SA Spearheads Mental Health Campaign

The Student Assembly has announced this evening that they will take on the role of catalyst for student-to-student mental health support, launching ‘Community Caring Week,’ in which students “can relax and address mental health issues.”  The first event will take place this Thursday in Willard Straight Hall’s Memorial Room from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM.  There will be free food, music, and activities hosted by various student groups.

Since the string of suicides that occurred last Spring, students and faculty at Cornell have desperately tried to find ways to combat depression and encourage peer assistance among the student body.  Forums, activities, and discussions have ensued to try to pull together ideas and solutions to handle issues from student anxiety to bridge fences.

In addition to providing locations where students can get together and take part in activities, the SA is proposing a resolution to the Faculty Senate that would require professors to agree that students should not be required to take or turn in 3 prelims or papers within a 4 day period.

With hopes that it will relieve student stress, the resolution would be the first to make a concrete reorganization of Cornell’s academic schedule.  Roneal Desai ’13, presenter of the resolution, hopes some measures will go into effect as early as next semester, with full implementation of the plan by Fall 2011.

“For students, there’s no secret that a large amount of our stress is derived from our work in the classroom,” Desai told the Review. “It seems silly not to cut down on student stress as much as possible to prevent these cases from occurring.”

From the S.A.’s blog:

Sadly, we can’t all take the preparation required to tackle depression in individual students by ourselves, but we all have the capability to express to professors simpler things they can do that make our lives less stressful–specifically, cutting down on “hell weeks” as much as possible.

As of the now, the exam limitations will only take place during the regular school year, not during exam week.  In addition to the test limitations, Desai hopes to “have make-up tests be spaced further away from original tests, and for professors to learn student’s names. We hope that students will realize the importance of these discussions with professors and will volunteer their time to join on to the cause and try and make a sizable difference.”

The Student Assembly is encouraging Cornellians to take part by helping out during the Community Caring events, providing a sign-up sheet for students to fill out before getting involved.