Opinion The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 4A — Monday, April 16, 2018 Emma Chang Joel Danilewitz Samantha Goldstein Elena Hubbell Emily Huhman Tara Jayaram Jeremy Kaplan Sarah Khan Lucas Maiman Magdalena Mihaylova Ellery Rosenzweig Jason Rowland Anu Roy-Chaudhury Alex Satola Ali Safawi Ashley Zhang Sam Weinberger DAYTON HARE Managing Editor 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. ALEXA ST. JOHN Editor in Chief ANU ROY-CHAUDHURY AND ASHLEY ZHANG Editorial Page Editors Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS Dear Me LUCAS DEAN | COLUMN JULIA COHN | COLUMN C oming to college, everyone echoed a similar mantra: “Cherish every moment, you only have one freshman year.” In the weeks before I finally left for Ann Arbor, I was wrought with anxiety and apprehension by the thought of going to college and leaving everything I knew behind. After unpacking my dorm room and hugging my parents goodbye, I knew, very rationally, that I was turning a new page in my life. Adulting, growing up, maturing, however you want to frame it. I was heading down a new path in my life. With two weeks of the school year remaining, I get a little choked up every time I think about leaving the University of Michigan, a place that has truly become my new home. Looking back at my first few weeks to my last, the contrast is humorous. I want to pay homage to the parts of my freshman year at the University that made it so special. My first few weeks of class, I had to use the Google Maps app to get from building to building. Being both directionally challenged and in a whole new environment is quite possibly the worst combination. Sadly, Maps wasn’t able to lead me to shortcuts, no matter how advanced the newest update may appear. First semester, I had to walk from South Quad Resident Hall to the School of Public Health three times a week. For those of you who are geographically savvy, this is typically a 15-minute walk, but for the first three weeks of classes, it took me almost exactly 20 minutes to get to class. Maps was like my baby blanket, and I was too scared to go in any other direction other than where Siri directed me. Eventually, when heading to class with a friend one day, she looked at me wildly when I told her I had never cut through the Diag. Like, literally, I had never walked through the Diag to get to class. Finally being able to understand the intersecting paths around the emblematic ‘M’ on the Diag was a life- changing experience. One fundamental part of the University’s character is the people that you meet here. I know, not everyone is great; it’s not a perfect place. But coming to this school, I never could have fathomed what it was like to be surrounded by so many smart, passionate and engaging students. There’s a competitive spirit to the University that challenges each student to become the best they can be. And believe me, there were, are and will be so many times when I will sigh in frustration believing that I am the dumbest person on campus. But having the opportunity to learn in an academically rigorous environment surrounded by peers who foster ambition and achievement is an unparalleled experience. No matter how hard the classes may seem, your classmates, professors and the campus environment are teaching students to grow and achieve more than they have believed. Another fundamental part is the school spirit and our glorious game days. To be completely transparent, I am not a football person, but I love U-M game days with all of my heart. There is something so incredible about thousands of students, dressed in maize and blue, singing “Hail to the Victors” and willing a win out of our team. Win or lose, there is always unprecedented pride toward our team and our school. The student body feels as one unit, united by the spirit of the University of Michigan. To the future Wolverines: Don’t take your freshman year for granted. Of course, it will be hard, and the University won’t feel like home with the snap of your fingers. But hold tight to the little moments, cut through the Diag and sing “Hail to the Victors” like it’s the last game day of your senior year. G raduating high school, I thought college would be a simple continuation of what I had been doing, but, you know, different. That wasn’t right at all; well, for the most part, anyways. My first semester was through the Summer Bridge Scholars Program and in a way it was like high school. We had predetermined classes at set times and we all got to know each other pretty well. Classes started at 8:30 every morning and there were two lunch periods. We were all done by 4:30 p.m. and after classes we would meet up to play basketball, bet on video games or maybe watch a movie. Kind of like high school but, you know, different. As I conclude my second year at the University of Michigan, I would like to reflect back on my time here, what has led me up to this point and what I wish I had done differently (thanks for the idea, Writing 350). If I could write a letter to my high school self, reminiscing on how I screwed up or the times I didn’t know any better, it would probably start with something along the lines of “Dear Me, you have no clue what you’re getting into,” or maybe more like “Dear