“Unless Black students have the means to grapple with the emotional and mental health tolls of the pandemic and the state sanctioned murders of people in our communities, campus will not be a safe place for us.”

I think it’s pretty clear that a return to campus will magnify the race and class divides that existed before the pandemic began. These divides will be structural and academic but they will also be interpersonal. Unless Black students have the means to grapple with the emotional and mental health tolls of the pandemic and the state sanctioned murders of people in our communities, campus will not be a safe place for us. We need mental health professionals who look like us and are trained to listen to us. If we have to wait months to access mental health resources that reflect our needs, I predict an incredibly tense, incredibly polarized campus.

Nia Whitmal, she/her, 2021, Ezra Stiles