Commentary: College Fails Students of Color

lot of people would be struggling, and that is also very much OK.”

When it comes to Pei’s own mental health, she said she often has trouble with her work-life balance.

“The fact that we are still held to the same degree of productivity as before the pandemic seems quite unfair,” Pei said. “And yet this is a very institutional issue and something that can’t really be resolved on an individual basis.”

Burnout among college students in the United States has reached new highs, escalating from 40% in August 2020 to 71% in April 2021, according to a study conducted by the Ohio State University’s Offce of the Chief Wellness Offcer.

The college planned to further support student mental health through Giving Tuesday, an annual, global event that was held the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The college plans to launch a wellness app for students, increase access to Student Emergency Relief Funds and establish more wellness days and mental health campaigns.

Matt Vosler, assistant professor in the Department of Recreational and Leisure Studies, hosted a Mental Health Open Conversation along with the Student Governance Council on Nov. 17 to help facilitate conversation among students and faculty members on student’s mental health issues.

Vosler said he came up with the idea for the event after midterms when he realized many of his students were underperforming as a result of mental health-related issues. He said that he began having conversations with students regarding their experiences during the pandemic.

“I sort of realized that just having that conversation was actually sort of helpful,” Vosler said. “Because I think a lot of folks feel isolated in their experience, even though we’re conscious that everybody is going through all this stuff.”

Vosler said he has also been struggling during the pandemic. Vosler also said much of his struggle came from the uncertainty of the Academic Program Prioritization (APP) process. A part of the process is the ongoing elimination of 116 full-time equivalent faculty positions and 26 majors, departments and programs. Vosler is one of the faculty members being eliminated from the college and is leaving at the end of the academic year.

“There’s a lot of folks that are really trying hard to address the mental health situation we’re dealing with on campus,” Vosler said. “We’re still in this experience. This is still an act of trauma for folks. … Even through this whole APP process and everything else that’s been happening, we’re not stepping back. We’re not stepping down. We’re trying to step forward at a time of uncertainty that, I think, is an admirable thing.”

Support services are available through CAPS by calling (607) 274-3136. CAPS also provides online resources for students. Students who need immediate assistance can call the Offce of Public Safety and Emergency Management at (607) 274-3333. Students can also reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255.

Commentary: The college continues to fail in serving its students of color

BY GIANNY GUZMAN

I chose Ithaca College for many reasons: the fnancial aid package I was offered, the advertised diverse and inclusive community, the distance from home and in part because of Chris Holmes, associate professor and chair of the Department of English.

Of those reasons that I chose this college, many of them overlap with the reasons I am choosing to leave the college — except Chris Holmes, who has remained a helpful advocate for me in my frst few semesters.

It wasn’t just one moment that made me choose to take a semester off and possibly leave the college. It was a series of diffcult situations I had to experience at the beginning of each semester since Fall 2020 in which I would be forced to go back and forth with the Offce of Student Financial Services at the college until I was able to somewhat fgure out what was going on. As a frst-generation student, I always knew I would be completely alone with my fnances. My parents don’t speak English and they have been unable to fnancially help me throughout my college career. I knew this and I still chose a private college because it seemed like the best ft for me and I was OK with having the number of loans that I calculated I would have. Each semester something seemed to change and I was left in the dark, despite going around asking everyone I could what I should be doing. It seems that I had to ask the right person at the right time just to get the right answer. I had done my own research in high school, but none of it prepared me for dealing with forms and conditions I had no prior knowledge of. Many of my peers helped me, but many of my other friends had their parents handle their college fnances. It was a diffcult process each semester that weighed heavily on my mental health and enabled and amplifed my imposter syndrome. I’m not good at asking for help. It’s just how I was raised, but it didn’t help that each time I attempted to ask for help I was let down. I will say there were many professors who helped me when I was overwhelmed and stressed. I came to this college that frst-gen students would be guided and under the impression that I wouldn’t be alone in dealing with navigating college. But I did — I navigated the last three semesters, one online, one hybrid and one in person, all on my own. I didn’t have support from my family. There was nothing they could do, and I couldn’t rely on my friends because at the end of the day these are my own issues that I have to learn to navigate. This isolation made me feel like the college only cared about me when it wanted me to enroll and afterward I was disregarded and fell immediately through the cracks.

I have made the choice to leave because at the end of the day this is my education, my loans to pay and my life I have to start taking control of. I couldn’t keep calling and waiting for the right person to pick up. I don’t want to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, so I am making that choice for myself. My parents won’t be paying those loans. It is no one’s responsibility but my own. The college community wasn’t what I was expecting either.

There is little to no diversity at least in terms of race, and the college continues to idealize this false statement without attempting to make it true. I did not expect to go months without speaking Spanish, attend multiple classes in which I was the sole person of color in the room and educate and correct my own peers on racial matters when the college and professors failed to do so. I was given many false promises that contributed to the decline of my mental health and college performance. This is my experience, and I had to learn the hard way that Ithaca College was my perfect ft on paper but not in reality.

Nolan Saunders/The Ithacan