The Breeze JMU’s award-winning newspaper since 1922
may 4, 2023 VOL. 101 NO.28 BREEZEJMU.ORG
Xaiver Williams, Shawdee Bakhtiari reminisce on leadership-filled JMU careers By MORGAN VUKNIC The Breeze
As their time at JMU comes to an end, Student Representative to the Board of Visitors Xaiver Williams and Student Body President Shawdee Bakhtiari reflect positively on their time serving the student body. Ryan Sauer / The Breeze
Student Body President Shawdee Bakhtiari and Student Representative to the Board of Visitors Xaiver Williams met early in their freshman years when they both lived in Wayland Hall. Four years later, they’re looking back on what they accomplished throughout the years and their strengthened connection to the JMU community. “ F ro m f re s h ma n yea r o n , w e b o t h understood that we have a very similar style of leadership,” Bakhtiari said. “We realized that we had a good rhythm going on and that was something that really helped us with our relationship with the student body. We both have these different perspectives that we fused together to create our team.” As a student representative to the Board of Visitors, Williams attends open Board of Visitors meetings and acts as a liaison between students and the Board. He also works closely with Bakhtiari on administration committees and on events around campus. Both Bakhtiari and Williams said one of their favorite events they worked on was Halftime on the Quad, which was in October 2022. Bakhtiari said events like this allow her and Williams to connect with fellow Dukes. “This was one of my first real times getting to speak to students with [Williams] and Tim Miller,” Bakhtiari said. “It was super exciting to see everyone enjoying the simple pleasures of being a Duke. It’s a memory that I look back at fondly.” Since Bakhtiari and Williams are seniors, they’ll be graduating in a week. Both said they’ve grown as people in their positions
and want students who may be interested in leadership positions to know that they should simply go for it. As student body president and student representative to the Board of Visitors, Bakhtiari and Williams serve as a “communitybridger’’ for students and administration. While there are challenges that come with the position such as the COVID-19 pandemic and mental health crises on campus, Williams said getting to interact with the JMU community makes it all worth it. “One thing this position has taught me is that there’s beauty in community and communication,” Williams said. “I don’t think I would have ever known what the students wanted had it not been for the honest conversations I’ve had with many of them. It’s helped me to become a bridge-builder with many different groups of many different backgrounds.” One person that works closely with Bakhtiari and Williams is upcoming Student Body Vice President Faith Forman. While she works more closely with Bakhtiari in SGA, she said both Bakhtiari and Williams have been supportive of her. “[Williams] is sup er w elcoming to everyone,” Forman said. “I see everything he does across campus, and I know that he will be successful in whatever he does in life. [Bakhtiari] has also been a big mentor to me over the past year. The way she holds herself and the way she captures crowds is something that I really admire.” see STUDENT LEADERS, page 12
Anxiety highest reported symptom 1 year into tele-mental health service By CHARLOTTE MATHERLY The Breeze
It’s dark. A student lies in their bed, their face lit only by the glow of their phone. “This is what this feels like,” Tim Miller, JMU vice president for student affairs, said. “This is when it hits me.” He says this is what his student designers told him they wanted to convey when designing one of JMU’s more recent advertisements for TimelyCare: that moment when you feel alone, when you need someone to talk to. As part of a collective initiative last year to address a growing demand for student mental health support, JMU partnered with TimelyCare, a tele-mental health company. The threeyear contract — which cost JMU $435,600 this year alone — provides each student with 12 scheduled counseling sessions per year, psychiatry, health coaching, self-help resources and a 24/7 on-demand crisis support service called TalkNow. Nearing one full academic year with the service, JMU is
NEWS
now reevaluating which parts of TimelyCare to keep, increase and cut down. The Breeze analyzed reports on TimelyCare’s usage and spoke with Miller and students to see what’s been beneficial and challenging about the service. JMU’s universiy spokesperson and executive director of communications, Mary-Hope Vass, didn’t respond to The Breeze’s requests to speak to clinicians from the JMU Counseling Center for this story.
The stats: Who’s using TimelyCare and why
Just over 14% (3,110) of JMU students have registered for TimelyCare as of April 24, according to usage reports Miller sent to The Breeze. This simply means that a student has downloaded the TimelyCare app and signed in with their JMU eID. Registrations peaked in August 2022 when students first got to campus for the school year, with nearly 1,200 students registering that month. Registrations have since decreased drastically, with approximately 600 since January. JMU’s gender imbalance, already roughly 60/40 female, was stretched even further in TimelyCare registrations: 73%
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of students registering self-identified as female, while 26% identified as male. This divide was even more pronounced in TalkNow visits, typically meant for after hours or crisis support, with 31% of visits being from men. The gender gap can be partly attributed to the stigma around men’s mental health, Miller said, and he’s noticed women tend to pay more attention and be more comfortable talking about mental health than men. The stigma’s a problem that extends far beyond JMU, he said, but one the university hasn’t done anything to combat. “It’s just a reality that we have to live with and try to address,” Miller said. Forty percent of TimelyCare visits are after regular hours, meaning they’re not between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., but that percentage would be even higher in just the Counseling Center’s hours, which is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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see TIMELYCARE, page 4
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