3stressedPeople

This is the starts of my 3rd studio project. Though Carnegie Mellon has successfully fostered a rigorous work environment, it has also fostered an extremely stressful environment. All three members of my group have experienced trouble with the environment at CMU and empathize with stressed people. I empathize greatly with those who identify as mentally ill. We have not yet had a full group meeting.

The problem as I see it: The administration makes no strides to compensate for the intensity of CMU. If you are barely hanging on in a class, and your boyfriend breaks up with you- sending you into a breakdown, then you either have to fail out, drop, or take a leave of absence. There is no way for any assignments to be nullified, made smaller in the schedule, and no capacity for professors to empathize beyond an extension (extensions just mean you have to work double as hard later). The implicit pedagogy is that “students need to learn to control their emotions because jobs and clients in the real world will not make compromises.”

This is a paradigm I am interested in challenging.

For audience, I initially thought of all CMU Undergraduates, but that lacks depth. Maybe CFA undergraduates. How to Architect students feel about this? What about Art students? It would also be interesting to hear the professor’s side of the story. I am greatly interested in empathizing with the angst of being 18–22 years old and being in such a drastic place as CMU, but perhaps Masters students have a place here too. I am not sure at this point.