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Four students from Auburn University were likely drugged by a ride-share driver who offered them drinks on campus last Friday, The Miami Herald reported.
University officials released a statement Wednesday saying that the students used a local ride-share bus to take them from campus to an off-campus event. One of the students told campus security that she and three other young women became ill after consuming the mixed drinks, experiencing vomiting, numbness, confusion and memory loss.
“Giving someone a drug without their permission is considered aggravated assault and is a felony,” the university statement said. “This type of crime can occur anywhere. Watch your drink be opened or open it yourself, always keep it with you, and avoid common, open containers.”
Safety officials have not yet released the name of the ride-share service or the driver.
Four students from Auburn University were likely drugged by a ride-share driver who offered them drinks on campus last Friday, The Miami Herald reported.
University officials released a statement Wednesday saying that the students used a local ride-share bus to take them from campus to an off-campus event. One of the students told campus security that she and three other young women became ill after consuming the mixed drinks, experiencing vomiting, numbness, confusion and memory loss.
“Giving someone a drug without their permission is considered aggravated assault and is a felony,” the university statement said. “This type of crime can occur anywhere. Watch your drink be opened or open it yourself, always keep it with you, and avoid common, open containers.”
Safety officials have not yet released the name of the ride-share service or the driver.
As students at the University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Business prepare to embark on their careers, a new program is teaching them to tell their stories and personal experiences—a communication skill that will be important during their initial job searches and beyond. Story Lab was created by the Tippie Leadership Collaborative, housed in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, a resource hub for organizations seeking management expertise. The semester-long program involves a workshop, peer coaching and a networking event featuring participants’ stories.
The need: Nick Westergaard, a lecturer of management and entrepreneurship and program lead, says storytelling helps business leaders more effectively make their case to employees or investors by creating an emotional connection. The Story Lab idea sparked when he had a conversation with Stephen Courtright, director of the leadership collaborative, about ways for students to have a “foundational building block” to leadership. “Students and leaders … need to stand up and ultimately tell their story. [That] is how the idea of Story Lab was born,” he says.
“Storytelling is a big part of how I teach communication, in terms of the science of storytelling and its ability to persuade and move people,” Westergaard shares. And it’s a good fit for the University of Iowa over all, since communication “is really baked into our approach across colleges, from the Writers’ Workshop, sciences, health care and business,” he adds.
Plus, research has shown that people are more likely to remember statistics and facts if they’re presented within a story.
Storytelling was one of the original communication strategies used by mankind, and the role of storytelling in leadership has been connected to leadership effectiveness, according to a study published in a 2018 issue of the Journal of Leadership Education.
Lab work: The lab, launched with funding from the collaborative’s executive education program, starts with a daylong storytelling kickoff workshop where the instructors help students develop quick story and leadership skills through immersive activities. Participants learn the basics of storytelling, receive feedback from a member of the institution’s management faculty and get guidance from peer mentors as they develop their ideas. How to Tell a Story, published by The Moth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, serves as the course textbook.
A showcase at the MERGE innovation hub in downtown Iowa City, with members of the local business community and the general public invited, is being planned for the end of the semester. Working with the theme “Future Tense,” each student will share a short story about a time when everything seemed mapped out and share about turning points, taking a path less traveled or starting over again in moving toward or away from a goal.
What the future holds: In business, leaders often try to mobilize people to work toward a common goal, Courtright says. “It’s really important for leaders to gain the credibility of those that they’re leading. Storytelling about oneself is a way for people to gain credibility.”
Courtright launched the Tippie collaborative in 2020 to provide customized training to managers and employers. He says storytelling come up frequently when speaking with organizations about what skills business leaders need. “We had the funding for it, we had the capability for it. And it’s a real strategic advantage for the students,” Courtright says.
Chicago-based Leadership Story Lab is one place people already established in their careers can connect with to build the tools to tell stories, which can set anyone apart as a persuasive leader. The firm promotes the ability to “stand out in the interview process, add punch to presentations, making compelling cases for new initiatives and build your team.” Online business storytelling coaching is also offered.
Storyteller experiences: “One thing that I’m hearing in terms of reactions from students is the experience of having a new network and cohort of people they now have a deeper connection with because they’ve each told their stories,” Courtright explains.
Drew Jouron, a junior studying management, is one of the 15 students initially enrolled in the program. He says the course reminds him of all the experiences he can speak on and how to do so in an engaging way, so that people understand him better, both in business and in his personal life. Jouron believes this course will allow him to become a relatable business leader.
