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.


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“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

Rooted in New York City and distinguished by a global network of campuses across 15 other cities, New York University is a composite of the world itself. Its president, Linda G. Mills, is charged with leading this cosmopolitan learning community at a time when many of the world’s problems are reverberating on campus. A therapist by training who is also a lawyer, filmmaker, social scientist, and restorative justice champion, Mills draws from her own diverse background to center wellbeing amidst unrelenting change and uncertainty.  



Before becoming the school’s first woman and first Jewish president, Mills spent many years at NYU, building a mental health infrastructure that has become a national model. In this interview for LearningWell, she is joined by VP of Student Health, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Zoe Ragouzeos, to talk about why that is only one aspect of a larger strategy to make individual and collective wellbeing a part of every student’s experience. In the current climate, that means helping those who come to NYU with mostly homogeneous past experiences thrive in a pluralist society.



LW:&nbsp;How is the uncertainty in the political world today, including on college campuses, affecting the wellbeing of your community?



Mills:&nbsp;When I think about the rapid changes happening at the federal level and their impact on our students, I’m constantly thinking about both the individuals and the community as a whole. What I’m seeing is an undercurrent of anxiety—students feeling deeply unsettled by the sheer velocity of change, regardless of their political perspective.



For those already vulnerable from a mental health standpoint, this uncertainty only amplifies their struggles. But even those who are generally resilient are feeling weighed down, less steady, and often simply confused. And that leads to deeper questions: “How do I process this? Is this something I should bring to therapy?” For some, becoming engaged in a community to advocate for change is an outlet. But if those actions don’t bring a sense of emotional relief, what then? How do they manage that lingering distress?



This moment in time creates a real tension between meeting personal emotional needs and navigating the external events unfolding around us. Finding balance between the two is a challenge we all must confront.



LW:&nbsp;What do you most worry about in terms of how this is affecting people?



Mills: I worry about all of it. In times of intense change, people often struggle to find their footing. That uncertainty can cause them to neglect their own wellbeing—whether it’s their mental health, their academic work, or even just basic daily routines. Reading and concentration become difficult. Decisions feel overwhelming. And stress can lead to choices that may have lasting consequences.



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"In times of intense change, people often struggle to find their footing. That uncertainty can cause them to neglect their own wellbeing."
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What I worry about most is students making impulsive decisions—choices that could derail their long-term goals—simply because they feel like they’re being swept up in a tidal wave of external events. What they often need most in these moments is to pause, reflect, and take a step back before reacting. But in times of stress, that’s not always easy to do.



LW:&nbsp;Hearing you talk, I am reminded that, among all of your many distinctions, you are a licensed clinical social worker. How has this influenced how you approach your presidency?



Mills:&nbsp;I think it has been really central.&nbsp;I feel like I need to be aware of the therapeutic and resilience elements of our students' lives. My background in clinical social work means I don’t just see the importance of seeking support, whether that’s through therapy, group counseling, or student organizations. I think deeply about students’ inner lives and what this particular moment in history means for them.



I also recognize that my position is unique. I don’t know many university presidents who are trained therapists. That experience gives me a different lens. I approach my role with an acute awareness of the mental health challenges our students, faculty, and staff are facing. It informs how I communicate, how I think, and how we develop programs that support not just the community as a whole but the individuals who need specific interventions.



So, in many ways, I am always thinking in two directions: What does our student body need collectively, and what does each student need individually? And that approach fundamentally shapes the way we build our mental health and wellbeing initiatives here.



LW:&nbsp;You recently hosted a national convening of university presidents on student mental health and wellbeing. What were some of the common concerns and challenges you and your peers discussed?



Mills:&nbsp;Zoe and I have been working on these issues for nearly 20 years. We started with a focus on direct services, ensuring that students who needed one-on-one counseling could access it quickly and effectively. That remains a core priority.



But over time, a larger challenge has come into focus: Not everyone will seek out traditional mental health services. Some students avoid therapy for religious, cultural, or familial reasons. Others struggle with the stigma attached to mental health care. So, our work has expanded beyond simply serving the most vulnerable students. It’s about creating a culture of wellbeing that reaches everyone.



