Stress & Strain
Maintaining the Necessary Evils of a College Education
By Tristram Kenworthy
According to Southern Virginia University’s website, more than 90% of Southern Virginia students participate in at least one major extracurricular activity — this phenomenal stat comes with a heavy price tag: stress.
Dr. Chad Kelland, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Student Support Center on campus, is concerned with students who participate in more than one major extracurricular activity, because they experience even higher levels of stress than the already frazzled university student.
At Southern Virginia University, that’s most students.
Knights have classes, sports, plays, institute, church, and also a host of activities offered by Student and Resident Life.
With improved communication (like the Knight App) and fun activities, it’s easy to find oneself constantly involved in one activity or another… and another… and another.
Professor Kelland explained why Southern Virginia students are overwhelmed, and added council on how to reshape lifestyles to eradicate unnecessary stress and stressors.
According to Professor Kelland, a main reason for the large amount of engagement at Southern Virginia is the predominant religious culture of the student body and faculty.
Nine in ten students at Southern Virginia are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Kelland, in this culture “we’re very good at doing and we want to be the best.” He added that the competitive nature is “not only for ourselves and our families, but for the school and for the church — so we’re really good at getting caught in the thick of it.”
As Director of the Student Support Center, Kelland is especially conscious of the large amounts of stress experienced by some students (as well as staff and faculty) on campus.
“I think what we need to do, if we want to maintain that culture — be all that we can be and be involved in everything that we can be — some things gotta be turned down a little bit,” he said.
Professor Kelland posed some of the difficult questions that he thinks overloaded students and faculty may need to consider:
- “Do we lower the amount of units that we take and expand our time in school a little longer?”
- “Do we maybe only do one production [a year] rather than every semester?”
- “Do we only play on one team and then maybe do choir the next semester?”
Managing stress, and removing unnecessary stressors, boils down to time management and not taking on more responsibilities than one is able to successfully manage.
Sarah Wood, a Junior at Southern Virginia, is a great example of kicking out extra stressors.
Wood is currently an RA for the Lofts, a resident hall on campus. Previously, she also student-managed for the softball team. But when Wood assumed the role of an RA, she chose to relinquish the responsibility of student-managing.
“Managing the softball team was an awesome experience and opportunity, but it definitely took a lot of time,’ said Wood. “Then when I became an RA there was just too much so I gave that up.”
How do students recover from taking on too many responsibilities?
“We have to be in the moment, and give ourselves a break,” said Kelland. “We don’t have to be perfect! Seek help when we need help. Reach out to classmates that we think need help.”
There are several good ways students can reduce the stress in their life beyond just limiting extracurricular activities. Eating right, sleeping consistently, and having fun hobbies are ways to lift the weight of the responsibility of college life.
Wood is also great at reducing stress this way. When the stress becomes too much, Wood said she turns to sleep as an alleviation. “If I feel like super stressed then I’ll just go take a nap to relax, calm my mind and then go back to the homework,” she said.
“I’m always over stressed between all the classes and homework,” lamented Wood. And for her, a four hour nap is an effective way to deal with stress.
The sleeping skills that students like Sarah Wood exhibit are in line with Kelland’s advice for fighting stressful college lives. “What we really need to do is recondition ourselves to sleep. And if we sleep and time manage, we really can do everything that we plan on doing.”
Professor Kelland’s advice follows his perception of the culture at Southern Virginia. “We’re motivationally elite. That’s awesome, but sometimes we forget that we’re human,” he said.
Wood has seen the negative effects of this with her peers. “If you’re not involved in five million different things, than some people just look down on you like, ‘what are you not doing with your life?’” she said.
“[Student’s] forget that the main reason for coming to college is college,” said Kelland. “It seems like they forget that they have to be in class and do their homework too.”
In a recent address to the student body, Chad Kelland, in conjunction with the Dean of Students Michael Gibbons, spoke on the reality and treat-ability of mental illness.
Students who believe their mental health could improve should contact the Student Support Center via Dean Micheal Gibbons at counseling@svu.edu or by telephone at (540) 261–8470. The Student Support Center is located in the second floor of Main Hall.