“I’m an individualist, at least before this experience, in terms of just knowing what I can do,” says Jouron. “But other people don’t always understand that, so you have to teach them about yourself, and that’s a part of storytelling.”
Tell us about a new initiative at your institution that promotes success in their academic life, in the campus experience, related to health and wellness, or to prepare for life after college.
As students at the University of Iowa’s Tippie School of Business prepare to embark on their careers, a new program is teaching them to tell their stories and personal experiences—a communication skill that will be important during their initial job searches and beyond. Story Lab was created by the Tippie Leadership Collaborative, housed in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship, a resource hub for organizations seeking management expertise. The semester-long program involves a workshop, peer coaching and a networking event featuring participants’ stories.
The need: Nick Westergaard, a lecturer of management and entrepreneurship and program lead, says storytelling helps business leaders more effectively make their case to employees or investors by creating an emotional connection. The Story Lab idea sparked when he had a conversation with Stephen Courtright, director of the leadership collaborative, about ways for students to have a “foundational building block” to leadership. “Students and leaders … need to stand up and ultimately tell their story. [That] is how the idea of Story Lab was born,” he says.
“Storytelling is a big part of how I teach communication, in terms of the science of storytelling and its ability to persuade and move people,” Westergaard shares. And it’s a good fit for the University of Iowa over all, since communication “is really baked into our approach across colleges, from the Writers’ Workshop, sciences, health care and business,” he adds.
Plus, research has shown that people are more likely to remember statistics and facts if they’re presented within a story.
Storytelling was one of the original communication strategies used by mankind, and the role of storytelling in leadership has been connected to leadership effectiveness, according to a study published in a 2018 issue of the Journal of Leadership Education.
Lab work: The lab, launched with funding from the collaborative’s executive education program, starts with a daylong storytelling kickoff workshop where the instructors help students develop quick story and leadership skills through immersive activities. Participants learn the basics of storytelling, receive feedback from a member of the institution’s management faculty and get guidance from peer mentors as they develop their ideas. How to Tell a Story, published by The Moth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, serves as the course textbook.
A showcase at the MERGE innovation hub in downtown Iowa City, with members of the local business community and the general public invited, is being planned for the end of the semester. Working with the theme “Future Tense,” each student will share a short story about a time when everything seemed mapped out and share about turning points, taking a path less traveled or starting over again in moving toward or away from a goal.
What the future holds: In business, leaders often try to mobilize people to work toward a common goal, Courtright says. “It’s really important for leaders to gain the credibility of those that they’re leading. Storytelling about oneself is a way for people to gain credibility.”
Courtright launched the Tippie collaborative in 2020 to provide customized training to managers and employers. He says storytelling come up frequently when speaking with organizations about what skills business leaders need. “We had the funding for it, we had the capability for it. And it’s a real strategic advantage for the students,” Courtright says.
Chicago-based Leadership Story Lab is one place people already established in their careers can connect with to build the tools to tell stories, which can set anyone apart as a persuasive leader. The firm promotes the ability to “stand out in the interview process, add punch to presentations, making compelling cases for new initiatives and build your team.” Online business storytelling coaching is also offered.
Storyteller experiences: “One thing that I’m hearing in terms of reactions from students is the experience of having a new network and cohort of people they now have a deeper connection with because they’ve each told their stories,” Courtright explains.
Drew Jouron, a junior studying management, is one of the 15 students initially enrolled in the program. He says the course reminds him of all the experiences he can speak on and how to do so in an engaging way, so that people understand him better, both in business and in his personal life. Jouron believes this course will allow him to become a relatable business leader.
“I’m an individualist, at least before this experience, in terms of just knowing what I can do,” says Jouron. “But other people don’t always understand that, so you have to teach them about yourself, and that’s a part of storytelling.”
Tell us about a new initiative at your institution that promotes success in their academic life, in the campus experience, related to health and wellness, or to prepare for life after college.
D’Angelo Taylor had a hard time imagining a career in higher education. Growing up in a tough neighborhood on the south side of Richmond, Va., he assumed his career options were limited.
No one in his family had gone to college, much less earned an advanced degree. But Taylor, raised by a grandmother who encouraged him to dream big and to follow the educational path that would make those dreams come true, ended up doing both. He now has a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of New England that he earned after getting a bachelor’s degree in political science and government and a master’s degree from Western Illinois University.
“Hopefully this gives someone, whether in my family, or the neighborhood where I grew up, or someone I’ve impacted in my educational career, the opportunity to say, ‘If D’Angelo can do it, so can I,’” he said.
