One year ago, on March 18, 2020, Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen informed the student body that Iowa State would not resume in-person classes after spring break due to the COVID-19 pandemic that was first reported in Iowa on March 3, 2020. 

Prior to this announcement, a committee was formed, students studying abroad were recalled, spring breakers were urged to take caution, university events were canceled and the spring break return was delayed by two weeks. 

Since then, The United States has seen over 29.6 million cases and 537,021 deaths. Iowa has seen 344,003 cases and 5,666 deaths. Iowa State University has seen 2,468 cases and zero deaths. 

Erin Baldwin, associate vice president for student health and wellness and director of the Thielen Student Health Center, said her strongest memory during the weeks prior to Iowa State being shut down was seeing COVID-19 spread across the world.

“The most prevalent [memory] was all the support and coordination that was happening between study abroad, risk management, the health center and several of the colleges to return our students from Italy, China and South Korea,” Baldwin said. “There were many, many logistics to work out to help support students and their families with these transitions from an academic, personal, public and mental health and housing perspectives.”

Baldwin said she felt the pandemic looming early. 

“I felt it coming as early as February as we compared COVID to other similar illnesses,” she said. “I remember presenting to the President’s Council in February 2020 about COVID and what we knew at that time. Look how much has transpired since that time!”

For the planning committee, Baldwin said, the priority was to “constantly stay connected to the most up-to-date information from the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, Iowa Department of Public Health] and other public health experts.”

They also prioritized using science-based evidence to make recommendations and create support for students, faculty and staff, and supporting the Ames community as well as possible.

While it may not be evident by the scene at Ames bars, many students have spent the last year fairly isolated, some even moving back to their hometowns. 

In a survey, students told the Iowa State Daily how their lives have changed since last year. 

“It’s drastically changed from a year ago,” said Piper Hein, a sophomore in regional and community planning. “Moving back home and online has been a positive experience. However, the lack of social life has taken a minor toll on mental health. I love being at home with family, but I miss feeling independent and seeing my friends on campus.”

Jessica Fenton, a junior performing arts major, said her social life has also taken a hit since the beginning of the pandemic.

“Anyone I know wanting to celebrate their 21st was more sad than happy because they couldn’t enjoy it — as long as you care enough about your friends and family not to go out,” she said. “I get picked on by friends and family more now than ever because I believe if we had a mask mandate and went on lockdown from the beginning, the mess wouldn’t be this bad.”

Fenton also said that, as a performing arts major, her program has had to make significant adjustments for safety. 

“I’m finally able to start attending some in-person classes, but I’m unable to get the help and experience I need by doing hands-on work,” she said. “As an actor, as a theater tech, as a set builder, I can’t and haven’t been able to participate at all.”

Theater performances were able to resume but in an online capacity.

“We’re doing shows again, but they’re all online. Audiences that want to come see us must view online,” she said. “Which is wonderful, and I’m so glad to find new ways to do theater — that’s the one thing I’ve found joy in during this mess — but it’s not the same as being a part of a real show. Singing and acting with masks isn’t much easier.”

Students also expressed that the COVID-19 pandemic has also added additional stress when it comes to searching for a job. 

“I’m a performing arts major, and theater arts are declining in this pandemic. A show I was in was canceled, none of my peers can find internships,” Fenton said. “I was lucky I had a summer job to return to because I’ve applied for over 50 jobs since last March and have only heard back from a few.”

Rebecca Mulder said she was a senior getting ready to graduate when the university was shut down. 

“We were able to have our red folders, streamers and a graduation tassel sent to us when we watched the virtual graduation, which was just a slideshow,” Mulder said. 

“I quarantined with my family from mid-March until the end of June 2020, and that’s when I accepted a position related to my degree and have been working ever since then,” she said. “I work for the Women, Infant and Child Program as a nutrition educator. Rather than seeing our participants in person, we have been serving them remotely by calling them to do their appointments.”

Megan Kiernan was another senior who graduated in May 2020.

“[The pandemic] changed everything,” she said. “I was a senior at the start of last year, so I haven’t been able to see my friends since before spring break. I never got to have a proper graduation ceremony or celebrate with my friends and family. It’s impacted the job market here in Iowa, and I still have yet to get a full-time job in my field.”

