Research study launched to understand and address student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

While student mental health is not a new issue, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have severely impacted the mental health of university students. Amidst online classes and assignments, students are forced to grapple with feelings of isolation and anxiety.

In an effort to address this ongoing student mental health crisis, Harvard University and the World Health Organization have launched an international study called the World Mental Health International College Student survey. The study will survey post-secondary students across fifteen countries.

Dr. Daniel Vigo, along with the department of psychology at the University of British Columbia, is leading the Canadian side of the study. Marisa Young, associate professor of sociology at McMaster University and a Canada research chair in mental health and work-life transitions, is leading the study at McMaster.

This study is being conducted with support from the Student Wellness Centre and the McMaster Office of Institutional Research and Analysis.

According to Young, much of the research being conducted will allow the team to reach students with a range of different experiences to gain a better understanding of McMaster’s entire student population. Young hoped that this information can then be translated into ways to help students during COVID-19.

“The goal is to work with the Student Wellness Centre, which has been really integral in getting the study off the ground,” said Young.

Allison Leanage, a PhD candidate at McMaster has been involved with the administration of the survey. She explained that the study consists of a survey that is sent out to a randomly selected group of students. The survey asks questions about social relationships, substance use, the impacts of virtual schooling and general mental health.

“The impact of the survey is to gather more information about how students are impacted in their social settings and how mental health services can understand their situations, [which can] help improve those services,” said Leanage.

“The impact of the survey is to gather more information about how students are impacted in their social settings and how mental health services can understand their situations, [which can] help improve those services,” said Leanage.


Much of the interest surrounding this study comes from the fact that students across the world will be surveyed and studied. A standardized set of questions will be asked to each student, allowing answers to be compared once the study concludes.

According to Young, using a standardized survey to acquire data in so many different countries will help researchers to draw more accurate comparisons.

“There are a variety of measures that we use to understand psychological distress across cultures and across countries, which is great in a number of respects, but sometimes can lose the powerful comparison properties,” Young explained.

Young also explained that the international status of the survey might benefit McMaster students more directly as well.

“Being on an international level, the attention [to the study] will be so much more impactful,” Young explained. “The voices of those leading the efforts at McMaster will be louder because of the international presence,” she added.

Given the mental health crisis that university students are currently facing, this study has the potential to improve the experiences of students around the world, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We don't mean to fill your email box with just another call for a survey. We truly believe that this is going to have impacts for students at McMaster,” Young said.

“We don't mean to fill your email box with just another call for a survey. We truly believe that this is going to have impacts for students at McMaster,” Young said.

Mac Dance’s annual showcase carries on despite COVID-19

Performing arts have the power to, for a brief moment in time, bring people together in a shared experience. This year’s Mac Dance showcase The Show Goes On is a reminder of the students’ ability to come together, albeit online, to share their love of dance. The group features a range of styles: from jazz and tap, to musical theatre and Bollywood.

Last year, Mac Dance’s annual showcase was held at Mohawk College and was almost entirely sold out. This year, the show will be held virtually as a YouTube live stream on Feb. 27.

“We want to make it feel as much like a typical show as possible, so we made a show order, a virtual program, we’re having an intermission and we’re having raffles. Chance [Sabouri, Mac Dance president] is going to do a little speech at the beginning. The biggest difference obviously is that you’re not going to be sitting in a chair screaming at people on stage in front of you,” said Lauren Shoss, a fourth-year health sciences student and secretary of Mac Dance.

In September, choreographers and dancers began the process of preparing dances for the showcase. Each piece is two to three minutes in length and it is up to the choreographer to choose the music and set the choreography for their group.

Dance classes this year have been taught over Zoom, posing its own unique set of challenges, from half of the choreographer’s body getting cut out of the frame to dancing in cramped spaces to getting kicked out of the call due to unstable internet connections. However, through mutual support, everyone moved past these challenges together.

“We've heard from a lot of our dancers that people are just so thankful. They see dance as a break and escape from the stress of school. I know that's how people feel in a typical year — you go into the studio and you kind of leave the rest of the world behind [to] focus on dance for a bit and just let yourself really get into your movement, so it's really nice that people are still able to get that from the year,” said Shoss.