The question we’re asking now is: How do we support mental health in a way that meets students where they are? How do we tailor programs that resonate with different backgrounds and lived experiences? That was the heart of our discussion at the convening—exploring innovative approaches that make mental health support accessible and relevant to all students, not just those who walk into a counseling center. And I was truly inspired by the creative solutions my peers are already testing.



LW:&nbsp;What are some of the challenges to that shift in focus?



Mills:&nbsp;One of the biggest challenges is that college is an incredibly demanding time with competing priorities pulling students in different directions. They have academic goals, study abroad opportunities, research projects, career aspirations—all of which require time and energy. So how do we integrate wellbeing into their daily lives in a way that doesn’t feel like yet another obligation?



That’s where I think Zoe has done this brilliantly, weaving mental health and resilience into every part of the student experience. If college is meant to prepare students for life, then wellbeing has to be a fundamental part of that preparation.



Some students arrive with strong wellbeing skills. They’ve been working on this for years. But others come to us with no foundation in self-care or emotional resilience—sometimes even with deeply ingrained stigma around mental health. For them, we’re starting from scratch, or even from a deficit.



So where should this integration happen? In student affairs? In study abroad programs? In the classroom? Faculty are often surprised when we suggest that mental health belongs in academic spaces, but the reality is it’s already showing up there. When a student asks for an extension on an assignment or when they can’t finish a course due to a&nbsp;personal issue, those are mental health concerns manifesting in academic life. Universities need to recognize this and build systems that support students holistically.



LW:&nbsp;Zoe, from your perspective, how do you see this shift in thinking taking shape?&nbsp;&nbsp;



Ragouzeos:&nbsp;Linda often spoke about “the student in the back of the calculus class”—the person who never raises their hand, who may never step forward to seek help. She instilled in us the importance of not just serving those who come to our counseling services but actively reaching those who won’t. And that philosophy, in many ways, is the foundation of the public health model we embrace today.



So, the real question becomes: How do we reach that student?&nbsp; Because this work isn’t just about clinical services, though those are critically important. It’s about every touchpoint a student has within our institution. Whether it’s an interaction with a faculty member, a peer, the physical environment, or student services, what messages are they receiving? What are we doing to strengthen their ability to cope?



At its core, resilience is the challenge we must address. While this model was initially built to support our most vulnerable students, we now recognize that every student benefits from stronger coping and resilience skills, regardless of where they start. In fact, we see it as our responsibility. By the time a student leaves here, they should not only have gained academic knowledge and the ability to think critically but also a greater capacity to navigate life’s challenges. That’s part of our mission.



With that in mind, how do we, as an institution, ensure that every student—not just those who seek support—leaves us more resilient than when they arrived?



LW:&nbsp;What’s the most effective thing a university president can do to address mental health on campus?



Mills:&nbsp;Modeling and reinforcing.



I often say that to be an effective therapist, you have to have gone to therapy yourself. The same is true for leadership around mental health. We need to model the idea that seeking support isn’t a weakness. It’s a fundamental part of a productive, healthy life.



That means speaking about it openly, normalizing conversations around mental health, and ensuring that our institutional policies reflect those values. We have to create a culture where prioritizing wellbeing is not just accepted but expected.



LW:&nbsp;What are your thoughts on the current state of higher education? What kind of change do you think is needed, especially in light of public skepticism?



Mills:&nbsp;Despite definite concerns about higher education, people still deeply believe in its value. The sheer volume of applications to NYU—over 120,000 this year—tells us that. Higher education remains the single most important factor in setting individuals and families up for success.



But beyond academic and professional preparation, universities also have a broader responsibility. We need to cultivate critical thinking, civic engagement, and the ability to navigate diverse perspectives.



One of the most urgent gaps I see is in bridge-building. Many students arrive on campus from homogenous communities, whether in the U.S. or abroad, and are suddenly immersed in one of the most diverse environments they’ve ever encountered. That transition can be jarring, especially in today’s polarized world.



Social media and cancel culture have made it even harder to engage across differences. We need to teach students the skills to have difficult conversations, to coexist with people who think differently, and to build meaningful connections across divides.



Interestingly, our research shows that students who study abroad improve their ability to navigate cultural differences. So how do we bring that kind of growth into all aspects of university life? Just as we integrate mental health and resilience from day one, we need to be just as intentional about fostering cross-cultural understanding and communication.



LW:&nbsp;Zoe, do you have any thoughts on that?



