Daily Briefing

Welcome to Wednesday, September 7. Today’s Briefing was written by Kate Hidalgo Bellows, with contributions from Julia Piper. Write to us: kate.hidalgobellows@chronicle.com.

The 10-foot-tall asterisk on affirmative action’s big win.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases challenging the University of Michigan’s race-conscious admissions policies. The court sided with the plaintiff in Gratz v. Bollinger, striking down Michigan’s use of an admissions system that gave extra points to minority applicants. But the same day, the court ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that colleges could continue considering applicants’ race and ethnicity as a factor. That decision laid the legal groundwork for almost two decades of race-conscious admissions policies.

This decision came with a “10-foot-tall asterisk,” writes our Eric Hoover in a retrospective on the case. Soon, opponents of affirmative action in Michigan cut away at the flagship’s victory with a successful ballot initiative that banned the use of racial preferences throughout the state.

Now, as the Supreme Court prepares to hear two cases challenging race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the case holds new significance: “Grutter matters because it poses a fundamental question about fairness, asking us which kind of society we want to live in,” Eric writes, “one that clings to the ideal of colorblindness at all costs, or one that recognizes the ongoing struggle of integration?”

Read more here.

Quick hits.

• The water crisis in Jackson, Miss., is frustrating local college students, many of whom must go without air conditioning or showers. (Clarion Ledger)
• A judge has thrown out the case of a former Yale University psychiatrist who said she was fired over tweets assessing former President Trump’s mental state. (Insider)
• Seven people were shot early Sunday morning at a party near Old Dominion University. Two of those shot died, including a Norfolk State University student. (Washington Post)
• Missouri’s attorney general is using the state’s open-records law to request email communications from two professors at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism and the Columbia Missourian, a local newspaper affiliated with the school. (Columbia Missourian)
• Officials at Indiana University at Bloomington have placed its Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity on cease-and-desist status for alcohol violations and “endangering others.” (WXIN)
• A new PBS documentary interrogates the culture of hazing on college campuses, and how some students will put themselves in danger to fit in. Hazing, directed by Byron Hurt, premieres September 12. (PBS)
  

Mental health and the new academic year.

Join The Chronicle today, September 7, at 2 p.m. ET for a panel discussion about college students’ mental health. I’ll be interviewing college mental-health practitioners and administrators about how they’re supporting students as their campuses return to pre-pandemic norms. We’ll also be talking about the future of tele-mental health and the difficulties colleges face in retaining counseling-center staff.

This panel is sponsored by TimelyMD. Register here.

Comings and goings.

• Kelly Sparks, associate vice president for finance and strategic planning at Oregon State University-Cascades, has been named vice president for finance and administration and chief business officer at the University of Maine at Orono and the University of Maine system.
• Mary Jo Callan, executive director of the Swearer Center for Public Service at Brown University, has also been named vice president for community engagement.
• Brian M. Oakes, interim vice president for advancement at Loyola University Maryland, has been named to the post permanently.

Footnote.

Congratulations to the winner of our Footnote Contest, Julie Parker! Julie is a writer and media-relations manager at Wellesley College. Read Julie’s Footnote below.

“The Chronicle newsletter’s love of animals is well documented, but did you know pets can also be good for screen habits? Researchers at the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College and the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University recently completed a study on how pet companionship affects adolescents’ well-being — including when it comes to screen time.

“‘Parents observed that pets would often be a reason for their children to choose to spend time off of screens (e.g., exercising outdoors) or be a source of bonding on social media (e.g., TikTok videos),’ said Linda Charmaraman, the senior research scientist who co-authored the study. ‘Pets were also used for emotional comfort during remote-learning classes and when experiencing distressing content online.’

“We love the fact that pets and their zoomies can help teens with their Zooms. (Let’s be honest, they help us adults, too.) You can read the full study here.”

Correction: Friday’s newsletter misstated the number of first-year students at the University of Portland who withdrew their deposits. The university lost 240 students, not nearly 300 of them.