Quinnipiac University announced Monday afternoon that Judy D. Olian would be named the ninth president in the history of the school.
Olian takes over the role from John Lahey, who served as Quinnipiac’s president since 1978, a 31- year tenure. Lahey officially gives way to Olian on July 1, 2018.
“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be here,” Olian said. “(I am) very excited to be joining you in building this next phase of a very special university.”
Olian takes time out to talk to Hamden mayor Curt B. Lang after her press conference.
Olian has been serving as the dean at the UCLA Anderson School of Management since 2006, and is the first female president in Quinnipiac history.
The school had been reviewing candidates for a new president since Lahey announced his impending retirement in April of 2017. Under Lahey, Quinnipiac has added two campuses and increased enrollment to more than five times as many students per year, as well as a added a polling institute and Division I athletics.
“This is an exciting time for Quinnipiac University,” Lahey said in a statement announcing Olian’s appointment. “We wish Dr. Judy Olian the best of luck as she builds on the success forged by our students, faculty and staff, working with the Quinnipiac community to move our institution to even greater levels of achievement.”
That’s what people expect from someone who has just survived a sexual assault.
Support.
That’s what survivors expect from others after having just survived a sexual assault.
But as Christina, then 19, sat in that cold room for a hearing in front of a board of strangers who were forcing her to relive the details of the night it happened, tears never came.
To make matters worse, her assaulter was sitting in the same room, just beyond a divider. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel that he was there. She didn’t speak to him, but she could hear his voice.
And as Christina left that room without a ruling to give her closure, support never came.
One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college.
More than 90 percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault.
Christina was part of the minority who do. But, as she left her Title IX hearing, she knew changes to the process had to be made.
The U.S. Board of Education knew this, too. But it had other changes in mind.
On Sept. 22, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos introduced new interim guidance for schools on how to investigate and adjudicate allegations of campus sexual misconduct under federal law. These sexual misconduct cases fall under Title IX—a nationwide federal statute applied to grades K-12, higher education institutions and other educational agencies and intended to protect people from sex discrimination in education programs or other activities, according to the Department of Education.
“The interim guidance will help schools as they work to combat sexual misconduct and will treat all students fairly,” DeVos said in a statement. While she wants sexual misconduct issues to be handled “head-on” on college campuses, DeVos said she believes the process needs to be more equitable for the accused student.
Perhaps the biggest change outlined in the guidance allows universities to modify the standard of evidence by which they rule on campus sexual assault cases. Schools are now able to move from a “preponderance of evidence” to a “clear and convincing” standard of proof.
The higher standard of evidence makes cases of sexual misconduct more difficult to prove. The new standard requires more evidence, closer to the “beyond-a-reasonable-doubt” standard employed in federal court cases. This is where the guidance stirs up controversy: Proponents of the higher evidence standard claim that this will allow for a fairer process for both parties, while opponents argue that it will discourage students from reporting sexual assaults.
National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015.
National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 2015.
Title IX is best known for helping to bring equality to women’s athletics, but it also governs sexual misconduct cases at educational institutions — which is what the new interim guidance focuses on.
Quinnipiac senior, Ian Zeitlin.
Quinnipiac senior Ian Zeitlin, senior class representative for the Student Government Association and president of WISH (Women in Support of Humanity), is opposed to the idea of schools implementing the higher standard.
“When it comes down to it, going to that higher level of evidence is really damaging,” Zeitlin said. “We’re coming from a society where we already have a number of untold cases that are not reported because of the pressures put on by other people in a system that doesn’t always work in favor of survivors. Putting forward a message that you need more evidence makes it harder for people to think that, if they come forward, they’ll be treated fairly or that people will be on their side.”
However, it is ultimately up to the schools to decide whether or not they choose to adopt this new guidance. Seann Kalagher, the associate dean of Student Affairs and deputy Title IX coordinator for students at Quinnipiac, said that the new guidance is simply supplemental.
“The thing is, with the new guidance, it didn’t tell us what we have to do,” Kalagher said, sitting at his desk with his hands folded neatly in his lap. “It really just said, ‘Some things we told you that you couldn’t do are now available to you.’ ”
Terri Johnson, associate vice president of operations and Title IX coordinator at Quinnipiac, sent an email to students regarding the new guidance on the Monday following DeVos’ initial statements. The email was sent to clarify what was proposed by DeVos and outlined how Quinnipiac plans to respond.
How does Quinnipiac plan to respond?
Thanks, but no thanks, Mrs. DeVos.
“It is important to note that the Quinnipiac Title IX team carefully and continuously reviews our policies to ensure timely and equitable treatment for both the reporting and responding parties; we will certainly continue to do so as the Department of Education changes evolve through the current administration,” Johnson wrote. “It is equally important to note that the action last week does not change Quinnipiac’s obligations, policies or procedures.”
Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Deputy Title IX Coordinator, Seann Kalagher.
The email also highlighted the fact that Quinnipiac has no plans to adjust the appeals process either. Quinnipiac currently allows both parties to appeal a decision and will continue to do so despite the guidance’s suggestion that only allow the accused student be allowed an appeal. Johnson concluded the email by listing resources for support.
Kalagher refers to the new guidance, however, as a “placeholder” – certain that it was issued temporarily until the Department of Education can conduct a more comprehensive regulatory process in which it will negotiate changes to overhaul Title IX policy regulations.
Zeitlin agrees. “I think this year’s “trial period” essentially is being used as more of a “cooling-off” period before they say they’re going to possibly put forth guidelines that make it harder to prove or accuse someone of sexual assault,” Zeitlin said.
With the likelihood of a Title IX overhaul in the future, officials on both sides say it is important for colleges and universities to be on the same page as their students in order to brace for the impact of a potentially permanent and mandatory revised policy. The conduct process is where faculty members and students have the greatest opportunity to work together to ensure that students aren’t discouraged from coming forward.
Courtney McKenna, director of Student Affairs and a Title IX investigator at Quinnipiac, defended the school’s adherence to the original standard of evidence while describing the process by which sexual assault cases are handled.
“I think our process is really fair and student centered,” McKenna said, smiling. “It’s always about, ‘How do we make sure we find as much information as we can as appropriately as possible while keeping the students in mind?’”
McKenna described the sexual assault case process as “equitable” — and adding that this is what makes Quinnipiac’s approach successful. Once a student comes forward, the process begins. In each case, Kalagher appoints two impartial investigators who conduct interviews and acquire as much information as they can in order to reach a conclusion.
Once sufficient information has been gathered by the investigators, which can take several weeks depending on the case, the findings are brought to a board hearing. The board reads all reports, identifies questions and implements a sanction as it sees fit during a hearing that generally takes place in a single day. Sanctions can range from writing a reflective essay to removal from residential housing on campus and even expulsion from the university.
As an investigator, McKenna takes her responsibility to seek an equitable outcome seriously and refers to the process as “trauma-informed” in order to avoid what she calls “revictimization.” Revictimization can occur when the victim is forced to relive an event by retelling his or her story too many times or experiencing a lack of support during the recovery process itself. For McKenna, this is something she and her fellow faculty members try to avoid throughout the process.
“We’ve set it up so that the student isn’t having to have to share with a lot of different people. They can choose if they want to share and bring a counselor or support person or friend with them to a meeting,” she said. “The students involved know that if they ever need something throughout the process, they can reach out to the investigators.”
Christina, a junior who did not wish to share her last name to protect her identity and works as a graphic designer for Quinnipiac, had her own thoughts about the investigation process. Christina, who was in a verbally abusive relationship with a fellow Quinnipiac student that “had its breaking point” in an incident on campus just over a year ago, described the process as equivalent to repeatedly ripping open a wound.
“It’s hard because you’re literally forced to relive the night over and over again. They keep going through it,” Christina said, her glassy eyes staring straight ahead. “They ask you a ton of questions because they want a very thorough investigation. My case took three to four months. There’s weeks where they don’t need anything from you, and those are good weeks, but they rip open the wound again next week when they need more information from you. Each time it gets appealed, it’s like a fight to come up with new information so you can prove yourself.”
A timeline outlining the steps of a typical Title IX investigation at Quinnipiac, as described in detail by McKenna, can be seen below.
After the incident occurred, she had to rebuild her life. She still avoids certain places on campus because she doesn’t want to run into her attacker. Even after being charged on five out of the six accusations, he still attends Quinnipiac. Christina chose not to exercise her right to appeal his sanctions because, she said, she was tired and “didn’t want to deal with it anymore”.
Christina said Quinnipiac, in lieu of the new guidance, could make a change to the Title IX process to unite students and faculty since the biggest divide between them isn’t the process itself, but what happens after.
“I completely agree to a fair process,” Christina insisted. “But after the whole thing is done and over with, I feel like there’s no transition from the process to moving on. I feel like they want to dig up all of this information but when it’s over with, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s over. You’re done here … you’re fine’.”
Providing students with an outside person trained in Title IX who is available to provide support as the victim moves on after the process concludes would be a major improvement, Christina said. It would ultimately help encourage students to continue to come forward because they would know they’d have the help of someone who understands what happens after the process is over.
Students like Tatyana Youssef, vice president for student experience for the Student Government Association at Quinnipiac, agree that changes need to be made — even if they aren’t what DeVos proposed.
“Events and panel discussions regarding the issue should be mandatory for all students on campuses,” Youssef said. “Revictimization is the worst thing next to a sexual assault case, so professors should implement these social issues into the curriculum for awareness.”
Senior political science major and Quinnipiac student, Peter Carusone, defends DeVos’ new “fair” guidance proposal based on what he says are constitutional rights that affirm individuals as innocent until proven guilty from the very beginning of the process.
Quinnipiac senior, Peter Carusone.