Taylor will now be relying on his professional and lived experiences to inform how he approaches his work as vice president of hope, unity and belonging at Belmont University, a Christian institution in Nashville, Tenn.
He will start in the newly created role on May 1, and it will be housed in Belmont’s Office of Hope, Unity and Belonging (HUB), which opened last September.
“One of the things that my grandmother always taught me was that whether it be educationally or economically, we can overcome any adversity,” he said. “Her pushing me is why I ended up where I am today.”
That lesson remained with him throughout his college years and as he went about building his professional career. When he learned of the opening for the new position at Belmont, the use of the word “hope” in the job title stood out to him.
“So as I’m reading this title, ‘Hope, Unity and Belonging,’ I think about how it all weaves together and how we unite around that hope that things can be better than what they are,” he said.
While Taylor will be working to help the students feel comfortable on campus, he also wants the HUB to provide programming that goes beyond holding cultural events for Hispanic Heritage Month or Black History Month, for instance.
“I want everyone to feel as if their lived experience is represented, no matter how you identify, no matter what your faith is, no matter where you come from. I want to try to capture that within the HUB,” he said.
Taylor is currently vice president of student affairs at Central State University, the only public historically Black college or university in Ohio. He was previously associate director of the multicultural center at the University of Southern Indiana, where he built partnerships across the institution and with numerous local community programs.
Taylor says he doesn’t anticipate a difficult transition going from an HBCU to a predominantly white institution, or PWI, because he has worked at both types of colleges. He’s excited about what he can accomplish at Belmont.
“I think that this new role will not be boxed in but allows for someone like me, who is a creative individual, to actually go ahead and start expanding even what the job description says,” he said.
Living in both rural and urban environments has allowed Taylor to witness the adversities experienced by different groups of people and helped him better understand his students’ backgrounds and how to help them individually.
“Growing up, I only thought that poor, urban cities existed and it was just poor people that were in my space,” Taylor said. “But when I started working in west central Illinois, I saw that poor folks existed in rural spaces and there was economic inequality there as well.”
When Belmont administrators were developing the job description for the new position, L. Gregory Jones, the university’s president, wanted someone who would bring a certain set of skills to the institution, which had 7,384 undergraduates attending in 2022. One of Jones’s first priorities when he arrived at Belmont in 2021 was for campus stakeholders to look deeper at the university’s identity as an institution and come up with ideas that reflected its values and mission.
“I thought a Christ-centered university ought to go deeper than other universities do and try to address questions of diversity, equity and inclusion, and belonging,” he said.
Jones believed Taylor was the perfect candidate for the position and that his leadership skills and his background mentoring and working with students from diverse backgrounds would draw people to him. Jones said he looked for applicants who were “great listeners,” not just great talkers, during the interview process.
Taylor had also served as the director of the Collegiate Men of Distinction Mentoring Program, which is designed to foster the growth, development, retention and graduation of Black male students. Taylor created a curriculum to enhance retention and graduation rates among Black men and did his doctoral dissertation on the efficacy and limits of the program. He is a 2021 recipient of the Evansville Rotary Club’s 20 Under 40 Award, which is given to individuals who have shown leadership in serving their communities, and the 2021 Social Change Award at the University of Southern Indiana.
Taylor’s work at Belmont’s HUB will be dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging initiatives. He and his team will be responsible for managing Title IX compliance and sexual misconduct prevention and all nondiscrimination and equity work. He will oversee the office and its staff members, including the director of institutional equity and Title IX coordinator and a new equity compliance specialist.
“When you talk about the work of diversity, equity and inclusion, I think that we start from the premise that everyone … deserves to have a place where they belong,” Taylor said.
It was with those goals in mind that Belmont administrators, faculty and staff members, and students got together in the first half of 2022 to map out the vision for the institution’s values, mission and goals by 2030. They created five pathways for helping students become whole persons by developing character, wisdom and “a transformational mind-set”; embracing hope and inclusivity to reweave the social fabric, “which is frayed, tattered and torn”; engaging in storytelling that inspires others and “connects us to one another”; implementing an integrative approach to health and wellness; and embracing the call “to love thy neighbor” in theory and in practice by pursuing data-informed social innovation.
“Cultivating hope and inclusive excellence to help reweave the social fabric is an integral feature, and it’s connected to the other pathways and this role,” Jones said of Taylor’s mandate.
Other initiatives at Belmont include a recent collaboration with Fisk University, a historically Black liberal arts college in Nashville, to promote social justice through “exposure to civil rights and social justice movements across Middle Tennessee.”
