Volume 43, Issue 3

In 1999, the American College Health Association (ACHA) adopted a position statement for the Association that addresses acts of violence, bias, and other violations of human rights that have been occurring all too often within or adjacent to college communities. The purpose of this ACHA White Paper is to confront this serious college health issue through analyzing campus violence patterns, types of violence, methodological problems with collecting campus crime data, underlying issues related to campus violence, and promising practices to prevent and address campus violence.

Over the past 5 years there has been increased attention given to mental health issues on college and university campuses across the country. However, few research efforts have been conducted to systematically investigate the mental health of college students. The College Student Mental Health Survey was undertaken as a first step towards gaining a better understanding of the broad range of mental health issues that face the college student population. This exploratory study describes the mental health history and current distress and coping of 939 college students from a large Midwestern public university, with an approximate enrollment of 40,000 students. Implications for research, policy, and practice are discussed.

College students are sleeping less during the week than reported a few years ago. Lack of sleep among college students has been identified as one of the top three healthrelated impediments to academic performance by the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment survey; and it is associated with lower grades, incompletion of courses, as well as negative moods. This research examines the underlying dynamics of lack of sleep on academic motivation, a key predictor of academic performance. Specifically, the relationship of sleep habits with self-efficacy, performance versus mastery goal orientation, persistence, and tendency to procrastinate were investigated. Findings indicate that 42% of the participants (159 students out of a total of 377) experience excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS); and those identified with EDS tend: (1) to be motivated by performance goals rather than mastery goals; (2) to engage in procrastination (a self-handicapping strategy) to a greater extent than students who are rested; and (3) to have decreased self-efficacy, as compared to students not reporting EDS. Several recommendations for campus health professionals to consider for a Healthy Campus Initiative are made based on the findings.

The Health Connection is a program designed by Student Affairs staff and faculty to provide undergraduate women with the knowledge and tools to lead healthy and productive lives. The Health Connection promotes a culture that encourages and supports biological, psychological, social, and spiritual health. The goals of the program are achieved through education, experience, and research. The educational component is comprised of health and wellness courses, lectures, and conferences. Experiences include weight training, aerobics, swimming, yoga, meditation, and a competitive program focusing on the development of healthy behaviors. Research includes a comprehensive longitudinal study of students’ health beliefs and practices. The Health Connection has transformed the culture on this college campus and has changed the health practices of the campus community.

The proliferation of students with psychiatric disabilities and the severity of the issues they present pose significant challenges to campus personnel and specifically to student affairs staff. This study identified the specific types of critical incidents related to students with psychiatric disorders that senior student affairs officers found particularly problematic. In addition, the study examined the implications of these incidents on policy, resources, training, and communication. Our findings suggest that specific institutional issues and the complexity of these incidents are exacerbated, in part, by the limitations of current policies, a lack of appropriate campus and community resources, privacy issues, and relationships with and expectations of parents. We explore the implications of these findings on practice and policy development.

The University of Kansas Medical Center did a comprehensive review of the services provided in the Student Health Center (SHC). Using purpose-driven assessment techniques, areas needing improvement were identified. The results of the survey were presented to students and, with student support, student health fees were increased to fund desired changes in the SHC.

The freshmen transition is a crucial time when students make health choices in their physical activities, eating behaviors, and stress management skills. A consortium of student affairs staff created and implemented an introduction to the wellness program through freshmen orientation classes. The program included a health behaviors assessment, educational resources, and interventions for individual lifestyle change process. This article presents baseline health behaviors of the first-semester freshmen and the statistical results of the changes that occurred with students receiving the interventions. Implications are discussed that provide a template for how to implement and sustain this type of program.

Collegiate student athletes are faced with the same developmental challenges and stressors as their nonathlete peers, but they are also expected to deal with the challenges of athletic involvement (e.g., time demands, physical demands, travel schedules). Such additional demands may put athletes at greater risk for experiencing physical and psychological health problems. The current article was written for student affairs administrators as an overview of the current knowledge about several healthrelated issues commonly faced by collegiate student athletes (i.e., training and overtraining, alcohol, drug use and drug testing, depression and suicidality, dysfunctional eating behaviors, injury, and hazing), and to provide assistance to these administrators for making decisions about the best practices for dealing with such issues.

Among the numerous approaches that are employed to prevent sexual violence, the performance of scenarios has become one of the ‘promising practices’ in U.S. postsecondary education. This article describes findings from a pilot study to analyze scripts used for theatre-based sexual violence prevention programs. Employing the method of discourse analysis, this study analyzed five sexual violence prevention scripts from three postsecondary institutions to identify the predominant discourses taken up to depict men and women in theatre-based sexual violence prevention programs. Analysis revealed dominant discourses of masculinity and femininity shaping images of men as heroes and abusers and women as vulnerable and victims. The article concludes with recommendations for student affairs practice.

First-year men (261) saw a rape prevention program and were asked to give their reactions to what they saw by answering four open-ended questions, requesting information about whether participants experience either attitude or behavior change resulting from the program, particularly in relation to situations involving alcohol and sexually intimate encounters. Some participants reported no effects on their attitudes or behavior. However, substantial numbers of participants reported an increased willingness to intervene as bystanders if they see a situation that might turn into a rape. Others reported that they would be more careful in their own intimate encounters. The potential for later behavior change was indicated by at least 60% of program participants.