“I think people over analyze decisions sometimes. They’ll take too much from it. They’ll say, ‘Oh Betsy DeVos is protecting bad people,’ but that wasn’t her intention, and that’s not why she did it,” he said. “There were too many good people being harmed by [the preponderance standard], and I think all she did was say, ‘Let’s go back to our criminal justice system. Let’s go back to innocent until proven guilty.’”
Carusone argues that returning to the “clear and convincing” evidence standard would allow colleges and universities to function more like a courtroom while upholding the Constitution – something he says is a priority.
“You should want constitutional rights. You should want due process. You should want equal protection. Those things are good,” he said. “We should be wanting more of that, and I think it’s innocent until proven guilty for a reason.”
When asked how he would respond to opponents of the new guidance who argue that implementing a higher evidence standard would discourage victims from coming forward, Carusone said that particular issue already exists with sexual assault cases – higher standard or not.
“The problem throughout history is that there is a stigma: People won’t talk about it, and they won’t even go to law enforcement,” he said. “But, now, we’re seeing people talk about it, at least. It’s on us to fix it and talk about the commonality of [sexual assault] in order to prevent it in the first place.”
Tamar Birckhead, a 52-year-old attorney and former law professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, Duke School of Law and Yale Law School currently living in Guilford, Connecticut, has defended university students accused of sexual assault before and agrees with Carusone that universities should adopt DeVos’ higher standard of evidence.
“It is beneficial because of the lack of due process afforded to accused students, although I recognize that the higher the standard of proof, the more traumatic the experience could be for the complainant,” Birckhead said. “But, given the grave potential consequences and sanctions for the accused, it is a tradeoff that I would support.”
In her experience, she said, accused students in these cases are often treated unfairly in the process. Birckhead says that, to fix this, investigations and adjudication of sexual assault cases should be handled by law enforcement – not universities.
“Alleged victims should be referred to the local police, and if a conviction or other sanction results, it should be reported to and evaluated by the university, which then could determine its own sanction, if any, and should consider mediation and restorative justice models,” Birckhead explained. “If these cases automatically were reported to and investigated by local law enforcement in this way, it would serve as a greater deterrent to assailants than the threat of mere academic discipline.”
While the process didn’t necessarily yield the outcome Christina hoped for, she decided to use her experience to help spread awareness and advocate for other survivors by writing articles for The Chronicle—a Quinnipiac student-run newspaper. Her most recent article was an opinion piece on the new guidance titled, “DeVos missed the point with Title IX,” commending Quinnipiac for its decision not to follow the new guidelines while highlighting the bigger issue: revictimization.
“I don’t agree with DeVos’ changes because I don’t think the issue with Title IX lies in the amount of evidence we are collecting to prove the accused,” Christina wrote. “The issue lies in sanctioning the guilty, providing support in helping victims readjust to school and in making an effort to prevent Title IX violations all together.”
This is where faculty members and students, like Christina and Youssef, agree. Encouraging students to come forward by implementing new educational programs and promoting other changes in lieu of the new guidance, regardless of what they believe the outcome might be, is more important than any changes that DeVos proposed, they say.
McKenna plans to roll out a program in February called Haven, which is similar in style to the alcohol education course that incoming Quinnipiac freshman take. She says that her department is excited to get the program up and running to educate the student body.
“We’re constantly always looking to see what would be impactful,” McKenna said. “Something could work well for a couple of years, but then it gets stale. So how do we change that to make it relevant?”
Campus officials hope that programs like these and events that spread awareness will lead to a decline in sexual assault cases on campus, and an end to revictimization over all—without needing a higher evidence standard to prove a case.
Although the process was taxing on Christina, speaking up was most important.
“Even though things didn’t end in my favor, I don’t regret reporting it to the school at all. I think just going through the process is a symbol of strength that you’re fighting back and trying to get justice for what happened to you, and you deserve that,” Christina said. “Title IX is in place so that you have the opportunity to feel safe at school, and take advantage of that because you shouldn’t have to walk around campus feeling unsafe.”
College can be a challenging experience for many students. But for those with mental illnesses, the typical college struggles can be amplified.
Mental health problems, especially anxiety and depression, have been a growing concern on college campuses in recent years.
According to the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment from fall 2016, almost 20 percent of students reported being diagnosed with or treated for anxiety within the past year and 15.2 percent were diagnosed with or treated for depression.
However, not all students seek mental health treatment, so the actual rates of anxiety and depression could be higher. In fact, the same survey found that 60.8 percent of all students said they had felt overwhelming anxiety and 38.2 percent felt so depressed that it was difficult to function within the past year.
Not only are anxiety and depression the most common mental health problems among college students, but the distress levels associated with them are also on the rise. According to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health’s 2016 annual report, students’ distress levels for depression, generalized anxiety and social anxiety have increased the past six years. Meanwhile, distress levels for other concerns have decreased or remained constant.
The prevalence of these mental health issues may be due to the distinct situation college students are in. This is the time when many people experience significant stress for the first time. For many students, it is also the first time they live on their own and take on more responsibility. The combination of these factors can worsen or trigger students’ mental illnesses.
At colleges across the country, including Quinnipiac University, students with mental illnesses have a unique experience. The interaction between the college environment and their illnesses can lead to challenges that aren’t shared with any other age group.
“Transition to college and other factors found on campus can highlight stressors that individuals thought they were able to handle in previous years,” Quinnipiac counselor Sheila van den Broeck said. “Being away from one’s support system can also add to the decrease in the individual’s ability to cope.”
Penny Leisring, a psychology professor at Quinnipiac, agrees. She says “stress and big transitions” and “being away from family and friends” are reasons why a student’s mental health might worsen while in college.
Stress, commonly caused by finances and academics, is a major concern for all college students. However, dealing with stress can be particularly hard for students also experiencing mental health problems.
American College Health Association; Center for Collegiate Mental Health
When it comes to academics, depression and anxiety can have a negative effect. According to the ACHA’s fall 2016 assessment, nearly a quarter of students reported that anxiety affected their academic performance within the previous year and 15.4 percent said depression affected their academic performance. The effects on academics ranged from receiving a low grade to having to drop a class.
Students at Quinnipiac who see their academics affected by their struggles with mental illness can seek help at the Counseling Center.
“Poor academic performance can be a factor but we encourage the use of the Learning Commons and open dialogue with their professors,” van den Broeck said. “We also encourage learning strategies, deep breathing, and other techniques tailored to the student’s individual needs.”
Regardless of academic difficulties, all students suffering from a mental illness are encouraged to take advantage of the resources available to them on campus and beyond.
“There are many effective treatments for anxiety and depression like cognitive behavioral therapy,” Leisring said. “And there is an office on campus called the Office of Student Accessibility that can help students arrange appropriate accommodations if any are needed. For example, a student with a severe mental health problem may want to take a reduced course load, may need extra time for exams, etc.”
Many students do utilize these resources, including the Counseling Center. According to van den Broeck, the center has had 550 intakes this semester.
“Students attend counseling for a variety of behavioral health related issues,” van den Broeck said. “Some stemming from transition issues, interpersonal issues, stress-related symptoms and persistent illnesses.”
However, the Counseling Center isn’t perfect. It has a small staff and limited hours, which means students don’t always get as much help as they need.
Still, receiving professional counseling can be helpful to students in many ways. For one, it may be their only source of support. Many students with mental illnesses say they lack support from their family and friends, according to the CCMH’s 2016 report.
The lack of support may stem from the stigma that surrounds mental illness. People often label those who have a mental illness as “crazy.” They may also make assumptions that they are dangerous, criminal or unable to live normal lives. Due to these misconceptions, students with mental illnesses may feel judged or isolated. They may also be afraid to speak up about their issues.
These students may have much in common. However, mental illness does not affect everyone the same way. Every student faces different challenges and uses different coping methods. While research, data and expert’s statements are important, they cannot tell the whole story.
Each student’s voice deserves to be heard, so here are just a few of those voices.
ANNA’S STORY
Anna, a senior at Quinnipiac, has suffered from multiple anxiety disorders since she was in elementary school. Since then, her anxiety has progressively gotten worse. Starting college led to a spike in her symptoms and she had trouble adjusting.
“By the end of my freshman year, I thought I had made a huge mistake. I didn’t think I was cut out for college,” Anna said. “I started seriously considering dropping out or transferring to my community college at home or starting an online program. I just felt so alone and my anxiety was really interfering with my life and I was not coping well.”
Anna says the stress she experienced was a major factor in her considering to leave Quinnipiac. But unlike many students who consider dropping out, her grades were never suffering. Anna has always been a good student and gets mostly A’s. However, that doesn’t mean classes aren’t anxiety-inducing for her.
“Presentations and group projects are the worst. So are discussion-based classes. I obviously do much better in lectures with individual assignments so I can keep to myself,” Anna said. “If I can go a whole class without talking, I consider it a good class. But unfortunately I can’t always be that lucky. In many classes, I have to speak so I dread going to them and get very anxious before and during them.”
Anna’s anxiety often interferes with other aspects of her life as well.
“Everyday things that most people don’t think twice about are really difficult for me. People might mistake it as laziness or just not wanting to do something, but it is truly physically difficult for me,” Anna said. “Getting the mail, taking out the garbage, ordering food, going to an appointment, going to class – they are all so hard sometimes.”
Anna says most people are not aware of these kinds of issues that go along with anxiety She says she often feels misunderstood and judged.
“It can be really isolating,” Anna said. “I don’t feel like anybody really understands what I deal with.”
Feeling alone has been a common theme in Anna’s life. She says she has never had many friends. This stems from her social anxiety, which makes it difficult for her to interact with people.
