The Presidential race remains uncertain, and there may be no clear winner for several days due to the counting of mail-in ballots. President Trump has also promised to contest the results in the courts if he does not win, potentially pushing the fight out for weeks. The turbulent election and sociopolitical unrest has compounded the stress of an already-chaotic 2020 for students and college administrators alike.
Active Minds created a helpful guide for Coping with Election Stress, offering strategies like: Tell yourself that your feelings are normal, identify actions that are within your control like taking a walk or booking a therapy appointment, prioritize sleep, schedule a check-in with someone you enjoy talking to, and make a plan for what you will do to build a better world beyond the election.
In Inside Higher Ed, a group of professors from Wake Forest School of Medicine, University of South Carolina, Stanford University, Fordham University, San Francisco State University, University of California, San Francisco and University of South Carolina explain what colleges can do to help students cope with sociopolitical stress. They list: providing students with information and resources (especially from faculty), ensuring awareness of and access to counseling services, and implementing policies that promote a positive campus climate.
According to a new survey released by NASPA, while 56 percent of students say they are “very” or “somewhat” anxious about the coronavirus pandemic, a majority (77%) have not used mental health support services at their colleges, but are turning to parents or friends for help. About one-third of the 3,500 undergraduate students surveyed responded that they were “not sure” about what resources for mental health and emotional well-being their college offers. Only about half of students said they believed their college “cared about them as a person.” “While it is encouraging to learn students are turning less to unhealthy behaviors in response to increased stress, it is troubling to see that, while the right resources may exist, students are rarely accessing them,” said Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA. “Now more than ever, it’s important institutions and student affairs leaders consider how to more effectively connect students with support services. Now that students have returned for the fall semester, either in-person or remotely, it’s imperative that college and university leaders understand their mental health needs in order to provide them with the social and emotional support they need.”
In a President Speaks column in Education Dive, Marlene Tromp, president of Boise State University, in Idaho, explains how her university is addressing the pandemic’s outsized impact on student mental health. Boise State is recrafting a “launchpad” for students with a task force - dubbed Apollo 13 - that will aid students in completing their disrupted academic mission by developing creative new support strategies. “Comprised of academic, student success and mental health leaders, this task force will strategize with student groups, gather data and problem solve - just like scientists did in Houston’s mission control center during that threatened Apollo mission,” she writes. President Tromp is co-teaching a class called “Leading & Learning During Uncertain Times,” designed to conceptualize new strategies to support students in partnership with them.
The Denisonian‘s Narrative Journalism Health & Poverty Fellow, Eiliana Wright, writes about how remote students have less access to support citing a number of factors: they are separated from a residential community that provides necessary resources and peer support: are restricted in their use of telehealth treatment over state lines: and are forced to turn to local resources for support while still paying for on-campus resources they cannot access.
The College Student Fall 2020 Mental Health Survey, published by the Hi, How Are You Project, a non-profit organization leading conversations around mental health issues, and American Campus Communities (ACC), a developer of student housing apartment communities, found that 93% of college students agree or strongly agree their mental health is an important component of their overall health and wellbeing, with 66% saying the COVID-19 pandemic has forced them to take a closer look at their own mental health. Compared to previous years, 85% of students reported feeling somewhat or considerably more stressed as a result of the pandemic.
Students at Emory raised concern after the University released the spring academic calendar, which notably omits a spring break. Students claim that while the elimination of breaks this fall has prevented virus spread, the toll it has taken on students’ wellbeing is making many question whether attending in the spring is worth it. The administration included three mental health days in the spring term over which professors may not assign any work, though students say that most will likely use the mental health day to finish assignments and get ahead on work. Additionally, resident advisors have struggled with the no-break semester because they do not have time to relax and unwind from the pressure of their job.
The University of Maryland mental health experts and student leaders participated in a virtual town hall last week, answering questions about how college students can take care of their mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Chetan Joshi, director of the Counseling Center, said, “What is needed now more so than ever is an intentional focus on how we can keep self-care related stuff at the forefront of our minds and then actually developing behaviors to be able to then take care of ourselves.” Kelly Sherman, a member of the health center’s Student Health Advisory Committee said that education about mental health can prompt all members of the campus community to look out for each other, paying closer attention to signs of mental illness, or checking in about one other’s wellbeing.
Loneliness on college campuses, described as a pandemic before the onset of COVID-19, is only increasing as students navigate the stress and challenge of college life within the limits of covid restrictions and prevention measures, as reported in Lehigh University’s Brown and White, the Guardian, and the Wellesley News. Many are concerned about students’ decreased sense of belonging, especially for first-years. Students feel that the limitations, including frequent isolation, restrict them from connecting with their peers, a key piece of the college experience.
Bowdoin College interim director of counseling and wellness services urged professors in a recent faculty meeting to support their students’ wellbeing by addressing the election in class and making space for students to discuss their experiences. “Many students will want professors to address, even briefly, the outcome [of the election]. Our classrooms are moments where we come together as a community, after all, and when we gather, we share, explicitly and implicitly, whatever is going on in our broader environment,” said a government professor.
The Harvard Gazette covered the Forum produced by Harvard’s T. H. Chan School of Public Health in concert with the Steve Fund and GBH news titled, “Innovating on Campus: Supporting Mental Health of Students of Color During COVID-19 and Beyond.” Panelists included Meeta Kumar, University of Chicago Director of Student Counseling, Pace University President Marvin Krislov, Director of the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity Tabbye Chavous, and Professor of Prevention Science and Practice and Certified Advanced Study in Counseling at Harvard’s Graduate School for Education.
Inside Higher Ed reports on a recent survey published by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium that shows that students with disabilities are more likely to experience financial hardships, mental health challenges and food and housing insecurity as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Many international students felt heavily invested in the presidential election despite not having the right to vote. The Trump Administration has passed a number of immigration-related pieces of legislation and signed executive orders that have made securing a visa more challenging for international students. Some point to the administration’s rhetoric as a contributing factor in increased hostility towards some international students. The spread of the global pandemic and the narrative supported by the White House that puts China at fault for the pandemic has only made these matters more complicated. International student activists have responded in increased numbers and engaged in the election by rallying supporters and sharing their voices. “This is American politics but it affects the whole world,” said one student.
Student engagement in the presidential election looked different this fall. Instead of tabling and handing out flyers at regularly frequented campus hubs, students rallied support virtually, connecting to peers via social media and hosting virtual debate watch parties. Due to the pandemic, a number of students volunteered as poll workers, a civic responsibility usually carried by older Americans who are more susceptible to infection. After learning about poll worker shortages on Tik Tok, Kira Tebbe, a first year business school student at the University of Chicago volunteered to work her home polling station out of the Drake Hotel in Chicago. She said, “Students are well primed to be poll workers because we have flexible schedules. I didn’t forgo a day’s wages. I didn’t have to use any paid time off. It was a pretty low lift for me to start working the polls.”
The Hechinger Report explores the pandemic’s effect on civic engagement, and highlighted campus organizations working to make voting easier for students, which is difficult in the best circumstances. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the UNC Young Democrats planned to distribute 6,000 student voting packets on campus, with information about registration, mail-in ballots and early voting. The coronavirus outbreak that sent students home from campus just one week into the semester derailed their plans. The organization moved most of its efforts online, harnessing the power of Instagram and Facebook. At the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, the UC College Republicans group still canvassed in person, following the school’s coronavirus guidelines, but moved signature in-person events online or offered a virtual option.
The Chronicle highlighted student engagement and election day activity on campuses in the swing states Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.