Students, Faculty, and Administrators Respond to Year Like No Other. (Photo Credit: altumhealth.com)
For the past year, America’s college students have been treading water. An August report from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 62.9 percent of Americans between 18 to 24 have reported symptoms of depression or anxiety, the most of any group, while 25.5 percent have said they had seriously considered suicide in the past 30 days.
“More people are experiencing stressors that are leading to mental health concerns,” explains Diana Chao ’21, founder of the student-led nonprofit Letters to Strangers. “These include disruptions to a sense of structure and normality, extended isolation, domestic abuse, grief, [and] politics-induced stress,” Chao says. “All this is to say there are so many facets of our environments that are adding stress and fear to people’s daily lives, and at the same time, we are not able to access many of the same support networks we used to in order to cope: friends, family, in-person and consistent doctor’s appointments or therapy sessions, etc.”
Like most U.S. colleges and universities, Princeton was forced to transition to entirely online learning in March 2020. One year later, students are still navigating the complicated landscape of hybrid education: most are taking an entirely online course load, some have returned to campus, and others have stayed put in remote locations. Many have decided to put their studies on hold, with nearly 700 students opting to take a deferral or leave of absence during the 2020-2021 school year.
The Tory spoke with several Princeton students, representatives of student groups, faculty members, and administrators to see how they have been adjusting to this year’s challenges.
Students Wrestle with a New Normal
For some, the situation isn’t totally bleak. “A full in-person experience may not be the best option at this time,” freshman Jared Stone ’24 admitted, “but we get the benefit of engaging with others in-person and not just online.” Abigail Anthony ’23 added that while she met fewer people this year, she still managed to form “unexpected friendships.” Anthony also noted that she can take more detailed notes during lectures by pausing the video.
Still, the uncertain and sometimes unstable hybrid learning environment has posed its own set of challenges. During his first week of online classes, Stone struggled to navigate new technologies like Canvas and Zoom while staying engaged in his coursework, an immersion which would have been easier, he suspects, if classes were in-person. “The fact that classes remain virtual makes it difficult to develop the group study habits that in-person classes would afford,” he added. Anthony concurred: “The virtual setting has diminished my confidence in course selection and major declaration. I have received minimal guidance and advice from my peers because it is difficult to interact with older students in the various departments.”
Many Princeton students have reported sleep deprivation, headaches, unhealthy eating habits, and difficulty concentrating, symptoms confirmed by larger-scale research on COVID-era learning. A recent study by Stanford University found that video chats require our brains to work harder to receive, send, and interpret social signals, resulting in the phenomenon known colloquially as “Zoom Fatigue.” It’s no wonder, then, that Anthony calls online seminars “inordinately exhausting.”
Students Raise Awareness For Mental Illness
Has this widespread mental health crisis contributed to a more understanding attitude toward mental illness? “In some ways yes, other ways no,” said Chao. “The pandemic has helped a lot of us become more empathetic…[But] at the same time,” she added, “isolation has made it more difficult for people to catch the nuances in the behavior of those around them, and that means we might be missing important signs that someone is struggling.”
“We aren’t necessarily aware of how someone’s mental health is truly doing,” she concluded, “yet we assume we understand simply because we’re all going through this pandemic together, we might be convinced of our own [stigmatization] when there’s much more to be done.”
Princeton students like Chao have taken the lead in the fight against mental illness: at Letters to Strangers, students have adapted to the pandemic landscape by coding a free, online letter exchange platform. The nonprofit has also launched the COVID-19 Letters Collective, curating letters to send to hospitals, homes for senior citizens, and other partner organizations where people are struggling with isolation and loneliness.
The University’s Response to a Year Like No Other
The University has worked to provide more resources for students during this difficult time, making additional mental health options available to students and adapting orientation for the Class of 2024 to an online format.
In response to the pandemic’s restrictions, Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) moved all of its services to virtual telehealth-style formats. However, the University also added “dozens of virtual workshops and CPS group offerings…to the University Health Services website,” according to Jess Fasano, a spokesperson for the University.
To better facilitate referrals for out-of-state students, Princeton has “developed referral exchange resources with universities across the country,” Fasano explained. “Each counselor has been assigned to pursue temporary licensure in at least two other states to expand our availability to serve students outside of New Jersey.”
Fasano also noted that the University worked hard to give the Class of 2024 an all-virtual student orientation. This included “small-group experiences designed to help Princeton’s newest undergraduates get to know their classmates, learn about Princeton, and experience a bit of ‘virtual adventure,’” she said.
The McGraw Center
Nic Voge, Senior Associate Director at the McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning, came up with many interesting ways to fit student needs. Recognizing the need for a thorough and dynamic approach to online learning, Voge held focus groups over the summer, surveyed PAAs and RCAs, and carefully examined learning consultation intake forms and evaluations from academic strategies workshops when preparing for this year’s offerings. Voge also referenced the importance of data in his decision-making. His office tracked tutoring usage rates like the number of students and capacity reached to predict demand.
The McGraw Center Undergraduate Learning Program (ULP) has “added methods of needs assessment, including multiple focus groups on this topic, and solicited scores of in-depth reflections about online learning from McGraw’s tutors and learning consultants,” noted Voge. “We used insights gained from the following sources to develop new and adapt existing programming,” he added.
Voge worked to transition McGraw’s resources, including tutoring, workshops, and learning consultations, to Zoom. However, Voge also worked to expand McGraw’s offerings “to support student engagement, provide structure and accountability and promote student-to-student interaction” after receiving feedback from students. These expanded offerings include developing a virtual learning portal and blog as well as student-led study groups.
In an Ever-Changing World, We Can Embrace Humility
Princeton students have faced unprecedented difficulties as a result of the pandemic. To respond to these challenges, Princeton’s faculty and student organizations have remained hard at work, doing what they can to make the most of hybrid learning.
Sometimes, the simplest approach may be the most powerful. “When we listen to each other and our own inner feelings and needs, we are giving space and validation to those needs, which is super important,” said Chao. “That means listening not just to think of a response but truly, simply, listening.”
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