The Silhouette interviewed some of Mac Dance’s choreographers to get an in-depth look at some of the pieces that will be performed this year.

C/O Mac Dance Team

Going Home by Kevin Vong

Vong described his piece’s style as a type of hip hop fusion that blends contemporary and hip hop styles.

Choreographed to Sonn and Ayelle’s Lights Out and Vance Joy’s Going Home, the piece pushes traditional definitions of hip hop. Where hip hop is typically defined by its hard-hitting movement, Vong brings out the texture and subtlety with particular attention to emotion in his piece.

“Especially during the pandemic, [I was inspired by] going home to reconnect to what is important to you instead of looking out to the material world. Sometimes family, home, is what you should rely on and it’s really important,” explained Vong.

For Vong, dance has become a form of home and he hopes that the audience will feel that through movement. Currently in his fourth year of linguistics, Vong said dance will forever remain as a source of inspiration and for all intents and purposes, his second home.

C/O Janet Bell

Got It in You & Grave Digger by Lauren Shoss

Shoss roots her dance pieces in storytelling. Drawing from her personal life experiences, her two pieces Got it in You and Grave Digger are two halves of a whole, with antagonistic but related storylines.

Got It in You, a lyrical dance set to the song of the same name by BANNERS, is based on the idea of finding the strength and power within yourself to overcome life’s obstacles and challenges.

Complimentary to Got It in You,Grave Digger is a contemporary piece exemplifying the feeling of being weighed and held down. Set to the song by Matt Maeson of the same name, Shoss described the piece’s darker and more aggressive tones as a welcome challenge, as she branched out of her comfort zone to create the more intense piece.

Now in her fourth year of the health sciences program, Lauren is considering pursuing a master’s degree in sports psychology, with the intention of working with athletes from a mental health perspective.

“I think [work with athlete mental health] is really needed in the dance world. I've seen a lot of my teammates suffer from body image issues, low self-confidence, perfectionism and eating disorders . . . It is a very neglected population, but they're in need of support,” explained Shoss.

C/O Hannah Armstrong

Burlesque by Hannah Armstrong
Armstrong’s jazz group is channelling their inner Christina Aguilera in her piece entitled Burlesque, inspired by the film. In her first year choreographing a jazz piece, Armstrong decided upon the theme of burlesque as a fun and uplifting dance concept.

“The biggest challenge was probably just trying to envision how I wanted the routine, while also trying to make it [conducive to] online [viewing] . . . What can make a jazz routine really great are the transitions, group formations, interaction between dancers and just the energy on stage, so trying to replicate that online was probably the biggest struggle for me,” explained Armstrong.

As one of two co-vice presidents for the recreational dance team, Armstrong admires that Mac Dance connects diverse individuals by their mutual love of dance. In the spirit of The Show Goes On, she detailed how the Mac Dance community has impacted her as a dancer and as a person.

“I did competitive dance throughout high school and I always assumed that that would be the end of my kind of dancing career, but coming to university and then finding this team [allowed me to] keep doing what I love. . . I'm very thankful that everybody is here because they want to [dance] for fun and because they're invested,” Armstrong said.

C/O Janet Bell

Vienna by Abby Buller

When finding inspiration for her piece, Buller found that she clicked instantly with Billy Joel’s Vienna. As a tap choreographer, she liked the song for both its musical elements in combination with tap sounds as well as its message.

As tap dance is largely dependent on dancers’ timing of tap sounds with each other and the music, creating a tap dance in an online environment poses its own set of challenges. With technical difficulties in teaching over Zoom, Buller pointed to the timing of intricate steps as one of her greatest challenges.

Buller described her creative way of splicing dancers’ videos together for her dance’s showcase performance.

“When I get dancers to send me their videos, I want [to coordinate] their feet sounds, but I need to [overlay the] music in with it. I was so happy when this worked out — the [entire group] has Bluetooth headphones, so they're going to listen to the song through their headphones, film out loud so the can get their feet [sounds] and then I'll put the music in over top,” explained Buller.

