Bringing It #52: Resources to Support Student Well-Being
Dear friends,
As the semester winds down and the days shorten, we hope this finds you well and a little rested and refreshed from the Thanksgiving break. This issue of Bringing It offers a reminder, a call for conference submissions, and some important new resources about student well-being during this year of crisis.
Reminder: The Deadline for The Way Forward Grants is next week!
The Dec. 7 deadline to submit a proposal for The Way Forward Grants is fast approaching. The aim of The Way Forwards Grants is to catalyze positive educational change in response to the crises facing higher education: the COVID-19 pandemic and the precarity it has inflicted on students and institutions, the persistent harms of white supremacy, and the deepening threat of economic and educational inequality. As our Request for Proposals details, proposals must involve multiple colleges and universities (and may also involve the participation of community partners and K-12 schools). We welcome proposals from all academic sectors, including both U.S. and international institutions. We are especially excited to receive proposals from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions; from other colleges and universities with a sustained commitment to low-income students, first generation students and students of color; and from faculty, staff, and student participants whose lived experience deepens their engagement with the issues of this call.
For more information and how you can apply, visit the Request for Proposals. We look forward to receiving your proposals next week.
Call for Proposals: AAC&U 2021 Diversity, Equity, and Student Success Conference
Our friends at the Association of American Colleges and Universities will hold their annual conference on Diversity, Equity, and Student Success in a virtual format on March 24-26, 2021. The 2021 conference, “Upholding These Truths: Equity, Diversity, and Democracy,” will focus on the perceptions and the realities of equity and diversity in higher education, and what it means to educate for democracy in a constantly changing educational and social landscape. AAC&U invites proposals for strategy sessions, workshops, facilitated discussions, and posters that engage these issues. For more information about the conference, visit the website. Proposals are due December 15, 2020.
Student Well-Being In the Current Crisis: Some New Resources
It is no secret that the crises of 2020 have intensified threats to mental health and emotional well-being among students and educators. Undergraduates report high levels of stress, anxiety, and isolation, made worse by the shuttering of many campuses. Faculty realize more deeply than ever the role of safety, health, and well-being in their students’ capacity to learn and grow — and they report their own issues of anxiety and fear. For Black students and colleagues, the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others were especially harrowing, even as they responded by leading an extraordinary protest movement in the streets and on campus.
The past eight months have brought many thoughtful essays in the higher-ed press, underscoring the threats that COVID-19, precarity, and racism pose to student well-being — including many stories of humane, on-the-ground practice about the need to show grace and support, to teach with care. Here, here, and here are only a few examples.
Over the past month or so, we have noted the publication of more resources for supporting the mental health and emotional well-being of college students and other young people. Along with stories from the classroom and the Zoom screen, we have more comprehensive and curated reports to guide our support for students and ourselves. Here are four resources that we’ve found valuable, in different ways. Two come from leading national research and advocacy groups; one from a student collective at a public, urban university; and one from the pen of the president of a liberal-arts institution.
- “Adapting and Innovating to Promote Mental Health and Emotional Well-Being of Young People of Color,” a report from Crisis Response Task Force of The Steve Fund, a national research and advocacy organization dedicated to advancing the mental health and well-being of young people of color.
- “A Guide To Surviving and Thriving at CUNY,” prepared by students in collaboration with the staff and faculty of the Healthy CUNY initiative.
- “Students Need Tools to Safeguard Their Mental Health In Uncertain Times” (The Hechinger Report, November 20, 2020) by Sian Beilock, President of Barnard College.
With thanks for all that you do,
David, Todd, Kate and Lily