...Sometimes administration likes to make it worse. Now I'm sure some of you are incredibly confused. Didn't I start this blog talking about how I graduated. This blog isn't going to be about me. Not today. Today it's going to be an incredibly passionate rant on something that I find incredibly intolerable and absolutely infuriating. And before you tune me out, please give me a chance. These stories need to be heard and things need to change.
Before I begin I'd like to say that I loved my time (for the most part) at SPU and if I could go back in time I would still go to SPU. My teachers were amazing and I have made some of the best friends I could have ever asked for.
So this story begins with a sad tale of an administration preaching the phrase "grace-filled community." And sadly falling far short of that. Many of you probably don't know that I had some serious troubles getting through college, I suffered stress-induced chest pains that would get so bad I couldn't physically move, stress-induced panic attacks that would almost make me faint or puke, and a depression that led me to think of suicide. So I went to my counseling center where the counselor I met with didn't seem to be all that engaged with my problems. So I stopped going, and I dealt with my problems on my own and with the support and immense help from one of my professors who I can not thank enough.
Others weren't so lucky. SPU like all good institutions are terrified of liabilities. And the other stories that I have heard, make me glad that I stopped going to the counseling center and were part of the reason I stopped. Because regardless of how hard things got, SPU was where I needed to be. And these stories made me scared of being cast away from the haven I found there.
These stories aren't mine to tell, but after I get permission from those that they belong to I'll add links in the comments. What I didn't know this past year though, was that wasn't just an SPU thing. This is something that happens at other institutions too. And what happens is worse.
Please read this article too!!
https://medium.com/this-happened-to-me/d3212c0a28c2
And then if you could, sign this petition?
http://www.change.org/petitions/rhode-island-school-of-design-take-care-of-your-students-before-your-reputation-put-an-end-to-student-harassment?share_id=dbUeDbjjLD&utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
With the amount of stress that is involved in college and the amount of pain and suffering poor students go through that suffer through diseases like depression it astounds me that colleges that claim to have your back would and could get away with doing such despicable things. We pay these instutions an arm and a leg and then they treat us like this. This is so outrageous to me. This NEEDS to STOP.
Thanks for being patient with me but this is something I feel very passionate about.
Shelby
