Photo by XPS on Unsplash
By Victoria Durgin, Editor in Chief
While Susquehanna moves forward with a breakless spring semester after deeming the fall to be a success, some students are voicing their frustrations and concerns about mental health and productivity.
For many, this fall has been a time of immense stress, and several students feel professors have simply added on to the burden by assigning seemingly more work than ever before.
The work is not the only thing making the semester feel so different. Stress about the status of classes is, according to some students, compounded by anxiety surrounding the upcoming election and the general nature of the COVID-19 pandemic around the country.
“Right now, it has been more for me to just get through this semester, while taking in the news happening in the United States, especially with it being an important election year,” said sophomore Joy Tushek.
University Provost Dave Ramsaran, though, said he does believe the semester is going as well as it can given the ongoing pandemic circumstances.
“We know from the research that most students learn best in person; that is the hallmark of the liberal arts experience. Only 15% of the 700 classes that we offer have been completely online,” Ramsaran said.
He also pointed to other colleges and universities across the country which began in person but ultimately shifted all of their coursework online due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Susquehanna, of course, has not needed to do that.
Ramsaran also said he believes faculty have adjusted well to new modes of learning thanks in part to summer training offered by the university.
“Our Center for Teaching and Learning created and conducted an extensive training program designed to optimize faculty skills in both a hybrid and an online learning environment. This has allowed faculty to adjust their teaching styles and how they deliver their material in this new learning environment in order to accommodate the needs of in-person and remote learners simultaneously,” he said.
To some students, the actual classwork and instruction are not the most difficult parts of their semester to contend with. Many have reported feeling burned out and overwhelmed.
In a reply to a Quill Instagram story on October 13, multiple students said they felt professors weren’t being understanding of their other commitments.
One student pointed out that they still work and participate in clubs, and can’t devote every hour of their time outside of class to doing assignments.
Still others said that the work only seems so bad because there is a lack of ways to make and see friends while staying within the COVID-19 guidelines set by the university.
In the absence of social time spent away from assignments, some say there is a constant state of pressure to get work done and do perfectly on assignments.
“[There’s] no break and too much work, and all the work is done by staring at a screen for 12 hours a day,” senior Anna Chobanoff said, “I had to restart antidepressants because I am so unstable.”
Ramsaran said he knows this is a hard time for students but that those hard times can lead to growth.
“Stress and anxiety levels have risen significantly for students, faculty, staff and administrators. However, this also provides us with a unique opportunity to develop new strategies for resilience that we can use both now and throughout life’s journey,” Ramsaran said.
He also said that multiple departments on campus have offered new or expanded services to help students cope with what he called “an extraordinary period in our history.”
Among those departments are Student Life, the Center for Academic Success and professors themselves, many of whom have offered increased virtual office hours, according to Ramsaran.
The style of semester Susquehanna worked through this fall seems to be the plan for next spring as well.
On Oct. 16, in an email to the entire Susquehanna community, Ramsaran and his office announced changes to the spring 2021 academic calendar. The new semester will begin on Jan. 25, a week later than originally intended. To some students’ disappointment, the spring semester does not have a spring break period.
Ramsaran said all students will have the ability to provide constructive feedback on their fall 2020 courses via course evaluations done at the end of the semester. Many courses in the spring, according to Ramsaran, will still be offered in a mix of formats to accommodate students who choose to complete the year remote.
