Fear of Covid-19

A Saint Joseph’s University international business major and class of 2021 discusses how Covid-19 canceled his study abroad trip and as a result, forced him to take summer classes so he could graduate on time. He also brings up questions about the ethics behind bringing kids back to school.

 

Start Talking SJU is a social media impact campaign that encourages members of the Saint Joseph’s University community to engage each other by discussing difficult, yet important topics, that are vital for a healthy, open, inclusive campus. Our current topic is Living in Fear, Striving for Hope.

 

More videos like this one on the topic of Living in Fear, Striking for Hope in 2020 can be found at http://livinginfear.starttalkingsju.com. You can also see our prior campaigns: Attacked (http://attacked.starttalkingsju.com), Belonging (http://belonging.starttalking.com), and Mental Health (http://mentalhealth.starttalking.com).

 

This video was co-created with the person depicted and/or represented in a story read by another. All persons reviewed and signed consent forms granting permission to share this story online. 

 

If you are experiencing any personal or social effects due to fear on or off campus, the university has resources that can help, including:

 

The Office of Student Outreach and Support (https://sites.sju.edu/sos/); the SJU COVID website (https://www.sju.edu/hawk-hill-ready); if you are experiencing food insecurity, HawkHub (https://clubs.sju.edu/hawkhubclub); The Bias Activity Review Group, which connects to Public Safety (https://sites.sju.edu/oid/bias/); CAPS (610-660-1090); TitleIX titleIX@sju.edu; REPP (*confidential support) 610-733-9650 (24 hr. Peer Helpline); or SJU Public Safety 610-660-1111.

 

A complete transcript of the video reads as follows:

 

“I seem like a positive perfect person and I like to portray that but I am very pessimistic so I will try my best. The main things that it’s affected in my life is that I was supposed to be abroad last semester and that was cancelled because of Covid. SJU did not handle that very well at all, uh, it was a struggle to get them to let me take four courses over the summer. They initially were just saying, “Oh you’re gonna have to just come back next semester” leaving me a semester behind and of course that was unacceptable. I don’t plan on being a semester behind, I plan on graduating fully on time, so after a lot of struggling, a lot of emailing different departments, I ended up being able to take four classes over the summer and I’ll be taking six next semester just to make up for that loss. I had so many plans and so many objectives that I personally had and I feel like a lot of that just kind of hit the fan with everything that happened with Covid-19. But I feel like just from what I understand that SJU did it because they didn’t really have any choice. I don’t think they could have, as a whole, couldn’t have afforded for other university students to come online. I don’t think they had it they could have managed in all honesty so when they tell us that they did it because they’re doing it for us and that they wanted us to give a full SJU experience that’s not really the case we’re not getting a full experience. It’s just I just don’t understand how we’re Jesuit university and from a moral perspective I don’t think it was morally correct decision to come do this semester especially the way it’s been done. I know mentally the fact that we don’t have any breaks, I am mentally at my my end. I’ve had -it’s been- this has definitely been like the worst semester for me overall, not just with classes. I’d have to say I’ve been going on an upward scale in terms of every semester but this semester I just hit this sort of brick wall and it’s just because I think a big part of that is like us being half online half in person. My motivation level just isn’t really there anymore. I will have to say the the thing that has been the one major positive aspect to this semester has been my friends that I have from the university, not to mention my roommate and everyone that I associate with at NLBC and then those close to me have been a very big reason as to why I’ve been able to get through this this semester moderately okay.”