Ragouzeos: Resilience isn’t just about personal coping. It’s also about how we engage with the world around us. When we truly listen to one another and appreciate differences, we become more adaptable, more open, and, ultimately, more resilient. The ability to navigate life’s challenges is deeply connected to our capacity for understanding perspectives beyond our own.



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"Resilience isn’t just about personal coping. It’s also about how we engage with the world around us." 
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This is one of the reasons why study abroad experiences can be so transformative. When students immerse themselves in a different culture, they naturally give themselves permission to accept differences in a way they might not at home. As visitors, they recognize that they are stepping into a world with different customs, perspectives, and ways of life, so they adjust. They observe, and they grow.



Yet, back home, that openness often fades. In familiar environments, people tend to default to expecting things to function as they always have within the norms of their own communities. This can create resistance to difference, rather than a willingness to embrace it.



So the question becomes: How do we cultivate that same openness and adaptability within our own communities? How do we encourage students to bring that study abroad mindset—one of curiosity, acceptance, and resilience—into their daily lives, even in places that feel familiar?



LW:&nbsp;Do you ever get asked about your own mental health? This is a tough time to be a college president, but I’m guessing there’s no support group for that.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mills:&nbsp;As a therapist by training, I think about my own mental health constantly. I believe that if I didn’t, I’d be failing my community. We all have to prioritize our wellbeing, especially in leadership roles where the pressures are relentless.



These are incredibly challenging times, and I have to be at my best to lead effectively. Some days are tougher than others, especially when events hit close to home, like my personal experiences with antisemitism. But those moments also deepen my understanding of resilience, making me a better advocate for our students. At the end of the day, I’m not just leading this community. I’m living these challenges alongside them.

Leading with Wellbeing at NYU

For more than a decade, colleges and universities have been relying on the Healthy Minds Study to help them understand the mental health of their students and those at other schools throughout the country. Indeed, this annual indicator and benchmark has become the bellwether for the state of college student mental health, capturing the dramatic increase in the prevalence of mental health issues among college students beginning around 2014.   



But as important as this survey data continues to be, the Healthy Minds Network’s principal investigators, Drs. Sarah Lipson and Daniel Eisenberg, stress that surveillance is only the start of a larger public health approach to helping every student on campus thrive. This mindset has led to strong partnerships with institutions and non-profits working to understand how mental health data can be interpreted and applied, particularly when it comes to policy changes and institutional investments.  



The latest example of this research-to-practice approach is a new report by the Healthy Minds Network, UNCF (United Negro College Fund), and the Steve Fund on the mental health and wellbeing of students at Historically Black Colleges and Univeristities (HBCUs) and Predominently Black Institutions (PBIs). Released earlier this month, the report, <a href="https://uncficb.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/UNCF_MentalHealthReport_Flourishing_FINAL.pdf">“Flourishing: Bolstering the Mental Health of Students at HBCUs and PBIs,”</a> ties Black students at HBCUs to better mental health outcomes than both Black students at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) and a national sample of students of all races.&nbsp;



Akilah Patterson, the study’s project manager and a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said she was unsurprised by the results. Citing the strong sense of community HBCUs foster as a reason for students’ apparent wellbeing, she said, “nothing can really replace that.”



The concept and funding for the study came from UNCF, a major advocate and donor to HBCUs and their students. It partnered with the Healthy Minds Network to lead data collection and assessment, while the Steve Fund, a nonprofit promoting mental health among young people of color, contributed expertise.



Between spring and fall 2023, more than 2,500 students from 18 different HBCUs responded to a tailored version of the Healthy Minds Study. They answered questions from the standard Healthy Minds Study, along with a “Black College Mental Health Module,” added to provide insight into the Black college student experience.



The results suggest relatively better wellbeing among HBCU students across a number of scales. HBCU students report to be flourishing more (45% compared to 38% of Black students at PWIs and 36% of students nationally) and experiencing more campus belonging (83% compared to 72% of Black students at PWIs and 73% of students nationally).



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The results suggest relatively better wellbeing among HBCU students across a number of scales.
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While loneliness&nbsp;is&nbsp;endemic among students everywhere, significantly fewer students at HBCUs (56%) are experiencing “high loneliness” than Black students at PWIs (58%). Students at HBCUs are also less likely to keep negative feelings to themselves (74%) than Black students at PWIs (86%) or students nationally (83%).



