In recognition of this special issue of The Stute, I wanted to cast light on environmental factors that may contribute to the mental health issues we have seen among our students.
Going through depression, anxiety, or other mental illness is always a struggle and requires a tremendous amount of personal strength, but often the pain can be eased through social interaction and support networks.
When a person is lacking in social interaction, they may consequently feel alone and isolated, which will only exacerbate existing mental issues. Having a strong network of friends and acquaintances to help someone out when they are feeling isolated can give them the self-esteem and perseverance to fight through their issues.
This is where Stevens comes in.
Currently, only about 40% of the undergraduate student body is truly living on campus. Indeed, there is a significant portion that is living in Stevens Leased Housing, but this should not be counted as truly living “on-campus.” This form of housing is spread across Hoboken. In some cases, such as those living in 1000 Jefferson, traveling between housing and campus can take up a large amount of time. Granted, there are shuttles in place to carry these students, but there have been a myriad of reported issues with these shuttles, including delays and infrequency.
Taking this into account, less than half of the undergraduate student body lives in the typical college setting of dorms and residence halls. Upon closer inspection, we see that the vast majority of this on-campus portion is composed of underclassmen.
What does all this mean?
First, it means that most undergraduate students are not experiencing the typical “college feel” of living in an academic campus with other students around the same age. Most students, especially upperclassmen, are either dispersed around Hoboken in leased housing, living in an apartment entirely separate from Stevens, or living outside of Hoboken and commuting every day to school.
In all these cases, not living in a typical campus setting usually leaves the students not experiencing the community feel that comes with a campus setting. When the students do not feel like they are part of a community, they can begin to feel even more isolated than they normally would.
Second, the lack of on-campus upperclassmen means that the student life of Stevens will suffer. When students are living far away from campus, they cannot participate in as many clubs or other student organizations as they would like because traveling to campus requires extra time that our students do not have, given our rigorous academic programs. If upperclassmen cannot participate in as many organizations as they would like, this leaves the bulk of club leadership on the underclassmen.
As a result, a learning curve is created because the underclassmen leaders of these clubs then must be properly transitioned, must learn all the student life and SGA rules, and quickly gain the skills and insight to run these clubs. Because they need to devote more time to getting acquainted with their new responsibilities, the club leaders often cannot hold as many events or keep the club growing as fast as they would like.
When not as many events are being held by student organizations the clubs themselves start becoming inactive. This only hurts any community feel that might otherwise develop since not as many students of similar interests would be coming together and contributing to their organization.
Putting all this together, the lack of upperclassmen living on-campus would lead to a decrease in active student life, which would make more and more students feel isolated as they do not have as many opportunities for club participation and support network building that they otherwise would have had.
I know that Stevens is trying to combat this issue by building the new University Towers, which will bring around 1000 beds back onto campus, but this does not entirely solve the issue.
While this will be a huge improvement and will significantly help our student life in the long run, it appears that the University Towers will be housing mostly underclassmen. More room for the underclassmen does mean that upperclassmen will once again be able to move back into places like Jonas Hall, but it does not mean that enough upperclassmen will be able to live on campus to foster a supportive college culture.
Many upperclassmen choose to leave Stevens housing entirely due to various factors, such as the lack of private rooms available, the cost of housing, or a lack of amenities.
Going forward, Stevens needs to set a long-term goal of creating a better college environment by bringing more upperclassmen back onto campus. In doing so, more clubs and organizations will be able to flourish with the leadership provided by experienced upperclassmen student leaders. With this new leadership, more and better events will come to the scene. Our clubs and organizations will operate better when upperclassmen can participate better in them.
More clubs and social opportunities will allow more students to feel less isolated and become part of a thriving college community.
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