On academic standards and mental health
Last month, a reporter from The Daily Princetonian asked for my views about the relationship between academic rigor and mental health.
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Last month, a reporter from The Daily Princetonian asked for my views about the relationship between academic rigor and mental health.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
I am not what The Daily Princetonian looks like.
Spring of 2022 was a semester of loosening restrictions: The University-wide mask mandate was lifted and classes were held in person. As the semester kicked off, students “signed a petition requesting remote options for teaching and learning throughout the full spring semester.”
Content warning: The following column contains mention of references to mass shootings, death, and transphobia.
“Where are you from?”
I believe that The Daily Princetonian is an incredible organization. On any given week, we publish important opinions, powerful reflections, critical news coverage, and special projects like the Frosh Survey. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni constitute our readership. For all of the impact and great journalism the ‘Prince’ has produced, it is glaringly un-diverse.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) election for USG President, beginning on Monday Dec. 5, features a number of qualified and impressive candidates. Audrey Zhang ’25 has a passion and a vision for improving students’ sustainability practices and Isabella Shutt ’24 seeks radical change in increasing academic flexibility and decreasing student stress. However, we believe that Stephen Daniels ’24’s platform is the most realistic, with the clearest ideas regarding practical change across several key areas of University life.
Content warning: This column includes mention of suicide.
Did you hear the news? Apparently, “true political diversity and debate at the Tory is all but dead,” or so says Shane Patrick ’24 in a column published in The Princeton Tory last month. Patrick argued that the organization has become obsessed with two issues — “free speech and Israel.” Though Patrick’s assertion that Catholic students are severely underrepresented in the Tory and repelled by the organization’s focus on free speech and Israel politics is unwarranted, he isn’t wrong to point out the single-mindedness and tunnel vision of conservative groups on campus.
I was surprised to see the widespread adoption of the apps Sidechat and Fizz — marketed as social hubs for college students — across Princeton’s campus over the course of the semester since we have no delusions in the modern day that social media is beneficial for our mental health. While it’s understandable that students can’t tear themselves away from established platforms, given today’s level of distrust of social media companies and emphasis on mental health, I assumed the adoption of new, untested competitors for student attention would be a non-starter. Instead, I was surprised to find people I know actively using the apps on a daily basis, with the platforms themselves awash with student-produced content. I’ve watched this unfold for nearly an entire semester, and there has still been no campus reckoning with exposing ourselves in this new way: while people are talking on these apps, no one is talking about these apps.
Princeton recently announced its new Learning and Education Through Service (LENS) initiative, which “will allow all undergraduates to spend a summer focused on service and social impact work that engages with communities beyond campus.” LENS will work in coordination with the Center for Career Development and the Pace Center for Civic Engagement to connect students with the University’s existing service internship opportunities.
Currently, it’s impossible to walk around campus without encountering one of the over eleven ongoing construction projects in the area — such as the University Art Museum, the demolition of First College, renovations near Frist Campus Center, and an overhaul of Whitman College’s heating system. While some construction is necessary to campus infrastructure and development, the scale and number of the projects have transformed Princeton into an active construction zone. Altogether, the current state of campus creates a sense of administrative deprioritization of student comfort and wellbeing.
To the Editor:
Content Warning: The following column contains mention of antisemitism.
On Oct. 20, 1970, in the pages of The Daily Princetonian, a columnist called on their fellow students to use the “two-week recess” (what we now know as fall break) to campaign against “Nixon Republicans” and protest the Vietnam War. The columnist explained that “apathy is the attitude of the moment,” even among those students who do oppose the war.
White professors at Princeton, past and present, including Joe Scanlan and Lawrence Rosen, should know better than to utilize racial slurs in their classrooms as educational tools.
“I think high aspiration environments are consistent with mental health,” University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 told The Daily Princetonian last week. “I don’t see any evidence that academic laxness or academic mediocrity would somehow be better from the standpoint of mental health.” This seems like a major gaffe by a university president. But the truth is, Eisgruber stands by every word in that sentence. It’s a philosophy he’s articulated many times.
Grades are by far one of the most stressful parts of college life — all of the quizzes, papers, exams, and projects consuming and occupying students’ time and energy. The cycle of taking classes and taking in course material just to complete requirements, get good grades, and get one step closer to graduating is exhausting, which is why the concept of Princeton’s freshman seminars sounds so intriguing. According to the University, these freshman seminars are meant to allow first-year students the opportunity to explore concepts they hadn’t learned about before and expand upon their knowledge. However, without automatically making freshman seminars pass/D/fail (PDF) classes, the intended purpose of freshman seminars is negated.