Having no intention of ever working in academia full-time again, I thought I’d offer a few reflections on the implications of a court finding against Bristol University announced last week, concerning a student suicide that happened there.
Some academia-specific thoughts: Here, the equivalent of the Equality Act is the ADA, which has had many wonderful outcomes, enabling folks whose lives were very limited before its enaction to participate more fully in the social, economic, and cultural life around them. The problem is that, like you, we receive a slew of letters at the beginning of every semester (easily regarding 25%-30% of the class if not more), without specifying what exactly the problem is, and providing vague guidelines for us. We are not therapists, and certainly not psychiatrists, and with increased cohorts of incoming students, bloated classrooms, and already-disjointed Zoom education, it is very difficult to flag serious problems early on. We do have trauma professionals aplenty on campus, but I worry that the incessant focus on trauma primes our students to focus on shortcomings and limitations rather than possibilities. It's worrisome and sometimes exasperating; I wish we could completely destigmatize the possibility of taking a break for a year, or a few years, to heal, and coming back later, because sometimes it's exactly what a student needs.
If universities are acting like parents in removing any growing opportunity in the path of their students, they are acting like really bad parents. Or maybe just like the kind of parents those poor kids are used to...
Reminds me of “emotional support animals” vs actual trained and essential service animals. We do want to support people, but people who are inclined to figure out a way to get something without paying full price will find a way. You bent over backwards to be fair, and yes, this is a tough case, but good points worth some serious reflections.
There's another aspect to this great analogy. With the proliferation of emotional support animals, it has become difficult to tell them apart from service animals, fostering what my colleague Doron Dorfman calls "fear of the disability con" - a mistrust of any and all companion animals, including the ones that help with legitimate needs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lasr.12437
Similarly, here, the proliferation of disability letters mean that, if we have to watch out for everybody, we're watching out for nobody. A person in very serious distress can get lost in the sea of less serious grievances, because how loudly the grievance is expressed is not necessarily an indication of its justification.
This is probably not worth saying, but what the hey? A degree you get because you were on a programme is worth nothing to an employer, and therefore nothing to your parents. If your potential employer is forbidden to learn whether you were on such a programme, their only response must be to reject all students from universities where such degrees are awarded. Your last remark makes this particularly true of good degrees. It's hard to see the financial rationale behind this approach, but your decision to leave the profession seems very sensible to me
I lectured for a couple of years and there wasn't any of this, but to be honest there was that lecturing prep course that I managed to avoid... who knows what the content was!
Off-topic, but I would love to see someone of Dr. Stock's stature look into the parallels between the recovered memory craze of the 90's and the current craze of ROGD. Both situations appear to be driven by well-meaning therapists who are just following the zeitgeist and either can't or won't rock the boat. Both appear to be based on fundamental errors about how the human brain works ("you have an invisible thing called gender identity that is fixed at birth but can change at any time", and "A charismatic and authoritative counsellor cannot implant memories by suggestion: those memories must be real"). And neither craze turned out well.
A fascinating article. I had no idea the numbers of UK students with mental health conditions was that high. In the US about 25% of students are taking antidepressants. I was at Sussex, way back in prehistoric times (1968). I remember there was a service for students with 'problems' housed in a small portakabin - that was it. Awful things happen to students, suicides and attempted suicides, but these were related to drugs of the recreational type.
What a coincidence - I just wrote this, reflecting some thoughts about a very similar experience across the pond. https://www.hadaraviram.com/2022/05/25/on-the-administration-of-tough-love/
Some academia-specific thoughts: Here, the equivalent of the Equality Act is the ADA, which has had many wonderful outcomes, enabling folks whose lives were very limited before its enaction to participate more fully in the social, economic, and cultural life around them. The problem is that, like you, we receive a slew of letters at the beginning of every semester (easily regarding 25%-30% of the class if not more), without specifying what exactly the problem is, and providing vague guidelines for us. We are not therapists, and certainly not psychiatrists, and with increased cohorts of incoming students, bloated classrooms, and already-disjointed Zoom education, it is very difficult to flag serious problems early on. We do have trauma professionals aplenty on campus, but I worry that the incessant focus on trauma primes our students to focus on shortcomings and limitations rather than possibilities. It's worrisome and sometimes exasperating; I wish we could completely destigmatize the possibility of taking a break for a year, or a few years, to heal, and coming back later, because sometimes it's exactly what a student needs.
Very interesting piece, thank you.
If universities are acting like parents in removing any growing opportunity in the path of their students, they are acting like really bad parents. Or maybe just like the kind of parents those poor kids are used to...
Reminds me of “emotional support animals” vs actual trained and essential service animals. We do want to support people, but people who are inclined to figure out a way to get something without paying full price will find a way. You bent over backwards to be fair, and yes, this is a tough case, but good points worth some serious reflections.
There's another aspect to this great analogy. With the proliferation of emotional support animals, it has become difficult to tell them apart from service animals, fostering what my colleague Doron Dorfman calls "fear of the disability con" - a mistrust of any and all companion animals, including the ones that help with legitimate needs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/lasr.12437
Similarly, here, the proliferation of disability letters mean that, if we have to watch out for everybody, we're watching out for nobody. A person in very serious distress can get lost in the sea of less serious grievances, because how loudly the grievance is expressed is not necessarily an indication of its justification.
This is probably not worth saying, but what the hey? A degree you get because you were on a programme is worth nothing to an employer, and therefore nothing to your parents. If your potential employer is forbidden to learn whether you were on such a programme, their only response must be to reject all students from universities where such degrees are awarded. Your last remark makes this particularly true of good degrees. It's hard to see the financial rationale behind this approach, but your decision to leave the profession seems very sensible to me
I lectured for a couple of years and there wasn't any of this, but to be honest there was that lecturing prep course that I managed to avoid... who knows what the content was!
Off-topic, but I would love to see someone of Dr. Stock's stature look into the parallels between the recovered memory craze of the 90's and the current craze of ROGD. Both situations appear to be driven by well-meaning therapists who are just following the zeitgeist and either can't or won't rock the boat. Both appear to be based on fundamental errors about how the human brain works ("you have an invisible thing called gender identity that is fixed at birth but can change at any time", and "A charismatic and authoritative counsellor cannot implant memories by suggestion: those memories must be real"). And neither craze turned out well.
A fascinating article. I had no idea the numbers of UK students with mental health conditions was that high. In the US about 25% of students are taking antidepressants. I was at Sussex, way back in prehistoric times (1968). I remember there was a service for students with 'problems' housed in a small portakabin - that was it. Awful things happen to students, suicides and attempted suicides, but these were related to drugs of the recreational type.