Patterson said the wellbeing of HBCU students is an understudied area. “It's not that it hasn't been studied at all,” she explained, “but it hadn't been studied in this way, on such a large scale, and also using some of the measures we chose to use.”&nbsp;



In addition to&nbsp;insight&nbsp;into&nbsp;how HBCU students are already thriving,&nbsp;Patterson’s study suggests&nbsp;their institutions have room to improve&nbsp;support. Financial anxiety, for example, is the most reported stress factor among students at HBCUs. Twenty-three percent of HBCU students, compared to 18% of students nationally, say their financial situation is “always stressful”—an indicator correlated with greater risk of having one or more mental health problems.



Students’ financial struggles can be difficult for their institutions to tackle, Patterson said. But she hopes&nbsp;research&nbsp;like hers, and other&nbsp;projects&nbsp;going forward, encourage the kind of investment in HBCUs that, in turn, provides relief for the students. Empirically, she added, she believes the research “speaks for itself.”&nbsp;



“We’ve been doing the work. HBCUs have been very committed for decades to the success and excellence of their students, and that's not going to change.”



The Flourishing Factor



The spirit of this latest report from the Health Minds Network reflects an evolution of sorts for the data leader, along with many of its peers in the mental health research community.&nbsp;Their stronger focus on “flourishing” allows for greater examination of the many determinants that comprise mental health, such as financial wellbeing.&nbsp;



In its 2023-2024 report, the Healthy Minds Network made headlines with news of slight improvements in student mental health, which had been trending negatively for several years.&nbsp;Lipson was particularly inspired by the 6% increase in student&nbsp;flourishing for&nbsp;several&nbsp;reasons, including the fact it is an outcome&nbsp;colleges mayhave some level of control over.&nbsp;



“The web of causation for flourishing is much wider and often within an institution’s control,” she said. “When we think about what goes into flourishing—a sense of belonging, decreases in isolation, maximizing our built environment—there are levers here that institutions can pull, maybe not all of them, but more so than depression or anxiety.”



Flourishing has many definitions but is most often associated with healthy growth&nbsp;in a variety of&nbsp;domains.&nbsp;So anyone can flourish, with or without a mental health diagnosis. Additionally, while anxiety and depression are still alarmingly prevalent, not all students will experience either. From a public health perspective, flourishing is an outcome that is relevant to the entire population.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Lipson&nbsp;said&nbsp;what is important about this measure, and indeed all of this research, is&nbsp;it&nbsp;helps administrators understand where to spend time and money based on what the evidence&nbsp;suggests&nbsp;is the best investment. To this end, the Healthy Minds Network has launched the creation of a&nbsp;<a href="https://healthymindsnetwork.org/best-practices-repository/">best practices repository</a>. While still a work in progress, the repository will provide that advice for a number of campus interventions.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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What is important about this research is it helps administrators understand where to spend time and money based on what the evidence suggests is the best investment.&nbsp;
</blockquote>



“What we should be investing in from a population, public health approach is a really difficult question given what little data currently exists,” Lipson said. “With the data repository, you can go to a publicly available resource and consider, ‘What are my options? What does the evidence look like? What schools have implemented this successfully, and who could I talk to there?’”

Purposeful Information  

Around 2021, administrators at the University of Utah discovered an unsettling pattern while reviewing student data: In an effort to satisfy requirements and pass some mandatory courses, some students had needed to retake a class five, ten times, or more. In one example, administrators found that a student had spent over $50,000 taking a single math course. These repeated attempts went unflagged because academic advising and course tracking systems were siloed instead of fully integrated across departments. In effect, when it came to the university body, one hand didn’t know what the other was doing—and neither one was reaching out to the student struggling with the path toward graduation.



The revelation brought into focus the number of students struggling with key courses without sufficient support or intervention. But more broadly, it illuminated a systemic disconnect: a lack of coordination between advising, academic support, and course scheduling, which was likely contributing to Utah’s unsatisfactory retention and graduation rates. The path towards a solution was paved with integrated technology and data transparency.



