By Sarah Trauner
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
College students at Towson University and other Maryland schools have faced extra pressure and mental health issues as they’ve tried to make the transition from the virtual learning environment they experienced during the pandemic-forced shutdowns last year to in-person classes this fall, according to interviews conducted over the past two weeks.
Students who were interviewed said they were forced to jump back into the normal workload of a college semester without being able to adjust to the change after a year in which they could learn on their own time.
In addition, professors and university counseling centers say they have seen an uptick in the number of students who are missing assignments and struggling with mental health issues.
“Yes, I think a lot of students are having issues adjusting to the workload and the pressure,” said Oluwatofunmi Oni, the coordinator of digital mental health services and a staff psychologist at Towson University. “Students have noticed time management issued be more pronounced for them as well as balancing social stuff to do as well as academic work.”
In response to the stress students are facing, Oni said Towson’s Counseling Center changed to a flexible care model in which students can drop in for same-day appointments.
The change has allowed more students to access the services without the long waiting periods in the past.
The counseling center continues to offer virtual services for students, who get to choose if they want in-person or virtual meetings. There are also walk-in appointments with the longest wait time being 30 minutes.
“This also changed the number of students we see,” said Oni.
Academic departments that have witnessed large numbers of students suffering from mental health issues can also contact the center and request a presentation so that faculty members, staff and administrators can learn what services are provided and how they can help students.
“We read and talk to professors in different ways,” Oni said. “Generally, a presentation is about the counseling center, and we explain what we offer to the students.”
Towson senior Alayna Lightfield said the transition back to in-person learning has been challenging.
“The transition to coming back to in-person classes has been rough and a large adjustment,” Lightfield said. “I felt as though it was so sudden coming off the pandemic that we are still in that the change was so jarring. We went from barely leaving our houses to now coming to school in full swing like the pandemic had never happened.”
The adjustment has made the social aspect for Lightfield hard because school used to only take a few hours of her day. She said she now has to spend extra time between commuting, sitting in classes and doing homework.
“Even school-related social activities have been put to the back burner, like my sorority, because of all the extra time I am focusing on school,” Lightfield said.
For George Washington University law student Cory Nigrin, the transition from online classes to in-person has been hard. He began law school during Fall 2020 when classes were fully remote.
“Starting law school online was incredibly difficult because it’s hard for me to pay attention to a square on my computer screen,” Nigrin said. “It was also difficult because COVID-19 impeded my social life and thus I didn’t have any distractions from the stress of law school.”
Being able to balance school and social life has been easier for Nigrin than for Lightfield.
“I get most of my work done in the mornings and afternoon so I can keep my nights free to socialize with friends,” Nigrin said.
Although Nigrin has not been having trouble with keeping up with his schoolwork and having good grades, professors are seeing the opposite result for other students.
Towson University Journalism Professor Jennifer Atwater said coming back to in-person classes has caused more issues this semester for students. She said grades are also down.
“I think students adapted to the open-book, do-it-on-your-own time aspects of online learning,” Atwater said.” It seems like it’s been a tough adjustment to come back to in-person deadlines and expectations for some students.”
Atwater said she has seen more students struggle with mental health issues this semester than any other semester.
It seems that overall, the pandemic is taking a toll on everyone.
The one positive aspect of the online learning is how more professors have been able to use online resources more than before the pandemic.
“I have become a much more organized professor since teaching online,” Atwater said. “I use Blackboard much more than I used to, which I think is a good thing.”
Towson senior Sha’de Ray’s said her experience of being back to in classes has been mixed. She said the workload was a lot more online but coming back to the classroom was also a sensory overload.
“It was frustrating at first to be back in the classroom because I wanted to feel normal and not overwhelming, but it was overwhelming and the adjustment period was rushed,” Ray said.
Ray said being in person helped her with the visual aspect of school more than online did.
COVID was a big concern for Ray with coming back to being on campus. She felt scared to reach out to people even though she is vaccinated.
“I did not talk to many new people in class,” Ray said. “Eventually I had to for group projects. I wanted to respect the six feet, but now I am more comfortable and want to make new friends since I will be graduating soon.”
Even students who are older or may not go to a traditional university had to transition to the new circumstances and challenges.
Tony DuLaney, a clinical case manager at the University of Baltimore, said he noticed lots of students struggle with technology during last year’s virtual learning.
“Some students do better with online and some students struggled with a remote environment because not everyone had WIFI or a working laptop at home,” DuLaney said.
The Law School is the only department at Baltimore that is back to fully in person.
DuLaney said even the pandemic brought some tangible benefits.
“The brighter thing to come out of this is it helped lower the stigma of mental health,” DuLaney said. “I don’t think it would have if we didn’t have the pandemic and it helped faculty benefited from seeing not all students have it the same.”