Home      Login

Abstract: 

Is “in loco parentis” back in favor on college campuses? For decades, university administrations retreated from establishing or enforcing normative behavior for students—single-sex dormitories, curfews, and beverage bans were abandoned at most schools as administrations focused their mission on academic and career goals. Gradually, though, students and parents began to seek and expect support from schools in areas not directly related to academic study, such as crisis and emotional counseling. In this article, Laura Greeney, adjunct assistant professor of English at Fordham, examines the many ways in which faculty, for better or for worse, are now asked to become more involved with students’ personal issues and to teach in a more interpersonally connected way. Among the programs that seek to provide non-academic support are counseling and psychological services, guidance navigating interpersonal situations, suicide prevention programming, comprehensive orientation programs for new students, and an overall “cura personalis” (care of the whole person) approach, based on a belief that students ought to go out into the world not just with academic knowledge and preparation for a profession, but also with a calling to make the world a better place.

Keywords: Senior Seminar; depression; anxiety; coping with pressure and stress; sexual harassment; bystander intervention; making responsible decisions; academic advising (i.e., in course selection) and intellectual mentoring

Affiliations:  1: Managing Editor of CSSD.