Anxiety Aftermath of COVID-19

Millions of students and teachers were forced to transition to entirely online classes when COVID-19 first started to spread. Now that most students are back on campus, there is a major difference between life before and after the start of the global pandemic.

At IUPUI, students have multiple different modes of instruction in their class schedule. Some students have a mix of hybrid on-campus and online. Some students have completely online asynchronous classes, while others must meet on Zoom at a specific time for online classes.

Camryn Daniels, a sophomore at IUPUI, has no in-person classes this semester. Daniels currently lives in an on-campus apartment, but only attends classes via Zoom. However, she does work at the front desk in the School of Liberal Arts Advising Office.

Daniels says that the outbreak of COVID-19 impacted her professional life by making it harder to train for her job. She didn’t get many face-to-face opportunities as the university was shut down quickly after she was hired. 

“It was harder learning how to do new things because it was my first time working in the office, so I had to learn a lot of stuff. It was difficult because I couldn’t do it face-to-face. I had to learn everything over zoom and over the phone. That was a struggle,” Daniels said.

Daniels also admits that online classes are harder for her to learn in as well. Being in her apartment for her class sessions on Zoom, it makes it harder for her to focus. While Daniels wishes that she had all in-person classes, she also thinks that she would face too much anxiety to do that because of COVID-19.

Living and working on-campus, Daniels feels strong anxiety about COVID-19. She admits to wearing a mask everywhere she can, only taking it off when she has to eat. She tries to eat as far from other people as possible. The pandemic has also led her to stocking up on hand sanitizer.

Another IUPUI faculty member shares similar anxieties about being back on campus. Trevor Potts, the Director of Civic Engagement for the Department of Communication Studies, keeps in mind extra precautions for both his personal and professional life. 

Potts isn’t just a director, but also a professor. Potts teaches multiple communication studies classes, including some that are hybrid in-person classes. Transitioning to different modes of instruction in classes that were normally all in-person was challenging. 

A main goal of Potts’ teaching is to interact and encourage participation. He constantly tries to find new ways to involve students through exploration and modified interactive activities, no matter how demanding it may be.

While fulfilling his duties as a director and professor, he spent the majority of the spring and summer at home with his wife and children. Despite it being stressful with two young children at home constantly, he thought that it brought them closer together. He also worries about his students that might have had to go through this stressful time alone.

“I really felt for some of my students who were isolated when the pandemic hit. I think that would be very taxing emotionally and from a mental health perspective,” Potts said.

Potts wasn’t the only one in his family who had to adjust to professional work after the start of the pandemic. Potts says that his wife is also a bartender, which means that she can also be exposed to COVID-19 while on the job. He wears his mask to take extra precautions for both his professional and personal life, but finds himself having to tell students that they have to keep their masks on while in the classroom.

Kristin Stetler, a Health Services Management major at IUPUI, also shares the same anxiety that Daniels and Potts face. Stetler currently lives on-campus, but commutes to her job as a nanny and is an active member in her sorority. 

Stetler notes that her sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha, has also gone through changes in order to accommodate to COVID-19 guidelines. Stetler refers to most events and all chapter meetings being held via Zoom.

Despite the accommodations being made, Stetler most worries about getting COVID-19. Stetler thinks that her fear is mostly rooted from the beginning of the semester. After finding out that she had been around someone who could have contracted COVID-19, she had to self-quarantine herself during the second week of school.

Although she worries about getting sick, her anxiety isn’t necessarily completely geared toward herself. She admits to thinking about other people that could be affected by her. She even thinks about the university itself as well.