Isabella McGuire, junior global resource systems major, is another student who said COVID-19 significantly impacted her life in a variety of ways.

“I lost a job, isolated, got depression, got a worse job that injured me, moved, quarantined several times, lost so many opportunities — to make friends, develop professionally and experience new things — lost family members, became estranged from my father, got new diagnoses and ended my era of teenagehood,” McGuire said.

Crystal Jewell, a graduate psychology student, said she took the pandemic as an opportunity to learn more and better herself. 

“I established a healthy work/life balance by setting boundaries with myself and others; I learned to find peace, comfort and growth in solitude; I’ve learned how to be self-reliant; I’ve made the switch to zero waste by recycling and cutting out plastics as much as possible,” Jewell said. “I learned how to be happy alone and to not rely on other people as my source of happiness; I learned how to stay intrinsically motivated; I fixed my bad posture; I meditate and journal daily; I cook for myself regularly. It has become clear to me who and what are important in this life.”

Christopher Hanes, director of Iowa State Student Counseling Services, said 80 percent of students have reported experiencing a negative impact on their mental health due to the pandemic. 

“The impacts that we’ve talked about are, you know, significant concerns around stress and anxiety, a good amount of disappointment and sadness, loneliness and isolation, financial setbacks,” Hanes said. “Some of these things that are typically stressful for students are now, obviously, much more amplified because of the pandemic and all the uncertainty that goes around that.”

“Our support networks have been impacted,” he said. “It has contributed to isolation and loneliness. We also know that isolation and loneliness contribute to mental health concerns and can either create them or exacerbate them […] so we’ve had students feel kind of disconnected and feel lonely, dealing with isolation.”

Hanes also said that nationally, anxiety and depression rates have gone up in the last year.

“It’s not uncommon to go through periods of feeling sad or down or a loss of motivation, or just hypervigilance or increased stress or anxiety, all those are normal reactions to stressors,” he said. “And we’ve been in [a stressor] for a while. So the benefit of talking about it the way we’re talking about it is it helps people not judge themselves for ‘I’m feeling anxious, I must not be dealing with this well.’ It helps us recognize that we’re all in this stressor and there are normal ways of dealing with it.”

Hanes also said Iowa State Student Counseling has a newer program called Therapy Assistance Online (TAO), which allows students, faculty and staff to have free access to online mental health programs.

The Student Counseling Center also has a YouTube account with videos created by staff members.

Hanes said as students approach the end of the semester and hopefully the end of the pandemic, focusing on self-care should be a priority.

“We focus on kind of grounding in the present, grounding in what’s in your control and recognizing that you deserve and benefit from a balance, deserve and benefit from some support if needed,” he said. “You know everybody could benefit from some types of connections. So I think there’s this idea of committing to engaging some of those activities as needed.”

“You know, there is a lot of hope,” Hanes said. “We’re hearing these messages about availability of vaccines and all these pieces, and I think it’s really helpful for people to have that. We also want to recognize that they are struggling and people are stressed. So you want to be able to incorporate kind of an acceptance and self-care piece while they’re trying to achieve this.”

Hanes also emphasized that Student Counseling Services are always available for students and can be reached in many different ways.

“It’s OK to not be OK; it’s OK to be struggling,” he said. “And there are resources available to help support you getting through this semester, get through it.”

Baldwin said that looking back on the last year, she is proud of and amazed at how the campus came together to make the necessary changes.

“Things were literally changing by the hour during spring of 2020,” Baldwin said.

“Sitting in the role of incident commander and leader for our public health and student health and wellness teams, I am so incredibly proud of how we stood up a public health infrastructure from the ground up,” she said. “We didn’t have the benefit of having a health care system or public health school to support our work, or a large county public health department, and I think it’s incredible how colleagues from across campus stepped up to support. I’m also so very proud of our students and how they’ve navigated the many transitions.”

Going forward, as more individuals receive their vaccinations, Wintersteen announced March 12 that the university would be looking toward a “new normal” for the 2021-2022 school year. A “Moving Forward Committee” has also been established.