The work of full-time college students can be seen as full-time jobs, but often it can feel like having five jobs. Many college students are involved in several organizations; sports or clubs, they may have weekend jobs or are interning. Students are also expected to socialize and find their identity at college. That’s a large list to accomplish for four years, yet no one ever stops to ask themselves, “Why am I doing this to myself?” Well, four years later I have decided to stop and ask myself that question, wondering why professors don’t allow mental health days for students.
Freshman year of college can be an exciting time. You go to activity fairs, meet new people, and begin work on your degree. But while doing these fun things, responsibilities beyond those pick up. All of a sudden, you’re a part of three organizations, have a job, and as a result, there’s no time for yourself. Finding time for yourself is so important and a lot of people don’t understand this. Simply taking a half hour a day can refresh your mind. Imagine taking one day to treat yourself to recuperate from your busy lifestyle.
Now, what are mental health days? First, mental health days are for everyone. Students don’t need mental health disorders or an official diagnosis to qualify for mental health days. They’re just students who are overwhelmed and need a day to recuperate. On mental health days, you nothing. That’s right, nothing. A person can decide how they want to spend their day, such as going for a hike. If they enjoy just sitting around with friends then they can do that, too. But the most important thing is that students take a break from work. That can be scary for students, myself included. Not doing work for an entire day sounds like a larger burden, but sometimes students forget to put themselves first. If they don’t, that’s when their world seems to spiral south. Mental health days would be refreshing and give students the chance to re-energize themselves, so why doesn’t Plymouth offer this?
These are the reasons why schools need to start accepting mental health days as excused absences. Many students are stressed, overworked, and aren’t taking time for themselves. My favorite thing being a college student is the ability to call out of class with the reason being that I need to complete homework for another course that I’ve fallen behind on. I’m not going to class just to complete work from another course. Taking one day every now and then is the best feeling.
At PSU, most professors allow for two excused absences and one unexcused, but many of these professors require a doctor’s note for sick days. For mental health days, there really can’t be a doctor’s note or some form of proof. The point of mental health days is to relax, to not do anything involving stressors, one of which includes tracking down a doctor to explain why you needed the day off.
There can be a lot of benefits if students are allowed to take mental health days. In recent studies, it has been shown that taking mental health breaks can improve the quality of someone’s work because they had time to refresh and not stress. Along with that, mental health days can be beneficial due to the high demand of society. In October 2018, “Health Day” reported mental health in students declining because of the amount of school work and expectations set upon them. More and more college students are reaching out to doctors about panic attacks, depression, or even suicidal thoughts. If we can help these students with mental health days then why shouldn’t we?
Plymouth State needs to start addressing the concerns of students and allow excused mental health days. If they start doing so, they will be addressing an issue many other schools are looking to face, the issue being mental health.