. But he thought he might return to Europe (he’s Dutch), so tenure took on less importance than it might have otherwise. So he dug in and started to rethink teaching. He wanted to create a classroom where students were more engaged, and really, deeply absorbed the material.



As Mazur knew from his own life, engagement is key to having a meaningful experience in higher education. When he was a teenager, Mazur dreamed of being an astronomer. “And then at age 17, I enrolled at the University of Leiden, which was the mecca for astronomy. And within six weeks, my whole childhood dream unraveled. The courses were so badly taught.”



At the University, astronomy had little to do with the majesty of the universe. “It was just a jumble of formulas,” Mazur recalls. “And the whole big picture disappeared. It disintegrated. So I dropped out and became a physicist, because I knew I was reasonably good at physics in high school.”



But within a few weeks, Mazur realized that the quality of physics instruction wasn’t a whole lot better. “Which is why it’s so ironic that when I started teaching, I fell into the trap of doing what my instructors had done.”



Why perpetuate the cycle? Part of the reason, Mazur says, is that we don’t focus nearly enough on optimizing the classroom experience for students. We need to ask whether students feel challenged and supported. How much are they really learning? How deeply are they connected to their professors? For Mazur, having a doctoral advisor who cared about him made a huge difference in his life.&nbsp;



Indeed, those sorts of connections make a big difference for lots of people. <a href="https://www.gallup.com/services/176768/2014-gallup-purdue-index-report.aspx">As the 2014 Gallup-Purdue Index revealed</a>, the happiness of college graduates was not particularly correlated with whether they attended a public or private school, a small or large school, or a selective or not-too-selective school. Instead, researchers found, “if graduates had a professor who cared about them as a person, made them excited about learning, and encouraged them to pursue their dreams, their odds of being engaged at work more than doubled, as did their odds of thriving in their well-being.”



You could argue, too, that deeply understanding physics or history or geometry greatly benefits a student’s future career. When you have to design a bridge, does it matter whether you got an A in your engineering class? Or how well you truly grasp a set of core principles?



CHANGE COMES, BUT SLOWLY



In the early 1990s, Mazur started “flipping the classroom.” No longer did he dispense knowledge to a hushed room of notetakers. Instead, students read through the content (what might once have been called “lecture notes”) before class. When everyone came together, students worked in groups to figure out problems and clarify concepts.&nbsp;



Mazur quickly discovered that students were often better at explaining a concept to each other than he was at explaining it to them. After all, he had learned physics long ago, and it could be hard for him to understand what might be so perplexing about, for example, Newton’s Third Law. But students who had just spent a week striving to understand it could easily relate to — and help — peers who were struggling.



Mazur’s conversion energized him — and a lot of other people. He started giving a talk called “Confessions of a Converted Lecturer,” chronicling how and why he had changed his own classroom. In 2009, after -— by his count — giving the talk about 600 times, the University of Maryland Baltimore County taped Mazur and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI">put the talk on YouTube</a>. He was sure that no one would ever invite him to speak on this topic again, since his views were now so easily accessible.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
Mazur quickly discovered that students were often better at explaining a concept to each other than he was at explaining it to them.
</blockquote>



You can guess what happened next. Mazur’s speech went on to attract more than 200,000 views, and he was invited to give talks around the world on why he had stopped lecturing. Academic studies began to focus on the benefits of active learning. And Mazur penned a book, Peer Instruction: A User’s Manual.



In 2019, <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1821936116">a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> found that “students in the active classroom learn more.” But, it soberly noted, “[d]espite active learning being recognized as a superior method of instruction in the classroom, a major recent survey found that most college STEM instructors still choose traditional teaching methods.”&nbsp;



In a recent book, Brian Rosenberg — the longtime former president of Macalester College — writes that the “evidence that lectures are an ineffective way of teaching is both voluminous and incontrovertible.” So, he asks, “given its centrality to higher education and the evidence that it does not work very well as a teaching method, shouldn’t this be something about which faculty are thinking and debating pretty regularly? Isn’t the topic worth at least a faculty meeting or two?”



Still, change doesn’t come easily to higher education, and Mazur knows it. Asked if he thought he has moved the needle through his outreach, Mazur replied, “A tiny bit... which is probably a lot compared to what has happened over the past thousand years. I think people are more and more realizing that things are broken.” He does think the needle has moved more in K-8 education, where there has been significant interest in new pedagogical approaches.



The brokenness that Mazur sees is not just a function of too much lecturing. He believes our assessment system also makes little sense. High-stakes tests should not be the main way that students are evaluated, he says. Tests encourage cramming, which has <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/research-news/12118/#:~:text=But%20for%20long%2Dterm%20memory,out%20study%20is%20what%20works.&amp;text=Cognitive%20scientists%20say%20this%20spacing,and%20years%20longer%20than%20cramming.">proven to be a terrible way to build long-term knowledge</a>.&nbsp;



And teachers — who generally devise the tests — are essentially evaluating their own work. As a teacher, Mazur says, “you know what you’ve presented in the class. Therefore, you know what students can answer, so they can pass the test. And most of them pass it by just rote memorization, or rote procedural problem solving... The type of skills that are tested under those circumstances have absolutely nothing to do with the skills that you need as a journalist, as a physicist, as a doctor, as a politician. It has no connection at all. It’s just like a hazing ritual almost.”



For a while, Mazur hoped the pandemic might upend education, but those hopes proved to be fleeting. “What I had underestimated,” he says, “is how badly people wanted to get back into the classroom to do what they did before.”



Still, Mazur believes that change is imminent. The rise of generative AI means that students now have extraordinarily powerful ways to do their homework instantly, to answer super tough physics questions — for example — without really understanding them.



This new technology may necessitate a radical thinking of what teaching is. It can’t simply be a search for right answers, because those are so easily accessible. Instead, homework and classwork will have to center on process, understanding, and analysis.



Artificial intelligence, Mazur argues, “is going to affect the jobs of our graduates in a way that is enormous.” He sees “anything that has to do with large-scale pattern recognition” being affected, from radiology to finance. “And therefore if we don’t adapt, we may become less relevant.”



He hopes the advent of AI will “force people to rethink the goal of higher education. And rethink not just content, which is the only thing that we’ve worried about so far, but also pedagogy and approach and assessment. How do we prepare people for an unknown future?”

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