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The Undergraduate Council endorsed an all-Ivy League statement on mental health and allocated funds toward a project supporting transgender and gender non-conforming students in purchasing gender-affirming clothing at its regular meeting Sunday.
The first piece of legislation allows the Council to sign onto an all-Ivy League mental health statement that calls for BIPOC mental health care, active âcompâ oversight, increased counseling services, and leave of absence policy reform.
âMental health is the 2nd leading cause of death among students and 75% of lifetime cases of mental health conditions begin by age 24,â the statement reads.
The statement also details that no Ivy League university scored above a D+ on the Ruderman Foundation scale, which measures university effectiveness in responding to students experiencing mental illness.
The Undergraduate Council endorsed a statement calling on all Ivy League institutions to divest from fossil fuels at a Sunday meeting.
Sponsored by all eight Ivy League student body presidents, the statement calls on the universities to commit to “climate-conscious investments” and cease their investment in fossil fuel companies by 2025.
The statement said the Ivy League universities are among the “most powerful and privileged institutions in the world,” citing their collective endowment of $135 billion and their control of roughly 25 percent of all American university endowment funds.
Their collective endowments grant them both “social influence” and a “responsibility” to combat the climate crisis, according to the statement.
The Undergraduate Council voted on Sunday to restore its summer storage program and to petition for the removal of the Harvard Counseling and Mental Health Servicesâ recent $25 fee for last-minute cancellations and missed appointments.
The first piece of legislation renewed its summer storage program with Five Star Movers for the 2021 year to financially assist up to 400 College students, allocating $32,000 in funding. Five thousand dollars will come from the UCâs own funds and the remaining $27,000 will come from remaining storage funds, faculty deans, and students benefiting from the program.
In 2019, the UCâs summer storage program accommodated up to 500 College students. In 2020, the College partnered with Olympia Moving and Storage to assist students with their rapid move-outs in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.