“It’s really hard to make friends and that means I don’t have many people I can talk to about my issues, so I mostly just keep it all to myself and I feel like I am going to explode,” Anna said.
Anna also does not receive any professional help. She has not seen a therapist since she was younger, but she thinks she needs to seek help again. She knows she needs it and that it could make her life much better. However, it is not that simple for her.
“I want to see a therapist because of my anxiety, but I don’t want to see a therapist because of my anxiety,” Anna said. “I kind of get caught in this cycle because the thing I need help with is the thing that prevents me from getting help.”
While some days are harder than others, Anna feels like she is on the right track. She says the next year or so will be difficult, but she is trying to be optimistic about her future. Despite her anxiety, she is the kind of person who always tries to focus on the positives.
DAVID’S STORY
David is a Quinnipiac senior who has suffered from depression since he was in middle school. He has also had periods of feeling suicidal.
“When I was in middle school, I would walk to the train tracks in my town like every day and just sit there and contemplate jumping in front of the train,” David said.
Like Anna, David does not currently receive any professional help.
“In high school I kind of freaked out on my mom and told her I felt depressed and suicidal. Of course, then she made me go see a therapist. But that didn’t last long – just a couple weeks,” David said. “I just didn’t see how it could possibly help and I assured my mom that I was ok. In retrospect, I probably should have kept seeing the therapist. Maybe I wouldn’t have these issues anymore or I’d be able to cope in better ways.”
His current method of coping is by abusing alcohol and drugs.
“When everything gets too hard and too much to handle, I drink or smoke or take pills,” David said. “I know it’s not the right answer to my problems, but it seems to be the only thing that works.”
Though he has not felt suicidal in a few years, David says his depression has worsened while in college. Being away from family and having easier access to drugs and alcohol has had a negative impact on his mental health. However, people who know him may not be aware of that.
“Most people have no idea what I am going through. I’m pretty outgoing and seem to be in a good mood all the time, but it’s really just a show,” David said. “I hide everything pretty well. I used to have to work at hiding things, but now it is just natural to lie and pretend.”
ALEX’S STORY
Alex Nauta is a sophomore at Quinnipiac who is double majoring in marketing and operations and supply chain management. She has suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety since she was 8 years old.
OCD is significantly less common among college students, and in general, than depression and anxiety. According to the ACHA’s fall 2016 assessment, 3.2 percent of students were diagnosed with or treated for OCD within the previous year.
Ever since she was diagnosed as a child, Nauta has been in and out of intensive therapy. However, she maintains a positive view of her mental illnesses.
“I have gotten used to it for the most part,” Nauta said. “It has become a part of me and although at times it may set me back, it has given me some of my greatest strengths.”
But starting college had both positive and negative effects on her mental health. On the one hand, she says she did not have much trouble with adjusting.
“I am pretty resilient and adaptable and have always worked hard and done well academically,” Nauta said.
She also says college-related stress has not been a major factor in her mental health.
“For the most part, my stress has decreased since college,” Nauta said. “I thrive and am the happiest when I am busy.”
However, it hasn’t all been easy for Nauta.
“Due to the stigma of having a mental illness, my freshman year I had to switch roommates because my first room was uncomfortable with my medication” Nauta said. “They didn’t understand mental health and thought my medication classified me as crazy.”
The lack of acceptance from her peers was made harder by being away from her supportive family.
“I am extremely close to my family. I miss them in school and still call them every day,” Nauta said. “It is hard being away, but I know they are always there for me regardless of the struggles I am facing. I don’t go home often, but it is always great to go home and see them.”
To help deal with those struggles, Nauta takes advantage of the resources on Quinnipiac’s campus.
“I use the on-campus psychiatrist once or twice a semester and check in with the Counseling Center about once a month,” Nauta said.
Her other coping methods include running and making jewelry. The jewelry Nauta makes and sells is intended to raise awareness about mental illness and money for the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, which funds mental illness research. It is important to Nauta to do what she can to fight the stigma surrounding mental illness.
RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS
The uniqueness of the college years creates distinct challenges for students with mental illnesses. When they were younger, they had less stress that was weighing on them and exacerbating symptoms. As they grow older, they might have better coping methods and more control over their issues.
But during the transition from childhood to adulthood, dealing with a mental illness can be extremely difficult. With the added stress of finances and academics and the absence of a support system, students like Anna, David and Alex may struggle.
While every student doesn’t have the exact same experience or challenges, there are resources available that can be helpful to everyone at Quinnipiac who has mental health problems.
The Counseling Center provides students with individual counseling and support groups. Students can make an appointment with a counselor online through MyQ. Services are free and will not be billed to students’ insurance companies.
The Learning Commons provides students with academic support. It offers peer tutors to help any student who needs assistance with a class or assignment.
The Office of Student Accessibility makes accommodations for students with disabilities. Students can fill out a form to request an accommodation.
There are multiple therapists and psychiatrists nearby to Quinnipiac. They can provide therapy and medications if necessary. Psychology Today has a search engine to help people find psychiatrists that suit their needs and take their insurance.
There are also organizations like the National Alliance on Mental Illness that provide education and support and raise awareness about mental health.
Multiple helplines are also available to anyone who needs someone to talk to. Some can provide more information about certain issues while others serve as an intervention during a crisis.
December 14, 2012, is a day that will haunt Newtown, Connecticut for decades to come. But it does not want to be defined by this one tragedy.
As the five-year anniversary has drawn closer, the residents find it a dreadful reminder of the emotions they felt that day. Even with more mass killings in the United States since 2012, the shootings at Sandy Hook still generate a sense of horror and dread and have led to calls for tighter gun control measures.
While the event is forever burned into the memories of residents, the town is making the conscientious choice to move forward and not be defined by one singular tragedy.
Scarlett Lewis lost one of her sons, Jesse, in that fateful day. When the news broke, she was devastated. Jesse was six-years old at the time.
Jesse was known for his bravery in the face of danger. During the shooting, he looked the gunman in the eye and told his classmates to run away from the gunman according to one of the parents in the April 21, 2013 broadcast of CBS’s Face the Nation. Jesse was shot and killed by Adam Lanza, looking at Lanza straight in the eye in his final moments.
While Lewis was faced with the biggest nightmare a parent could have, she didn’t want this to permanently change her outlook on life. She noticed other people had let their emotions cloud their better judgement.
“…I watched how other people reacted,” Lewis said. “And a lot of people reacted in anger. When something bad happens, the first thing we say is ‘whose fault is it?’ But I realized that if I did that, I would be another victim of Adam Lanza.”
Prior to her son’s death, Lewis worked as a realtor and municipal bonds trader. Today her life’s goal is to spread love and compassion to productively nurture children who have troubled upbringings and angry emotions. The inspiration for the cause came from Jesse himself.
Every day before school, Jesse would write on a chalkboard. It would be a new word he learned, a drawing, or something that showed he loved his parents. Lewis said that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, she had found three words Jesse had written on the chalkboard: “Nurturing, Healing, Love.”
“I knew (then) that if the shooter in our situation had been able to give and receive love, the tragedy wouldn’t have happened. So that lead me to my mission,” Lewis said.
Soon after this discovery, Lewis started the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Foundation. Through this charity, she hopes to stop acts of rage by giving tools to parents and classrooms to show compassion for children around the world.
From the Jesse Lewis Choose Love website
Lewis is one of several parents of victims who has started a foundation in honor of their late children. She gives frequent speaking engagements preaching her methods of how love can impact one’s life. She spoke this fall at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. Previously she had delivered a TEDx talk in Fayetteville, North Carolina in 2014.
“We are gonna have to create the change we want,” Lewis said.
How was Lewis able to take action after Jesse’s death so quickly? She credits her “tremendous faith in God,” but not everyone is able to live with such a tragedy in a short amount of time.
As grief is considered a normal part of the human experience, there has not been much research done on what grief may do to a person, let alone to a parent who lost their child. In the April 2011 Social Work academic journal published by the Oxford University Press, author Elizabeth C. Pomeroy would probably categorize Lewis as a “resilient” person. Pomeroy describes a subject, Jan, who developed thyroid cancer after her husband’s death and had their mother die of ovarian cancer two years after her own diagnosis. Despite occasionally feeling negative emotions and having to care for her children at the same time, Jan did not let her problems affect her life too much.
“This is not to say there were not times when (Jan) was depressed, anxious, exhausted or in crisis. She experienced a roller coaster of emotions over several years. However, throughout all the bleak periods of her life, she managed to reach out for help, successfully parent her two teenage children, and restore herself to good health,” Pomeroy wrote of Jan.
Pomeroy wrote that the best way to help someone who is going through the sometimes-lengthy process of grieving a loss is to be empathetic towards the person and what they have lost.
“Although empathy has been used by social workers as a basic tool in practitioner-client communication, research during the past decade has examined the neuroscience at the core of this skill. Clearly, empathy is a key component in assisting a grieving child, adult, or family,” Pomeroy wrote.
Organizations such as Lewis’s are using the event to enact positive change or start preventative measures to stop events like this from happening in the future. Many of the prominent charities include the Boston-based Safe & Sound Schools which is focused on school safety and the Catherine Violet Hubbard Foundation which focuses on animal conservation.
The Sandy Hook Promise is the most well-known of these charities that came post-shooting, however. According to the charity’s co-founder Mark Barden, their mission is to “prevent gun-related deaths … so that no parent experiences the senseless, horrific loss of their child.”
Barden lost his son in the attack that fateful day. Since then he has dedicated his life to helping people learn the signs of whether someone will hurt themselves or other people before it is too late.
“Our shooter gave off signs for many months, and we know that many others since have as well. We want to be able to teach people that these tragedies are preventable when we know the signs,” Barden said.
