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W&J Stress Culture Heightens W&J Student Arranges Ukriane Aid
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W&J Stress Culture Drastically Heightens
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Stress has taken on a new meaning for young adults in the last couple years, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As of 2018, The American Psychological Association reported Generation Z having the highest stress among the study’s various age groups regarding world events like climate change and mass shootings. The Pew Research Center noted that teens rank anxiety and depression as the highest of their problems as of 2019.
Given the fluid mixture of teen years and adulthood in college, it’s not surprising that similar trends can be seen in college students as well. Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Hannah Bradshaw expressed deep concern for the rising levels of stress and anxiety she was hearing and observing in her students during the Fall 2021 semester. “Behaviorally, they seemed very stressed,” Dr. Bradshaw said in a November interview. “I’ve had a couple students express this to me.” Dr. Bradshaw said the pandemic has added stress to students, noting the unique unpredictability, accommodations needed, the chronic nature of the pandemic, and online learning. “Students have expressed to me that if they’re sick and need to quarantine or stay out of classes, the accommodations aren’t consistently held across classes, some professors offer online options and others do not,” she said.
W&J freshman Kalea Umali agreed with Dr. Bradshaw’s statement through an email exchange.
“The most stressful factor related to W&J has to be the uncertainty surrounding virtual options between students and professors,” Umali said.
Umali specified that when she needed to take time out of the classroom due to COVID exposure or emergent situations she felt that she received very “scattered” responses.
“Some allowed me a virtual option, some offered to meet online later to go over things I missed, and some simply did not,” she said. “It felt as though I was being penalized for things out of my control, even when I was doing everything a student was supposed to do.” “COVID guidelines changed frequently and professors’ lives are very busy, which makes it hard to make accommodations in scenarios such as mine,” Umali added. Dean of Students & Vice-President of Student Life Eva Chatterjee-Sutton stated over email correspondence that there has been abundant communication between faculty and administration supporting a smooth transition, including asking faculty to have policies to accommodate students Courtesy Washinton & Jefferson College who may need to miss class. Ultimately, October 27, 2020 - Jason Kilgore, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, teaches a class in because of the differing demands of Dieter-Porter on the campus of Washington & Jefferson College. each class, Dean Chatterjee-Sutton wrote, “the type of accommodation akansha das that best suits the course instruction are determined by each individual Red & Black Editor-in-chief faculty member.” Dr. Bradshaw also commented about the toll two years of unpredictability has taken on students, citing research that indicates that uncertainty is often tougher to deal with than sheer harshness. “The lack of consistency is a really big stressor,” she said.
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akansha das
Red & Black Editor-in-chief
However, Dr. Lear indicated that COVID-19 may have a more complex relationship with mental health of students than researchers and mental health professionals may have first predicted. Pulling statistics from the 21-22, 20-21, and 19-20 school years, Dr. Lear mentioned that among students who have sought out Counseling services (which ranges from 15-17% of all students on campus) anxiety (77% pre-COVID, 75% from 20212022) and depression levels (47% pre-COVID and 42% after COVID) dropped a couple percentage points throughout the pandemic. Dr. Lear also noted only 16-37% of students seeking counseling said that they are doing so because of COVID.
When asked what W&J was doing to support students’ rising stress levels, Dean Chatterjee-Sutton also pointed to Student Health and Counseling, which offers: • Group/individual therapy (call (724) 223-6107 to schedule) • 24/7 counseling (for emergent situations you may call (724) 223-6032 and ask for the psychologist on call) • Therapy Assisted Online
Connect (TAO) for all W&J community members (visit
Student Health & Counseling
MyW&J to access thepath. taoconnect.org)
Licensed Psychologist & Director of W&J Student Health and Counseling Services Dr. Shelly Lear corroborated the availability of these resources, highlighting TAO Connect as a free resource for learning and practicing self-care techniques for all students, staff, and professors. TAO Connect is.an online service providing meditation and relaxation tools to increase overall wellbeing of users.
There are mixed opinions about the availability of such resources. When asked over email, Umali noted these resources were accessible to her.
However, Dr. Bradshaw also noted some students have limited knowledge of campus-offered mental health resources. Dr. Bradshaw highlighted first-year students as potentially being unaware, noting that the nature of a one-time, information-heavy orientation may cause some retention failure.
Dr. Lear detailed the various ways in which Student Health & Counseling has been attempting to make connections on campus – including: • Presenting at First Year Seminar classes • Serving as Liaisons for FYS faculty and coaches of athletics teams • Advertising through Instagram,
Twitter, and MyW&J • Presenting to classes with short presentations to classes on resilience, anxiety, and stress management among other topics.
Dr. Lear reasoned that this may be due to students with mental health conditions feeling less lonely in their struggles given increased prevalence of and therefore understanding of mental health conditions during COVID-19.
“For students with anxiety, it was kind of like ‘what are you talking about, this is how I felt like all along.’” Dr. Lear said.
While the jury is still out as to whether COVID-19 has exacerbated or simply brought attention to preexisting mental health trends, Dr. Lear does point to the overwhelming stress and productivity culture on campus – pointing to the fact that many students she has talked to can’t even find time to take a lunch break.
Dean Chatterjee-Sutton also commented on structural factors at W&J that the administration is considering changing.
“We are trying to adjust the course schedules to allow for a common lunch break/time without courses to ensure that all students have the opportunity to have a break,” Dean Chatterjee-Sutton said. “We are looking at the flow of the academic calendar to carefully consider the timing and length of breaks to optimize the pacing of the semesters.”
Dr. Lear said that on campuses with a greater drinking culture than W&J and equally rigorous academic standards for students, she has seen higher use of self-care techniques and a lower tendency of burnout from hard work and stress compared to the W&J community.
“I have worked at three small, liberal arts college campuses in the past 25 years...never have I seen students with so little flexibility in their schedules than at W&J,” Dr. Lear said. “We need to learn how to be human beings and not just human doings.”
This concern also isn’t limited to students alone.
“The professors are also very stressed out by teaching in a pandemic, and I think everyone is doing the best that they can with their knowledge and skill base.” Dr. Bradshaw said.
The data supports this assertion as well. An October 2020 Chronicle of Higher Education Study conducted among 1,000 plus college professors found that between 2019 and 2020, the amount of faculty who reported feeling very or extremely stressed increased from 32% to 69% percent. Additionally, more than 2/3 of respondents reported increased workloads and a lower work-life balance, and this was higher among female participants.
The general concern for rising stress levels is one Dr. Lear and Dr. Bradshaw share.
“People are getting sick, not necessarily with COVID, but because they are stressed, and their immune systems are downregulated...and it’s hard to learn when you’re sick...” said Dr. Bradshaw
While Dr. Bradshaw pointed to the connection of stress and immune defenses, Dr. Lear pointed to chronic stress altering physiological pathways and the HPA (HypothalamusPituitary-Adrenal axis).
At the end of the Fall 2021 Semester, Dr. Bradshaw concluded “but I don’t know what to do about it... I don’t know if there’s any sort of change that I can enact on a larger basis...”
Ultimately, there is a sense of concern and care from faculty and a sense of change among professors that students are noticing.
“Rarely was I given a virtual option when I was sick or exposed during the first semester,” Umali said. “My professors have changed since, though, and they have tried their best to help me when I needed to miss class.”
