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UPDATED: April 20, 2021 at 12:45 p.m.

Student Association will vote on a resolution next week that would acknowledge students’ increased stress and urge Syracuse University to impose institutional solutions, including the option to take classes pass/fail.

The resolution encourages faculty members to be understanding of the circumstances students are in and offer resources to help. The option to take classes pass/fail would alleviate stress students are feeling about how the pandemic has impacted their academic performance, the resolution reads.

“We’re introducing this, sort of in a timely manner, because we’re gunning for the pass/fail option for finals again,” said Maximus Short, a member of SA’s Assembly. “This year, we really haven’t had much of an acknowledgement about all the stress.”

The resolution also aims to formally acknowledge that the two wellness days SU offered this semester are not a sufficient break for students, SA Parliamentarian Joshua Shub-Seltzer said.

 

“One day twice does not allow students to actually step away from campus and take the physical and emotional break from everything that’s going on,” Shub-Seltzer said. “As the stress gets worse, students’ wellbeing goes down and can cause effects that none of us want. They’re trying to rest, and it’s not working.”

SU delayed the start of the spring semester, which will run until May 14, and eliminated spring break. After the university announced the plan, an SU student created a Change.org petition asking the university to implement wellness days. The petition received more than 2,400 signatures.

SU later announced that it would provide two wellness days during the spring semester — one on March 23 and another April 21. Administrators said during a University Senate meeting that the decision to add the days was the result of student demand, though they didn’t mention the petition.

Other business:

• SA will allocate $500 for transportation to the Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ for an event that the Sustainability Committee and Community Engagement Committee is holding on Earth Day. 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this post misattributed a quote from Maximus Short. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on April 19, 2021 at 11:59 pm