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy created Sandy Hook Advisory Commision in 2013 to figure out what possible motives Lanza may have had to terrorize the school. It appears to agree with what Barden was saying before: while the group does not know what type of mental illness Lanza had (e.g. psychotic or personality based), they do believe it is important to look for the risk factors of what may cause someone to commit such a heinous act without stigmatizing people with mental illnesses in general. External factors like parental and/or substance abuse and internal factors such as high levels of anger are considered signs to look out for when identifying a potentially dangerous individual.
The SHAC has recommended massive amounts of gun control reform in the state such as mandatory background checks for every weapon (approved and adopted) and requiring gun licenses and firearm permits to be renewed on a regular basis (not approved nor adopted).
The lack of considerable federal gun control reform was noted by the nation as a whole. In particular, Former President Barack Obama considers the lack of legislation after Sandy Hook, such as the failed ban on assault weapons in 2013, the “biggest disappointment” of his career in an interview with NBC News.
The assault rifle used in the school, a magazine and the rifle used against Lanza’s mother (source: Sandy Hook Advisory Commission)
“I thought that ‘okay, this has to be a catalyst for some action by Congress.’ I didn’t expect some huge movement on gun safety legislation but I thought ‘well, they’re going to have to make some effort.’ And the fact that it didn’t even get the kind of hearing and votes that you would have expected… you had bipartisan legislature and it didn’t even matter,” Obama said in January 2017.
According to Barden, the Sandy Hook Promise was a major reason that President Obama was able to reform mental health issues as part of the 21st Century Cures Act that he signed into law in December 2016.
Regardless, there was very little change at a legislative level and (along with the Aurora, Colorado shooting in August 2012) kick started a trend of mass shootings across the country. In particular, the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida in June 2016 and the Las Vegas shooting in October 2017 were both far deadlier than Sandy Hook shooting, with Vegas in particular having more than double the casualties of it.
The five deadliest shootings of the past five years in the United States (source: Gun Violence Archive)
While Barden knows that Connecticut will be forever impacted by this day, his organization has focused much more on national legislation. Sandy Hook Promise is based in Newtown, but has field offices in Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, Washington, D.C. and California. They have not made public appearances and calls for help for a while, but do occasionally help those affected by other mass shootings such as the Disarm Hate Rally that happened in August 2016 to support the victims of the Pulse Nightclub shooting.
Changes were also able to be made at the site of the attack itself. The Newtown Board of Education is trying to maintain a positive atmosphere for the children attending the town’s elementary schools.
One Board of Education member, who requested to remain anonymous, says that several programs started in the years following the shooting to create a productive future for the town.
The board spearheaded many changes and new organizations to the school including the climate and culture committee, the teacher forum and a new daycare for faculty members.
Regardless, the town will be affected by this for a long time and is still in the process of recovery.
“It’s still a process. It’s still difficult. It’s going to take time to heal all wounds,” the Board of Education Member said, trembling.
Newtown resident KC Mills agrees with that sentiment. She lives roughly one mile away from the school, and can recall what happened to her that day as if it had just happened.
Originally from New Hampshire, Mills had four friends driving into Newtown to pick her up to go shopping and head down to New York City. When the news of a shooting broke out, they were only ten minutes away from her house.
Once her friends arrived, they went to the Danbury mall to relax and find out what was happening while away from the town. Mills was not prepared for what her husband would tell her.
“I asked my husband who was a policeman to see what was going on,” Mills said. “We went to the Danbury mall and when we were having lunch, my husband called me back and said that they think there are 20 people dead and mostly believed to be children. You just don’t want to believe it, like you want to tell them you’re wrong. We got back home and… we know what happened.”
Michelle Babyak, one of Mills’s friends, is a photographer who lives in Newtown. She was not planning to be with Mills that day, but had considered taking pictures of the shooting to document history. However, she was not emotionally able to handle the tragedy as it was unfolding.
While she is able to cover events related to the attack five years later, she remembers the tragedy hitting too close to home.
“I was not comfortable covering certain things (involving the shooting) at the beginning,” Babyak said. “I am covering the mass for the anniversary this year, but it’s just for the church. I felt as a photographer I should document it, but it made me very uncomfortable so I didn’t do a lot.”
It took some time for the public to find out what happened that day, which greatly worried Babyak, whose son was a junior at a nearby high school at the time of the shooting.
“It was crazy, not knowing what was going on was probably the worst part of it all. I didn’t have anybody in Sandy Hook, my son went to the high school about a mile through the woods. It was scary having my son, who was a junior at the time, in lockdown and it was scary not knowing if… all the reports were accurate. We really didn’t know if there was another shooter,” Babyak said.
Mills, like many people in the United States, has to ask herself tough questions when it comes to such tragic events, like if she has become desensitized to gun violence or how well people affected have recovered since that day.
“I think some have recovered and some haven’t. One of the big things is how people feel about guns… I think the town is doing the best they can… It’s become common. It’s not a gut-wrenching reaction that I have for the first three or four, (I find myself asking) ‘have I become numb to these horrific acts?’” Mills said.
Despite that sentiment, Mills hopes the town is able to move forward in the future, for the sake of the children who bore the brunt of trauma from that day.
“I think of the children who survived, like our friend’s daughter. Will she ever have a normal life? She still can’t handle fireworks… she should have been a happy little girl,” said Mills.
In the weeks after the shooting, she was not happy with the attention brought to her town. When someone found out she was from Newtown while out shopping, Babyak “…felt uncomfortable because you just wanted to be in Newtown with people who could support you rather than onlookers… you kind of just wanted to sit at home.”
More than anything, what the town wants to do is to create lasting change from the infamous day and create positive and lasting influence in preventing mass shootings like this from ever happening again.
This is one of several ways that the town itself is trying to honor the children and adults from that day: never forgetting, but making sure it does not shroud the event in painful feelings.
The parents, the charities, the Newtown Board of Education and the Newtown residents still struggle to move forward from the event, but know that the only way to move past tragedy is to give as much positive impact to the world as they can.
“We don’t define love. Love could mean different things to different people… what we teach is how to have healthy relationships, deep meaningful relationships,” Lewis said.
“We also have and amazing group of almost 3,000 Promise Leaders, who help us bring our programs into school and communities around the country, help advocate for change and support sensible policy where they live,” Barden said.
As student demand for mental health services increases, Quinnipiac tries to keep up
By Dorah Labatte
At first, everything seemed fine. They were seeing each other consistently. It felt like things were really going somewhere and maybe someday he would be her boyfriend. The fall semester came to a close and the two said goodbye. She didn’t know it would be the last she would ever hear from him.
Spring semester began and she didn’t hear from him at all. He chose to no longer be a part of her life.
“Spring semester I was wildin’…I was going really hard. Partying really hard. It’s not ‘cause I was having fun, It was ‘cause I was sad,” Em said.
The sophomore college student at the time turned to alcohol and partying to treat her heartbreak. Instead of feeling better, she grew sadder over time. As a result, Em stopped going to class.
“I wasn’t talking to anyone. I was isolating myself and was sad that I was isolated … isolation from my roommates was the tipping point,” she said.
Em had a breakdown at her tipping point. Tears fell down her face and thoughts of guilt and shame filled her mind.
“I don’t remember the feeling of wanting to die then but I was really depressed,” she said.
Her roommates reported the incident to residential life. Soon after, Em began seeing a counselor at Quinnipiac’s health and wellness center.
“I think the counseling center was helpful in the fact that they were able to recognize that I needed help beyond what they could provide,” Em said. “If I went to the services alone I don’t think I would’ve been able to get that…being healthy again … from what I understand the counseling center is for short term problems.”
Quinnipiac University offers counseling services to students who experience any major changes in behavior and would like to seek treatment. But as the student population grows, the counseling center finds itself struggling to meet the demand.
As of November 3, with several weeks to go before the end of the semester, there were 596 new appointment requests from students. By contrast, at the end of fall semester in 2016, there were 570 new appointment requests. There has also been an increase in need for more frequent appointments. More students are requesting to be seen multiple times per week as opposed to weekly or bi-weekly.
In addition to university counseling services, students have established a group to provide peer support.
“Freshman year I failed out of the college I was going to and a lot of it was because of the depression I was experiencing,” said Ryan Freitas, vice president of Quinnipiac’s chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness. NAMI estimates that 75 percent of mental health conditions begin by the age of 24.
Freitas, alongside NAMI President Peter Chlebogiannis, chartered NAMI on campus in January 2017 in hopes the club would act as a support group for students experiencing any mental illness.
“For me it’s really about creating an environment in a community … at least a place you can go where you at the very least know you’re not alone. I think the more people you have the better it becomes for everyone when people realize, you know, there are a lot of people, peers, going through the same stuff they are,” Freitas said.
NAMI’s advisor, Kerry Patton, has been the director of counseling services at Quinnipiac since 2013. Patton has experienced the change in issues facing students at Quinnipiac over the last four years.
“The top 3 that we see…and this is what students report, are anxiety, depression and relationship issues,” Patton said. Depression used to be the primary one and then anxiety was second. That has shifted a bit and I think a lot of it is related to mobile devices and social media. This generation isn’t as active interpersonally.”
Patton said students’ worry about Instagram likes or being liked in general could be the reason anxiety has become the No. 1 issue the office of counseling services deals with.
Social anxiety disorder is the fear of being judged and/or humiliated by others. According to the National Comorbidity Survey, a U.S. poll on mental health, social anxiety disorder is the third most prevalent psychiatric disorder in Americans, following depression and alcohol dependence. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) reported a study conducted by Gabrieli Lab using brain imaging to show how the behavior of people with social anxiety disorder behavior changes based on their view of images of people versus scenic images. The study found that patients responded more to images of people’s faces.
