The following is a press release submitted by the Student Assembly for publication in The Spectator.
Clinton, N. Y. — As the Hamilton College community mourns the lives of their loved ones taken by COVID-19 and continues to deal with the dangers implicated on their mental health as a result of the global pandemic, the Student Assembly Central Council consulted data from the Mental Health and COVID-19 Student Task Force to
unanimously
pass the Mental Health and COVID-19 Resolution on Monday, February 15th. Acknowledging that the global pandemic has impacted individuals as the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and January white supremacist attacks on the Capitol occur in the background, the Central Council found it especially important to protect Black, Indigenous, and other students of color facing extreme mental health stressors. The student survey completed by one-third of the student body was used to justify exhaustive recommendations to the College and its respective departments to address numerous issues through seven Articles.
In a statement, President Saphire Ruiz said: “It is our hope that every part of the Hamilton College community, from students to faculty to administration, make a concerted effort to implement the parts of this resolution related to them. This resolution was passed unanimously after a six-week deliberative process involving dozens of student stakeholders — this resolution is unequivocally the sentiment of the student body. We did our part to inform the community of student needs, and we hope to collaborate on implementation.”
The resolution begins with the most simple and yet significant recommendation of the entire document: We call for faculty, staff, and students to show care, concern, and love for members of the Hamilton College community. In calling for individuals to be conscious of the hardship faced in meeting expectations and requiring that COVID-19 regulations and programs consult the Campus Leadership Group, the Central Council hopes to create a more understanding environment. This recommendation is followed by the Central Council’s promise to collaborate with other campus offices to develop comprehensive mental health resource lists, request that the counseling center send out an email regularly detailing available resources, and encourage further use of Care Contacts, to name a few. Furthermore, the Central Council urges the college to increase and/or relocate funds for mental health programming that develop personal mental health coping, create therapy groups focused on eating disorders, provide BIPOC further support
through the Office of Opportunity Programs, and use increased student inclusion in future calendar planning.
Correspondingly, Article II outlines that over 36% of 503 on-campus student mental health survey respondents indicated that academics heavily influenced their mental state. As much as 98% of these respondents indicated that mental health days and breaks were necessary. Therefore, the resolution calls for a “Light Week” in late March, encourages faculty members to implement “catch-up” days where less material is expected of students, and tasks the Student Assembly President, Vice President, and Central Council Committee Chairs to develop and implement a plan that encourages students to extend their requests of this article and general mental health needs to their own professors.
Following academics, Article III highlights that more than half of the survey respondents were struggling to make social connections and had a strong desire for increased performances and interactive events. In line with this, the Mental Health and COVID-19 Resolution calls for activities that increase community building targeted for specific groups such as first-years, seniors, international, and remote students. In addition to this, the Central Council requests that the college provide equipment check-out opportunities for entertainment and engage with remote students further through the use of kits like care packages. Similarly, Article V seeks to provide further support to remote students as they find themselves in untenable learning environments while international students suffer from homesickness. Because of this, the Central Council recommends that faculty provide flexibility for these students by making class recordings available the day that they are created and affirms support proposals for the International Cultural Association to receive funding from the college to support its programs and events.
With a plethora of students fearing harsh enforcement in regard to COVID-19 regulations, Article IV of the resolution focuses on how to ease the anxiety of the student body. The Central Council’s resolution urges the college to take accountability for its students and avoid moving forward with proposals that require student organization leaders to check Emocha badges in an effort to minimize student responsibility for policing one another. Moreover, the resolution urges the college to incentivize filling out the Emocha app and making appointments for all COVID-19 tests by offering HillCard cash. The Central Council’s resolution also asks that the COVID-19 Task Force recognize the weight of movement between blue and yellow status on mental health and create social alternatives to going in other dorms.
Accordingly, Article VI emphasizes that Resident Advisors report being overwhelmed by the reinforcement of COVID-19 Code Yellow guidelines in the dormitories. In light of this, the Central Council recommends that this team be provided with more clarity about guidelines and restrictions throughout the semester. We advocate for the providing of more intensive training in mental and emotional support for Residential Advisors as they work to assist their residents during these difficult times. The resolution also asks that the Residential Life team be granted access to at least one other cohort to allow for decreased isolation.
Lastly, Article VII of this resolution calls for the full enacting of the recommendations listed in this press release and the other few outlined in the full document through a number of
accountability measures. To ensure such action, the Secretary of the Central Council will read through and update this resolution as indicated by conditional clauses, distribute this document in full to all members of the Hamilton College community, and document it in the College Archives. This press release is being distributed to the Hamilton College Spectator, the Hamilton College Monitor, the Clinton Record, and Inside Higher Ed for accountability. In moving forward, the Student Assembly President and Vice President will be in direct contact with committee heads to discuss what each representative can do to carry out the promises listed in this document to the fullest extent. With the Hamilton College community in mind, we hope that the Mental Health and COVID-19 Resolution will prove to be a champion of mental health for staff, faculty, and students and genuinely evoke a feeling of communal support.
