As a result of remote learning, many students studying abroad feel disconnected and isolated from the university as they choose between prioritizing academics or their mental well-being.
“The pandemic has taken a huge toll on myself, it has affected both my mental and physical health,” said Cherrie Lee, a hospitality, tourism and event management senior. “Being at home 24/7 with different time adjustments has made me feel depressed at times, it just makes me feel like a prisoner.”
Lee moved back to Taiwan, her home country, at the beginning of the pandemic to be with family and has had to adjust to synchronous learning and group work despite time zone differences.
“I’m usually pretty good at learning online but it’s been over a year since we started doing this,” Lee said in a phone call. “It’s also really sad knowing that my last semester is going to be online as well.”
Students studying overseas have been forced to pick between attending classes and drastically changing their sleep schedules or falling behind academically.
Lee said she has classes Monday to Thursday, but after moving her classes changed to Tuesday to Friday. Her school days range from 2 a.m. to noon and 1-6 a.m. each day.
“I’m over here in Taiwan, but I’m basically living in the U.S. time zone,” Lee said. “Just so that I can make sure that I attend all my class meetings.”
On Feb. 10, Kaijie Zhang, a freshman international student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, died from having irregular sleep patterns, according to a March 9 Davis
Vanguard article.
Zhang had been studying remotely from his home in Wuxi, China where he passed away after attending classes at inconsistent times, according to
the article.
Nutrition senior Tu Le from Vietnam said while many of her friends returned to their home countries because of travel restrictions and unstable immigration policies, she stayed in the U.S. to avoid unreasonable online school hours.
“When you go back to your home country, even though you don’t feel that alone because you have familiarity around, the time change is not worth it,” Le said. “But International students that are in their home countries are still paying much higher tuition fees than residents.”
Le said the university’s tuition should reflect the circumstances of the pandemic.
“International students are still being charged with the same expensive tuitions, they can’t even [use] any physical resource from school,” Le said. “Because of the pandemic people have lost their jobs and don’t have resources to pay for their tuition, a lot of students feel stressed, really homesick or really tired of weird time adjustments.”
Steven Nguyen is a communications junior who travels between Vietnam and the Czech Republic to stay with family.
He said the university isn’t considering the various stressors international students face alongside academics.
“It’s just pointless because despite how people are struggling and how people are running out of resources, campus has been closed and charging for resources that no one is using,” Nguyen said. “People are fighting for toilet paper and the school is charging for a rec center that no one uses, while cases are skyrocketing.”
Since interviewing Nguyen, the university reopened the Spartan Recreation and Aquatic Center at limited capacity on Monday.
But Nguyen said it’s still difficult for international students to find motivation through the campus community because of the lack of opportunity for students to interact with each other.
“The Sammy app is like a form of Twitter and where most people get to meet other students,” Nguyen said. “But the university needs to look out for [its] students, make sure that its [students are] in good health and ensure that they’re safe. International students are important to be in the classroom.”
