It’s that time of year on campus again – the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, the cherry blossoms are blooming and the Quad is full of rejuvenated and eager students. At least, this is what this time of year is supposed to look like. Instead, our campus has snow on the ground, clouds in the sky and a student population fed up with a prolonged winter that has certainly overstayed its welcome. The majority of the University population certainly isn’t too thrilled about this extra cold weather we’ve been getting this season, but why? It’s not like the temperatures are below freezing every single day, and the sun has been coming out to grant campus a nice day every once in a while. Surely students on this campus are just being dramatic about the weather recently, right? Well, fellow students, I’m on your side. It’s not only the case that campus is simply a much more enjoyable place to be during the warmer and brighter springtime; I believe that this cold weather on the most stressful days of the semester may be contributing to low morale and difficult days for many students.

Let’s think about the schedule of any average school year on a college campus, and specifically the University. We come for the fall semester during the very end of the summer season, then get to experience the rest of the joys of the cooler weather for the first half of autumn as the season slowly becomes an unbearable cold. Then we come back for the spring semester at the coldest time of year, with the hopes that warm weather is around the corner with the onset of springtime. Especially during a stressful midterm season, it’s really a nice thing to have warm weather and beautiful days to enjoy. Now here we are in late April, halfway through spring with only a few nice days to show for it, with finals just around the corner. Now obviously we can’t control the weather – although, at the rate the climate is changing, we might as well be able to anyway – so these seasons aren’t necessarily consistent every year. At the very least the consistency of weather is something our internal clocks might rely on, especially during an incredibly stressful point in the semester. This is what I think might be adversely impacting University students.

I don’t think this opinion is anything controversial; in fact, I think most students, staff and faculty wish warmer weather was here now. However, I do think everyone has to realize the dampening nature of this weather, and how that might impact the work quality we are able to provide as students. As a University, we need to grow more thoughtful and considerate about how poor weather can impact the student body’s mental health. I’m not necessarily saying that we need a drastically reduced workload during these months (less work wouldn’t hurt in general) but perhaps poor weather can be a gateway to talking about taking mental health more seriously in the classroom. Hopefully, warm weather is really just around the corner, but until then, keep your heads up and let’s push through the cold together!