For her capstone, Hope Winter reported on how Fredonia students have been handling the year-plus pandemic and all of its effects.
And here is the accompanying print sidebar:
The Flowers are Blooming, but the Deadlines are Glooming
By Hope Winter
As the weather gets nicer and the snow finally stops, Fredonia students know the scariest time of the semester just around the corner: “dead week.”
This year’s “dead week” may make you feel a little more drained than years’ prior. With the pandemic still in effect, some students are feeling the extra pressure of finishing up their finals this year.
Even last month, Fredonia President Stephen H. Kolison announced that SUNY Fredonia students would get two mental health days to get a little break from school. This spring semester had been condensed and shortened, which allowed no vacation days or spring break for Fredonia students.
“This semester we wanted to get students in here with compressed time so that it would be done quickly and they would be able to leave campus safe because we are in the middle of a pandemic,” says Kolison, “So when we planned the semester we were concerned if you were to put in a long break, like an Easter Break, students would leave the campus to go out to maybe where the pandemic is rampant, they may get infected and then come back to campus.”
However, as the semester progressed, Fredonia students have started to feel burnt out and distressed.
“As we progressed through the semester, I began to get emails from students that were saying to me, ‘we could use a break’ and so that concerned me a little bit,” said Kolison.
This announcement was made in regard to an online petition that was circulating around social media. The petition received over a thousand responses and signatures.
“From a mental health stand-point, I know the school is trying, you can see the effort they are putting in,” said Fredonia sophomore, Christopher Elkins “But I don’t know if it’s actually working and connecting to the students.”
To prevent students from traveling outside of Fredonia, the school decided on giving students two mental health days off from classes, Tuesday April 13th and Wednesday April 21th.
“You don’t have to worry about classes that day, you can sleep late, you can get up, go to the cafeteria, have some food, take a walk on campus, and, you know, just rest.” said Kolison.
But did students actually get to relax and take a break?
Chloe G Kowalyk, a freshmen journalism and psychology major, is grateful for the days away from the classroom.
“I do definitely appreciate them. I really need just some time to work on my homework and not have even more homework piling up on top of that” said Kowalyk. “I would necessarily say I take it as a mental health day to relax fully just because I have so much to do.”
For upperclassmen who have internships and student teaching placements, these mental health days didn’t really apply to them, and other students realized the workload didn’t necessarily decrease, and students could essentially lose what amounted to a week of class.
“I have a little bit of a mixed opinion about the mental health days,” says senior Paige Rzepka, “I appreciated them of course right off the bat, because it’s nice to have a day off. However personally I have classes that meet one day a week and one of those classes only meets on Tuesdays and one of them happens only on Wednesdays, so that kind of stinks because then you’re losing out on an entire week’s worth of information.”
“I am definitely grateful for them, especially after the day I had today, I am grateful that I don’t have to do anything tomorrow,” said Emily Rasulo, a junior music industry major who spoke to me the day before the second mental health day. “I think I would have liked them earlier on in the semester because at this point, I feel bad for not doing work. It’s the end of the semester, you have to get stuff done regardless, even if you don’t have class.”
However, many students didn’t get a chance to relax on their mental health days because of the timing during the semester.
“We had to fight for just two mental health days,” said senior Fredonia softball player Delana Thomas, who couldn’t enjoy the days off in her own way. “I had softball so I had two games and then the second mental health day I was doing homework and practicing,” she said.
I reached out to Fredonia’s Counseling Center to see if a counselor would be available, however, no counselor was interested in being interviewed for this project.
As finals week approaches fast, know you are not alone in feeling burnt out. We’re almost to the end of the semester and hopefully the end of the pandemic.
To see Hope Winter’s portfolio and reel, go HERE.