College students spend most of their time on campus listening and noting what professors have to say through one-sided lectures and presentations. These educational settings have been proven to be helpful for information retention, but what students would find equally helpful is the ability to flip the dynamics and offer the professor firsthand insights that are of general consensus to the class. Specifically, it would be beneficial for professors to be more aware of burnout among undergraduate students. For those unfamiliar, burnout is often considered the result of chronic stress in the workplace.
As college students, we are tasked with performing well within numerous classes varying in rigor and course load: extracurriculars on campus, finding research opportunities, maintaining a social life, and taking care of yourself simultaneously. Balancing everything on our plates is exhausting and often results in leaving our personal tasks for another day, as they aren’t as much of a priority as studying for a test.
Sebastian Morales ‘29 said, “It's juggling a social life, personal life, and a devotion to education. Since we aren’t robots, we aren't programmed to complete tasks effortlessly. We need breaks. Everyone works differently as students, but as humans, it is impossible to pursue perfection indefinitely.”
I could reason with the argument that “we signed up for all of this” by committing to an elite liberal arts school. But those making that argument will never be in our shoes today and understand completely how students feel at the beginning of midterm season during the spring term. Excelling in college is a high priority, but for it to be the sole focus for four years would be unrealistic. To quote a study by Saville et al. on burnout in college students, “College itself is about comprehending independence through perseverance, and to expect perfection without stress would be unreasonable without the development of a mental health disorder(s).”
Professors should understand burnout in terms of its role within their students’ lives because, if left unattended, they will face a loss of interest in everyday activities and witness their grades slipping. Freud claims that “the price we pay not only for sublimating but also for exhausting our energies in the name of work, and also art, culture, and civilization, may be not only too high but ultimately not sustainable in the long run.” The purpose of this article isn’t to argue for less work altogether, but rather to educate the educators that a student’s lack of participation or poor effort in assignments might be less straightforward than they think. Students can complain all they want, but it's another thing to give factual or real reasons why you might not be doing well in the class or feeling less confident in the class.
After interviewing Sebastian, we both agreed on the various roles that a student and professor should fulfill to promote success inside and outside the classroom. Professors should be considerate of students as they juggle numerous obligations because faculty have a large workload, and demanding more only hinders excellence. That doesn’t mean the responsibility is solely on the professor individually. Students should develop proper time management, organization, and initiative skills instead of complaining about large workloads to begin with. If you effectively allocate time every day, you can prioritize deadlines effectively and complete work of high quality efficiently.
That said, students facing stress, anxiety, depression, or any factors linked to burnout should find resources and healthy outlets they can rely on. I do wish professors understand what burnout is to us students, but that will only go so far. According to Baghurst et al. (2014), each and every student who wants to get back into a productive rhythm has to make an effort on their own behalf too. Some methods of expression include going to the gym, journaling, talking to someone trusted, or meditation. In addition to personal habits, explaining your situation to your professor (depending on the circumstances) would also be a great way to gain some leniency and build an understanding to aid your education. If there is a lot going on within a student’s life, it's beneficial that the faculty is made aware of the situation and is equipped with the correct skills to address conflicts that can or do arise.
If the educational dynamic weren’t so one-sided, then the relationship between students and professors would be more interlaced. I’m sure both parties would be significantly more compassionate with each other if they communicated more transparently. Burnout itself is a result of an overload of intensely difficult tasks, but most importantly, it’s due to a lack of proper understanding. By fostering relationships, we can truly understand one another through the simple act of listening and asking curious questions both inside and outside the classroom.