Initiatives aim to help students balance academic work and well-being

Helping students manage the inevitable stress of balancing academic work within their very busy lives is an important focus of the learning experience at Princeton, says Dean of the College Michael Gordin.  

“The purpose of a liberal arts education is to cultivate the mind. Supporting mental well-being is not ancillary to that process — it is at the very core,” Gordin noted. 

This idea reflects Princeton’s holistic approach to well-being, helping students to engage fully in learning, research and service during their time on campus. The goal is not to diminish the rigor of a Princeton education, but to support students in achieving their academic goals and to reduce unnecessary stressors to help them thrive in and outside the classroom. 

Recent changes to Dean’s Date and class passing times and creative initiatives by faculty members are among new and existing measures to support that balance.

Changes to Dean’s Date, class passing times

At the start of the academic year, the passing time between classes was increased from 10 to 15 minutes — a seemingly small change with a larger impact in mind. 

“The increase in passing time will relieve the stress of rushing from one course to another, enabling students to better take advantage of before-lecture and after-lecture moments,” said Associate Professor of Linguistics Laura Kalin, a member of the Faculty Committee on Classrooms and Schedule. 

Kalin said these moments are crucial for allowing students to forge and deepen connections with each other and their professors. “These connections, in turn, enrich the course experience and provide increased learning opportunities,” she said. “On a residential campus like Princeton's, what a student gets out of a course can and should extend beyond the bounds of the lecture time slot.”

The passing time extension follows other academic scheduling changes implemented in spring 2024. Rather than one universal deadline — known as Dean’s Date — for final papers, projects and problem sets in all classes, the deadlines for final written assignments are now staggered. (Dean’s Date remains the final day of reading period and the final deadline for all work due during the instructional period). 

In addition, the final exam schedule is now released earlier in the semester, with exam times corresponding to semester class times. 

The changes follow student concerns regarding “assignment pile-up” at the end of the semester and help to decompress reading period and final exam time, according to Gordin. 

The McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning

The McGraw Center, part of the Office of the Dean of the College, offers robust teaching and learning resources for faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. The center’s Undergraduate Learning Program aims to help Princeton students “truly flourish academically” with free peer tutoring and learning consultations, academic strategies workshops, and study groups and partners. 

The center’s focus is on practical strategies to help students develop problem-solving skills and mindsets to achieve academic goals, reduce stress, invigorate their passion for learning and attain greater life balance. 

“We recognize that a crucial part of your overall wellness is your academic engagement, not just your grades,” said Nic Voge, McGraw’s senior associate director. “If you do not feel fulfilled or satisfied, you risk burning out.”

Last semester, Voge presented at the Undergraduate Student Government’s Ivy League Mental Health Conference on campus. He explained how developing the skills to successfully navigate the distinct curricula of Princeton and other highly-selective universities can be a form of self-care. 

“If you feel better equipped as a student, then you are able to enjoy what you are learning; you are able to discover new passions and interests,” he said. “All of that contributes to your well-being.” 

Angel Toasakul, Class of 2027, is among the juniors and seniors who serve as McGraw learning consultants. 

“We really are academic coaches. We don’t just help students by providing one-size-fits-all answers to questions on homework or which course they should take,” Toasakul said. “We help with the process of learning itself, and the ultimate goal is for students to thrive at Princeton despite the academic rigor. This could mean helping someone figure out how to structure their study sessions, juggle multiple responsibilities at once, manage a heavy workload, or prepare more effectively for exams.”

Rachael Bejo, a learning consultant in the Class of 2026, said she appreciates McGraw’s peer-led approach. 

“By referencing our own experiences with a particular class, professor or personal challenge, we can help students feel less alone and less troubled. They learn how another student who was once in their shoes tackled a situation, making flourishing seem feasible,” Bejo said. 

Creative approaches from faculty 

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Sigrid Adriaenssens is among the faculty testing new ways to foster learning and well-being in her classroom. “I thought, ‘what can you change in your course to make student feel more seen and more cared for?’”

Inspired by TigerWell’s faculty toolkit, Well-Being in Learning Spaces, Adriaenssens revamped the syllabus for her course CEE  205 “Mechanics of Solids,” expanding it from one to 11 pages. 

“It is explicit about expectations and lays out all the scenarios. If a student is late turning in an assignment, these are the consequences. If a student is feeling overwhelmed, here is how to ask for help and here are other resources on campus,” she explained. “The idea is to take away students’ anxiety around lack of information. As a professor, we should not assume they know all these things.”

Adriaenssens also coordinates deadlines with faculty colleagues for two other classes required for CEE majors. “This way we are not all asking students to submit homework or mid-terms on the same day.” 

The new practice Adriaenssens has enjoyed most are her coffee meetings with students at the start of the semester. “Coffee meetings are different than office hours. It’s not about engineering, it’s about chatting. I get to know who they are and what they enjoy.”

At the Graduate School, building strong mentoring relationships is integral to supporting students’ overall well-being.

For the past two years, Vice Dean Hendrik Lorenz, professor of philosophy, has led an initiative to enhance faculty mentoring of students. 

“There is a wealth of evidence from many academic disciplines that mentorship benefits graduate students in all kinds of ways,” Lorenz said. “Effective mentorship is a lot of work for faculty, as well as for students, but the rewards are students who are more successful, more productive and happier.”

The faculty-student mentoring initiative has included department-based workshops, as well as a train-the-trainer workshop to prepare a cadre of faculty to become mentorship trainers of their faculty peers. Lorenz and Graduate School staff have also run mentoring workshops for graduate students focused on “mentoring up.”

The Graduate School’s focus on mentorship extends to relationships with other types of mentors too. Incoming graduate students can join the Graduate Scholars Program, a peer mentoring program that includes a pre-orientation retreat, ongoing programming, and small mentoring groups led by advanced graduate students. For professional development and career insight, students can connect with alumni through the Graduate School’s GradFUTURES Alum Mentoring Program. 

Mental health trainings

In addition to their roles as teachers and mentors, University faculty and staff can play an important role in noticing signs of distress in students and connecting them with care and support resources. 

The Princeton Distress Awareness and Response (PDAR) trainings, organized by Counseling and Psychological Services, is available to faculty, staff and students. The in-person workshop teaches participants how to recognize people in distress and provides tools on how to effectively respond in such situations. 

In addition, the University has rolled out a new online suicide prevention training for faculty and staff to complete annually as part of New Jersey’s suicide prevention program requirements for colleges and universities. The online training teaches how to recognize how to help students building connections on campus, how to recognize signs of someone in distress, and how to help keep a student safe while connecting them with resources on campus and beyond.

Tracy Meyer of the Graduate School contributed to this story.