Light after the long, dark winter

Despite the early warnings from Michael Osterholm to the contrary, very few of us could have imagined in March 2020 that our lives (and sometimes livelihoods) would veer off track so dramatically, and for so long. Osterholm, of course, is a professor in the U of M’s School of Public Health, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, and one of the most interviewed experts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But now, a year and change later, we’re slowly emerging from our cocoons. For University of Minnesota students, the best news may have come in early March, with the announcement that all five system campuses are planning to return to fully on-campus operations this fall.

College life post-pandemic promises a sense of liberation, but the toll on mental health remains to be seen. Hanson says that staff at Boynton are in the midst of the next round of surveys to help bring that to light.  

He suspects that students from families who were more financially secure and whose jobs were unaffected have fared better than those in families with essential workers or that experienced job loss. “I think students from those two groups were differentially impacted by the pandemic, just as you’d imagine,” says Hanson.

Rich has seen and heard about negative coping behaviors among students over the past year, notably an uptick in alcohol consumption. But she’s also become aware of very positive and even surprising new behaviors.

“I’ve seen a lot of people shut down their social media (like deleting Snapchat and Facebook and Instagram), which for our generation is actually kind of a big decision,” she says. “I’ve noticed that being very, very common as a coping mechanism right now.”