By Mariyah Salhia
As Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) class of 2027 start their first year with nearly as many in-person orientation events as before the pandemic, the outgoing class of 2024 has mixed feelings about going into their final year.
For many people graduating this coming spring and fall, the first year of post-secondary education started and ended in the confines of Zoom.
With campus bustling with networking events, welcoming booths and student mixers, some graduating students’ final year on campus feels like their first.
While some students feel like they’ve gotten the most out of their experience on campus, others feel like their faculties haven’t done enough to ensure that upper-year students catch up from their time online.
Marilyn Saad, a fourth-year child and youth care student, says that although she’s getting her degree in July, she still feels like she’s in high school.
“There was no transition from high school to university at all,” she says. “I entered twelfth grade and that chapter never closed.”
Moving into an online university after her online graduation meant there was nothing to mark the accomplishment of moving into a new part of her life, and for Saad, that’s been one of the most difficult parts due to the change from high school to university.
Saad says this lack of transition led to her feeling like high school had never ended.
“It feels like I was never a university student at all,” she says. “Even when things went back to ‘normal’ and I visited campus, there was no feeling of ‘Oh, I’m a university student now.’”
A 2023 study from the Central South University in Changsha, China looked at students who were pushed into online learning when the pandemic started and how it affected their overall mental health, physical health and interpersonal relationships. Over 90 per cent of respondents said distance learning had hindered their interpersonal relationships, both inside the classroom and out.
“I entered twelfth grade and that chapter never closed”
While Saad says she’s excited to graduate and move on to law school, she can’t help the feeling of disappointment when she sees first-year students having the experiences she missed out on.
“It does feel bittersweet because I’m a little jealous,” she says. “It’s so unfair, like you get four full years of being on campus.”
“It’s so unfair, like you get four full years of being on campus”
Now, Saad says she feels like her faculty hasn’t done enough to foster a supportive community.
“There’s no dedicated space and a lot of the classes are still online, there are people in my program that I’ve never met.”
She says she never expected to feel this disconnected from her classmates this far into her program.
Saad, who works for the Tri-Mentoring program at TMU, says in her position last year as the lead mentor for the faculty of community services, she was matching lower-year students to upper-year mentors. A frequent concern she’d hear from students was about feeling a lack of community on campus.
“Most of them are looking for that sense of belonging”
“Most of them are answering [the entry questionnaire] saying that they just don’t have any clue what’s going on,” she says, “Which makes sense because you’re in your first year, you don’t know what’s going on. But also most of them are looking for that sense of belonging. You know what I mean?”
Many of her mentors who had spent their first year online, offering advice on finding a sense of community on campus, felt like they were healing a part of themselves that they didn’t realize was hurt.
Erwin Lau, a fourth-year performance production student and the president of the Society of The Creative School, says even though he’s lucky enough to have a job lined up right after graduation, the sense of community in his program has helped him feel good about moving into the professional world.
Lau says he was lucky enough to move from a fully online course load to in-person labs at the beginning of his second year, and meeting people in person was a little strange.
“Knowing people outside of the little Zoom square, knowing their actual height, that’s mind blowing! Some people are taller than I thought, some people are shorter than I thought,” he says. “But it took me some time to adapt.”
“Knowing people outside of the little Zoom square, knowing their actual height, that’s mind blowing”
In his program, Lau says the built-in industry experience has prepared him to move into his industry professionally. However, as the president of the Society of The Creative School, he knows that isn’t the case for all students.
While his time on campus has been full of hands-on experiences and a close community of classmates, he feels some of the resources that have helped him feel that way are under-promoted.
Lau says being in a program as small as his, where he estimates his graduating class to be between 20 to 30 students, that his class feels so close-knit that they’ve become closed-off from other people in the faculty.
For him, being part of student groups like The Society of the Creative school has helped him meet people from outside his program.
“I think if I didn’t look for the society, I don’t think I’d ever know where society exists and know people outside of my [program].”
Marie Crosta, the director of academic planning and student affairs at The Creative School, says stress associated with graduation isn’t a new phenomenon for TMU students, but she has seen some general stressors that have changed since the pandemic.
“I don’t think I’d ever know where society exists and know people outside of my [program]”
“In general, we always hear [about] the imposter syndrome feeling that students have as they’re exiting,” she said, “I definitely think that students felt, ‘did I get enough of the education not being able to utilize the tools and the facilities that we have?’ Absolutely, we’ve heard it.”
But Crosta says students should be working to maximize their time on campus.
“In general, we always hear [about] the imposter syndrome feeling that students have as they’re exiting”
“How do you really ensure that you are making the most out of the network?” she says.
“Making the most of the network being your instructors, who could then launch you into your career, if you have those relationships, and they have that ability to connect you with others, completing those internships and working in industry or volunteering at certain events, conferences and attending events.”
While Lau says The Creative School has a lot of resources available to students, like career advisors and internship coordinators, who can help students prepare for life outside the classroom, he says the programs being under-promoted contributes to graduation stress.
“How do you really ensure that you are making the most out of the network”
“I didn’t know about some of these resources until two weeks ago,” he says. However, Lau says the programs being understaffed can discourage students from taking advantage of helpful career advice.
While Saad and Lau have had very different experiences of campus, Saad agrees that more needs to be done to help students feel a better sense of community on campus.
“I didn’t know about some of these resources until two weeks ago”
In her work at the Tri-Mentoring program, Saad tried to work to create a communal space for students in her program, which she thinks would help students build closer relationships with each other.
While the prospect of students having this resource when she’s on her way out is bittersweet.
She looks forward to her faculty working harder to support a stronger student community.
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