It goes without saying that the global pandemic affected our lives as students in a way or another. In fact, everything changed in March 2020. It was only a few days before the midterms period that we traveled back to our hometowns. The thought of returning back home was a relief to many of us. We packed, excited to spend a one-week long spring break off-campus, but little did we know that we would end up staying home for what it felt like an eternity.
We endured a plethora of changes. We were introduced to new methods of learning from online classes on Teams that started in Spring 2020, to the hybrid classes that were implemented for fall 2020. We stayed in quarantine for weeks, yet, we managed to adapt to the new “way of doing things”. In this context, it is crucial to raise awareness about the impact of these series of events on students’ mental health. Therefore, our focus in today’s article goes beyond academics and student life. We aim at investigating the mental health state at AUI after all of these changes through interviews with both students and the counseling services available at AUI.
We tend to focus on our physical health while our mental health is equally important
Lara Ziyanı, Student at AUI
The pre-covid mental health situation at AUI
Before starting to evaluate the general mental state at AUI for this fall semester, it is important to acknowledge that college life is always extremely stressful. As students, we oftentimes feel pressured to have the best college experience. We constantly strive for better grades, leadership positions, and internship opportunities. While this is extremely beneficial for one’s future career, it has some adverse effects; In the process of the latter, we tend to forget about the importance of our mental health. We tend to suppress our feelings in order to enhance our focus in our classes and keep our GPA as high as possible. Unfortunately, due to this lack of attention to mental health issues, students end up suffering from high levels of anxiety, burnouts, or even depression.
I feel like everyone is under pressure and is on the verge of having a mental breakdown at any moment. I don’t think that it is specific to certain people or circumstances, it is more of the general state of mind in college
Kenza Bahraoui, Student at AUI
Counseling services at AUI
One of the main things that newcomers get introduced to every semester is the counseling services at AUI. While they might seem like the solution to all the students’ mental issues, it is not always the case. In fact, based on our interviews, we noticed that students have different opinions about it.
Indeed, some students expressed their fulfillment and satisfaction in regards to the sessions they have already tried before. “I used counseling services offered on campus and I was very comfortable during the session. One of the things I really appreciated is the no-judgment session with the counselor and the new perspective that they give in order to resolve the issue”, explains a student.
Others conveyed their disappointment claiming that they attempted to give the counseling service a try, but nothing changed. “The first time I went to counseling services, it was not helpful at all. I thought that more sessions would make it better, but it didn’t work. After many trials, I decided to stop”, stated a student.
However, all the interviewed students agreed that the number of counselors is insufficient compared to the number of students on campus. Also, they mentioned that having more Moroccan counselors would be very appreciated.
If I were to change anything about the services, it would be the addition of a Moroccan counselor with whom students could feel more comfortable speaking Darija and who would understand the intricacies of our culture better than most foreigners
Ayah Isbayene, Student at AUI
Post-covid mental health at AUI: students’ perspective
It is extremely challenging to describe the mental health state at AUI through a sentence, a paragraph, or an article. Students are different. They have been through different circumstances during the last few months, they dealt with their emotions in different ways, and they didn’t necessarily have the same perspective towards the situation at AUI during the times of this pandemic.
There are students who affirmed that by now, they have adapted to the new learning methods. Some even added that they completely learned how to coexist with the pandemic.
I have adapted since late march, to be honest, however, I am eager to get back to “normal life” without these restrictions
Student at AUI
However, it is fair to argue that this case represents the minority within the community because a plethora of other interviewees claimed that their mental health is still affected by the pandemic. They added that they still haven’t fully adapted to the new situation. Indeed, many on-campus students believe that campus life for this semester is very different. They get nostalgic about all the fun activities they did freely before the implementation of the sanitary restrictions. It has been almost two months now that fall 2020 has started, and many people are still not able to join campus. They’re obliged to stay home which usually worsens their mental state and makes the adaptation process even harder.
I am grateful to be alive and safe. However, it is quite difficult to grapple with feelings like “a second class citizen” as someone who is off-campus
Ayah Isbayene, Student at AUI
Moreover, by this time, many professors expect students to have fully adapted to the new flipped learning method, the online classes, and the presence of a deadly pandemic. However, the reality is that there is still a myriad of students who haven’t completed the transition yet, and they perhaps never will.
I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to adapt to this situation since I think about it as something that will pass by not as something that will stay
Lara Ziyanı, Student at AUI
Post-covid mental health at AUI: the counselors perspective
In order to get more details about mental health at AUI, we interviewed our counselor Kathryn Ember Stubanas. She claimed that their workload shifted completely in March 2020. She asserted that on the one hand, some students stopped using counseling services once they got back home with their families, but on the other hand, many more people started requesting sessions for the first time. Students started having new needs, especially in regards to family issues, that the counselors never dealt with before. Thus, it was a hard period for them as well.
Based on Mrs. Stubanas’ experience, students now reach out to counseling more than ever. This can be explained by the fact that many entertainment means that made students forget about the pressure of assignments earlier are no longer available now.
Besides, one of the most interesting points that we learned through this interview was that the online experience impacted positively the counseling process. Students tend to open up more to the counselor, they become more vulnerable, and more comfortable as well. However, it still has many disadvantages as it is sometimes hard to tackle urgent cases.
Most importantly, Mrs. Stubanas believes that students still haven’t adapted to the new situation yet. She made it clear that for students, the adaptation process in such circumstances is still complicated.
Are students over it? Well, I don’t think anyone even began dealing with it. While students have done a great job to adapt, they’re still not doing well emotionally and mentally
Kathryn Ember Stubanas, Counselor at AUI
Counseling services: which priority are they given?
Based on our interviews with both students and Mrs.Stubanas, it is fair to argue that the resources that AUI is providing for students in terms of counseling services are highly insufficient. Students are oftentimes obliged to wait for at least one week in order to get their session. Tens of students are getting waitlisted every week. This is due to the low number of available counselors. Therefore, given that students’ needs for mental support are getting higher and higher especially with the huge number of newcomers this semester. It is fair to argue that AUI should be taking the counseling department seriously.
Finally, what would the counselor say to AUIers?
“Students should learn that it is okay not to be okay. Usually, when students try to go through a period of crisis, they tend to suppress their anxiety and emotions. Instead, they try to work harder. Here, we can give the example of the midterms or the finals periods. However, in the case of the pandemic, it is lasting too long for students to suppress their emotions. Students should recognize that their bodies try to inform them about their mental state. If students feel something in their bodies (signs of anxiety for instance), they should not ignore them, they should name what is happening. Students must do things to address that kind of anxiety. Sometimes that means changing the way they use their time, and prioritizing self-care.”, stated Kathryn Stubanas, a counselor at AUI.
