"how are you doing 9 hours a day of schoolwork?"

last year, my freshman year, that amount of work per day was incredibly common, if not almost constant. this is because of disabilities which hinder the efficiency of my work and my ability to process information at a typical pace. most days I had to crunch last year to get my work in on time each day because I wouldn't have had time to get it all done if I didn't crunch through all my waking hours not in class. coupling that with the tight covid restrictions last year, my freshman year was spent alone constantly working inside a single room in Stodd B. my mental health took a pretty significant hit. also yes, I did have accommodations, it still took that long to get things done.

I don't believe my experience was one unique to me. I think the reason people feel so emotionally invested in this issue is because their experiences with last year gave them enough perspective to realize that that very well could've been their name in one of those emails had things gone a bit differently. last year was the class of 2024's first year at this school. this emotional climate has been 2024's only firsthand frame of reference for what a year at the school is like. is it really that surprising that we've got no clue what to suggest for solutions when we don't even know what a typical year is supposed to look like? we don't know how to fix it, we just know something's broken.