“University policy hadn't been updated in over 30 years and was kind of adrift, just stacking additional credits on top of requirements. No one had made the case about how that impacts degree completion, how that impacts debt, and tying those things together in a really simple, clear way,” says Chase Hagood, vice provost for student success, who was hired in 2021 to be part of the new initiative’s leadership. “But not everyone was behind the open sharing of data. What does it take for a whole university to come together to say, ‘We believe in the exceptional educational experience. What is it going to take to get us there?’ We joined the Innovation Alliance, and the Coalition for Transformational Education, and getting in those peer groups helped elevate the work we do.”&nbsp;



University leaders recognized the need for a more integrated, proactive approach, beginning with more democratized data. Within two years—and the addition of a new president and provost—this recognition had become forged into a commitment, leveraging EAB’s Navigate360 as the CRM platform to connect the campus. This became the tech muscle behind Navigate U, a 2024 university-wide initiative aimed at improving metrics of student success, including retention and graduation rates. Utah is banking on software and data analysis to follow individual student performance, flag potential issues, and introduce&nbsp;&nbsp;interventions—and on the horizon, even track behavior trends.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Eight Pillars and Key Features



University leadership recognized that existing approaches had "topped out" their effectiveness at steering 32,700 students toward their graduation goals. A new comprehensive strategy was needed, one that put the data capabilities to work under pillars of priorities, each with key features of innovation. The pillars of Navigate U were designed to bring together student support services, streamline policies, and integrate data systems to provide real-time insights into student progress through a structured, coordinated, more supportive approach.



“This whole Navigate U method is about looking at the institution and figuring out how we can prepare as clear a pathway as possible to help the student through here in four to six years,” says&nbsp;Brandon Johnson, senior associate dean of student success and transformative experiences. “By asking those questions, we stop blaming the students. We stop blaming high school for lack of preparedness. If we admit a student into the university, we should do everything possible to make sure that they are as successful as they want to be.”



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"If we admit a student into the university, we should do everything possible to make sure that they are as successful as they want to be."
</blockquote>



One key feature of Navigate U is its proactive advising system.&nbsp;Previously, students often had difficulty knowing where to go for guidance, as advising structures varied across colleges. Some students had clear academic roadmaps, while others struggled with course selection and degree planning. Navigate U introduced a centralized approach, ensuring that all students are assigned an advisor with clear, standardized expectations for advising practices. Advisors now have access to real-time student data, allowing them to identify students at risk of falling behind and intervene earlier.&nbsp;



Another feature is the data integration and early alert system.&nbsp;In the past, crucial information about students—such as course performance, attendance patterns, and engagement with support services—was scattered across different departments. Navigate U centralizes this data through the EAB Navigate platform, enabling faculty and advisors to monitor student progress more effectively. This system can flag students who may need extra support, whether due to failing grades, repeated course withdrawals, or financial concerns. It connects students to resources like tutoring, coaching, and peer mentoring programs. It also promotes student engagement, recognizing that a strong sense of belonging is critical for success. First-year transition programs, on-campus housing opportunities, and community-building efforts have been expanded to support this goal.



Course availability has also been a major focus of Navigate U. Many students faced delays in graduation because required courses were either full or not offered frequently enough. The initiative introduced a strategic course scheduling system, using data to predict demand and ensure essential classes are available when students need them. Additionally, the university implemented new guidelines for course enrollment thresholds to spur the scheduling of courses based on historical data and anticipated demand, and identify courses with high demand to consider opening additional sections.



“One of the things with no institutional policy was monitoring thresholds,” says Hagood. “You might be running a class with six students over here, but in another college—or even within the same college—maybe a department head says,&nbsp;‘No, you have to have at least 15.’&nbsp;We had no across-the-board guidelines to help deans make the best use of resources and kind of press them to think about it. It wasn’t good for faculty, and it wasn’t good for students.”



The pillars also target academic wellness, engagement, transitions, and financial structures.



Goals and Metrics&nbsp;



Graduation rates are a particular area targeted for improvement. At present, the six-year rate is around 66% (a previous peak of 70% declined during the COVID-19 pandemic). By addressing obstacles such as course bottlenecks and repetition, outdated policies, and inconsistent advising, the initiative aims to see 80% of students completing their degrees in six years&nbsp;by 2030.&nbsp;



In tandem with this is the goal to increase the rate of retention. Currently, about 85% of first-year students return for their second year. With enhanced advising, course availability, and academic support, the university aims to raise this to 90% or higher, aligning with top public research institutions.&nbsp;



The goals extend beyond graduation. With an improved focus on career readiness and job placement, Utah seeks to ensure that 90% or more of graduates secure employment or enroll in graduate school within six months of completing their degree. This effort includes strengthening connections between academic programs and career services, expanding internship opportunities, and incorporating career development into students’ academic experiences.