The Mac Dance team hopes that The Show Goes On will bring people together in an otherwise distant time, reminding them that even though we are physically distant, we are still all in this together.

“Mac Dance reminded me of what the dance community is supposed to be just like. A bunch of people coming together to have fun, to share a common passion, to create something really beautiful and meaningful together and just having a great time,” said Buller.

Mac Athletes Care raise over $5,400 for the Juravinski Cancer Center

Each year at McMaster University, many athletes from different sports around the school unite to strengthen the athletic charitable efforts with Mac Athletes Care.

This past week, their objective was to help promote awareness and fundraise for the Think Pink initiative — an annual project surrounding the battle against breast cancer. 

Briana Da Silva, a field hockey player and member of Mac Athletes Care who has been active in the Think Pink initiative, spoke about the organization.

“The Think Pink campaign is all about raising funds and spreading awareness around breast cancer. In some way or another cancer has impacted all of us and it is beyond important for us to do what we can. Typically Think Pink would have a wide range of running events, from bake sales and raffles to spikeball tournaments and shoot for the cure,” said Da Silva. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has cast difficult times on many during the pandemic. Many organizations inside and outside of McMaster had to undergo serious change in order to keep running successful operations.

In wake of the pandemic, the Think Pink initiative looks much different than in previous years. In-person event programming has become a well-known fixture of Think Pink week. However due to limitations brought by COVID-19, this had to change.

“Since we cannot fundraise or have in-person events, we had to switch everything completely virtual. This limited the options of events we could host and online engagement tends to be lower than in person,” added Da Silva.

“Since we cannot fundraise or have in-person events, we had to switch everything completely virtual. This limited the options of events we could host and online engagement tends to be lower than in person,” added Da Silva.

Megh Rathod, a men’s rugby player and active participant in the annual event, discussed some of the hardships the organization has undergone recently, with the pandemic being one of two tragic events to have happened to Mac Athletes Care. 

“It’s been a challenge as well because we don’t really have a staff sponsor or supervisor this year. . . The second challenge is what can we do in terms of the initiative. Usually, we rely on people being able to spare a couple dollars at the David Braley Athletic Centre, but we realized that with COVID, money might be a bit more of a constraint and it would be more difficult to get one or two dollar donations through an online platform,” said Rathod.

As such, the Mac Athletes Care team realized that an information campaign was more suited for this year, given the initiative being run online.

“We built an awareness campaign. That was something that we didn’t really cover much in the past. This year we shifted information to be more when you should get screened, or who should be concerned, breast cancer and its prevalence and some statistics to inform individuals and begin that conversation. It was a new addition this year that we hope to carry forward . . . Last year we were really successful in raising $5,400, usually because we can really take advantage of DBAC and the facilities and the in-person traffic and we usually set up tables there over the week,” said Rathod.

As effective and important as awareness can be, the club understands the importance of raising funds to put towards the Juravinski Cancer Center and has continued to attempt fundraising. 

“With things looking a little differently this year, we are selling masks and t-shirts through the campus store and the proceeds will go towards Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre Foundation. On our Instagram page, we have some neat infographics and there is also the virtual “shoot for the cure” happening as well,” said Da Silva. 

Cancer is a hard fought battle that many have unfortunately lost to and although individual efforts might not be enough to cure the vicious disease, each contribution makes a difference, taking a step closer to the end goal. 

The ongoing pandemic has made things more difficult for the Think Pink initiative, but Mac Athletes Care hasn’t given up and is ready to keep battling this together.

Talking about race for the sake of talking about it only makes you guilty of virtue signalling

By: Zara Khan, Contributor

CW: racism

Perhaps you’re at a conference, class or even a meeting. Wherever you may be, I’m certain you’ve come across this strange ritual. Sometimes it’s expected, other times it’ll take you by surprise, but you’ll know it’s started when you hear a word like “equity.”

Then it begins. On one hand, the ritual begins where your white colleagues or classmates will spend a few hours or so emphatically declaring that “racism is bad” and that “we should do something about it” in various forms.