Quinnipiac students who suffer from social anxiety disorder see many faces every day. Residential students in particular may rely on on-campus counseling services to seek help in treating their anxiety. With the increase of students requesting services over the last two years, Quinnipiac’s counseling services have been struggling to accommodate students that request services.
“We have seen about a 35 percent increase in students requesting to be seen by our counselors, over 500 students,” said Courtney McKenna, the director of student affairs at Quinnipiac University.
McKenna has worked at Quinnipiac since 2008. She started off in the Office of Campus Life then moved to the Office of Fraternity and Sorority life in 2014. In 2015, she started working in the Office of Student Affairs as a case manager, where she encountered many students who experienced a spectrum of mental illnesses.
Students who go to counseling do not fit a specific profile. However, a vast majority of students who request to see a counselor live on-campus and have a 3.0 grade point average or higher.
The International Association of Counseling Services, Inc.(IACS) recommends colleges/universities have a minimum of one full-time college counselor for every 1,500 students. For nine years, Quinnipiac employed five full-time counselors. The ratio at QU from 2008-2017 was one full-time college counselor to every 1,860 students. The increasing demand of students requesting counseling services has forced the university to take action.
Monique Drucker, Quinnipiac’s vice president and dean of students, is committed to making sure the university meets the minimum recommendation.
“At one point we had one counselor who had resigned from Quinnipiac to open her private practice and we weren’t able to replace that position for a year and half …” Drucker said. “That was a matter of budget and finance … so we were down to four counselors. Last year in the fall, we were able to hire another counselor.We had a wait list, which we don’t like to have.”
Other nearby universities, such as Wesleyan University and Fairfield University, have a fraction of students compared to Quinnipiac, yet have a bigger counseling staff. Wesleyan University (WU) has 3,206 students and seven professional counseling services staff members and six student externs. WU has one full-time counselor for every 712 students. On the other end, University of Hartford has 6,737 students and five professional counseling services staff members and five practicum students. University of Hartford has one full-time counselor to every 1,684 students.
“We were just approved to add a part-time counselor which gets us closer … We’re still falling a bit short of our goal,” Drucker said.
As of November 13, Quinnipiac’s counseling services had one full-time counselor for every 1,691 students. In order to meet the minimum recommendations set by IACS, Quinnipiac must hire one more full-time counselor.
Budget and finance has been a hurdle for meeting student affairs’ goal. Drucker’s emergency proposal justified the immediate need for an additional counselor. As a result, counseling services welcomed a part-time hire. Hiring an additional full-time counselor must be done during the budget and personnel approval process next year.
“We have therapists who can do outreach, who can do group therapy … but the fact is, they are every hour on the hour booked with students,” Drucker said. “I don’t have staff in that area to be able to utilize their knowledge, licensing and skill set to do the programming I’d want them to.”
Upcoming plans
Drucker, Patton and Mckenna have been working alongside Mark Thompson, executive vice president and provost, to design a plan that meets the needs of students in regards to counseling services.
“I think when we’re always putting out fires and just dealing with the thing that’s right in front of us we can’t step back to figure out what other things we could put in place to prevent things,” McKenna said.
McKenna believes the university should work toward providing more preventative education. She added that the school has outgrown the current health and wellness center and it is time for a new building.
“There are no current plans to renovate it or expand it but it is something we need to look at,” Thompson said.
Although Quinnipiac administration has not made any official plans to build a new space for a health and wellness center, they are working on adding more resources to counseling services.
“I don’t think the school ignores the prevalence of mental illness,” Em said.
Em said although counseling services did not work well for her during her sophomore year, she felt supported in her time of need.
Pristine wrapping paper rolls, funny singing and dancing elves, Santa Claus blow-up lawn decorations, all displayed on shelves in your local department stores … and all of this has been up since the day after Halloween.
It seems like each year we get into the Christmas spirit earlier and earlier. That’s right, the Christmas season is upon us once again and for most Americans it’s time to find the perfect gifts for friends and family. American spending during the Christmas season has continued to increase for the past ten years, according to recent data.
Since 2008, retail spending in the Christmas season has increased from $501.50 billion to $655.80 billion. Spending in 2017 is projected to rise 3 to 4 percent with overall sales ranging from $678.80 billion to $682 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.
The commercialization of Christmas is nothing new, but the continued increase in sales has left many wondering if we’ve gone too far. Most Connecticut residents say they certainly think the holiday has become too commercialized. In fact, 72 percent of local residents said they felt this way out of 95 respondents in an online survey conducted by HQ Press.
Brian Jones, a Quinnipiac marketing professor, 62, says that from a marketing and business standpoint, Christmas is not what it used to be. Religion is never even mentioned in advertisements anymore.
“It’s gone,” Jones said. “I’m not a religious person, but I think the religion has kind of just disappeared out of Christmas. It’s all about the presents now. This isn’t surprising or new, I mean everybody’s been complaining for a long time about the ‘commercialization’ of Christmas.”
Rev. Jordan Leneghan, executive director of religious life at Quinnipiac University, says that on a religious level, the holiday has definitely become too commercialized.
“For me as a member of the clergy and person of faith the issue becomes how the language and the symbols are appropriated or I would say perhaps, better put, misappropriated for just (a sort of way) to advance this commercial engagement,” Leneghan said.
He provided an example of a recent article he read in The New York Times about a grocery store in England advertising an advent calendar with a manger scene, but instead of baby Jesus, there was a sausage.
“There were a lot of people on Twitter and social media that were objecting,” Leneghan said. “(They said) ‘Why can you appropriate Christmas symbols this way and get away with it, but with other religious communities there would be hell to pay?’… So that’s my biggest issue with the commercialization of Christmas, it’s one thing with ‘happy holidays,’ you’ve got a piece of green with a bulb hanging off of it, or red candles, but it’s when you start appropriating actual religious symbols I think it’s problematic.”
Quinnipiac student Emma Robertson shopping for friends and family at the Quinnipiac bookstore. Photo by Lindsay Pytel.
Quinnipiac student Emma Robertson was one of the 95 respondents of the HQ Press survey, and one of the 72 percent who believe Christmas has become too fixated on commercialization.
“I think that Christmas is definitely commercialized in almost every way,” Robertson said. “Obviously it began as a religious holiday…but today it has completely changed from its original purpose. It seems like today, it’s all about presents – what you’re going to buy or what you’re going to get. It’s all about money.”
Robertson says she believes it’s due to the over-exposure of gifts displayed in advertisements.
“I think the best example of this is commercials on TV,” she said. “All you see after Thanksgiving is toy ads and clothing ads and they imply that the holiday season is all about giving material things.”
A P.C. Richard & Son advertisement from this past Thanksgiving in the Meriden Record Journal. Photo by Lindsay Pytel.
In the survey conducted by HQ Press, most respondents said that they think they will spend either more than $300 (35 percent) or $101 to $200 (32 percent) on Christmas gifts in 2017.
The Christmas season seems to start before Thanksgiving has even begun. In fact, some stores offer deals on Thursday night to gear up for Christmas. Stores began doing this a few years ago most likely to stay face with competitors. However, now a lot of stores advertise the fact that they don’t open on Thanksgiving in an effort to honor the traditions and family values that Fontanez mentioned before. Some of those stores for this year included T.J. Maxx, Nordstrom, Ikea, P.C. Richard and Son and more, according to data collected by bestblackfriday.com.
Jones says he feels that this increase in spending will never stop and he’s seen a shift in the way we celebrate Christmas.
“It’s not like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ anymore, it’s not like it’s ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ anymore. It’s now about the presents and the marketing, you know Black Friday and getting a deal and shopping,” Jones said. “I’m one of these fatalists that believes that some of these trends are irreversible…I don’t think it’s going to better anytime soon…We’re on a treadmill we can’t get off.”
He says he and his wife have different philosophies of Christmas, where he goes and asks relatives what they want, but she likes to give them something meaningful.
“My wife hates that because I’m falling victim to this commercialization of Christmas,” Jones said. “I think the way to make these people happy is getting the present they want. Maybe that’s a little bit the marketer in me, study your market’s needs and then satisfy them. If she had her way, she wouldn’t ask anybody what they want for Christmas…For years she gave our relatives cookies for Christmas that she baked herself. And I thought ‘They’re gonna think we’re cheap,’ but really she’s right, I’m wrong, because she’s giving of her time, giving a little piece of herself, she’s baking something from scratch and sending it to them.”
Less than 30 percent of survey respondents said that Christmas hasn’t become too commercialized, however.
Francesca Fontanez shops for Christmas decorations and presents to make her dorm at the University of New Haven feel more festive. Photo courtesy of Francesca Fontanez.
“I think Christmas is about so much more than commercialization,” University of New Haven student Francesca Fontanez said. “Coming home and being with friends and family, partaking in traditions and spreading kindness are all still held at such a high standard – at least in my experience.”
Rev. Matthew Gworek of Our First Lady of Mount Carmel Church and Catholic Chaplain at Quinnipiac University, 29, says that he thinks that the commercialization of Christmas could be a good thing.
“It has become very easy to take this commercialization and spending and hold it up as the antithesis of the real meaning of Christmas,” Gworek said. “But to be honest, I’m not sure if that is entirely fair either. While the commercial aspects of the season can certainly be excessive at times and have played a role in distracting some people from a religious understanding of what Christmas is, the ways in which we do things and spend our money can be a beautiful reminder to us of the fact that this time of year is, and needs to be, different. The increases in spending are often intimately connected to increases in giving and a more charitable focus in people overall.”
Gworek’s church, Our First Lady of Mount Carmel in Hamden. Photo by Lindsay Pytel.
Christmas, of course, on a religious level is the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Across the generations, however, there has been an increase in those who consider themselves as “unaffiliated.”
