During Finals Week, Empathy From Professors Is Needed

Gabriela Enamorado/Staff Writer

During this time of the year, most of us are piled with work. This can range from studying for final exams or working on your final projects. At a time of of COVID-19 and political turmoil, this can be more stressful than usual. 

We have to worry about,from not getting sick to the state of our country, and now, final exams. Meanwhile, many of our professors are basically acting as if everything is normal and piling up work for us when they need to be having empathy and understanding.  

I have written about how the current times can be detrimental to our mental health.  Piling work after work is not good for us. Due to the current e-learning situation, college students don’t even really feel like they are learning enough in school. It’s hard to process information when we are not in a learning environment. Professors have to realize that everyone is going through something at the moment, and having more academic stress on top of that makes it worse. 

Although Floridians don’t act like it, we are also in midst of the worst spike of the virus in Florida since the summer. Many of our family members could be sick or even some students themselves. Recently, I have been doing a group project in one of my classes. Aside from the fact that doing group work during a pandemic is stressful, my professor was not very understanding of a student who was turning in work late because she feared she may have the virus. He reprimanded her for not trying and was completely insensitive to her situation. 

This is unacceptable. The times we are not living in are not normal. Having compassion and empathy during this turbulent period is the bare minimum. Putting pressure on students during times like this is just cruel. 

I have kept saying that everyone is going through something as a cause of this pandemic. It’s been reported that many college students’ mental health has seriously declined in 2020. Physical health is also at risk because the virus does not discriminate against age. University students are always at risk of the virus and if they are afraid they may have it,  professors should understand that might halt their academic performance.  

Our learning environment is completely different as well. Most of the days, I get overwhelmed thinking about everything that goes on in the world. It’s hard for me to even want to log onto Canvas to start my school day. I lose track of time and forget when assignments are due. This may sound like I’m being irresponsible but many college students have run into this problem in the past months. 

Professors should think about how their personal lives have also been affected by the pandemic and teach with this in mind. It’s ignorant to think that students are just slacking off because they feel like it. Almost everyone has been affected by the current state of the world. So, forgive us if we can’t exactly handle everything on our plate right now. 

Overall, I think empathy is a good thing for everyone to have right now and not just in academic settings. Empathy should always be something we practice but now more than ever. We all just care about the people around us a little more and help make things a little easier for everyone.

DISCLAIMER:

The opinions presented within this page do not represent the views of PantherNOW Editorial Board. These views are separate from editorials and reflect individual perspectives of contributing writers and/or members of the University community.

Photo by Gabriel Benois on Unsplash.

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