In tracking these key metrics and continuously refining its strategies, Navigate U&nbsp;intends&nbsp;to create a more efficient, supportive, and results-driven approach to student success. And with a new kind of tracking under development, the school hopes to gain a clearer picture of each student’s academic journey in order to provide targeted assistance before small setbacks become major obstacles.



The enhanced tracking aims to put more points of data into profiles to build a more comprehensive picture of the student life cycle: where they’re going, and where they’re not.&nbsp;



“The next phase is working out how we incorporate swipe data from student affairs and event attendance, and then we can start to see this really interesting profile of the student. Are they using the library? Did they go to a coaching appointment? Did they meet with their advisor? Do they attend sporting events?” says Johnson. “If we start to see some gaps, we can launch some outreach to a student because we’re seeing them not only&nbsp;notengaged in some of these academic support resources, but they’re not engaging in campus life and wellness and belonging-fostering activities and events.”&nbsp;



If a student had been missing class, for example, administrators could use their swipe history in the residence halls, dining halls, and gyms to get a picture of where they’re spending their time. And if they see the student is spending a lot of time swiping into the Student Union, they can send a coach, advisor, or mentor to informally reach out to them there.&nbsp;



“The more we know about our students and how best to support them, the better it is for the student,” says Johnson. “I would love a day when we can create a spider web profile like you see on some of those career and personality assessments with different indicators and quadrants. You can see if it’s low or heavy in one area, then we can act on the areas that need to be filled in.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Johnson believes one of the greatest behind-the-scenes benefits of the Navigate U work might be the introspective thinking it encourages in faculty and administrators. It’s hard to look at a longstanding practice with fresh eyes if it isn’t considered broken. But that, he says, is where the work happens.&nbsp;



“With some honest conversation, sometimes we come to see that something probably isn’t in the best interest of students after all. Instead of asking,&nbsp;‘Why are we doing this?’—because there’s usually some answer for why—we try asking,&nbsp;‘Do we really need to keep doing this? Is it something that’s benefitting us or the students?’” says Johnson. “Those questions are happening more often. And I think we’re fixing a lot of things.”

Navigate U

Like today's future workforce, Dr. Michelle R. Weise is bound to hold numerous roles in her already accomplished career. The former college professor turned ed tech executive worked at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation before becoming the chief innovation officer of Strada Education Network's Institute for the Future of Work.



Weise is also the author of&nbsp;Long Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs That Don't Even Exist Yet. In it, she argues for reimagining how we train learners and earners for the prolonged careers that come with longevity, though not necessarily in ways one might think. In this interview for LearningWell, Weise talks about what little structure exists for us to gain the knowledge we will continuously need. She advocates for changes within post-secondary education and the workforce that will help align one's inner and outer lives and lead us to recognize our shared humanity in an increasingly isolated world.



LW:&nbsp;Your book suggests there are numerous jobs we might have in our lives. What has your own work life been like in that regard?



Weise:&nbsp;When I look back, I can see the stepping stones, but I didn't really plan any of this out. It was a lot of pivoting, learning new skills, and then taking that newly acquired knowledge and launching to the next thing. My first job was as a tenure-track English professor. That was supposed to be my job for life, but I realized early on that it didn't feel like the right calling for me. My first job outside of academia was for an ed tech startup that was helping service members transition out of the military into civilian careers. We were creating tools and services to help them translate their skills into the language of the labor market. Even though I didn't know it back then, that focus on learners' translation of their own skill sets has been a resonant theme throughout all of my work.



I ended up building out the higher education practice of Clayton Christensen's think tank on disruptive innovation. That was, as you can imagine, incredibly formative for my thinking, research, and exposure to every burgeoning innovation in ed tech and workforce tech. I've since built out various innovation labs for universities and have also worked with a wide range of stakeholders in the learn-and-work ecosystem and even created the Strada Institute for the Future of Work for Strada Education Network. All of these innovation and thought leadership roles have been focused on connecting post-secondary education more closely to the workforce.



