As part of an ongoing series of short essays on the Teaching & Learning Community Blog, two new pieces are ready to satisfy your core curriculum curiosity. Steve Mayer, chemistry, writes about the many ways chemistry classes contribute to the broader goals of a liberal arts education (while also fulfilling those pesky science requirements), and Heather Carpenter, environmental studies, writes about ways in which classes such as “Science of the Sustainable Gourmet” do the same.
If you have any questions about the series or want to make a contribution, feel free to contact Andrew Guest, psychological sciences, or Lars Larsen, English.
Are you a faculty member or other academic staff interested in improving your knowledge around student mental health to facilitate working with the diverse range of students in your classes and departments? A group of faculty and academic staff has been developing the UP Academic Network for Mental Health, which will begin work in the spring semester. Its goal is to provide an additional layer of resources and knowledge for faculty and academic staff who are concerned about student mental health.
This week on the Teaching & Learning Community Blog, meet two new proposed blog projects for the coming academic year: “Core Matters” and “Mentally Healthy.”
How much of the stress students (and faculty and staff) feel during finals is rational? How much might it help our collective mental health to identify the points where our stress is irrational? 
When dealing with stressed out students at challenging points in the semester, have you ever wondered if UP students are any different in their psychological concerns than students at other universities? This week’s mental health blog post on 
In this week’s Teaching and Learning Collaborative “TLC from the TLC” story, psychology professor Andrew Guest posits: “Anyone paying attention to higher education in recent years is well aware of two pressing issues on regular repeat: changing perceptions of student mental health needs, and the need to better attend to diversity and inclusion. But how might those two issues intersect? How might an equity lens inform the way academics, and academic institutions, think about student mental health?” For thoughts on these questions drawing on a recent national framework for “Equity in Mental Health” see the latest installment in the mental health series for the 
As faculty and students return for the winter months of our “Spring” semester, the Teaching and Learning Collaborative hopes some might find it useful to get a primer (or, more optimistically, a reminder) about mental health services for students on campus. See 
As another entry in the ongoing Teaching and Learning Collaborative blog series on 
In this week’s installment by the Teaching and Learning Collaborative, Andre Guest asks: Do student-athletes have particular mental health concerns that faculty and academic staff should be aware of? The short answer is yes and no. The slightly longer answer is offered in a brief two part series on the UP Teaching & Learning Community blog: 
How would you respond to a student who told you during an office hours visit that they were feeling suicidal? What would you do if you noticed major changes in a student’s demeanor in class, but they didn’t seem inclined to talk to you, even when prompted? UP faculty want to have the knowledge and skills to navigate these troubling waters and also understand their own limits. The Teaching and Learning Collaborative invites you to a brown bag session on Wednesday, November 15, 11:25-12:20 p.m., in Buckley Center room 215. Facilitators Andrew Guest, psychological sciences, and Eliot Altschul, Health & Counseling Center, will walk participants through vignettes such as these, illuminate how support services on campus for mental wellness have expanded in the past year, and field questions related to faculty members’ roles in student mental health. We hope this type of brown bag conversation will recur, so suggestions for future sessions will be solicited.