Student Community

Four in the afternoon. As you leave the Counseling Center and sit down on a bench in the shade of a zelkova tree, your phone vibrates again and again. In your department's group chat, "Class of '15 Survivors," more than forty messages have piled up. Where tomorrow's group project meeting will be, a photo of the cafeteria menu, a cat video someone posted, and laughing emojis. No one asks where you went today. But as you scroll down, one line catches your eye. "btw someone from our department didn't come to class this afternoon, are they sick?" Below it, a few people said things like "right?" and "should we text them," then drifted back to talking about the cafeteria. The last message, from five minutes ago, is someone calling your name directly.