CHAPTER 4: STUDENT DEVELOPMENT AS A GUIDE TO PROGRAMMING
Student Stress Calendar
August/September
- Homesickness, especially for freshmen
- Values crisis: students are confronted with
questions of conscience over such issues as race, drugs, alcohol experimentation,
morality, religion, and social expectations.
- Feelings of inadequacy and inferiority develop
because of the discrepancy between high school status and grades and initial
college performance.
- Freshmen begin to realize that life at college is not as perfect as they
were led to believe by parents, teachers, and counselors. Old problems seem
to continue and new ones are added. An external reality they had put their
hopes in has failed them.
- Grief develops because of inadequate skills
for finding a group or not being selected by one.
- Mid-term workload pressures are followed
by feelings of failure and loss of self-esteem.
- Pregnancies from summer relationship begin to show. Dilemma of what to
do.
- Sexual conflicts and confusion result when
confronting, for the first time, different heterosexual standards and homosexuality.
- Non-dating students sense a loss of esteem because so much value is placed
upon dates. For people who date, the pressure to perform sexually increases
feelings of rejection, loneliness, and guilt.
- Job panic for mid-year graduates.
November
- Academic pressure is beginning to mount
because of procrastination, difficulty of work, and lack of ability.
- Depression and anxiety because of feelings
that one should have adjusted to the college environment by now.
- Economic anxiety: funds from parents and
summer earnings begin to run out.
- Some students have ceased to make attempts
at establishing new friendships beyond two or three existing relationships.
December
- Extracurricular time strain – seasonal parities,
concerts, social service projects, religious activities drain student energies.
- Anxiety, fear, and guilt increase as final
examinations approach and papers are due.
- Pre-Holiday/Break depression – especially
for those who have concerns for family, those who have no home to visit, and
for those who prefer not to go home because of family conflicts.
- Post Holiday/Break depression at again being
away from home security and positive strokes.
- Post Holiday/break-up of high school relationships.
February
- Many students experience optimism because
second semester is perceived as going “down hill.”
- Vocational choice causes anxiety and depression.
- Couples begin to establish stronger ties
(engagement) or experience weakening.
- Depression increases for those students
who have failed to establish social relationships or achieve a moderate amount
of recognition.
- Social calendar in non-active.
- Cabin fever due to weather.
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March
- Drug and alcohol use increases.
- Academic pressures increase as midterms
arrive.
- Existential crisis for senior –Must I leave school? Is my education worth
anything? Was my major a mistake? Why go on?
- Where is God? Why am I not seeking him/her?
April
- Frustration and confusion develop because
of decisions necessary for pre-registration.
- Summer job pressures.
- Selection of a major.
- Papers and exams are piling up.
- The mounting academic pressures force some
students to temporarily give up.
- Social pressures: everybody is bidding for
your participation in trips, banquets, and picnics.
- Job recruitment panic.
- Depression begins due to anticipation of
separation from friends and loved ones at college.
May
- Anxiety develops because of the realization
that the year is ending and that a deficiency exits in a number of academic
areas.
- Seniors panic about jobs (or lack of jobs)
and ability to finance oneself until the first paycheck.
- Depression over leaving friends and facing
conflicts at home with parents.
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First Year Experience Program
The “First-Year Experience” program, commonly called FYE, was developed to
support academic achievement and personal growth amongst first-year students.
Research has shown that our new students make important decisions regarding
academic and social habits, as well as whether to stay in college, in the early
weeks of the first semester.
The key to the success of this program is to approach it with enthusiasm and
sincerity. Ultimately, there is no substitute for a Resident Assistant who
is visible on the floor and takes the time to build relationships with and among
residents.