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I nearly had an aneurysm in early October when the gym was closed to “incentivize mask wearing.” Last Friday, when I was warned that the gym will be closed November 8 and 9, ostensibly to punish unmasked students, I almost did something, well, destructive.
At the start of fall, the College adopted an indoor mask mandate, required most students and faculty and staff members to be vaccinated and pushed for weekly testing. This term has seen relatively low case counts — with a “blip” toward the end of the term, according to interim provost David Kotz — and some closures of the gym facilities.
Mental health resources on campus continue to offer remote services due to the accessibility of digital support and concerns about COVID-19.
Few would disagree that mental health has become a critical issue on campus. Last year saw the sharp increase of rates of anxiety and depression in students, as well as with four deaths among the student body, three of which were by suicide among the Class of 2024. An investigation by The Dartmouth last July confirmed that the College’s existing mental health infrastructure was insufficient to handle this rise in mental health struggles on campus, although College President Phil Hanlon pledged in an email to campus last May — days after the death of Elizabeth Reimer ’24 — to increase mental health support. Now, months later, students are wondering whether the administration delivered on its promise.
Well, it looks like spooky season hasn’t passed us by just yet. Halloween decorations that have overstayed their welcome linger ominously in front yards, the stress of finals lurks around the corner and — perhaps scariest of all — the end of fall term is approaching dangerously quickly. For some seniors, this will be the last New England fall they experience at Dartmouth. Just the thought of an October without fresh apple cider donuts and peak foliage is enough to spook even the most fear-loving among us.
The Sexual Violence Prevention Project — the College’s four-year sexual violence prevention curriculum — is currently contemplating canceling all of this academic year’s curriculum for the Class of 2023. SVPP officials expect to make a decision “over the next couple of weeks,” director Amanda Childress said.
Dartmouth is short on cash, or so it seems. Last year, the College cut the budget of its study abroad programs by 45% and permanently shuttered two of its five libraries. This year, the College is struggling with “labor shortages,” which they refuse to resolve by offering higher wages. The labor shortage is so bad, the College argues, that the students should excuse food lines that stretch down the block and Living Learning Communities where the students live with mice, exposed wires, no shower heads and a floor so tilted that items roll across the room.
Most current Dartmouth students remember the hell this campus went through last year: Dealt a bounty of pandemic-related stressors, students’ mental health suffered tremendously over the course of last year, and three first-year students — Beau DuBray ’24, Connor Tiffany ’24 and Elizabeth Reimer ’24 — died by suicide within a matter of six months. In response to these deaths and years of complaints from students about Dartmouth’s mental health infrastructure, the College announced a four-year partnership with the JED Foundation, a national nonprofit that promotes emotional health on college campuses. The partnership began last week when the “Healthy Minds” survey was fielded to students. Over the next two years, that survey and other findings will be used to implement interventions on campus before the survey is readministered in the 2024-25 academic year. Some community members see this partnership in a positive light; one student referred to it as “a step in the ‘right direction’” in a recent article.
Updated 2:20 p.m., Oct. 31, 2021.
Earlier this month, Dartmouth announced a 46.5% return on its endowment, which reached an eyebrow-raising total value of $8.5 billion. This windfall, after a year of slashed study abroad programs and library closures, seemed to embarrass the College into action. Dartmouth immediately announced an increase to the student minimum wage, bonuses for employees and grad students, and more generous financial aid policies.
Last week, the College announced that its endowment grew 46.5% in 2021 to $8.5 billion. Dartmouth has allocated $335 million to this year’s operating budget, some of which the College has pledged to spend on increasing student wages and addressing student mental health concerns, among other initiatives. While some supported the College’s additional spending on students, others believed the College could have allocated more from the endowment to help improve life on campus.
The Call to Lead campaign has surpassed its $3 billion target, the College announced in an article in Dartmouth News. According to the announcement, over 90,000 members of the Dartmouth community, including 56% of all Dartmouth alumni from the five schools — the undergraduate College, the Geisel School of Medicine, the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, the Thayer School of Engineering and the Tuck School of Business — contributed to the campaign.
On Oct. 5, College President Phil Hanlon sent an email to campus employees announcing that Dartmouth staff and faculty’s holiday break this year will extend from Dec. 20 through Dec. 31., a week longer than the typical break of Dec. 27 to Dec. 31. Both part-time and full-time Dartmouth employees will be paid at their normal base rate during this period, according to the College’s human resources website.
On Oct. 5, Student Assembly’s mental health committee announced its Calm app pilot program in a campus-wide email. Beginning on Oct. 11, the pilot program gave 100 randomly-selected students a free one-year subscription to Calm, an app that, according to the email, helps users decrease anxiety and improve sleep through its guided meditations and music library. According to the application’s website, Calm’s resources are “evidence-based” and informed by “rigorous scientific research” that includes 12 research publications.
The first time I went to a gym, I dropped a weight on my foot. I was a stick-thin, anxiety-riddled 18-year-old who had just arrived in Tel Aviv on a gap year program. The only reason I was at this strange, odorous facility in the first place was because my friends had somehow cajoled me into accompanying them, even though I was staunchly against actually joining the gym. When we strolled down the aisles of panting millennials on ellipticals and bulging Israeli Defense Forces soldiers pumping ungodly heavy curls, however, my perspective quickly began to change. Contrary to my expectations, I wasn’t being judged for my super-skinny arms at all. Nobody cared if I was barely able to wobble up a 20-pound weight— they were simply concerned with their own workout. When I attempted to lug a 30-pounder over to my bench, the weight rolled right off the rack, thunking onto my right foot. And yet, while my pain was very real, the expected accompanying embarrassment simply never came.
Professors, as well as the administration, love to tell us to put our health first. They tell us to sleep and to eat and to take care of our mental health — and to put all those things before our schoolwork. And yet, the incentive to sacrifice our physical, mental and emotional health on the altar of academia remains. If we want a culture of healthier and happier students, and people in general, then we need new norms. Extensions, understanding and academic flexibility must all become a deeper part of Dartmouth’s culture.
This editorial is featured in the 2021 Homecoming special issue.
After over a year and a half of COVID-19 guidelines on social life, students have returned to in-person club meetings and programming. Many expressed enthusiasm for attending social events, but some club leaders have raised concerns about COVID-19 guidelines.
After the pandemic saw rates of anxiety and depression increase among students and the deaths of three freshmen by suicide, the College faced widespread criticism for its insufficient mental health resources. In response to these mounting complaints, College President Phil Hanlon announced in a May 21 email to campus that Dartmouth would launch a four-year partnership with the JED Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes emotional health for teens and young adults. The first year of the partnership is slated to begin over the course of the next few weeks.
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”