“It will bring students from a historically Black school to connect to students at a historically predominantly white school together to focus on education, learning and impact in the Nashville community and beyond,” Jones said. “Those sorts of networks and relationships are an integral part of what we’re trying to do over all as a university.”
Taylor said he believes diversity, equity and inclusion are centered around having hope. He said that whether it’s with personal, professional or financial goals, people need hope to ensure they’re moving forward.
Jones also described “hope” as not only about being optimistic, but, in a deeper sense, it is to acknowledge “the brokenness of the past, the complexity of the present and to be inspired to work towards inclusive excellence and change in the future.”
A new study found that early-morning classes are associated with “lower attendance, shorter sleep, and poorer academic achievement” among college students.
The study, published Monday in Nature Human Behavior, analyzed university students’ digital traces. Wi-Fi connection logs of 23,391 students revealed that class attendance was about 10 percentage points lower for classes at 8 a.m. compared with later start times, according to the study.
The study also analyzed the grades of 33,818 students and the number of days per week that a student had morning classes and found that morning classes negatively correlated with their grade point average.
“Growing evidence indicates that early class start times can be detrimental for students’ sleep and daytime functioning,” the study says.
A similar study published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that every additional hour of average nightly sleep early in the semester is associated with an 0.07-point increase in end-of-term grade point average.
A new study found that early-morning classes are associated with “lower attendance, shorter sleep, and poorer academic achievement” among college students.
The study, published Monday in Nature Human Behavior, analyzed university students’ digital traces. Wi-Fi connection logs of 23,391 students revealed that class attendance was about 10 percentage points lower for classes at 8 a.m. compared with later start times, according to the study.
The study also analyzed the grades of 33,818 students and the number of days per week that a student had morning classes and found that morning classes negatively correlated with their grade point average.
“Growing evidence indicates that early class start times can be detrimental for students’ sleep and daytime functioning,” the study says.
A similar study published last week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that every additional hour of average nightly sleep early in the semester is associated with an 0.07-point increase in end-of-term grade point average.
For years, Indigenous students at Syracuse University have been urging administrators to increase campus supports for them, including in the counseling center. Now, in addition to pet therapy, meditation and roommate mediation, Syracuse students can seek treatment from Diane Schenandoah, a faith keeper of the Oneida Nation who uses traditional practices—including hands-on energy work and ceremonial rituals—to bring about healing.
“It’s hard for Indigenous students to talk to someone who isn’t Indigenous regarding our mental health or about our culture because they wouldn’t understand where we come from and the energy we give off,” said Tehosterihens Wes Deer, a Syracuse senior who is studying communications and rhetorical studies.
Syracuse’s Indigenous students, who number about 350, first presented a list of concerns and proposed solutions to the administration in 2019, focused mostly on boosting their presence and comfort on campus. Among other things, they requested that the university hire “a minimum of two Indigenous/Native mental health counselors.” But the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily put any discussions on hold.
Chancellor Kent Syverud agreed to address the students’ list of concerns in October 2020; Schenandoah joined the counseling staff at the Barnes Center at The Arch in the summer of 2021, along with Susanne Rios, an Indigenous therapist.
Known as Honwadiyenawa’sek, or “one who helps them,” Schenandoah brings a new approach to the institution’s wellness offerings by incorporating Indigenous teachings and techniques. The position aims to provide a safe space where Indigenous students can cope with stress and trauma, she said, as well as connect to their spirituality. It is also designed to encourage the broader campus community to learn about Indigenous culture.
“Hiring Diane is just one piece of a larger plan to the commitment that the university made years ago in having a strong connection with the Indigenous community,” said Allen Groves, senior vice president and chief student experience officer at Syracuse.
The university sits on the ancestral lands of the Onondaga Nation, which lie in the middle of Haudenosaunee territory and are also known as the Central Fire. Haudenosaunee means “the people of the longhouse”; the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is located primarily in New York and consists of six Native American nations: the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscarora.
Schenandoah was raised in the Oneida Nation. She earned multiple associate degrees from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe in 1985, then spent several decades as a sculptor, using her art to portray her culture. She eventually returned to school at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in three-dimensional art in 2011. Ten years later, her daughter and son-in-law discovered the university was looking for a Native healer and encouraged her to apply.
Now she’s delighted to be back on campus.
“It’s wonderful working with the young people here at Syracuse, and it’s helped quite a few of them define their centers for balance as we’re trying to understand our roles as human beings,” she said.
Most of Schenandoah’s spiritual guidance incorporates various forms of energy work, drawing on nature and spirits to heal others. She first learned about such forces as a child; her family would gather around anyone experiencing pain and place their hands around them to provide healing energy.
