The Old Gold & Black recently produced a collaborative special edition with eight other universities across North Carolina. The topic of the special edition was mental health through a solutions journalism lens. Senior Writer for the OG&B and Journalism minor Christa Dutton (’24) writes about the special edition:

“When the most senior members of our staff arrived on campus in 2020, social distancing and quarantine policies kept us safe but also destroyed morale. With nowhere on campus to gather, students were stranded in their dorm rooms as excessive amounts of screen time poisoned their self-esteem and exacerbated their loneliness. The subsequent classes that became Demon Deacons entered the university after their high school education was upended by remote learning.   

Since then, mental health has not only been an important topic of our paper’s coverage but also an issue dear to the hearts of our staff members. As student journalists covering the triumphs and challenges of our peers, we witness first-hand the rising levels of anxiety and depression. We also experience it ourselves.”

For WFU-specific articles in this special edition, please visit the OG&B’s website here: https://wfuogb.com/category/special-editions/mental-health-special-editions/. For links to the rest of the articles in this special edition, please click here: https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2024/03/mental-health-collaborative.