Finals season at UC Berkeley always seems to engender a campuswide conversation about students’ mental well-being. Even in years much less turbulent than 2020, managing stress and keeping up with self-care can be daunting tasks for members of the campus community. It’s a redundant sentiment at this point, but this year — the pandemic, the election, the continued reckoning with systemic racism — has been a rough one. 

In this special issue, The Daily Californian’s staff share how they’ve been coping with school-related stress and the weight of current events. You’ll also find tips and tricks for taking care of your own mental health, with guides to everything from available campus resources to comforting television you can stream on a study break. We hope it’s useful and that it brings you a sense of solidarity.