Ivy League Students Facing Mental Health Issues

The recent spate of school deaths claimed another life after a Princeton University undergraduate student, just weeks away from completing his junior year, died recently. This prompted renewed conversation about how Ivy League schools handle mental health crises on campus.

Lauren Blackburn, 23, was an English major and creative writing minor from Indiana. He was missing for several days before authorities found him deceased in a lake. Officials have not released his cause of death or said if there was any foul play involved.

Blackburn was the third Princeton undergraduate student to die in two years and the eighth since 2021. Six of those deaths were determined to be suicides, as The Princetonian first reported.

Princeton Professor Yiyun Li, who directs the university's creative writing program, lost both of her sons to suicide, one of whom, James Li, was a Princeton student when he died in 2024.

"What can parents do but give their children the space to be, and allow them to do what they need so that they can become more fully themselves?" Yiyun Li wrote in a New Yorker essay titled "The Deaths — And Lives — of Two Sons" published on 23 March.

"And yet, despite the parents’ efforts, and despite all the beings and doings that occur as the children grow, some among them die before their time. Children die, and they are not happy. And their parents can never know whether those children died because they were not happy, or whether they were not happy because they sensed, too early, that they must face their own deaths."

While mental health crises and suicides are not unique to Princeton, or Ivy League schools generally, experts say Ivy League students face distinct challenges and pressures while attending the country’s most prestigious schools. Experts also say Ivy League institutions should be dedicating more funds to mental health resources than they do currently.

"I think it comes down to the demands, and I would say almost 100% of the time, the Ivy League schools have really high rigorous demands," Ivy Ellis, certified mental health therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who regularly works with college students, told Fox News Digital.

"Whereas at other universities, the demands can be lower in terms of just how much schoolwork is asked, like how many classes they have to take, how much homework they have, how many tests they have."

Ellis added her belief that while Ivy League schools do "care" about their students, "There's limited funding and limited resources that go towards mental health."

"So almost all the universities and Ivy League schools have counseling centers in place, and I know they're excellent, excellent counselors," she said. "They work really hard. There's just such a high number of students that need that support, and the number of counselors just doesn't really meet that level of support."

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Scientists Found Microplastics In Human Ovaries

A recent report shows evidence of what scientists have feared for a long time: presence of microplastics in human ovaries.

For the first time, scientists have discovered microplastics in the follicular fluid of human ovaries, according to a new peer-reviewed study out of Italy. This fluid plays a crucial role in nourishing and developing a woman's eggs, and researchers have alarmingly found plastic particles in 14 out of 18 samples collected from patients undergoing fertility treatment.

The study, led by researcher Luigi Montano and published in Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, marks a major step forward in understanding how deep plastic pollution runs — not just in the environment but in our bodies.

Follicular fluid surrounds the egg cells in the ovaries and helps regulate hormones, nutrient delivery, and fertilization. The presence of microplastics in this fluid raises the possibility that these tiny particles are interfering with essential reproductive processes.

"This discovery should serve as an important warning signal about the invasiveness of these emerging contaminants in the female reproductive system," the study states, according to the Guardian.

Montano's broader research has already revealed microplastics in human semen and urine, and animal studies suggest the plastics may disrupt ovarian function and reduce the ability to conceive.

Microplastics — which form when larger plastics break down — are everywhere: in our food, water, air, and even in newborns. These tiny particles often carry toxic chemicals like PFAS and bisphenol, which are known hormone disruptors and have been linked to cancer, neurological disorders, and developmental delays.

Now, scientists suspect these particles could further be contributing to declining sperm counts and fertility struggles in both men and women. The research notes a "possible presence of correlation between the concentration of microplastics" and reproductive health in the women who participated in the new study.

"This stuff is increasing in our world exponentially," said toxicologist Dr. Matthew Campen in an earlier New York Times report on microplastic exposure. "And it's already inside us."

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Expanded Grounds For The Cancellation Of U.S. Student Visa

The federal government has just expanded the number of reasons international students can be stripped of their legal status in the U.S., where thousands have come under scrutiny in President Donald Trump administration's crackdown.

Attorneys for international students say the new reasons allow for quicker deportations and serve to justify many of the actions the government took this spring to cancel foreign students' permission to study in the U.S.

After abruptly losing their legal status in recent weeks with little explanation, students around the country filed challenges in federal courts. In many cases, judges made preliminary rulings that the government acted without due process.

