The pandemic has taken away a lot. It took away in-person classes, a spring break, and guests at the upcoming commencement ceremony, but IU Senior Lecturer Karen Banks reminds us that it has taken much, much more. After losing four loved ones in the past 6 months, Banks talked about how important addressing mental health is.
Kara Banks, Senior Lecturer, discussed how the pandemic has hurt her family and how it effects her as a professor.
Realizing this potential for unrest, the Provost decided to add three “Wellness Days” to the spring semester.
The three days off are February 16, March 24, and April 22.
These days were not picked at random. Each date is on a different day of the week, all the while remaining in the middle of the week. This is in effort to keep students from traveling on a Friday or Monday.
IU students and staff just had the first one last week.
IU NewsNet went to Instagram where we created a poll to see how students felt about the first Wellness Day. Of the about 300 students who responded, the poll was split down the middle. Half of the students felt the Wellness Day was beneficial, while the remaining half did not think it helped.
For students like IU senior Caroline Harris, this may be in part to the fact that she had recorded lecturers that she had to watch on her day off.
“For me, it added stress,” Harris said.
Chuck Carney, IU’s Director of Media Relations discusses the logistics of IU’s Wellness Days.
Carney talked about what the Wellness Days are, whether the first one was beneficial, the reality that some professors did not follow the break day, and more.
Although the snow storm affected the Wellness Day activities planned for the February Wellness Day, the university plans to have activities and resources for March and April’s Wellness Days.
