Fox News Host Says College ‘Mental Health Crisis’ Can Be Solved by ‘Not Telling Them They Are Studying on Stolen Land’

Today’s college students are experiencing a “mental health crisis” because universities are “telling them they are studying on stolen land,” said Fox News host Jimmy Failla Friday.

Failla addressed recent reports that the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and Arts will assign all first-year students a pass or no credit in their first semester. The students will also still receive letter grades.

Failla said:

I’ve been on a lot of college campuses. If you want to help the mental health crisis and colleges maybe start by not telling them that they are studying on stolen land and that they are a bunch of colonizers and everything is about to end because of climate change. We have anxiety because there’s a political brand of politics now that is so driven on emotional blackmail: “if you don’t do this we are going to die because of climate threat, if you don’t let these people play sports, they are going to kill themselves.” People have mental anxiety because nobody is having a good faith debate.

The school explained in a statement announcing the change, “Our goal is to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys—core elements of a liberal arts and sciences education. For example, they can explore a subject that may not come easily to them or take a course in a new field without the fear that a low grade may have long-term consequences.”

In a 2024-25 study, the University of Michigan found that 17% of college students reported “severe depressive symptoms.” Another 37% reported “moderate to depressive symptoms.”

Assigning pass/fail grades in the first semester isn’t a wholly new idea — the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has had a similar policy since 1965.

Watch the above via Fox News.

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