Advocates for the Corrientes small scale famers have arrived at Harvard to speak about the forestry project’s effect on agriculture and water conservation. Theirs is a clear case—water levels are dropping: eventually, the wetlands as a whole will experience stress and the farmers will face tough choices about food and resource management that should be completely avoidable.

But this is only one issue for our university community to consider. Two other campaigns long-simmering, are near to boiling over. I mean, of course, reform of student mental health services and reform of campus sexual assault response. Both of these issues have come to the fore due to recent news—brave op-eds like “In Sight, Out of Mind” and “Dear Harvard, You Win”,” and the untimely passing of fellow students.

I don’t know what is planned, or being planned, in reaction to these events. As we all have, I’ve received emails from Dean Pfister and President Faust about the importance of community and the formation of task forces. But at this point it doesn’t feel like enough. I remember being so hopeful last semester that real changes were coming, but the groundswell has subsided.

As a student being treated at UHS for depression, as a student who has struggled with and been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts, I regret not having done more in the past. I feel terribly guilty for remaining silent rather than adding my voice to the raucous charivari it will take to improve students’ encounters with university staff and administrators. For this reason, I’m counting on a loud springtime, a springtime of birdsong, rough music, and effective protests.

Michael T. Feehly ’14 is a joint history and Scandinavian studies concentrator in Mather House. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.