20 DECEMBER 1-7, 2022 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | The lives of students changed dramatically in the spring of 2020. As COVID-19 closed institutions across the country, Colorado Col- lege shuttered and moved education online. Both online and hybrid classes returned for the 2020-21 school year, and that spring the administration opted to replace spring break with a regular block break, which is just two and a half days. The Colorado College Student Government Association responded by asking for a mental health day, but the administration rejected that. On the fi rst Monday of each block, there is usually a speaker. The speaker slated for March 28 this year canceled, and the Academic Events Committee, a group of CC faculty and staff members, chose not to schedule a replacement, but instead opted for a 45-minute break in which students were encouraged to stay away from email and focus on their mental health. But students still wanted a full mental health day, and the CCSGA took up their cause. “CCSGA was looking into pausing and doing a mental health day to give students time to relax and catch up on stuff,” says Al Lo, CCSGA vice president of student life. “It’s like an uphill battle with the administration. Every time we advocate for it, it’s always be- ing dismissed. Any time they acknowledge it, it gets put on the back burner.” School administrators rejected the request, saying that the missed classroom time would just add more stress for some students. After that, recalls Jordan Bates, a senior en- vironmental chemistry major, students started organizing. “We created a petition,” he recalls. “We wanted one mental health day for every student every block, no questions asked.” After the third student died this fall, that petition was transformed into “Mental Health Day Demands,” which asks the dean of the faculty, the faculty executive commit- tee and the administration to implement a series of changes. From the faculty, the petition demands a written policy allowing students to take one mental health day per block without penalty, calls for professors to end campus program- ming and communication with students at 3 p.m. and no assignments after that time; asks for more boundaries between school and personal life for students; and requests that faculty work with CC’s student government to develop an anonymous reporting line for students to communicate that profes- sors have created unsafe or uncomfortable classroom environments. From the college administration, the petition demands that staff be adequately compensated; asks that a grant for Pell-eli- gible students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics be created so that they are compensated for requirements outside of the typical 9 a.m.-to-noon course; calls for the administration to commit to hiring more BIPOC staff at the counseling center; requests that more space be devoted to housing; and stipulates that the adminis- tration stop making promises it cannot keep. Nearly 500 people have signed the petition so far; organizers also created an Instagram account titled “CCinstitutionalchangenow” to bolster the petition’s demands. This isn’t the fi rst time that students have advocated for mental health changes at Colorado College. According to Heather Horton, CC’s senior director of Student Health and Wellbeing, a few of the health resources currently on campus came into being as a result of such advocacy. “In 2004, student activism led to the creation of a campus task force, out of which the position of SARC [Sexual Assault Response Coordinator] was created, as well as the creation of a sexual misconduct policy; that policy has been revised and is now our Nondiscrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy and Procedures, in combination with the campus Title IX Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedures,” Horton says. The campus hired the fi rst SARC in 2005. In the 2011-2012 academic year, the CCSGA conducted a survey regarding the mental health of students, asking about their experi- ences, what sort of programs they might want developed, and how aware they are of mental health issues and resources on campus. That student engagement was part of what spurred the creation of the Wellness Resource Center, which focuses on sexual-assault response and prevention, as well as mental health and sub- stance-use education, according to Horton. “To me, it feels like this larger trend of essential mental health infrastructure and care only exists because of student activism and students not just doing the emotional labor and work that comes with all of this, but also in a block,” Gibson says. Some members of the CC faculty recently adopted their own wellness pledge that can be adapted by departments and programs. It begins with a statement: “As an educator who is committed to anti-racist, accessible, and critical pedagogy, I pledge to center our holistic selves and our collective wellbeing (including but not limited to our physical wellness and mental health) as a core value and learning outcome of this course.” Faculty members who sign the pledge are committing to some of the measures requested by the petition, including not requiring documentation for a student’s absence at least one day during every block, scheduling assignment deadlines only during the work week, and slating one pre-determined day in the syllabus as “a wellness day with no readings, deadlines or course-related tasks.” Colorado College is working with outside experts to secure a Healthy Minds desig- nation for the campus. A creation of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, the designation indicates that an institu- tion is committed to supporting the mental well-being of its staff and students. So far, ten institutes of higher learning in the state have achieved it; the University of Colorado Denver was the most recent. In order for a college or university to earn the designation, it must meet the Healthy Minds Checklist, which includes such things as putting mental health information on the back of student IDs and syllabi, holding an awareness event each year, offering preven- tion programs, and providing access to online mental health support. The goals are to “emphasize prevention and self-care, provide resources for substance use disorders and recovery, ensure culturally com- petent and accessible services, elevate student voices and increase accessible information for student services,” A Hard Lesson continued from page 18 continued on page 22 BOULDER On the Pearl St. Mall .............................. & In The Village next to McGuckin Hardware ............ DENVER Next to REI at 15th & Platte ............................. COMFORTABLE BOOT HEADQUARTERS Blundstone, Dansko, Keen, Merrell & More! comfortableshoes.com Colorado Criminal Defense: .. DUI & DWAI (Driving While Ability Impaired): Alcohol and/or Drugs ..DMV: Driver License Hearings, Revocations, and Suspensions ..Constitutional Law Violations: Fourth, Fifth, and Six Amendments ..MPO & RO Hearings: Restraining Orders and Mandatory Protection Orders ..Felony, Misdemeanor, & Municipal Cases: Denver, Arapahoe, Adams, Jeff erson
