The Mental Health of College Students During the Pandemic was Rapidly Declining. Here’s Why.
By Brianna Colantoni
I wipe my sweaty hands on my shirt as I open the classroom door and step inside. Heads swivel around but I can’t tell who anyone is because they are all wearing masks. I frantically find an open seat and sit down so that the attention isn’t on me anymore. My heart is pounding in my chest, it feels like it is about to explode. I start to fidget in my seat and find myself unconsciously picking at the skin along my fingernail while I scan the classroom. Trying to readjust to being in person again since high school is harder than I imagined. I don’t know what to expect and that makes me want to walk out of the classroom and never come back. This is going to be a long semester.
It wasn’t until sophomore year of college that I stepped onto Arcadia University’s campus for the first time. I felt like I was a freshman again trying to navigate campus and figure out which building my classes were in. The only familiar faces I knew were my roommates and even then, I had just met them. I never experienced a dorm room and having to share a bathroom with fifteen other girls. I didn’t just miss out on being in a dorm but I also missed out on making friends. I couldn’t join a club or an activity because they were put on pause. Campus looked like a ghost town since everyone stayed in their rooms, afraid of getting exposed to a very contagious disease. Because all these changes happened at once, my anxiety was at an all time high. I struggled to get into a stable routine and I forced myself not to drive back to the safety of my home every weekend. I started talking to my roommates and listening to people in my classes, and they all felt the same way. I was shocked. My classmates were going through a similar situation and I wasn’t alone in how I was feeling.
It’s no surprise that concerns are being brought up regarding the mental health amongst young adults. In an article from the Washington Post, findings reported that 18-to-24-year-olds were surveyed in 2020 and about 25 percent had seriously considered suicide, according to the CDC. Before the pandemic, college students already reported having experienced anxiety and depression more than other age groups. Once the world shut down due to Covid, those students fell further into a state of depression or anxiety. Even after the brute of the pandemic, students still struggle with their mental health. Colleges have started to expand counseling service hours and encourage emotional support animals to try and help these students cope with how they are feeling.
Not enough people talk about their mental health or openly express their struggles to others. In this story, I spoke with Livia Kleiner, Julia Rodriguez, and Rhi Harrington about their transition onto Arcadia University’s campus during the pandemic. These perspectives highlight the raw struggles of this transition and how even though each one is unique in their own way, they all share one similarity and that is that Covid has affected their mental health.
I started by interviewing Livia Kleiner, a junior at Arcadia University and one of my best friends. She is a commuter student so her transition into college was different than mine. I was curious about how the pandemic affected her mental health since she didn’t have to deal with the transition of living on campus.
Livia felt that the transition from online classes back to in person classes sophomore year was challenging in itself so having to make that transition on top of being on campus for the first time was really hard. She goes further to say that she felt being a commuter put her at even more of a disadvantage because she’s on campus less than everyone else. “I wasn’t really involved in stuff until earlier in my junior year so I wasn’t doing much stuff on campus my sophomore year,” Livia said.
Livia touched upon the fact that she had to learn how to better manage her time when classes resumed in person and that was another stressor for her to deal with. However, being a commuter has been an advantage for Livia because she can go home after her classes and leave behind the stressors that come with being on campus all the time. Livia commented, “I’m not the kind of person that likes to live and be away from my family so that would’ve added a lot of stress for me.” Being at home and surrounded by her family has helped with her mental health.
Livia said that most of her days revolve around school, “Sometimes I just feel like I end up doing school all day, like when I’m not actually in school I’m just working on school work all day and that is really stressful because I can’t do other stuff that I need to do.”
However, the risk of taking time for yourself as a college student means that you might fall behind on your assignments. Livia agreed that she has to constantly keep up on work for her classes so that she doesn’t get behind. She even said that she feels guilty for taking time for herself because she always has work that she could be doing for her classes.
Speaking with Livia has further proven that student’s deal with a lot of stressors on a daily basis, even as a commuter in college, that contribute to the decline in their mental health.
After talking with Livia, I wanted to seek out a perspective from someone who was on campus before Covid and had partaken in a normal college experience. Julia Rodriguez was the perfect person to speak to because she is an Arcadia University Alumni and current Arcadia Studio Supervisor. She received a normal college experience but came back years later during the pandemic when she was offered a job.
“Finding the new normal” was what Julia described it as when she talked about stepping into the role of Studio Supervisor and taking on the task of managing the equipment room. The rules and deadlines of checking out equipment are different now than they were when she worked as an undergraduate student because of Covid. She saw how different campus was like because of the pandemic and so she had to adjust the ways in which students could check equipment in and out according to this major change.
Julia first commented on how the biggest change for her was adjusting to doing everything on her computer and attending meetings through zoom. She said how she didn’t have to leave her office and interacting with people face to face was limited. She also discussed how campus wasn’t as lively as it was when she was in school and less people were occupying the spaces in Murphy.
The lack of motivation among students was also something else that stood out to Julia. She states, “I did notice with last semester and the semester before that a lot of students were always late returning their equipment and wouldn’t come in on time.” She talked to other professors as well and they noticed a change during their classes regarding student’s behavior since the pandemic.
Besides counseling, Julia felt like Arcadia should provide more for their students. She discussed how another option might be beneficial for students to help with their mental health.
Unlike Julia and Livia, Rhi was attending community college when everything shut down due to Covid. Her situation of transferring to Arcadia as a junior, provided a unique perspective on how the pandemic affected her college journey.
“The most difficult part was trying to reintegrate myself into a normal operating cycle,” Rhi stated. Rhi got into a cycle when classes were online where she would stay up all night long and then sleep through her classes. Now that she is back in person, she doesn’t want to miss her classes. She commented on how good it felt to be around people again even when masking was taking place on campus.
Rhi felt like she was robbed of being able to have a normal college experience because of Covid and she wasn’t able to perform her best academically when classes were online. What she took away during that time was how to take shortcuts in her classes and that has been a big disadvantage for her.
When asked about what Arcadia could do to help students with their mental health, Rhi said “I definitely think that providing more robust mental health services would be great.” She goes to further say that bringing in more licensed mental health professionals would benefit all students.
Once college students graduate, they are going to go off and find a job or complete graduate school, or take a year off. However, the mental state of these students is going to impact what they do in the future. Feelings of anxiety or depression don’t just stop after college. One could say that it gets worse because there is more responsibility that comes with going out into the world and making something of yourself with your degree. With more responsibility comes stress, and that is what eats away at the mental state of young adults. Colleges shouldn’t be helping students to temporarily get by these four years but rather to guide them so they can thrive in the future. What is going to happen when a college graduate gets a job at a company but misses work three times a week because they can’t physically get out of bed due to depression? What is going to happen when that college graduate suffers from anxiety and is afraid to speak up during team meetings? The state of a student’s mental health is only going to continue to decline if they don’t get the proper help.
My advice for students who are struggling with mental health issues in college is first to understand that you are not alone. There are people around you who are feeling something similar but you might not know it. It is never too late to ask for help. These past couple of years have been really hard for college students and it’s okay to admit that you have been struggling. If one person speaks out about how they feel, it gives others the courage to do the same. Mental health is a real issue, especially after the pandemic, and there are so many students out there suffering in silence when they could be getting the support they need.
