Pandemic pressures: College students felt overwhelmed, disconnected

Overwhelmed. Unmotivated. Disconnected.

That’s how Maria Giovanna Jumper, a 21-year-old Adelphi University student, described her coronavirus pandemic experience during the past year while studying remotely at her family's home in Breezy Point, Queens.

She has come to campus in Garden City once, for senior photos.

"It’s been a hard year to be a student, to give 100% to my work and other activities," said Jumper, who is editor-in-chief of the school's newspaper, The Delphian. "It’s hard to see that I’m going anywhere or that my work is amounting to anything when I’m spending 12 hours a day in my room.

"I’ve done presentations in classes where not a single one of my classmates have their cameras on," she added. "I don’t know if I’m making any sense because no one is giving me a facial expression to show they have gotten it, or a nod or a smile."

At the same time, the protests and activism that burst through the pandemic’s constraints last May after George Floyd, a Black Minnesotan, died under the knee of a white police officer, have been as emotionally compelling as the pandemic itself, she said.

"It almost overwhelmed students more than the pandemic did," said Jumper, who is editor of the campus newspaper. "Many students had very strong feelings, and many of my friends went to demonstrations. [We’re] uncovering what is going on on our campus. We’ve been trying to make sure we’re amplifying voices of students of color.

"There have been so many historic events being thrown at us — we are being overwhelmed with our emotions, with information — that sitting in a Zoom class doesn’t feel like a priority."

Danielle Burman, a junior musical theater major from Maryland who lives on campus at LIU Post in Brookville, was glad classes remained open all year there.

"To do all this on Zoom would have been so hard," she said. Still, the year has been isolating and stressful, because, as on all campuses, COVID-19 testing uncovers cases each week or two. Last fall, the campus shut down for two weeks after an outbreak.

Students still cannot visit in dorm rooms, and she chooses not to eat in the dining hall, taking her food to her room to eat alone. Theater department shows are filmed instead of performed before an audience, and the old post-show socializing and celebrations no longer occur, she said.

"Honestly, I get my socializing in my theater and dance classes," she said.

Jeremy Kuri, 19, of Yonkers, started his freshman year at Stony Brook University last fall feeling isolated, with only one in-person class. Some activities since have opened, with limits on group sizes, and since the fall, he has met people to socialize with, although that is limited, too, he said.

"Campus life during the pandemic has been tiring, mentally and physically," he said. "You always want to be safe and restrict who you spend time with, so it makes it hard to make or spend time with friends. That is something that I do not see changing in the immediate future."

Yet, he is hopeful. "I know that at some point things will improve, and they already have. If you only focus on the negative aspects and all the things you cannot do, you won't get the most out of living through this experience," Kuri said.

Jumper said she is now looking forward as well. The economics and political science major has been accepted into law school for the fall.

"In years to come, this might make me more forgiving of myself," she said. "If I have one of those weeks where I’m not getting things done, it’ll get better and it’ll be OK."

She said she feels it has made her, and many of her friends, more resilient, and that while life is still "overwhelming with challenges every day, it’s given us a perspective that we’re going to get through it. … Just keep moving through it and expect that everything will be all right.

"Now that I’ve seen people get vaccinated, that gives me hope there is an end somewhere and I have to push through, to still be an optimist and find the joy in things when we go back to how things were," Jumper said.

By Carol Polsky

Carol.Polsky@newsday.com

Carol Polsky writes news and features on wide-ranging topics, from superstorm Sandy, 9/11 and presidential elections to health care and the economy.