She uses a similar approach with students, as well as other Indigenous practices, including acupressure with tuning forks, art therapy, dream interpretations and sage and smudging.
“I’m not saying I have all the answers,” she said. “But there are so many young people that are searching for that inner peace and where do they find it in this present day after the turmoil that’s going on in the world.”
Deer said many Indigenous students on campus prefer Schenandoah’s services over those of other counselors.
“There’s that connection where she’s Indigenous, she understands the struggles we’ve been through and she understands the stress,” he said. “She can really connect with us and help calm us down when we feel like everything is crumbling.”
The increase in mental health challenges among college students has been well documented. According to one recent study, American Indian/Alaskan Native students have experienced the largest increases in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and meeting criteria for one or more mental health problems. Nationally, more than 19 percent of the American Indian/Alaskan Native population reported struggling with mental illness in the past year.
In addition to hiring Indigenous therapists, Syracuse University has taken other steps to make Indigenous students feel welcome. It offers a living-learning community, where 20 Indigenous students live on the same floor of a residence hall together. They liaise with faculty and staff through designated programs and events, including Indigenous ceremonies. The university has also established the Haudenosaunee Promise scholarship, which provides financial aid to qualifying students who are a part of the six nations.
Still, students say more needs to be done. For instance, the Native studies program building is meant to serve as a “home away from home” for Native students, according to the program’s website. But many Indigenous students say the building is used for other purposes, and that it’s really only the first floor that’s designated as their space.
“It’s just crazy, because if you’re advertising that this building is the Native student program, essentially where the Native students would go, how can you fit hundreds of Indigenous students in only three rooms?” Deer said.
Groves said the university plans to expand the Native studies program to the second floor in the spring semester and then the third floor soon after.
“So essentially when we’re done, the vast majority of that space will be dedicated to our Indigenous students,” he said.
Groves noted that Syracuse is actually going above and beyond the commitments it made in 2019.
“We are also being attuned to what the new developments are and what new opportunities we can create,” he said.
By hiring an Indigenous healer, Syracuse is not only moving to strengthen its relationship with the surrounding Native populations, Schenandoah said; it’s also setting an example for other institutions of higher learning.
“I think all universities would really benefit greatly from having some of the Indigenous teachings that I’m trying to share here at Syracuse,” she said.
For years, Indigenous students at Syracuse University have been urging administrators to increase campus supports for them, including in the counseling center. Now, in addition to pet therapy, meditation and roommate mediation, Syracuse students can seek treatment from Diane Schenandoah, a faith keeper of the Oneida Nation who uses traditional practices—including hands-on energy work and ceremonial rituals—to bring about healing.
“It’s hard for Indigenous students to talk to someone who isn’t Indigenous regarding our mental health or about our culture because they wouldn’t understand where we come from and the energy we give off,” said Tehosterihens Wes Deer, a Syracuse senior who is studying communications and rhetorical studies.
Syracuse’s Indigenous students, who number about 350, first presented a list of concerns and proposed solutions to the administration in 2019, focused mostly on boosting their presence and comfort on campus. Among other things, they requested that the university hire “a minimum of two Indigenous/Native mental health counselors.” But the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily put any discussions on hold.
Chancellor Kent Syverud agreed to address the students’ list of concerns in October 2020; Schenandoah joined the counseling staff at the Barnes Center at The Arch in the summer of 2021, along with Susanne Rios, an Indigenous therapist.
Known as Honwadiyenawa’sek, or “one who helps them,” Schenandoah brings a new approach to the institution’s wellness offerings by incorporating Indigenous teachings and techniques. The position aims to provide a safe space where Indigenous students can cope with stress and trauma, she said, as well as connect to their spirituality. It is also designed to encourage the broader campus community to learn about Indigenous culture.
“Hiring Diane is just one piece of a larger plan to the commitment that the university made years ago in having a strong connection with the Indigenous community,” said Allen Groves, senior vice president and chief student experience officer at Syracuse.
The university sits on the ancestral lands of the Onondaga Nation, which lie in the middle of Haudenosaunee territory and are also known as the Central Fire. Haudenosaunee means “the people of the longhouse”; the Haudenosaunee Confederacy is located primarily in New York and consists of six Native American nations: the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas and Tuscarora.
Schenandoah was raised in the Oneida Nation. She earned multiple associate degrees from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe in 1985, then spent several decades as a sculptor, using her art to portray her culture. She eventually returned to school at Syracuse University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in three-dimensional art in 2011. Ten years later, her daughter and son-in-law discovered the university was looking for a Native healer and encouraged her to apply.
