After a month into the fall semester at the University of North Texas, most students have noticed that they have been receiving more coursework than what they are usually given. While most students are all struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, the faculty still decided not to go easy on students during a difficult time.
Early on in the week, a form was sent out to numerous students to get their opinion about how they felt about this semester’s curriculum. All of them have said that things have taken a negative turn since remote learning began.
“It has gotten progressively worse being remote”, said UNT junior Sanjana Iyer. “Professors seem to think that because of the pandemic we have all the time in the world for school.”
Students feel that the professors have not grasped the idea that online classes can be very draining to their mental health. UNT junior Gabbi Lyons says that she wishes the faculty can be more helpful to those who are opposed to remote learning.
“Professors do not seem to have a very good grasp on the stress online classes can put on students who don’t learn well from them”, said Lyons. “It would be nice if there could be more leniency.”
Other students like sophomore Mia Coleman believe that it is much more difficult for them to learn when they have to teach themselves.
This semester has taken a bigger toll on the freshman class as their next four years are off to a rocky start. UNT freshman Alexa Butler says she feels overwhelmed about how UNT is handling things at the moment.
“They could be nicer when I have in-person meetings with the admin and actually answer the questions I have regarding school and financial aid”, said Butler. “They could answer my emails or just show that they do care if I’m ok and succeeding in school.”
Many students are furious about how the curriculum is being handled this semester and demand that changes be made so that way next semester can run smoothly. Jenaya Wicker, who is a junior at UNT, says that the faculty and staff don’t care about how the student body feels and does not understand the other challenges that they are dealt with.
“I feel like professors did not take into account that people are still losing jobs, have been unemployed for half a year, have children who are also doing online learning ALL day, and several other things… Professors are being harsh with the grading and showing no understanding or sympathy towards students”, said Wicker.
All of the responses received all have one thing in common: they do not want to repeat this semester all over again.
“The fact that this pandemic is taking a toll on many people’s (including my own) physical AND mental health makes this a recipe for disaster in my opinion”, said UNT junior James Labya. “I understand there wasn’t much time to do so with the timing of the pandemic, but moving forward I’d like to see improvements.