Dumbass, please try harder,” or possibly even “Dear Idiot, if you don’t put 110 percent effort into the coming months you are absolutely going to regret it.” After that first summer, I was overconfident, unprepared and just straight-up not ready for college. Flash forward to fall semester freshman year and I actually had to pick my own classes (which I had never done before) and basically decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Or so I thought. Ambitious as ever, I signed up for the earliest class times and, as a hopeful Engineering transfer, thought it would be a splendid idea to take all the core classes at once (Engineering 100, Chemistry and Calculus). To top it off, I also took the LSA language requirement as I was still an LSA student and had not yet been accepted into the College of Engineering. I scheduled my classes back-to- back-to-back-to-back, figuring I would just get them all out of the way, do homework for a little bit afterward and hang out for the rest of the day. Spoiler alert: that is not how college works. I wish someone would have given me a reality check about what college was really like. Being a first-generation student, I wasn’t able to consult my parents in regard to how I was supposed to go about the whole college thing. I didn’t have many friends in college either, and I was afraid to ask those who were. In high school, I never thought very highly of those who dropped out of college, but I wish I had taken the time to ask why they did. After that fall semester I was seriously considering taking some time off myself. After that, I was a little more sympathetic to those who did decide to take a break from school. College sucked, man. I have now been able to settle into college and I feel much more confident in my ability to manage the work involved, but if it hadn’t been for the high expectations of my family and friends, I might be flipping burgers for a living right now. I thought I was alone in my situation, but I later found out that this was not the case. In fact, according to the First Generation Foundation, “Nationally, 89 percent of low-income first-generation students leave college within six years without a degree” and, “More than a quarter leave after their first year.” Feeling unable to finish college has become a pretty significant problem facing first-generation students and, for me personally, it was due to the lack of preparation for college. I guess it would seem I managed to dodge a pretty large bullet. If I could write a letter to myself, knowing what I know now, it would probably look something like this: Dear idiot, dumbass me, First and foremost, you are done with high school. It’s over. Please don’t go out partying if you have homework to do. Yes, even if it’s the weekend and all your friends are going. Stop procrastinating and do not prioritize a social life over school because you are really going to kill my GPA, dude. Second, please take a more manageable course load, especially in your first semester, because you will have me considering dropping out, for goodness sake. And last, but definitely not least, sit down and take some time to think about your future. Plan out what classes you need to take and how you are going to go about taking them. Talk to an advisor if you need to (just do it, man) — they are way smarter than you. Oh, and that calendar/schedule thing that you thought you were too good for? Well use it, idiot: it’s so much more helpful than you know. Sincerely, You, on a come up. Lucas Dean can be reached at lbdean@umich.edu. An homage to freshman year ALI SAFAWI | COLUMN An open letter to CSG D ear Central Student Government leaders, As you take your new seats as representatives of our campus community, I would first like to congratulate you on your election and to wish you the best. I hope that you are able to meet the numerous challenges, both old and new, with practicality and grace. I am sure the new CSG administration and assembly will make positive change. With that being said, allow me to offer my suggestions as to how CSG can address the growing mental health crisis on our campus. All of you ran with parties whose platforms and campaigns dedicated significant time to mental health. For instance, MVision, whose candidates won the presidency and vice presidency, as well as a plurality of assembly seats, ran a campaign focused on recognizing the concerns of students with mental health conditions as well as other “invisible identities.” Both MVision and the runner-up party MomentUM also endorsed a goal of reducing the student to mental health professional ratio from 1,200 -to-1 to 1,000-to-1. I am assured that you all believe that it is a serious issue. Yet, realizing an issue’s seriousness is only the first step in taking concrete actions. There are three interrelated issues I would like to see CSG take on: One, access to mental health care; two, substance abuse; and three, sources of chronic stress. While hiring more mental health providers and opening a Counseling and Psychological Services center on North Campus are both worthy goals, more needs to be done to ensure equitable access to care on our campus. First, the current mental health system, focused on CAPS and the University Health Service, requires