Senior Slump

The epidemic is spreading as the school year is approaching its end. This epidemic isn't as prominent in freshmen, sophomores, or juniors -- they're safe for a while. Professors have witnessed it and seniors are affected by it. It doesn't have a bedtime, study time, break time or class time. It doesn't always target seniors and it doesn't just affect spring students. The ever-famous senioritis is catching on around campus and more and more students have to face summer school just to graduate. \nMonica Halcomb, from the Office of the Registrar, reported 6,117 seniors attending summer school during the 2003 summer session. Although this number includes the overlapping of students who were enrolled in both sessions, it may show the figure of what current students could be facing: lack of motivation. More seniors can be prone to senioritis, but other class rankings can be affected just the same. The only thing seniors have at stake is that they need to graduate. \nSenior David Johnson's college days are limited and a real job in the real world is in the forecast. He has a job lined up but a half of a semester to go. In Johnson's eyes, he has already finished. Only nine credit hours are between him and freedom. The only problem: he knows he has a severe case of this year's outbreak of senioritis. "I spend about two hours in class per week," Johnson admits.\nHis definition of senioritis is "completely lacking any sort of motivation to go to school or do any sort of work," -- and he's doing just that.\nThis semester, Johnson's three classes aren't making him fret. Class number one: "I never go except for test days." Class number two: "I stay for the first 10 minutes for a quiz and then I leave." Class number three doesn't exactly see Johnson on a weekly basis, either. \nBut the real reason Johnson goes to class? "I really only go to class to get exercise … it's a good 25-minute walk," Johnson said. "I go to campus and get exercise."\nThe lack of attending class isn't unknown to the University eye and students aren't the only ones who notice this -- professors are well-aware of the plague that haunts those about to graduate and do all they can to prevent it with their students. Professor Holly Stocking sees many of her seniors affected by senioritis. "I see them every spring," Stocking said. "Sometimes in the fall, too."\nProfessor Stocking would describe senioritis as a sort of flu. "It can drag you down for weeks at a time. Sometimes all you want to do is curl up and sleep and when you wake up, maybe the world will look right again." But missing class and failing could lead to dangerous possibilities in the immediate future -- summer school. "Students stress, but usually they pull through, even if they don't do their best work," Stocking explained. "A few don't, and end up going to summer school to finish up."\nProfessor Stocking also believes that persevering through the last year of academics could lead to life lessons. \n"The dragginess we call senioritis during the last year of college can affect people at any age, and if students can find a way to rouse themselves, this can be a good time to cultivate an important life skill -- the ability to find or create the motivation to do the job even during those times when you're dragging," Stocking said. \nSo who's to blame for this: the student or the circumstances? \nProfessor Stocking puts the blame of senioritis on "divided attention." Since students' graduation day is fast approaching, many are filling out job applications, some could be tired of school and others "have come to believe that grades don't matter all that much, at least to prospective employers," Stocking said. She also believes that many "are trying to squeeze in everything they can before they leave all that has become familiar to them over four years." \nThis time of year can seem like a transition period for many students to get out of a recognizable loop. \nAnother casualty who faintly feels the effects of senioritis is senior Jimmy Antalis. He describes senioritis as "a progression getting worse over time -- not caring about school as much, and focusing on other things: going to bars, spending time with friends, watching TV and relaxing because you realize that it could be your last chance to have fun before you go out in the real world." \nAntalis already has a job lined up for after he graduates, making him care less about class. "Getting a job is my ultimate goal so besides that, nothing really matters. I've changed my concentration from getting A's to just trying to get by." \nBut maybe it's more than just getting tired of going to class. Maybe it's tired of being in Bloomington. Antalis definitely feels that life as a college student has been seeming redundant lately. \n"It's not just classes; it's everything. I'm even tired of going to the bars. It's the same thing over and over," Antalis explains. "I'm bored. Bloomington's boring after four years."\nBut not everyone is a victim of senioritis. Professor Stocking remembers a student last fall who came up with her own remedy to this ongoing problem with the help of her mother. "(The student's mother) told her daughter, who had just gotten way behind in her studies during her senior year, that every time she thought about a project she had due to just sit down right then and there and give the project 15 minutes," Stocking said. \n"Rather than succumb to senioritis, this student did this -- and organized herself too, with a calendar of when all her projects were due -- and she actually got things done early for her classes." Doing this allowed the student to have time to go out with her friends and "actually enjoy her senior year."\nA dependable cure for senioritis is still not exact, but students are coming up with more creative ways to overcome this and pass their senior year successfully and with more experiences than stories of studying in the library. The real remedy? Whatever works best for the individual student who feels pressure in school and can think of ways to get through it.