Then the government said it would issue new guidelines for canceling a student's legal status. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document shared last 28 April in a court filing said valid reasons now include the revocation of the visas students used to enter the U.S.

In the past, if a student's visa was revoked, they generally could stay in the U.S. to finish school. They simply would not be able to reenter if they left the country.

"This just gave them carte blanche to have the State Department revoke a visa and then deport those students, even if they’ve done nothing wrong," said Brad Banias, an immigration attorney representing a student who lost his status in the crackdown. The student was once charged with a traffic offense, which appeared in a law enforcement database searched by immigration authorities.

Banias said the new guidelines vastly expand the authority of ICE beyond its previous policy, which did not count visa revocation as grounds to take away a student's permission to be in the country.

In the past month, foreign students around the U.S. have been rattled to learn their records were removed from a student database maintained by ICE. Some went into hiding for fear of deportation or abandoned their studies to return home.

The new guidance allows for revoking students' status if their names appear in a criminal or fingerprint database in a way that was not permitted in the past, said Charles Kuck, an Atlanta-based immigration attorney who has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 133 people in the U.S. on student visas who lost their legal status.

While the Department of Homeland Security was revoking students’ legal status, the State Department was canceling the visas some students used to enter the country.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he canceled some visas because of student involvement in pro-Palestinian protests, which he says hurt U.S. foreign policy interests. But he acknowledged in March that some of the cancellations were "unrelated to any protests" and were "just having to do with potential criminal activity."

"My standard: If we knew this information about them before we gave them a visa, would we have allowed them in?" Rubio told reporters in March. "If the answer is no, then we revoke the visa."

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Michigan School Backs Down From Religious Song Ruling

A Michigan elementary school eventually realized their mistakes and backed down after initially telling two Christian students they couldn't perform worship songs at an upcoming school talent show.

"Upon review, it was determined that school staff were unfamiliar with the legal guidelines concerning religious expression in a public school setting," Allegan Public Schools Superintendent James Antoine wrote in a statement shared with Fox News Digital. "Religious songs have been, and will continue to be, allowed at school events like talent shows."

According to legal group First Liberty Institute, two students at West Ward Elementary School, who are siblings, were told by school officials on Tuesday that they could not perform their chosen songs, "That’s Who I Praise" by Brandon Lake, and "Up and Up" by Colton Dixon, because the lyrics were too religious.

West Ward teacher Penny Bishop reportedly told the students' mother that one song was too "Christian-based" and would violate the separation of church and state. The school principal, Molly Carl, also said the song could cause problems because "there’s some very clear language about worshiping God" and she raised issue with Lake's lyrics that mentioned no longer being "slaves," in reference to the Israelites leaving Egypt in the biblical account from the book of Exodus.

Carl also reportedly confronted one of the students about her song choice after a meeting with her parent, telling the student that "not everyone believes in God."

According to First Liberty, Carl approved the songs ahead of auditions on Thursday but told one student that his song would need to be "adjustable" to a more "acceptable option" if he chose to perform it at the 23 May talent show.

The legal group sent a letter to the elementary school on Wednesday warning them they could be violating the students' First Amendment rights. First Liberty asked the school to assure them by 3:00 P.M. last 3 May that both students, who are brother and sister, would be able to participate in the talent show "on an equal basis with their classmates using their chosen songs."

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A Tuition-Free School Will Close Shop

Way back in 2016, there was a lot of excitement and anticipation when Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, opened a tuition-free school for low-income families in California’s Bay Area, where Meta is headquartered.

Created under the couple’s philanthropy, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Primary School aimed to combine healthcare and education for students "from birth through high school." Chan, a former pediatrician, once described the organization’s education efforts as combining her two core passions.

A few days ago, the Primary School abruptly announced plans to shut down at the end of the 2025-26 school year. The school called the closure a "very difficult decision," but offered little explanation, in a message to the hundreds of families that it serves across two campuses.

The closure comes amid bigger shifts by CZI and its namesake leaders, and as Big Tech broadly repositions itself in the era of President Donald Trump.

Parents were told that the school was shuttering because CZI was withdrawing its support, according to reports from the San Francisco Standard and the New York Times.

A representative for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative told CNN that the school’s board of directors made the decision and pointed to its statement, but did not respond to an additional question about the group’s funding for the school. CZI plans to donate US$ 50 million to the communities and families affected by the closure, the school said in its note this week.

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The Good And The Bad From Bike Tires

All over the world, microplastics are considered as a major environmental concern, and scientists have long known that the wear and tear of vehicle tires is a significant contributing factor in the amount of microplastics found in the environment.

