Pictured Above: Catherine Hicks is a senior mass communications major.
Patrick Tobin | The Crow’s Nest
By Catherine Hicks
As a college student, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of my college experience.
From having to attend classes through Microsoft Teams to foregoing traditional events and milestones in favor of a video platform, my senior year has been far from what I expected.
By the middle of March, I was burnt-out and ready for a break. Yet, in another change to my college experience, spring break was moved to the end of the semester.
Originally scheduled for March 15-21, on Oct. 5, 2020, USF announced that spring break would be moved to April 12-18, with all instruction following spring break to be delivered in the virtual platform. Under this schedule, following spring break, there are only two weeks of classes left before final exam week.
The decision was made in order to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19 from students who travel during spring break and then return to campus.
I believe that the decision poses further risks to students’ mental health and does little to mitigate the potential spread of COVID-19.
As previously reported by The Crow’s Nest, despite calls from students to increase in-person class offerings in the spring semester, the percentage of in-person classes actually decreased from Fall 2020 to Spring 2021.
76.2 percent of spring classes were offered through online, primarily online, or hybrid instruction, meaning the majority of students were receiving their instruction online already before spring break.
Furthermore, the decision comes at a time when college students’ mental health is already being challenged by the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of Fall 2020, 89 percent of college students were experiencing stress or anxiety as a result of COVID-19, according to ActiveMinds.
When these levels of stress and anxiety are coupled with an entire semester without a break, I believe the university is creating a prime environment for students’ grades to suffer, to potentially drop-out or even experience a further decline in their mental health.
Other students share my sentiments.
“By this point in the semester, most students are drowning in school work and trying their best to get through the week,” Alexendra Davis said, a senior mass communications major.
“Normally, spring break comes and students are able to use that as a chance to work as well as just breathe… The week allows us to pick up all the pieces that may have fallen through since the start of the semester,” Davis said.
In a thread on Reddit, students discussed their feelings about spring break being moved.
“I don’t think spring break will actually feel like a break because it’s too close to the end-of-semester projects and exams,” wrote one user, @tired-usf-student. “During that week many of us are starting those projects and it defeats the purpose of a break.”
“I understand the initial reasoning why they moved it, but as a student who continues to be fully online, it’s frustrating, burning me out, and causing more issues than it’s probably worth,” wrote another student, @scthoma4. “Online school is still school, and we still need a break.”
In the future, I believe it would be beneficial to USF to speak to students about their mental health and the potential impact of a decision like this.
