AASU Leaders Featured in WaPo Article on Mental Health Crisis on College Campuses During Pandemic
Asian American Student Union (AASU) leaders, Patrick Peralta and Sagar Matharu, are featured in the Washington Post article, “A mental health crisis was unraveling on college campuses. The pandemic has made it worse.”
For Patrick Peralta, a government and politics major at the University of Maryland at College Park, the last 12 months have produced a different type of anxiety. One that can be harder to describe.
Peralta, who is part of U-Md.’s Asian American Student Union, has monitored the unprovoked attacks against Asians and Asian Americans: a man’s face was slashed on a subway train, a woman was mugged and injured near her home, an 84-year-old man was pushed violently and later died.
The U-Md. student organization has been vocal on social media about the rise in anti-Asian violence, condemning the attacks and vandalization of Asian-owned businesses. But the students warned, “words aren’t nearly enough.”