Now she’s delighted to be back on campus.
“It’s wonderful working with the young people here at Syracuse, and it’s helped quite a few of them define their centers for balance as we’re trying to understand our roles as human beings,” she said.
Most of Schenandoah’s spiritual guidance incorporates various forms of energy work, drawing on nature and spirits to heal others. She first learned about such forces as a child; her family would gather around anyone experiencing pain and place their hands around them to provide healing energy.
She uses a similar approach with students, as well as other Indigenous practices, including acupressure with tuning forks, art therapy, dream interpretations and sage and smudging.
“I’m not saying I have all the answers,” she said. “But there are so many young people that are searching for that inner peace and where do they find it in this present day after the turmoil that’s going on in the world.”
Deer said many Indigenous students on campus prefer Schenandoah’s services over those of other counselors.
“There’s that connection where she’s Indigenous, she understands the struggles we’ve been through and she understands the stress,” he said. “She can really connect with us and help calm us down when we feel like everything is crumbling.”
The increase in mental health challenges among college students has been well documented. According to one recent study, American Indian/Alaskan Native students have experienced the largest increases in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation and meeting criteria for one or more mental health problems. Nationally, more than 19 percent of the American Indian/Alaskan Native population reported struggling with mental illness in the past year.
In addition to hiring Indigenous therapists, Syracuse University has taken other steps to make Indigenous students feel welcome. It offers a living-learning community, where 20 Indigenous students live on the same floor of a residence hall together. They liaise with faculty and staff through designated programs and events, including Indigenous ceremonies. The university has also established the Haudenosaunee Promise scholarship, which provides financial aid to qualifying students who are a part of the six nations.
Still, students say more needs to be done. For instance, the Native studies program building is meant to serve as a “home away from home” for Native students, according to the program’s website. But many Indigenous students say the building is used for other purposes, and that it’s really only the first floor that’s designated as their space.
“It’s just crazy, because if you’re advertising that this building is the Native student program, essentially where the Native students would go, how can you fit hundreds of Indigenous students in only three rooms?” Deer said.
Groves said the university plans to expand the Native studies program to the second floor in the spring semester and then the third floor soon after.
“So essentially when we’re done, the vast majority of that space will be dedicated to our Indigenous students,” he said.
Groves noted that Syracuse is actually going above and beyond the commitments it made in 2019.
“We are also being attuned to what the new developments are and what new opportunities we can create,” he said.
By hiring an Indigenous healer, Syracuse is not only moving to strengthen its relationship with the surrounding Native populations, Schenandoah said; it’s also setting an example for other institutions of higher learning.
“I think all universities would really benefit greatly from having some of the Indigenous teachings that I’m trying to share here at Syracuse,” she said.
When Andrea Mora enrolled at University of California, Irvine, in 2012, she was a low-income, first-generation student. She was also 25 years old and an undocumented immigrant from Peru.
She’d spent seven years as a part-time student at Los Angeles Pierce Community College after graduating from high school and struggled to earn money and find financial aid to pay for a four-year education.
“All of those intersectionalities opened my eyes to a lot of inequity in higher education,” Mora said.
She channeled her interest in these issues into student activism at the Irvine campus and became president of Dreamers at UCI, an advocacy organization for undocumented students, and an appointed member of the president’s advisory council on undocumented students, which helped her see the gaps in services the university provided to underrepresented students. And she used her visibility as a student leader to advocate for more support services for undocumented and low-income students.
“I was fortunate to be part of a coalition across the UC system that was able to advocate successfully to the president of UCI at the time for resources and funding for undocumented students,” she said.
Mora is now UC Irvine’s director of basic needs and tasked with supervising the array of services the university provides to students whose backgrounds and life stories are much like her own: students from low-income or immigrant backgrounds; first in their families to attend college; Black, Hispanic or Indigenous, or BIPOC.
Mora now has professional counterparts at all 10 campuses in the University of California system. Many higher ed institutions around the country, including the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and New York University, also have employed directors of student basic needs and implemented various other programs to address student poverty.
College administrators nationwide were already starting to tackle the issue in recent years but homed in on it after the pandemic revealed stark economic disparities among students. Some were going without enough food to eat; others were sleeping in their cars. Many lacked stable or affordable housing, while others had no internet service at home.
“For the campuses that were already focusing on basic needs, it kind of reaffirmed the reasons why we exist,” Mora said.