On the other hand, you, a person of colour, will sit there and nod your head, while everyone makes awkward eye contact with you. Whatever the case may be, if you’re anything like me, you’ll know that it’s a trap.

A trap? Yes. You see, these conversations aren’t meant for people like me. Rather, they are an opportunity others use to cleanse themselves of any harm they do as a white person. They rarely resonate with me.

Recently, while attending a virtual conference, I found myself part of another ritual, again. The topic of discussion? Equity in hiring and networking. I stayed silent. I knew that engaging would only leave me feeling frustrated. But, I caved and made a point.

I explained how I never had the opportunity to learn the social codes I needed to navigate predominantly white spaces. This left me feeling othered. “It is difficult to make a good first impression at an industry dinner if you’re too worried about what fork you should be using,” I said.

My point was met with an awkward silence. Though, perhaps in an effort to empathize, one person joked about how they too were unaware of the technicalities of cutlery usage. To be quite honest, I was upset.

Through sharing my experiences, I made myself vulnerable. I wanted to move the conversation in a different, more meaningful direction but I quickly realized that my point was more of a detour.

Issues of equity are often talked about like they are simply theoretical exercises and when I shared my lived experiences, others treated my comments as if they are out of scope. While we talked about systemic barriers during the conference, we did not talk about what those barriers might actually be. When I brought one up, the point was awkwardly swallowed and ignored.

Perhaps this explains my cynical view. These discussions feel like pointless exercises in alleviating white guilt, exercises I’m forced to sit through. So yes, I can’t help but roll my eyes every time I hear the word “intersectionality.”

Perhaps this explains my cynical view. These discussions feel like pointless exercises in alleviating white guilt, exercises I’m forced to sit through. So yes, I can’t help but roll my eyes every time I hear the word “intersectionality.”

Perhaps this explains my cynical view. These discussions feel like pointless exercises in alleviating white guilt, exercises I’m forced to sit through. So yes, I can’t help but roll my eyes every time I hear the word “intersectionality.”

Honestly, I don’t think this is intentional. I’d like to believe that these panels and discussions are held in good faith. But that doesn’t change the fact that I am simply frustrated by their lack of depth.

Consider the term “person of colour.” I have to confess, I dislike it. The vast majority of the world’s population are people of colour. There are far more differences between our experiences than the current discourse seems to acknowledge.

We are not a monolith. Yet, we are treated as such. Though there are some similarities, it’s fundamentally unfair to equate my experiences as a South Asian person to an Indigenous person’s experience.

Specificity is essential to having meaningful discussions. Rather than talking about people of colour as a whole, we could highlight the experiences of specific ethnicities. Rather than asking about what systemic barriers exist, we could pick one such barrier and consider its causes and effects.

Taking care to make sure that the terms we use allow for specificity should generate meaningful discussion and make space for relevant lived experiences.

Now, let’s consider how we can have more meaningful discussions during events like these. Honestly? We need to be listening more. During conversations like these, people seem to talk for the sake of talking, myself included. But if you really have nothing to contribute the best thing you can do is listen. Listen and learn.

During conversations like these, people seem to talk for the sake of talking, myself included. But if you really have nothing to contribute the best thing you can do is listen. Listen and learn.

This brings me to my second point: ask questions. This is the way you learn. Now, there’s an art to asking a question. You want to make sure that your question is appropriate. Say a classmate mentions that they’ve experienced a racially-motivated assault. Maybe don’t press for details. But, you might ask them about what they found most challenging about navigating the legal system afterwards.

Asking a question like this will perhaps teach you something you didn’t know. Ask questions that will clarify the gaps in your knowledge, ask questions that will force others to think. This is how we generate meaningful conversation.

Ultimately, we need to reframe how we approach discussions of equity. We should use them as opportunities. Opportunities to understand others, opportunities to solve problems. Yes, racism is bad. Yes, we should do something about it. But what should we do about it? We don’t seem to ask ourselves that question enough.

Subscribe to our Mailing List

© 2024 The Silhouette. All Rights Reserved. McMaster University's Student Newspaper.
magnifiercrossmenu