Part of the series Nanopinions: Bite-sized Hot Takes

Recently the freshman class wrote anonymous stress letters as an assignment for their English class and sent them to parents. Faculty also had a chance to read the letters. As a result of these letters, one member of the administration went to go talk to all of the freshman English classes about stress/mental health. However, the problems that the freshman wrote about are not new to Uni. It’s sad that all 62 freshman had to write 1-2 page letters to get the school’s attention.

Although the assignment was for the freshman class, the things they wrote about do not only apply to freshman year. Students struggle with stress/mental health issues throughout their time at Uni and in my experience, things just get worse in sophomore, junior, and senior year. So why didn’t the administration come to talk to all the classes at Uni? It seems that they just went to talk to the freshman class in hopes that people would think they were taking stress seriously, and therefore people would stop talking about the letters.

The school doesn’t need to do anything drastic. Things like making caring announcements over the loudspeakers, encouraging teachers to create mental health boards, or partnering with the SSO could make a difference and show students that they care.