Mora hadn’t originally considered working on food and housing insecurity issues, but her mentors saw her passion and drive and encouraged her to do so. A month after she graduated in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in history and global culture, she was hired by her alma mater to do just that. Student affairs administrators at UC Irvine used a one-time grant to create a new position for a food access and security coordinator. She was later promoted to basic needs coordinator in 2017, which she says was an acknowledgment of the growing needs of students and an expansion and evolution of efforts to address them. It was also a way for the university to make the position permanent.
“By advocating and listening to my peers’ needs at UC Irvine on food, housing and financial insecurity, my volunteer work and passion developed in that area,” she said.
Mora became director of the basic needs center in 2019. A former supervisor advocated for that position; they had seen the need for a new center, a larger staff and a director to oversee all aspects of helping students meet their basic needs. UC Irvine was one of the earliest colleges to have such a center.
“I’m very glad I made a decision back then to say to myself, ‘I need to stick with this,’ and not explore a different route, because the first couple of years were difficult,” Mora said. “Especially at a place like UCI, where we have almost 30,000 undergraduate students and it feels like the work is never done.”
The UC system touts itself as being a leader on the basic needs issue and promotes its Basic Needs Initiative as a national model.
“The Basic Needs movement at the university has been pivotal in advancing student services, resources, research and best practices for historically underserved student populations,” the initiative’s website states.
California lawmakers signaled their support for such efforts by approving $18.5 million in the 2019–20 state budget to fund initiatives to address food and housing insecurity across the UC system. The funding, which included $15 million to target food and housing insecurity in general and $3.5 million for rapid rehousing efforts for homeless and housing-insecure students, led to creation of the basic needs centers across the UC campuses, where students can meet with social workers for help with housing needs and shop in the free food pantry. Additional services include mental wellness resources and crisis help.
“In the past seven years, I went from being a team of one, on one-year grants and with no staff, to now running a basic needs center where we have 10 professional staff, including me,” said Mora.
She added that her position is now permanently funded by the university, and the center has a $2 million annual budget. A new permanent center opened on the Irvine campus last month to replace the temporary center, which was housed in a trailer.
Garret Naiman, associate vice chancellor and dean of students at UC Santa Cruz, believes the director’s position is key to harnessing all the services available to students in need. He works closely with Kednel Jean, the university’s director of basic needs, who was hired in 2019.
“The reason I think a director is so important is that it adds visibility to this as a resource and the programs that our university can provide to students,” Naiman said. “And it also provides some leadership around multiple multitudes of issues that are connected to basic needs.”
The California Community Colleges were required by state law to establish or expand basic needs centers by February 2022 at each of the 116 institutions in the system, and to employ at least one basic needs coordinator by July 2022.
A national report released in October 2022 found that community college students, especially students of color and student parents, experience high levels of food and housing insecurity.
New York University brought on Yvonne Erazo as the new director of basic needs earlier this month. John Beckman, senior vice president for public affairs and strategic communications, said the university has programs such as its Courtesy Meals program, which provides students with emergency food assistance, and Swipe It Forward, a student-designed initiative that allows other students to donate meals from their meal plans to those in need.
“The university wanted to have one person overseeing the effort, a person who was in a position to engage students directly and help them get the support they need, but who could also step back and advise on whether there are policy decisions that should be made about food accessibility,” Beckman said.
He added that the position is not limited to food accessibility and is also responsible for a range of basic needs–related matters, including a childcare subsidy program for graduate students.
David Thompson, practitioner-researcher at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice at Temple University, said college and university administrators have paid more attention to student poverty, including food and housing insecurity, over the last five to six years and allocated more funding for students’ basic needs.
“With the pandemic, I think it became clear to a lot more institutions, and particularly a lot more folks in leadership roles, that students’ basic needs were not being met,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the Hope Center’s researchers have been monitoring and tracking the increase in positions focused on basic needs and found approximately 400 jobs at more than 250 institutions related to student basic needs. Of those, 61 have “director” or “assistant director” titles, and 16 are at the dean or assistant dean level.
“There are many resources on campus to help students with basic needs through the Dean of Students’ office, but there hasn’t been a formalized director role at Temple like we have seen in a lot of other institutions,” Thompson said.
The Hope Center also recently launched the Hope Impact Partnerships Program, which works with the institution’s administrators and other institutions using real-time data to assess students’ basic needs, campus policies and programs.
Blake Weiss, program director for basic needs at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has worked at the university since January 2020 and started as the special projects coordinator. He said the office of the dean of students prioritized basic needs support for students and created the director’s position on campus within the last two years.
“More four-year public institutions need to take note and need to continue to push for this type of work,” Weiss said. “It’s important for us to have a person in place to lead the support system that’s there.”