However, other tires, such as bicycle tires, have not been studied to see how much microplastic they release. Now, though, the University of Bayreuth in Germany has completed such a study.

Researchers from the University of Bayreuth recently released their findings from a study on the amount of microplastics released from the abrasion of bike tires — specifically mountain bikes.

Researchers already knew that 35 percent of microplastic pollution in Germany comes from vehicle tires, with around 11 grams of microplastics released for every 62 miles driven. What they didn't know was how much mountain bike tires contributed.

According to their findings, the news is good and bad. Mountain bike tires do contribute to microplastic pollution, but these tires only contribute less than 1 percent of the total, releasing approximately 3.5 grams every 62 miles ridden.

Doctoral researcher Fabian Sommer, who led the team, said, as relayed by Phys.org: "Our study provides the first reliable data on the amount of tire abrasion from mountain bikes under real-world conditions. The results show that while mountain bike tires release microplastics directly into nature, the amount is significantly lower compared to motorized vehicles."

Microplastics continue to be found nearly everywhere, whether in water, soil, food, household products, air, or even the human body.

Science has linked these tiny particles to a host of adverse health effects in people, including inflammation, hormone disruption, and cancer.

Microplastics also harm the environment, as they release chemicals into the water, soil, and air. Research has shown that microplastics may negatively impact animals, particularly fish, which is doubly concerning when considering the risks of people consuming contaminated meat.

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MLB's "Catch Of The Year"?

Daulton Varsho appeared to pull off the impossible last 29 April when the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder caught a fly ball immediately after falling right in front of the center field wall.

In a move described by ESPN as a possible "catch of the year," Varsho tripped while running to catch a ball hit by visiting Red Sox left fielder Jarren Duran — but he didn't let a little stumble stop him. While facing the wall after swiftly getting back up, Varsho managed to raise his left hand and catch the ball at the top of the fourth inning.

Varsho seemed to surprise himself with the impressive catch, smiling as he threw it back while Blue Jays pitcher Dillon Tate took off his hat and pointed it to Varsho in recognition of his accomplishment.

Varsho even made the circus-like catch in what was his season debut. Per ESPN, the outfielder had been sidelined with a shoulder injury that kept him from the first 28 games of the campaign, and finally took the field for the first time on Tuesday evening.

After the game, which ended in a 10-2 losing score for the Blue Jays despite Varsho's efforts, the athlete told MLB.com how he pulled off the catch.

"I just stuck my glove out and somehow it went in," he said. "It was probably a really high percent probability of a catch and I made it look really hard."

He also told MLB.com what went through his mind right before he made the catch, admitting he "said a profanity word,” but then quickly thought to himself, "OK, where’s the ball?"

Blue Jays Manager John Schneider told MLB.com that he was thinking of Varsho's shoulder injury when he witnessed the catch.

"I thought it was going off the batter’s eye, then when you see Varsho fall, you immediately say, 'Don’t fall on your shoulder.'" he said. "Then, you watch him catch it and you go, 'Man, you're really good.' That’s not exactly what I said in the dugout. I know this is live right now and I’m trying to be nice. But that was really cool. You just shake your head."

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Harvard Stops DEI-Themed Graduation

Graduation ceremonies at Harvard University will now go back to what it was following threats from the Department of Education against DEI. The school has descided to stop hosting affinity group graduation celebrations.

In an email sent to student affinity groups last 28 April, the university stated that these groups would no longer receive "funding, staffing, or spaces for affinity celebrations."

"Harvard remains committed to building a community where individuals who bring a broad array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives come together to learn, grow, and thrive, and equally committed to complying with the law," University spokesperson Jason A. Newton said, per The Harvard Crimson.

The email continued, "We stand ready to address questions or concerns you may have during this transition."

Harvard was one of many schools that received threats to its federal funding from the US Department of Education if it did not comply with President Donald Trump administration’s mandates to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. After Harvard University President Alan M. Garber revealed the university’s refusal to comply with Trump’s demands, the Ivy League continued to face threats of a multibillion-dollar funding freeze from the U.S. Department of Education.

During its 2024 commencement, Harvard reportedly hosted 10 affinity celebrations for Arab, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, first-generation, low-income, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Desi graduates.

In response to this news, Harvard’s Black Alumni Society has launched an emergency fundraising campaign of US$ 50,000 to fund the 2025 Black graduation celebration.

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