Individual Attention

Individualized Attention:

Supporting Students in Crisis

By Lauren John, Staff Writer

Menlo College provides services for students facing mental health challenges or family problems, including the campus Mental Health Clinic, directed by Dr. Jake Kelman, and an Early Alert System for quickly identifying students in crisis. The College also recently partnered with Ellipsis Health to deploy an app that uses AI and vocal biomarker technology to analyze speech and measure depression and anxiety, providing students with the opportunity to monitor their own well-being. Menlo students worked with Ellipsis Health to customize the app for our community. Since the pandemic, more students have faced deepening problems. Parents have lost their jobs or are frontline workers at risk of contracting Covid-19. Relatives have been hospitalized and younger siblings, no longer in classrooms, have needed supervision. With college classes online, some of Menlo’s students have needed increased technical support. In the last year, administrators and faculty have responded to the crisis by listening carefully for new concerns and tailoring solutions for individual students.

Angela Schmiede, Vice President for Student Success, and her team have been sure not to overlook basic needs. In a survey taken last fall, almost a fourth of the students at the College reported experiencing some food insecurity. A food pantry was created, funded with a grant from the Rotary Club of Menlo Park, where Schmiede serves as this year’s Club president. “One of our students was living in their car,” Schmiede says. “Once businesses shut down, this student was unable to access Wi-Fi to be able to take online classes. We reached out to the student and were able to provide emergency housing with access to Wi-Fi. Other students who did not have a safe place to live were also offered housing on campus.” Though most of the campus was closed, Menlo College offered a haven for such students, and also kept some housing open to ensure that international students would not be hampered by lack of tech access or time zone disruption. Some student athletes returned to the dorms to enable them to work toward resuming their sports without being disadvantaged by the lack of training. Everyone living in dormitories on campus followed strict health and safety protocols. Resident Assistants (RAs) living and working in the dormitories played a huge role in maintaining the morale of the student residents, said Taylor Henkel, Director of Housing and Residence Life. They helped residents get wireless access points from IT to meet extra bandwidth demand as everyone in the residence hall was on Zoom at the same time. Added Henkel, “The RAs also created virtual and in-person programs like Mental Health Matters and Thursday movie nights,” helping students stay psychologically well through all the stresses. Unreliable Wi-Fi connections and inadequate computers have plagued many students trying to keep up with their classes on Zoom, according to a survey conducted a with the assistance of Director of Institutional Effectiveness Kristina Powers. Menlo College took action early in the pandemic, issuing computers to students who needed them and alerting faculty that as many as a third of their students might have trouble logging onto the class Zoom session. Additionally, faculty helped students download readings and assignments in advance and during non-peak hours as a way to manage unreliable Wi-Fi access. Alumni and others in the Menlo College community were eager to help out, contributing to a Pandemic Relief Fund established through the Alumni Engagement Office. Moreover, Mark Maloney ’68 and his son Kirk ’95, both alumni of the College, donated laptops and padded backpacks to students so that they were able to “direct their attention to their studies instead of their barriers,” according to Laura Koo, Senior Director of Alumni Engagement and Development. While college leaders have developed system-wide policies, individual professors have been making classroom adjustments to help students adjust to distance learning and the overall stresses of pandemic life. “I really just tried to be available and present for my students,” said math professor Jessica Mean. She made early checks on students who missed classes and worked even more closely with advisors to be sure students were okay. Professor Mean also went the extra mile for international students working in different time zones, proctoring exams as late as 8 p.m. California time, which is 11 a.m. in China. Dr. Kathi Lovelace, Professor of Human Resource Management, also worked in different time zones. “During the fall semester, I did a lot of individualized Zoom meetings with students from Europe and Asia. I would often use this time to answer questions and even ‘re-do’ parts of the lecture.” “One of the most generous things that our faculty did for students during the pandemic was to hold extra sections of class for students in faraway time zones, including Hawaii, Europe, and Asia,” said Melissa Michelson, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science. Michelson pointed out that many faculty members did this for just one or two students. “It’s a beautiful example of the degree to which our faculty are dedicated to our students’ success,” Michelson said. Although spring break had to be cancelled for safety reasons, Menlo College made it a priority to set aside a week—called Geek Week–for students to have a break from the stressful pace of classes, and to have a chance to re-connect with each other. Professors were asked to lighten their assignment loads that week, and the Office of Student Affairs planned activities to relieve stress and share hobbies and interests, ranging from LEGO to superheroes to Harry Potter and Game of Thrones. Though that week’s outdoor screening of Spiderman on the quad and a virtual pet therapy session sponsored by the library may not exactly represent academic rigor, they were designed to reach the very real need for students to socialize, laugh, and have fun during this unbalanced time. Through the pandemic, Menlo staff and faculty have shown increased empathy and compassion toward their students, even as many of us struggle alongside the students with the unexpected changes and limitations that the pandemic has wrought. Math Professor Jessica Mean sums it up well. “I show up for my students with compassion,” she says. “To show students that we, as the instructors, are aware that this is an unprecedented time that comes with adversities and barriers, and that we are there for them.” Courtney Cooper ’21 gave a Geek Week presentation exploring superheroes and the representation of gender dynamics entitled “Who gets to be the hero: Gender in fandoms.”