Mora believes that support system will always be needed.
“Having done this work for a few years now and continuing to be compassionate and be fully invested in it, I never think the work is done, and student needs are continuing to always emerge.”
When David Greene became president of Colby College in 2014, the city of Waterville, where the Maine institution is located, was struggling financially.
Waterville’s manufacturing base, which was centered around paper and textile mills, was long gone, and no other industries had replaced them over the two decades since they shut down. The city’s economy had stagnated.
Greene brought together local elected officials and civic and business leaders to discuss ways to attract investment to Waterville and spur economic development in the city’s downtown.
The discussions led a year later to a plan to revitalize the city using $200 million in private and public funds. Phase one of the revitalization plan was completed with the opening of Paul J. Schupf Art Center last month, an $18 million project developed in partnership with Waterville Creates, a nonprofit organization that promotes accessible arts and cultural programs, according to a news release from the college.
The new art center will incorporate arts programming and activities through Waterville Creates and will house the Ticonic Gallery + Studios, which offers art education classes; Studio 1902, a rehearsal space for the Waterville Opera that will also be rented out for receptions; and three cinemas operated by the nonprofit Maine Film Center.
“This is a major investment in the arts, both at the college and in the community, and I think it’s going to be a really important way for us to be able to support creative, innovative work across disciplines,” Greene said.
Shannon Haines, president and CEO of Waterville Creates, described the new center in the press release as “the embodiment of Waterville’s belief and investment in the arts as core to our community’s identity and an essential part of civic life.” She added that it “will attract artists, performers, filmmakers and patrons from near and far and, most importantly, will ensure that all members of our community have access to outstanding arts experiences for generations to come.”
Civic leaders and community members gathered last month at a gala to celebrate the opening of the new center.
“We knew we had work to do to bring our town along,” Greg Powell, chairman of the Harold Alfond Foundation, which contributed $10 million toward the Waterville revitalization plan, said at the event. “We committed to bringing this town back, and back it has come.”
Greene said it’s important for Colby to strengthen its relationship with the surrounding community because of the historical lack of social, civic and economic ties between higher ed institutions and the communities or neighborhoods in which they are located.
“The world needs colleges and universities to be deeply engaged in their communities, to be solving problems for society,” he said.
Garvan Donegan, director of planning, innovation and economic development for the Central Maine Growth Council, said the council helped direct more than $54 million in federally funded projects directly into downtown in the past two to four years, and approximately 25 to 30 new businesses have moved to the downtown area during that time frame.
“We’re fortunate now, with the institutional backbone from the college, to be able to breathe new life into the community, not be kind of stuck in that time capsule that we may see in other communities,” he said.
Students, faculty and staff say the institution’s involvement in the community has had a positive impact on the culture of the college.
“It’s really wonderful to see the kind of rejuvenation and revitalization, and I’m excited not just as a Colby faculty member but as a resident of Waterville,” said Kerill O’Neill, professor and chair of classics at Colby.
“There’s much more of a flow of students and faculty coming through Waterville,” he said. “I just think this revitalization of Waterville is going to make it so much easier for us to keep hiring the best possible people to come and work at Colby.”
He said spurring revitalization through the arts “is a massive incentive for people to actually stay and build a life with our families right there. And that can only be good for Waterville and Colby in the long run.”
According to an economic impact report generated by Colby, the college’s direct investment in downtown Waterville has already contributed to labor and wage growth in Waterville by 6 percent compared to Kennebec County, where Waterville is located, over all. The report also said the investments by the college have helped “Waterville to buck demographic trends while also directly addressing the region’s (and Maine’s) most critical problem—the attraction and retention of talented young workers,” noting that “Colby is creating a brain gain: about 15 percent of alumni—about 3,700—work in Maine, and more than 1,600 who came to Colby from out of state have remained here.”
”I think the college has done a great job of emphasizing those civic engagement opportunities and giving us students those opportunities as well,” said Cat Merkle, a senior at Colby, referring to the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, a housing complex for students, faculty and staff, which opened in fall 2018. (The Lockwood Hotel, which opened in March 2021, is also part of the revitalization plan).
“Students love the downtown apartment building—it’s a great dorm, and it’s a great way to get involved with the community,” she said.
Merkle lived at the commons during her junior year and got involved with the community by volunteering at local elementary schools and a youth center.
“It’s obviously important to acknowledge all of the great building that Colby is doing, but I think it’s more than just infrastructure,” Merkle said. “It’s more about those relationships and building trust and community between the college and the town.”
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