students to travel to receive care. This may not seem like a significant issue for routine care, such as biweekly counseling sessions, but forcing students to travel to seek care at the Union or UHS could cause issues in situations of trauma and crisis. Let’s take a hypothetical but all too probable situation of a student in a dorm — say, Couzens —who is in the middle of an emotional crisis. Yes, residence advisers are given basic training in crisis management, but that may not be enough. Now imagine having the student in crisis, who could really benefit from a face-to-face session with a psychologist or social worker, walk to CAPS. Add to that the potential for bad weather or the fact that emotional crises do not solely occur during the open hours of CAPS and you end up with a detrimental situation for the student already in a bad place. I would ask CSG to work with the Residence Halls Association, University Housing and CAPS to assign mental health professionals to each dorm to make it easier for students on campus to access care. While many students live off campus, the University has more power to implement initiatives in the dorms. We already have the staff for this change, we just need to put them in new offices. I realize that the logistics of such a policy are more complex than I have laid out, but I believe such a change, which would decentralize the mental health system on campus, is both achievable and worth the effort. Second, CSG can play an important role in addressing substance abuse on campus, especially related to prescription drugs. I have noticed almost all of the substance abuse education we get as University students is on alcohol. While attention to alcohol abuse is merited — 20 percent of college students suffer from it — there are other forms of substance abuse on campus that pose a danger to students. Since the release of Netflix documentary “Take Your Pills,” there has been a new focus on the nonprescription use of central nervous system stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin by college students. A survey by The Michigan Daily found 24 percent of University students use Adderall, whereas only 8.95 percent have a prescription for it. Ignoring for now the academic consequences of nonprescription Adderall use, there is a real mental health danger to students. For instance, there are documented cases of Adderall abuse driving students to suicide. Another prescription drug, Xanax, also causes me concern. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Xanax is the fourth leading cause of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. Per an investigation by the CUIndependent, students at the University of Colorado Boulder, a similarly prestigious state university, use Xanax often in combination with alcohol to deal with anxiety and panic attacks, even without a prescription. While I am not aware of any studies on the prevalence of nonprescription Xanax use on campus, I suspect it would be comparable to Adderall. While prescription drugs like oxycodone carry a stigma and sense of danger owing to the opioid crisis, I feel the same cannot be said about Adderall and Xanax. I encourage CSG to work with the University on a public health education campaign about the dangers of using these drugs without a clinician’s supervision and about campus resources for those looking to break their addiction. Third, the University must enter a culture shift to reduce the dog-eat-dog academic environment that breeds so much stress in students. Academic stress is one reason why students turn to Adderall and Xanax. I remember nearly pulling my hair out with worry over my first organic chemistry exam. This should not be happening. While a culture shift will take longer than one CSG term, it is critical that we begin a dialogue on how our academic environment is directly affecting mental health in negative ways. Another stressor that needs attention is the recurrent racist incidents on campus. It is not enough to declare racism or other prejudice has no place on this campus. Last year, students of color found strong allies in former CSG President Anushka Sarkar and Vice President Nadine Jawad. I hope current CSG President Daniel Greene and Vice President Izzy Baer will continue in that mold. Let’s prevent mental health problems from developing in the first place. Granted, there are many serious issues on our campus, however, mental health is one that touches the lives of all students one way or another. I will continue to advocate for better mental health services on campus and look forward to having allies in CSG. Warmest regards, Ali Safawi Julia Cohn can be reached at julcohn@umich.edu. Ali Safawi can be reached at asafawi@umich.edu. Spoiler alert: that is not how college works. I get a little choked up every time I think about leaving. CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONVERSATION Readers are encouraged to submit letters to the editor and op-eds. Letters should be fewer than 300 words while op-eds should be 550 to 850 words. Send the writer’s full name and University affiliation to tothedaily@michigandaily.com. NATALIE BROWN | CONTACT CARTOONIST AT NGBROWN@UMICH.EDU Yet, realizing an issue’s seriousness is only the first step.