According to Public Religion Research Institute, among those who consider themselves “unaffiliated” are 38 percent of people ages 18 to 29, 26 percent of people ages 30 to 49, 18 percent of people ages 50 to 64 and 12 percent of people ages 65 and up. This raises the question as to if the increase in lack of faith is the reason for a rise in commercialization.
Rev. Paul Fleck of Hamden Plains United Methodist Church, 47, thinks all holidays can be considered commercial, but not at any greater level now than in years previous. He also says it isn’t the reason society as a whole has become less religious.
“There are a lot of, plenty of false idols of the culture that draw us away from what I think truly gives our life meaning and I think that happens during pretty much any season,” Fleck said. “Certainly there are false idols of patriotism during July 4 that draw us away from our true allegiance to God. There are false idols of trying to out scare each other during Halloween that draw us away from the true meaning of All Hollow’s Eve and All Saint’s Day that follows… I don’t know that commercialization has done that nearly as much as the busyness of our lives has drawn us away from church.”
While society may be heading more towards being unaffiliated, Fleck and Leneghan both say at Christmastime attendance in church skyrockets. Leneghan says he thinks at a parish he helps with the number of people nearly double and sometimes that can be overwhelming.
“Sometimes I dread Christmas,” Leneghan said. “You know, it’s packed with all of these people and they only come for certain things and they take off and for the rest of us what it means to be in a religion is to be part of the ongoing faith community and so that’s something you just can’t put on once a year for an hour… I also kind of question, ‘What are you really doing here?’ ‘What do you get out of (it)?’ ‘What’s the point in coming for one hour, once a year?’”
He answered his own questions saying he thinks it’s because of the fact that Christmas kind of offers a “no strings attached” policy.
“I understand, in some ways Christmas is easier for people than Easter,” Leneghan said. “Easter still makes some claims because Easter is like ‘adult Jesus’ whereas Christmas is ‘baby Jesus’ so it’s all about presents. So there’s not a lot of existential claims as Christmas as a holy day makes on you, apart from Christmas as a holiday.”
Rev. Matthew Gworek of Our First Lady of Mount Carmel in Hamden and Quinnipiac University Catholic Chaplain. Photo by Lindsay Pytel.
In the survey conducted by HQ Press, however, the respondents were split pretty evenly on yes or no in regards to whether or not they were going to attend a Christmas service this year (41 percent “yes,” 44 percent “no,” 10 percent “maybe”).
Gworek agrees with Leneghan saying that it’s not ideal for people to only come to church during the Christmas season. However, he feels that even just coming the one day can leave a lasting impression.
“That spirit is something we see this time of year in churches that fill up in a wonderful way on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day like almost no other day of the year,” Gworek said. “I don’t think that’s an accident. Instead, I would say it’s a reality that expresses how, deep down, people understand that there’s something special about this day, and that something special leads them to have at least some kind of desire to set foot in a church.”
For most Quinnipiac students, not seeing a parent for almost 10 years is unusual. For Jiseok Hyun, it’s a reality.
Hyun talks about his obstacles at Quinnipiac in the multicultural suite on campus.
The senior computer science major came to the United States in 2008 from South Korea. He has not seen his mother in four years and his father in almost 10 years.
Jiseok Hyun, pronounced Ji-suk Hyawn, has not been home since 2008. And if he goes back, there is a chance he might not be able to travel back to the United States.
“In Korea, all the males have to go to military service for about two years,” he said. “If I happen to go, I have a slim chance to come back here to continue my education.”
For Hyun, Quinnipiac has become his home away from home. But he has also endured challenges here, including discrimination and a feeling of not being included on campus.
Hyun is not the only international student who struggles with difficulties after coming to Quinnipiac. International students like him say that while the university does offer resources during the application process and early arrival, it needs to do more during the four years international students work and live at Quinnipiac. Specifically, international students say they want the university to reduce discrimination, educate the general student body and have a better support for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners.
International students are often being discriminated by other students or staff and faculty on campus, whether it is caused by their different appearance or their foreign accent. Regardless of the reason, Quinnipiac has not been able to stop this issue from happening.
Students say the university is also failing at teaching domestic students about other countries and cultures, which leads to a lack of understanding of cultural norms in other countries, which can also lead to discrimination against international students.
These students complain that not having the ESL support makes it more difficult for them improve their English skills. They say they feel embarrassed for their background and almost ashamed of where they come from, especially when they have to speak up in the classroom and other students discriminate them for their accents or wrong grammar.
While the university does provide support and services specifically targeted to international students, they say it needs to do more to prevent or stop those issues on campus.
HOW INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FACE DISCRIMINATION ON CAMPUS
“I have experienced many discriminations,” said Ahrim Kim, senior health science major from Korea. “I felt like people were looking at me, and talking about me, and judging my accent and my grammar. Whenever I walk around, people will look at me, I could feel the stare and the judgement.”
Hyun has also been discriminated because of his appearance.
“We don’t specifically face discrimination because we are international students, but by race I’d say,” said Hyun. “As soon as I walked into this place, this lady asked me ‘What part of China are you from?’ I’m not even from China!”
Student clubs are an important support group for struggling students.
Hyun became the president of the International Student Association (ISA) to help others facing the same challenges he did at Quinnipiac.
Although he organizes many events for the association, he is also a supportive member for his peers. Especially when suffering discrimination from others, international students have to stick together.
Abbie O’Neill, specialist for student engagement, also admits that this is indeed an issue on campus.
O’Neill opens up her doors for any international student who is struggling and wants to seek help.
“There is discrimination on campus against international students, I can’t talk about particular cases and what not, but I do know that it does exist and some of it is just a lack of understanding from other students as to what culture norms are in other parts of the world,” said O’Neill.
Quinnipiac, although providing support for international students that face discrimination, is not doing much to stop this.
Director of Global Education Andrea Hogan believes this is related to the lack of diversity at Quinnipiac.
“I think some students are educated about other cultures, but I think the majority probably are not,” said Hogan. “Most of them are from New England and so many students have not been outside the U.S. or they’re from towns where they don’t see a lot of diversity.”
Although the majority of Quinnipiac students is caucasian, the university still needs to provide support to the minorities on campus, especially when they face discrimination based on their looks or background.
ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE SUPPORT
Another type of support that the university offers is academics related. However, that support does not apply to the English language.
Quinnipiac requires international students whose native language is not English to be “able to communicate in writing and speaking in that language, since the primary language of instruction at Quinnipiac is English,” as stated on Quinnipiac’s website.
Kim, the Korean student that faced discrimination on campus, worked for Andrew Antone, the director of international recruitment and helped him in the process of accepting international students into Quinnipiac.
Students whose native language is not English are expected to submit their Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) scores or the International English Language Test System (IELTS) scores as well as their previous academic grades.
That would show if a student is proficient or not in the English language. However, test scores sometimes do not translate the reality of his or her skills, especially when they have to verbally engage in the classroom.
Quinnipiac does not offer an ESL and although some students and faculty think it should, others disagree.
“I know there are a few students who are not that good at speaking English and they’re scared to speak English,” said Kim. “I do think we should have an ESL program, or even a TOEFL class, or any class to teach international students proper English.”
The Director of Global Education, Hogan, agrees with Kim, but she also expresses concerns.
Hogan helps international students from helping them choose their housing to any additional support they might need.
“I think it could be a really good thing,” said Hogan. “But, if we install and invest in hundreds of thousands of dollars for a center, but then the enrollment nationally is going down, is that a good investment? To establish your own center that is, you know, 10 miles from another one, you better have a big enough population.” said Hogan.
Although Quinnipiac does not have its own ESL program, it has a partnership with a center located at the University of New Haven (UNH).
The center is not affiliated to UNH, but it offers ESL classes for students whose native language is not English, and therefore, students can attend those classes prior to coming to Quinnipiac.
Antone believes having an ESL program could be helpful in the process of recruiting more international students.
The director of international recruitment mostly works with students before they get to Quinnipiac.
“I think it’s certainly helpful, I think it opens up the doors to other quality qualified students that don’t speak English,” said Antone. “They are good academic students that can participate and will do very well and flourish here, but they need their English skills first.”
Creating an ESL program would not only open doors for international students to come into Quinnipiac, but also provide that additional support for students that need a little more time to have a better understanding of the English language.
That could also help international students to become more confident to speak up in the classroom and participate more without feeling doubtful about their accents or self conscious about making grammar mistakes.
IS QUINNIPIAC EDUCATING THE GENERAL STUDENT BODY?
While the university is composed of mostly students from Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, it does not offer many courses teaching about other parts of the world.
“The QU 301 class highlights global community so I think students are gaining more general understanding about diversity and cultural differences,” said Hyun.
However, students don’t seem to be interested in taking those courses, unless it is mandatory – like QU 301 for seniors.
Vice President Mark Thompson has talked about including more diversity programs into the classrooms and in the upcoming curriculums so that students can become more educated in diverse issues.
It is the university’s responsibility to educate its students on issues involving the United States, but also other countries and cultures, which are just as important.
Some Quinnipiac students are oblivious of other issues happening in the world and this lack of understanding can lead to other issues on campus, including discrimination against minority groups, such as international students.
Hyun believes a way to stop or prevent these issues from happening is if the school promoted more diversity on campus.
“Definitely invest more in multicultural students and anything that has to do with diversity in general,” he said. “If there is an event, the school can promote it so that more people would come.”
Until that happens, international students say they will continue to suffer discrimination on campus.
QUINNIPIAC’S SERVICES AND SUPPORT TO INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS
The support from the university begins before students even apply to the university. However, after they’ve on campus for a couple weeks, those services and support seem to disappear.
