ASU students are finding it increasingly difficult to focus on classes as political disarray from the 2020 election continues to add fuel to an already hectic news cycle.
The last few weeks of political news has featured a barrage of unprecedented events — not to mention the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic — that have sent most of the country into a deeper partisan divide, and students are feeling the effects not just mentally, but academically as well.
As sophomore media studies student Cami Parrish explained, “I’ve actually found myself propping my phone up next to my computer so that I can have the news on while I’m in my Zoom classes.”
Dairius Grantling, a freshman business management major, feels a similar kind of stress.
“I usually do keep up with what’s going on with current events and even just reading the headlines stresses me out,” he said.
A licensed professional counselor and director of ASU Counseling Services, Erin Trujillo validated students’ struggle to find balance amongst schoolwork and political strife.
“Sometimes school is going to require our entire focus, and that has to be okay," Trujillo said in an email. "And sometimes, there is a current event that is so overwhelming, it stops our ability to concentrate on the schoolwork we had planned for that moment/hour/evening. That has to be okay too, and is actually much closer to real life than a mysterious perfection of balance of all things, all the time.”
Amina Simmons, a psychologist with ASU Counseling Services, offered advice for students who feel overwhelmed, like Grantling.
“A common misconception about being informed is that one must know everything. That’s not true," Simmons said in an email. "Being thoughtful about when, how and how often we engage with the information readily available helps us to make more thoughtful and intentional decisions about how to care for ourselves when that information brings about negative emotions or attitudes.”
Trujillo said in the email it’s okay to take a break and reminded students that “news isn’t going away, we can always return to topics and challenge ourselves to move beyond the headline to learn further about the underpinnings beyond a particular news story.”
Parrish said she wants more understanding and flexibility from professors and administrators during times of political unrest.
“With everything changing around us constantly, it’s honestly just unrealistic to assume that a discussion board post is still going to be my top priority,” she said.
Trujillo and Simmons emphasized resources available to students and encouraged anyone who is struggling to take a step back and seek out help, whether it be from a friend, ASU Counseling Services or the student support group Devils 4 Devils.
“What the more recent events have done is evoked even more conversations among their peers, family and community supports leading to increased awareness of differences in political beliefs and in some cases values for certain students," Simmons wrote in the email.
"This increased awareness is encouraging them to assess… what action steps or changes they’d like to make to maintain their mental health and their support system,” Simmons wrote.
Parrish and Grantling both expressed reluctance to reach out to ASU Counseling Services to discuss these issues due to the online form of counseling being used because of COVID-19.
“I know this is different from what you thought or expected to happen and it’s okay to be disappointed about not meeting regularly with a counselor in person,” Simmons wrote in the email. “We also try our best at ASU (Counseling Services) to use our resources to counteract any barriers students may have to successfully engaging in telehealth.”
Grantling has hope that spring semester won’t be entirely consumed by the news cycle.
“I think (that) in the next few weeks things will begin to calm down a little and possibly go back to ‘normal,’” he said.
Reach the reporter at rpriest2@asu.edu and follow @reaganspriest on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
Continue supporting student journalism and donate to The State Press today.
Reagan Priest is a managing editor, overseeing and working with the six digital desks at The State Press. She previously worked as a social justice reporter for Cronkite News and as a digital production intern at The Arizona Republic.
