This week marked the loss of the 11th student in three years to suicide on Penn’s campus. And with standard Penn flair, everyone has blamed the tragedy on the administration at Penn. Instead of instantly blaming others, it’s time to look deep inside ourselves as students and do our part to debunk the “Penn face” to prevent the 12th suicide.
There’s one fact every student at Penn needs to understand – you’re privileged. It doesn’t matter who you are, if you were accepted to Penn and are lucky enough to be attending, you are privileged. At Penn, we’re afforded so many opportunities that other college students aren’t. Because of this, many students feel entitled to having things handed to them (as many of the students always have had that.) Well, guess what? The administrators have a tougher job than you do as a student. Each professor not only has the daunting job of teaching up to hundreds of students, but they are also often top scholars in their field and have other commitments. Not to mention, they have personal lives too, and are just as entitled to living that life to the fullest as you are. Same thing goes for many of the top voices on campus, like our President, Amy Gutmann. She is constantly bombarded with criticism when she has one of the hardest (arguably the hardest) job on our campus. Yes, she does have the job of making mental illness a priority, but we have to recognize that it is one of many priorities.
As a student, it is completely irresponsible to believe that Penn, or any Ivy League for that matter, would be the least bit easy. At Penn it is a huge problem – being the “social Ivy,” many students believe it will be a walk in the park compared to other more “serious” Ivies. Well newsflash – our studies have been ranked harder than most of the other Ivies. Our school may be a different social atmosphere, but you have to come in knowing that it is still an Ivy League, and academics come first. You’re practically guaranteed to have at least one moment when you feel hopeless – life at an Ivy League is not all unicorns and rainbows.
Similarly, because you are almost guaranteed to have a spurt of mental illness-related issues while in college, it’s our responsibility as students to realize that help actually is out there. We have tons of mental health resources on campus, but you have to make the effort to reach out to them. I know better than most that that is one of the hardest things in the world – no one wants to admit they have a mental illness. But you have to realize that while you’re going through tough times, so is everyone around you. No one can read your mind – you have to reach out to someone, whether it be your parents, roommates, or one of the resources on campus.
It’s easy to think that no one will understand the problems you’re having and you will be looked upon differently for struggling with mental illness. For some people, yes, they may look at you differently, but realize that they’re being hypocrites and hiding behind the famous “Penn face.” The “Penn face” is the real reason so many of our students are rotting away from the inside. Most students believe that unless they are participating in every possible activity, they’re not doing enough. It’s our responsibility as students to stop this nonsense. At Penn, you will get B’s. At Penn, it is okay to simply focus on your academics. At Penn, it’s okay to spend the night watching Netflix in your jammies instead of going to the party everyone is going to. If we don’t start believing that normal is okay, our campus will continue to suffer.
As a final note, I don’t want to discount the responsibility of the administration to address mental illness on campus. The way they handled notifying students of our fellow peer’s death was unacceptable – calling it an accident discounted the seriousness of the situation. But we do have to realize that it is everyone’s responsibility to work together to lose the “Penn face” and make the prevalence of mental illness less of a phenomena and more a reality.