According to the school’s website, only 3 percent of the class is international. Antone is trying to increase that number by traveling around the world.
Antone visits high schools to recruit students that have not necessarily heard of the medium size school in Hamden, Connecticut.
Although he travels around the world, Quinnipiac students are mostly from Canada and China.
After Antone recruits students, they have to apply to the university and get all the paperwork needed.
After arriving at Quinnipiac, the school provides more services to the international students, however, that only happens in their early arrival.
During orientation – something that both domestic and international students have to attend – the Department of Multicultural and Global Education (DCGE) talks to international students about more resources they have, such as the documents they need to travel or work in the U.S., the Learning Commons and the Global Living program.
Global Living is a residence hall on campus for internationally minded students, which could include domestic students as well.
Hyun was one of the first residents to be apart of the Global Living program, and although he thought the initiative was a good idea, he believes the result wasn’t so great.
“Honestly, it didn’t go as well as we planned out,” said Hyun.
Since then, the program has improved and more people have wanted to be apart of it.
“It’s a really, really, really awesome experience,” said Kim, who lived in the Global Living her freshman year. “You get to learn about American culture and you can experience so many things with the other students.”
Along with the Global Living program, the university offers academic help for students in the Learning Commons.
Correa, one of the three Brazilian students at Quinnipiac, is enjoying his first semester at the university and all the resources it provides.
Jonas Correa, 20-year-old freshman civil engineering major from Brazil, has been a fan of this resource since he came to Quinnipiac.
“The English I’m doing ok with because I just have a lot of problems with writing, because of my dyslexia and all of that, so I have to go to the Learning Commons all the time, but I’m handling it.”
Correa also appreciates the support of faculty and staff, whether it’s inside or outside the classroom.
“The professors are really helpful. And the Learning Commons. Also, if I ever need to talk to someone, I’ve been going to counseling center sometimes to vent.”
DCGE also offers other resources and activities, such as:
Although Quinnipiac offers a number of services to support international students, the university is still failing in maintaining that support throughout the years those students stay at Quinnipiac.
There is still a lot that needs to be done to reduce discrimination on campus, educate domestic students and provide a better support for those whose native language is not English.
However, Hyun remains hopeful for the future international students that decide to come to Quinnipiac.
“I’m glad that people are reaching out to international students asking for insights,” said Hyun. “I want people to gain something from this and have a better knowledge of international students.”
One hundred and twenty-three days without a budget. The longest the state of Connecticut has ever endured without one has finally come to a close. Most state-run facilities, programs and anyone receiving state funding are breathing a sigh of relief. The state is feeling the effects from the transportation department to health services. The difficulties of running these departments without knowing how much they can spend were highlighted in these past months.
However no area has been more affected by the lack of a budget than education. All across the state, schools had to manage and operate well through the summer and fall without knowing how much money they were able to spend for this school year. Schools are used to making cuts but due to this budget situation, schools were forced to really cut back on everything without knowing what they could afford.
“We unfortunately had a difficult decision, we had to reduce five teaching positions that we had, including one at Cheshire High School, and not fill several other positions that we had budgeted that were open,” said Jeff Solan, the superintendent of Cheshire Public Schools.
Larger towns and areas are feeling the budget’s impact the worst. However recently the schools in larger towns such as here in Hamden, are questioning the state’s budgeting procedure.
“More money is supposed to go to needier towns. Hamden has been underfunded in the state cost-sharing amount by approximately $18 million dollars a year,” said Hamden Superintendent Jody Goeller.
In a 1977 Connecticut Supreme Court hearing, the courts found that the states’ means of giving out financial aid to schools was insufficient and through that decision came Equal Cost Sharing or ECS.
Hamden especially is in a unique situation where it has been underfunded for years because the state has shown that it has not used the ECS formula and has drifted away from it year after year since the original ruling.
Hamden has seen an influx of people in poverty in recent years. Its children on average have had a harder time bringing their own supplies and resources to school, so the school is in a situation to provide it.
State Representative Michael D’Agostino has been fighting for this change for awhile on the state’s use of the ECS formula. He believes that the state could see a change to its education funding with this new budget.
“Recently, the courts had a chance to revisit the ECS formula and what they found was the state wasn’t following any kind of predictable, methodology for distributing aid. Very similar to the original court case. So after months of trying to figure out a budget, the state seems to have factored in the need for proper education funding.”
With the new budget towns and cities will look to further implement the ECS formula and regain proper education funding in the state.
Sitting in a cubicle in the Sacred Heart University library, he heard what sounded like crying from a few seats over. As the cries grew louder, he could no longer ignore them.
He rose from his seat and temporarily abandoned his 15-page term paper. That was when he discovered the source of the cries: a young woman who was also studying for finals.
Cory Robinson, a second semester freshman at the time, is a member of the peer mentor program at Sacred Heart. As part of the program the school had trained him to help others struggling with mental health.
Approaching the young woman, Robinson asked her what was wrong. Overwhelmed by the stress of finals, she had started to break down. The two students exited the library and headed to the cafeteria.
Over a hot cup of coffee, Robinson offered his peer his support. He too was suffering from stress. As a mentor, he explained the counseling resources offered if she needed a little extra help, even if she just needed tools for stress management.
In the past five years, the number of students seeking counseling and psychological services in higher education has risen by roughly 30 percent, while student enrollment has grown by roughly 6 percent, according to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health. Many colleges and universities across the nation are struggling to meet this demand, and identify mental health a primary concern.
In fact, two-thirds of presidents and student affairs leaders say that mental health is their No. 1 concern outside of the classroom, according to a 2016 survey of 112 of these professionals from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
But universities have limited budgets to respond to this issue, and have had to make do and innovate with existing resources available to them.
The peer mentor program at Sacred Heart that Cory Robinson participates in is just one example of these innovative services. The use of therapy dogs to improve student well-being, is another approach that all of the schools use. Other examples include Sacred Heart’s “Zen Den” and Fairfield’s off-campus house for students recovering from substance abuse.
It’s clear that not all institutions are responding at the same pace.
At Quinnipiac University, some counselors admit that they are struggling to keep up with the demand, while peer institutions have successfully hired more counselors.
“We have had the same staffing since 2008, I believe, of five counselors” Quinnipiac University Health and Wellness Director, Kerry Patton, said. “So, due to the increase [of students seeking help], we’ve had a waitlist of one to two weeks for students to be seen.”
The International Association of Counseling Services recommends that colleges have at least one counselor per every 1,000-1,500 students.
Quinnipiac’s ratio is one counselor to every 1,800 students, which includes both graduate and undergraduate students.
Fairfield’s ratio is one staff member to every 403 students. Sacred Heart’s is one staff member to every 904 students. Both institutions only serve the undergraduate population.
Fairfield University Director of Counseling and Psychological Services, Susan Birge, criticized Quinnipiac’s current services. Birge believes the school advertises its counseling resources as better than they actually are.
Kerry Patton, Director of Health and Wellness at Quinnipiac, says she is aware that Quinnipiac is falling behind. Patton has recently introduced new group therapy programs, a new part-time counselor and educational program for resident assistants. Patton hopes to meet the suggested ratio requirement within the next few years, though the school must approve of the additions.
The most important practice that both Fairfield and Sacred Heart abide by in their services is the incorporation of mind and body.
“It’s all integrated. And so, that’s kind of what I think is ideal for a college campus,” Novella said.
Patton says she is continuously looking to services offered by schools, such as Sacred Heart and Fairfield, to follow their example.
Therapy Dogs
At Sacred Heart University, therapy dogs Leo and Scooter can be found in one of the main buildings on campus. Every other Thursday, students can stop by to play with them.
Quinnipiac, Fairfield, and Sacred Heart all bring in therapy dogs on a regular basis.The practice continues to be one of the most popular, and most successful, resources of which students take full advantage.
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According to Robinson, the program is referred to as (Can) (I)ne help SHU. The school develops these visits into a learning opportunity for students. Depending on the week, peer educators will discuss specific tools with students on topics such as time management and stress relief.
Quinnipiac University offers its students opportunities to play with therapy dogs Ben and Tucker on several days leading up to finals week in both the spring and fall semesters. The dogs are typically found in the student center.
Ben and Tucker are American Canine Club-certified Canine Good Citizens. Students can play fetch and run around with them for a 4-hour time window each day they are there.
Unlike students at Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac, students at Fairfield University do not have to travel to various buildings to see therapy dogs. Therapy dog Olivia can be found right inside the Counseling and Psychological Services Center several times a week.
She has her own office full of toys. There is no door attached to the door frame, so students are able to stop by to say hello either before or after their counseling session.
group therapy
All three universities offer unique group therapy programs to their students. However, the programs are more successful at some schools than others.
At Fairfield University, there are eight different group therapy programs offered each semester. During the Spring 2017 Semester, the groups offered included: Understanding Self and Other, Recovery, Grief, Connections, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) for Anxiety, CBT for Depression and The Power of Relaxation.
There was an average of five students who regularly attended each group therapy program. In total, 44 students attended group counseling at Fairfield University during the Spring 2017 Semester.
Comparatively, at Quinnipiac, there were only three groups offered during the 2016-2017 school year: A Mindfulness and Meditation Group Series, Hope and Healing Sexual Assault Support Group and The Art of Being Social.
Only one of the three groups was successful. According to Kerry Patton, the group therapy program for social anxiety was the one that seemed to draw students’ attention.
“We’ve been successful this semester. We’ve probably had a good handful, five or six students, that have been consistently coming,” Patton said, “So what’s great about that is that you’re meeting other students and they’ve been able to to connect with one another and do things outside of it, and that’s ultimately the goal, is to learn and be able to implement some of the skills you’re learning.”
