Mental wellness is about prevention and resilience. It is a preventive measure against stressors and mitigates unwanted emotions. 

Taking care of your mental health is just as important as caring for your physical health. I would argue that it is even more important. If you are not in the right mindset, how can you have the motivation to do things for your physical health? 

With the pandemic turning the world upside down, people have become more attuned to their needs — mental health included. Even large organizations, such as companies, colleges, and schools, have seen the importance of reconnecting and relaxing in order for employees and students to become more productive members of society. 

I understand why workplaces can implement these kinds of days. The companies run on their own schedule. If they wanted their employees to not work one day, they could make it happen without issue and any external clients would have to respect their practices. It gives a sense of relief to the employees — they can take a quick break from their work because they can pick up where they left off the following day with minimal consequences. But can that be said for colleges?

NJIT is not the first college to implement wellness days. Other colleges, such as Worcester Polytechnic Institute, William Paterson University, and some Ivy League universities have built wellness days into their academic calendars. The goals of these schools are similar — have the students take a break from their workload and stress. These universities also host different events throughout the day that focus on calming students, such as yoga sessions, meditation classes, painting events, and even offering stickers and snacks. 

However, I cannot help but be a bit overly critical in this initiation. While the administration might have their hearts in the right place, how can this be properly integrated into the academic system itself? 

The best way to think about this is to think about the semester like a train. You get on the train the day the semester starts. While there might be breaks here and there, such as fall or spring breaks, it is nothing more than a pit stop. The train only stops at the end of final exams because that is when students truly know that they have finished their workload. 

College is fast-paced, and for some people, myself included, taking a break means falling behind, and it is not something that I can afford. In fact, if I were to be given a day with no classes, I would use the time to get ahead or catch up on my academic or extracurricular responsibilities. There would be no “break,” as I fear that if I were to take one,  I would be unable to get back into the rhythm of the speeding train. Actually, in my case, being given a day to catch up on work would actually help and would decrease my stress concerning future responsibilities. I would not exactly be ‘taking a break,’ but I would be using that opportunity to give my future self some time to breathe. 

While this is a harsh characterization of a wellness day, it does prove to have benefits to the people who need them and are able to use them properly. For the students who really like the sudden break in their schedule, it would be really beneficial. Yet, wellness is not a one-size-fits all-solution and at the same time, the university/college cannot cater to each individual student’s needs. Perhaps different solutions could — and should — be explored. 

The root causes of stress, especially in academics, are the deadlines and grading systems. While some people say that classes need to move at a slower pace, this is really not a solution as there are certain topics that students need to know by the end of a semester in order to properly progress to higher classes. 

So, while the content and speed should not change, perhaps a more relaxed approach should be taken when it comes to grading and deadlines. They should not be too strict nor should they be too relaxed because, in the end, you are still paying to get a degree. 

However, a middle ground should be found so that both the students and the instructors can have an easier and more enjoyable time. In order for the whole idea of “student wellness” to truly take root at NJIT, the professors and students need to intimately work together to find a good balance, and this should not necessarily be a general campus-wide implementation. 

Even with wellness days, it would still be up to the individual student and instructor to see how it best works for and between them.