LW:&nbsp;Could you define "long life learning" and what you think the implications of that are for the workforce?



Weise:&nbsp;Our lifespans are extending, and our work lives are getting longer. People are staying in the workforce at historically high rates, well into their sixties and seventies. There's been this conception that folks who are currently retiring only had a couple of jobs or maybe one job throughout their careers—the "gold watch generation"—but the data shows that's not true. Even our early baby boomers are retiring with an average of 12 job changes under their belts. So for the rest of us, we can expect many more job changes and pivots to come. For younger generations, that may mean maybe 20 or 30 job changes over a lifetime. For me, the simple mental model of a longer life and longer work life brings into sharp relief that we have no architecture, no infrastructure, no systems really set up to help us keep up with a rapidly evolving future of work.



So, the book is really my attempt to put the decades-old concept of lifelong learning into action by laying out how we can begin to invest in the on- and off-ramps we'll all need to move more seamlessly in and out of learning and work. How might we get just what we need and then keep moving along on the workforce highway without always having to make a tradeoff and forgo our wages in order to advance our education? What are the ways in which we can do this much more fluidly and in the flow of work?



LW:&nbsp;How can we begin to solve for that from both a preparation lens and a workforce lens?



Weise:&nbsp;I'll start from a curricular perspective. In an ideal world, we'd like to hire talented people whom we could trust in highly ambiguous circumstances. We'd like to trust that they'd take in various kinds of information, signals, and analyses, make sense of all that, and then use good ethical judgment to inform their decision-making process. It's a mix of both human and technical skills. We need people to be able to dance across disciplines, take ideas from another domain and use them in new ways. But it's very hard to train someone to do this unless we teach them how to really deal with ambiguity.



In order to do that, we can't keep teaching in silos. In our industrial learning complex, we silo everything we teach. We don't illuminate the ways in which disciplines interact and overlap. For me, the future of teaching and learning will center on purpose learning—orienting learners around solving a problem they care about like poverty, hunger, or climate change, and in the process of struggling with that larger challenge, they learn why certain principles and disciplinary knowledge are necessary. They also learn how to transfer and apply knowledge from one domain to another.



The refrain in higher ed is that we teach people how to fish, but we don't actually do this well. We teach people very specific content and problems&nbsp;within&nbsp;a discipline. We don't help our learners understand the coherence across a vast array of courses as a body of understanding.



At the same time, in order for our learners to thrive in an increasingly uncertain future, especially now in an age of AI, they're going to need to hone their human skills to complement the work of machines. The term "human skills" might make us think, "Oh, I'm human, I have these innate skills." Yes, but they require deep practice. And for older adults in the workforce, where do they go to practice skills like emotional intelligence, communication, and systems thinking? The lack of these human skills make themselves known in the workplace when there's friction, when there's an inability to build strong and collaborative teams. We also need to be thinking about how we build the right kinds of learning experiences for working learners to actually deepen their human expertise and their character skills.



LW:&nbsp;What role does the workplace play?



Weise:&nbsp;If you think about a T-shaped learner, it's having both those human broad-based skills and some technical or technological expertise. And if we return to the concept of a longer work life, we're not only going to have to deepen our human skills over time. We're also going to have to gain different kinds of expertise over time and get skilled up. Sometimes we're going to need that new knowledge in a very shallow way—just enough to be dangerous. Other times, it will require deeper engagement. We need to do this in an affordable way, within the flow of work.



In my book, I lay out five principles needed for a healthier learning ecosystem, and the fourth is this idea of integrated earning and learning. Right now, when someone's in the workplace and wants to skill up, we say, "Here's some tuition reimbursement money. Go do it on your own time on top of this full-time job or multiple part-time jobs and on top of your caregiving activities. Be self-disciplined." But we need to bring the onus for training back onto employers. It's not just on post-secondary education to solve this problem.



In 1979, we used to offer workers something like two and a half weeks worth of training for new skills. According to Peter Capelli, by 1995, that went down to less than 10 hours per year. But those 10 hours weren't even about building new skills for the future. It was for things like compliance training, risk mitigation, sexual harassment training, or discrimination training. When I was writing the book, Accenture had data that around 44% of employers had zero upskilling opportunities for their existing workforce. We have to begin to reimagine on-the-job training. Skilling people up has to be a shared responsibility about building skills for the future.