The “Zen Den”
Sacred Heart offers a unique space for their students to unwind and relax. The room, attached to the health center, is referred to as the “Zen Den”.
According to Jocelyn Novella, the Director of Counseling at SHU, the space is equipped with an mp3 player with a selection of guided meditation sessions, a massage chair, and a “stress eraser” biofeedback advice. The space offers students a space to rejuvenate their mental health before things become beyond their control.
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“What we’re always trying to figure out is how can you work more on preventing people from getting worse […] if we can work on the side of prevention, you know, all the better,” Novella said.
The Zen Den, introduced just three years ago, has been a success thus far. However, one of the downsides of the space is that because it is located in the counseling center, not all students feel comfortable accessing it.
Looking toward the future, Novella would like to see the Zen Den located to a different location, such as a residence hall. Currently, students who do not use the counseling services are too uncomfortable having to go to the health center to use the Zen Den.
“We think other students are less likely to come in and use it if they don’t come to the counseling center because they’re scared about walking into the counseling center,” Novella said.
Novella believes having the space in a more accessible and neutral area may compel even more students to take advantage of this resource.
Recovery Houses
One mental health resource that is completely unique to Fairfield University is its Collegiate Recovery Program. The program, introduced to the university in 2013, provides a strict regimen for students recovering from alcohol and drug addiction.
“We have two houses off campus, they’re beautiful homes, they’re great, and we have students in recovery living there.”
The program began with only one house, in which seven students lived. However, the program was so successful within its first year that they recently added a second off-campus house. According to Susan Birge, this program is the first collegiate recovery program in the Northeast to provide housing for its participants.
“We have two houses off campus, they’re beautiful homes, they’re great, and we have students in recovery living there. It’s a very structured program, it’s not like a sober house,” Birge said.
“They have to be in individual and group counseling, they have to go to 12-step meetings, they have to have urine drug screenings routinely, they have to have a sponsor in their program, and they have to go to academic advising. So we want everyone to do really well personally and academically.”
Peer Education Program
Sacred Heart University is the only school out of the three that offers a peer education program to its students. The program is called s.w.e.e.t. The acronym stands for Student Wellness Education and Empowerment Team.
The team consists of undergraduate students from every grade who work to give fellow students the tools they need to be both physically and mentally healthy.
“What we have is, we do have a peer education program called s.w.e.e.t and that is actually part of the counseling center. So the nice thing for us is that these are students who are trained by one of our staff members and then they do a lot of our outreach for us,” Novella said, “So it’s kind of like the outreach arm of the whole wellness center.”
Cory Robinson, now a senior, joined the program his second semester of freshman year. Having struggled with mental health issues in both middle and high school, he felt inclined to give back.
“The resources I had in high school were in a peer mentorship [format] and they were extremely rewarding experiences,” Robinson said.
Robinson shared that although other student organization on campus provide social exposure and fun activities, he appreciates that the s.w.e.e.t program is able to discuss more serious topics. The program tackles a multitude of issues that are dependent on the time of year.
“We try to reduce the risk and have programs as often as possible, for things like registration, midterms and finals,” Robinson said. She has also been a mentor since her second semester of freshman year.
Amy Ricotta, a senior social work major, shares Robinson’s passion for participating in the peer education program.
She explained that providing support for fellow students is a large part of the peer education program. The s.w.e.e.t mentors understand that reaching out for help can be difficult. They do everything they can to assist others in need.
“If you want to [use the counseling services], go ahead, we’ll even walk you up there,” Ricotta said.
The s.w.e.e.t peer education program has been around since 2013 and grows each year. The program allows students to reach out for help to students their age who may have gone through a similar situation.
***
Today, as a senior, Cory Robinson works hard to provide as much care and support as he did to the student he found in the SHU library during his freshman year.
Over the past few years, he has watched parents grow more and more comfortable with sending their children to school. They are aware of the quality and variety of mental health resources provided with the school.
Though the demand for these services continues to increase, so does the school’s efforts to meet the demand. Robinson adds that students are content with how readily and easily accessible SHU’s services are.
As a student who proactively worked to help others in need as a peer mentor, Robinson is an example of how all schools should meet their students’ needs; by providing adequate mental health resources, colleges allow themselves to work on the side of prevention as opposed to having a large number of students who have reached a crisis point.
As technology advances, will humanity dwindle? We are wired in, fixated on our small screens and entirely connected, but how can we measure the influence new products have on our mental health and ability to function in real time?
Millennials are the generation most adapted to new technologies. They do not question why we use certain devices and how they function. Millennials are a group made up of people born from 1980 to 2000. According to Time Magazine, there are about 80 million millennials, one of the biggest groupings in American history.
The late CBS reports Morley Safer called millennials the “me” generation.
“Every gadget imaginable almost becomes an extension of their bodies,” said Safer. “They multitask, talk, walk, listen, type, and text. And their priorities are simple, they come first.”
Millennials maintain a variety of social media accounts that can reach thousands to millions of followers. The Pew Research Center conducted a 2016 survey among 1,520 adults aged 18 or older in the United States to get a “social media update.”
One of its findings was that 56 percent of online adults use more than one of the top five social media platforms. These platforms included Facebook as the leading organization, followed by Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Pew Research Center found that 72 percent of smartphone owners chose messaging as their primary way to connect with others online. As the minutes spent on the phone decline, so do our face-to-face interactions.
The constant text tones and notification pop-ups cause distractions and many people wonder what that’s doing to society.
These statements can be seen as complementary to the millennial generation – that they are up to date with the latest tech trends and are efficient in learning how to operate new devices. However, from interviews done both at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut, it was clear that some students felt differently.
Quinnipiac senior Gea Mitas is someone with a large pool of people who followed her online and whom she followed back. On Instagram, a popular photo sharing app, Mitas has 960 followers. On Facebook, one of the largest social networking programs, she has 1,255 friends online. It is clear that she cared about her social media presence and kept up to date with the latest digital trends.
“It bothers me that the majority of the time, social media is used to show others how great of a person they are. It is showing your best self to the public,” said Mitas. “I am a victim myself, but I think most people get worried about how others think of them 90 percent of the time. I constantly think about the likes and comments I receive on my photos. It is also a lot of pressure knowing how little or how much to post. You never know how people are going to receive what you’re putting out and how they will react.”
Anxieties about competition, jealousy, and insecurity were common feelings among students at both universities. From speaking with them, it appeared that all the new technologies being developed often overwhelm individuals who are trying to keep up with the rapid changes. Millennials often use the term “anxiety” to describe feelings relating to stress and nervousness. According to the American College Health Association, anxiety affects 61 percent of college students. The American Psychological Association reports that 12 percent of millennials have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, twice the percentage of the Baby Boomer generation, which make up nearly 20 percent of the American population.
As we have seen our society evolve, there is a switch in how individuals are more open about expressing their concerns and grievances. The world around us is becoming more complex, and one reaction to that complexity is having individuals pay closer attention to their mental health.
Yale student Alexandra Sabia says that she feels she’s a victim of spending too much time on social media, but is stuck in the habit of sharing and paying attention to others’ posts.
“You don’t even need to know about the half the things you see online,” she says. “You will wake up in the morning all happy, then the second you hold your smartphone to look at social media, even seeing people’s posts that you don’t really talk to anymore, you’re still invested in their lives. You feel so affected by everyone’s life around you; it does stir up emotions.”
In addition to how millennials feel when using social media, questions come up regarding how responsible parents are for monitoring and ensuring their children are using new technologies correctly.
A mother of three from Westchester, New York, Semmi Naqvi, says she has seen patterns of competition and jealousy in her children.
“I think it provides a disadvantage making it harder for students to live in the moment and enjoy the college experience without always seeing what going on in the lives of family and friends back home that you are not apart of,” said Naqvi. “It can be draining for them. I just think in general it makes people feel left out.”
To gather more information, we surveyed 100 students from the millennial generation about how social media affects their mental health. It is clear there are individuals who feel that using social media has made them more anxious, insecure and competitive. This information shows that a large amount of people do agree with the interviewees responses and recognize a problem.
We surveyed students ranging from 18 to 23 who attend different universities throughout the United States. A lot of data we received was from Fairfield University, Dickinson University, Boston University and Bryn Mawr College. Our data was 65% from female respondents and 35% male. We sent out this survey digitally over Facebook and by email.
To dig deeper into this question experts in mental health from Kent State University, Jacob Barkley and Andrew Lepp, gave responses based off of their research surrounding college students’ use of technology. In the past three years they have developed a research paper titled, The Relationship between Cell Phone use, Academic Performance, Anxiety, and Satisfaction with Life in College Students. Lepp is an expert in technology and new media who has said that since he became a father he has taken even more interest in the topic. Barkley specializes in exercise physiology and behavioral medicine; His primary focus is to evaluate how different factors surrounding technology affect individuals’ motivation.
“People have reported to ironically feel less connected to their families and peers, when actually these phones are designed to keep us closer together,” said Lepp. “The students who used their phones less and in a more controlled fashion actually felt closer to others. These phones can come between us and our relationships.”
Both experts say the use of cellphones and time spent in front of the computer needs to be moderated. From the time when television and video games were newer trends, the term “couch potato,” has been recognized as a problem and concern for our society.
“A solution to this obsession is monitoring cell phone usage. The notion of a couch potato was well understood that if you sat and watched television it was bad for you, similar to video games,” said Barkley. “I would want students to limit their time on their phone like sitting on the couch.”
Technologies certainly offer us a range of opportunities to enhance our physical and mental abilities. From all of these respondents we can see that anxiety is at an all time high and individuals spend a large percentage of their day entranced by their digital screens. New technology is surely not slowing down, but how much time we spend on our devices is in our control.
