Students juggle during finals
Cram, burn out, sleep... cram, burn out, sleep... cram, burn out, sleep...
May 20, 2008Michael Melvin
Staff Reporter
Icarus flew too close to the sun, igniting the wings that he had crafted from materials given by his father, and plummeted to his doom. It would not be too much of a stretch to suggest that the story of Icarus could be applied to Albion College students.
Like Icarus, these students are using the knowledge, skills and materials bestowed upon them by their parents to prepare for that last great journey known as adulthood. But, luckily enough, the common Albion student is tightly tucked away under the warm safety blankets of college education, and doesn’t yet have to combat that vicious beast known as employment for life.
Instead, the greatest worry permeating the fragile mind of the student is when their next test is, what paper is due when, when that project is due, when to study for that final, when to break up with their boyfriend or girlfriend (or both), when to find a new one, deciding what party to attend Wednesday, Friday, and/or Saturday night, trying to find time to watch that movie or play that video game, finding time to do their homework and reading and, somewhere in between all of that mess, sleeping for a few hours.
This is the life of a college student as they reach the end of the semester. And if not careful, Albion students, like Icarus, will fly too close to that “educational sun” and begin dropping from the sky.
Professors are fully aware of the symptoms usually associated with a “burnout.”
“You can definitely see that attendance begins to drop off,” said Sally Jordan, an English professor. “People seem not to be prepared for class, they don’t participate as much, they look really sullen and cranky and sometimes they appear to be on edge. Although I always question my judgment, because you don’t always know whether students are legitimately burned out or just lazy and have ridiculous expectations of what life should be like.”
When students return to campus each semester, they have to remember how to get boatloads of work done in an effective manner. It’s not always easy.
“It’s not so much that I feel overwhelmed, [but] more so that it is hard to get into the routine of doing homework,” said Margaret Goebel, Cincinnati, Ohio sophomore. “I mean, it’s never something where you say, ‘Oh, goodie! I get to do homework!’ But when I really need to get something done, I do everything in my power to get it done, even if I don’t want to. And if that doesn’t work, I bitch about it to other people in hopes that it’ll make it better.”
The main cause of stress from the student body stems from assignments handed out in class. Contrary to popular belief, however, it is not the professors’ goal to make student life a living hell; it’s just that sometimes it works out that way.
“I do try when I make the syllabus to not have assignments due when I think that students will have assignments due in other classes, but that’s really hard and that never seems to work,” Jordan said. “Sometimes you just have to give a test at the end of a unit or when it’s logical to do it. Not everything can be scheduled perfectly. Is it our intent to drive the students mad and ruin their lives? Of course not.”
As students progress throughout the semester, there is a time when everything may just become too much for one person to handle. This is why the college offers counseling services to help alleviate and potentially prevent the problems that stem from an active college life.
Recently the college created a stress management group, led by assistant counselor Barry Wolf, to further help students.
“What are commonly stressors for students is what you would naturally think of,” Wolf said. “Tests, exams and the enormous amounts of pressure students put on themselves; pressure from parents, and pressure from the school itself. And a lot of this is real and a lot of this is perceived. Part of the program is helping students step back and realize that they are stressed. From there it is what we do about it, how we manage it, how we work within it and how we reduce it.”
Other methods of dealing with burnout involve simply taking a break every now and then. Taking a walk in the nature center, working out at the Dow or doing anything to clear the mind can give a student a new lease on life.
“If it is that I have been working really hard on something, I tend to go out and have fun when I need a break,” Goebel said. “If it is just that I can’t do anything else without wanting to shoot myself, I tend to go introvert and nap more in hopes that it will give my brain a rest and I can continue on. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t though, and when it doesn’t, I find an easy way out. Because it may not be good, but it saves me from wanting to throw something against a wall.”
If students honestly can’t find a way out of the work pit, professors are keen to offer help if they deem it reasonable.
“If a student comes to me and says, ‘Look, I have three papers due this week. Can I have an extension on yours?’ I usually can work something out,” Jordan said. “And if it’s a real problem, I always appreciate it if they come and talk to me because I would like to know what is going on. They don’t have to tell me intimate details, but I would like to know if it’s a life issue, a pile up of work or if they don’t care about the class and they are just blowing it off.”