LW:&nbsp;You use the phrase "living a life worth working." How would you interpret that?



Weise:&nbsp;My work has been oriented around issues like career navigation, skills gaps, skills building, precision education, and automation and AI's impact on our careers. And at a certain point, I realized that something was missing. I call it "the soul of work," but it's this question of how do we align our inner lives with what it is that we do when we're making some sort of contribution in the world? This incredibly human element has been missing from all the trending discussions about the future of work.



One of the things that has been helpful for me as I've been studying the loneliness epidemic more is this understanding of the ways in which we're clearly searching for something more. I found this interesting data that in the US alone, the consumer wellness market has reached $480 billion a year. Globally, it's close to $1.8 trillion. People are paying for detox cleanses, intermittent fasting, and even bone broths. We're clearly in search of something, and this is happening along with the deterioration of our communities, family structures, and faith-based organizations. In the wake of all that, we're feeling like something is missing. There's some hole or aching need we need to fill.



And so when I talk about a 'life worth working,' it's not that we all have to suddenly drop what we're doing and pursue our passions. It's about how we actually find moments of real authentic encounters, even in what can sometimes feel like mundane work or even in some things that are not necessarily compensated as paid work. How do we find the small moments of encounter that give us that feeling of purpose and meaning in our lives?



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
"When I talk about a 'life worth working,' it's not that we all have to suddenly drop what we're doing and pursue our passions. It's about how we actually find moments of real authentic encounters, even in what can sometimes feel like mundane work."
</blockquote>



And that is really tough because studies are showing that we're becoming more narcissistic and less empathetic. We are becoming so cloistered in ourselves that even small interactions are hard for us.&nbsp;



I was thinking about how there have been all these return-to-work mandates recently, and I think in the minds of management, they're thinking, "My people aren't being as productive as they should be, so I need to bring them back in-person, so I can watch them and make sure they'll be efficient and productive." Those water-cooler moments and those serendipitous moments of connecting are being hailed as a way to get to greater productivity and deeper collaboration. But what I think we're missing is that we need those moments of serendipity to actually build more of those small and authentic encounters because we have become so consumed with ourselves.



LW:&nbsp;Is this something we can teach or learn?



Weise:&nbsp;How to move towards this kind of service orientation and thinking about others rather than ourselves? I think it's really hard. Our entire system is set up to build super individual high achievers, and then suddenly learners graduate from college, and we expect them to be great team players. I've always been impressed by how [Olin College] grads go through 20 to 30 different team-based projects connected to the real world by the time they leave. Why aren't more schools doing this? It's a way for us to help learners deepen their human skills and practice teaming and collaboration. In addition, by focusing on larger problems, learners must engage in design thinking. And the first step is empathy to understand the challenge they're trying to solve for a company or an organization. They get to immerse themselves in acts of caring that are pointed away from themselves.



LW:&nbsp;You talk about human skills being an important part of mastering machines versus the other way around. What are your thoughts on the use of AI in higher education?



Wiese:&nbsp;People are getting really fearful about the use of AI, but instead of thinking about how it can replace humans, we should be leveraging this technology to fix a super unsexy problem: stitching together incredible amounts of data across our higher ed and workforce systems. We have so much data in various silos and legacy systems, and we don't know how to tap into it all. GenAI gives us a way forward.



Think about how retail companies have built virtuous loops of information about us as consumers. Amazon's doing randomized control trials on us every few seconds. In higher ed, we need to get smarter about our own people, our own prospective learners, to be able to offer them something that really taps into a pain point in their work lives.



This is where I see real potential for AI in higher education.

"Living a Life Worth Working"

Sometimes There’s a Wolf

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.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
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;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
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;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
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.
</blockquote>



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;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
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.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
“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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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;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">
"From him, I learned that you don’t need to be gifted to do great things.”
</blockquote>



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

“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;



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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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Keep Learning Well

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A Way Forward

Power Play

Teaching & Learning

Walter Mondale and me

“The Real World of College,” Continued

The Lecture’s Long Goodbye

Access & Inclusion

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Seeing the Unseen

Flourishing

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A Way Forward

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