In an article titled “The College Student Mental Health Crisis,” Psychology Today explores how today’s population is facing more stress than that of any other point in American history.

Anxiety and depression ranked at the top of the list of mental health issues, with the website describing how those trends have increased within students over the past few years. A 2013 survey revealed approximately half of male and female college students felt immense amounts of anxiety.

Due to the importance of mental health, Student Government Association Senator Kelechi Onyeaghala, a junior studying biological sciences, explains that her goal is to create a forum near the end of this semester to “increase awareness of mental health in underrepresented minority communities.”

Senator Onyeaghala, who was elected at the beginning of the semester, became interested in the idea after talking to friends who disclosed that they felt uncomfortable discussing their mental disabilities with others, as people would not understand them.

“A lot of times, when it comes to immigrant families, for example, mental health is usually shunned upon. The same can be true with someone from a religious family.” With the upcoming forum, a space can be created where UMBC students can feel comfortable.

Onyeaghala desires to specialize in the minority factor of this dialogue, stemming from the fact that society focuses on middle-upper class Caucasian women and their mental health.

“That doesn’t leave much space for other groups—including men, as it is not seen as acceptable for them to admit their struggles for the fear of being seen as weak.”

The SGA Senator mentions that while research has shown that women are more likely to develop mental health issues, it is nevertheless crucial for men to openly join the discussion, or else the stigma of hyper-masculinity will continue. 

“I want to focus on anxiety, depression and stress, as I feel that students can identify with those things the most,” she said regarding the issues she is planning to present at the dialogue. 

Although Onyeaghala is planning on hosting the dialogue for mental health in May (which is also Mental Health Awareness Month) she is already ensuring that people will be on the panel, including professors and counselors at UMBC.

Experts will also be on the panel from an organization called The Steve Fund, which aims to improve the mental health and emotional well-being of students of color. Overall, she is piecing together a diverse panel in order to make students feel comfortable. 

The biological sciences major is ensuring that all of campus will be involved in this conversation by reaching out to other student organizations on campus to continue the dialogue even when the event ends.

Onyeaghala’s passion for raising awareness about mental health in looked-over populations is driving her to ensure that this panel will give UMBC community members a voice to speak and share about issues that they face daily. 

She hopes that, by campus organizations becoming involved in this discussion, students will be able to express what they are going through without the fear of others judging them.

Intellectual sports are regarded with high status at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and praised for their frequent success as clubs and teams. There are nine intellectual sports organizations registered with UMBC, but only one that provides the opportunity to debate ethical issues with other collegiate students on campus and around the country: the UMBC Ethics Bowl team.

Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl has existed on college campuses for decades, gaining popularity at universities with academic rigor, like UMBC. The format of Ethics Bowl competitions vary from region to region, but the organization is largely the same. Teams are given a packet of case studies four to six weeks before a competition that includes a mix of hypothetical and real cases. The team then prepares for the competition by studying the cases and the ethical implications of each one. At the competition, two teams face off against each other through a rounds alternating between answering questions from judges and responding to the other team’s answers. The team with the best performance is declared the winner of the case and moves onto another round.

The team meets weekly under the direction of Professor Greg Ealick of the philosophy department, during which time they review ethical cases and discuss the implications of the situations. Isabella Negro, Psychology B.S. ’21, leads the club as the president. Negro provided a short synopsis of the organization, stating that Ethics Bowl is a “debate-style club where we [the team] go over ethical cases and practice our public speaking skills in a supportive environment.”

The team usually attends at least one travel competition each semester. Their weekly meetings are designed to prepare for the competition by reviewing the cases they are provided, debating each one and running case presentations. As the competition date approaches, they “start scrimmaging more in the Ethics Bowl competition format,” Negro explains. The weekly meetings are important for the team as they must come to a consensus on how to handle each case before attending the competition. This also allows members of the team who do not attend the competition to take part in the decision-making and debating that goes into each case.

Negro got involved with the organization after taking a philosophy class taught by Ealick last year. She humbly states that while there are executive positions among the team, they “really try to encourage everyone to think of themselves as equal members of the team.” She also notes that in addition to the range of ages of the students in the organization, the team invites students of all majors to join, adding, “it’s actually quite helpful to have many different perspectives and personalities.” The team’s structure also allows students to attend the weekly meetings and discuss cases without being on the competition team, which requires students to audition for a position.

As Negro’s description of the team and the structure of the organization suggests, Ethics Bowl provides an opportunity for all students to participate in an intellectual sport and foster healthy debate over ethical issues, which can be relevant to all majors and careers. UMBC’s intellectual sports teams may have varying degrees of fame on campus, but the trajectory of the Ethics Bowl team makes it one organization to keep an eye on.

Complete Omics Inc., a venture-backed commercial-stage biotechnology company in located in BWTech Research Park has immediate opening for a full-time Proteomics Scientist.  

President Freeman Hrabowski, the University Steering Committee and the All-Gender Restroom Steering Committee will be collaborating to implement all-gender restrooms throughout the UMBC campus over the next few semesters. Beginning this semester, the president and the committees will work to create plans and guidelines to establish this concept, some of which include converting or renovating existing facilities and constructing new ones.

In an email to the UMBC community, President Hrabowski states that all members of the UMBC community should have access to safe restroom facilities that are more easily accessible. “Now is the time when we must put our values into action by moving forward on our commitment to making all-gender restroom facilities more widely available,” he writes.

The All-Gender Restroom Steering Committee is comprised of faculty, staff and students, some of which are members of the LGBTQ community. The ultimate goals of the All-Gender Restroom Steering committee are to focus on the dilemma of accessible restrooms inclusive to everyone and to work progressively to implement this ideal on UMBC’s campus.

According to Keith Bowman, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology, there are several reasons why some may prefer an all-gender restroom. “The traditional design of our buildings and restrooms create compromises for transgender people or people who do not identify in a binary way. But [traditional restrooms also affect] people who do not fit traditional norms of masculinity or femininity or people who have medical conditions,” he says. He also says that parents who are escorting their children of a different gender or children with a disability are impacted by traditional restrooms.

In 2018, UMBC renovated all single-use restrooms on campus into all-gender restrooms. There are 41 single-use all-gender restrooms inside academic and student life buildings and 16 single-use all-gender restrooms in residence halls. UMBC Facilities Management is working to add more single all-gender restrooms in the University Center and Retriever Learning Center in the Albin O. Kuhn library.

UMBC is one of several universities in Maryland to have gender inclusive restrooms and housing. Both Johns Hopkins University and Towson University have over two dozen gender-neutral restrooms on campus. “Our next step will be to expand the availability of all-gender restrooms by identifying opportunities to designate existing multi-user restrooms as all-gender restrooms in campus buildings that currently lack single-user all-gender restrooms,” states Hrabowski.

Any additional questions or concerns can be submitted on a document that is linked in the initial email addressed to the community. Additionally, anyone that is interested in being a part of the planning and implementation of this initiative can contact the All-Gender Restroom Steering Committee at @agrumbc.edu.