Coronavirus Impact
The Daily, a New York Times podcast, told the emotional story of one student whose senior year has been interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Tatiana Lathion, a Haverford College student, returned home to Jacksonville, FL, and has been helping at her parents’ food truck business, which is struggling in the lockdown. Her story reflects how inequalities are being reinforced during the crisis.
In a written statement, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC, said that colleges should reassess their standardized-testing policies because of the “extraordinary hardships” the novel coronavirus poses to applicants, especially low-income students. The group said that admissions practices “take on different meaning in the alternate reality in which we find ourselves.”
The University System of Georgia Board of Regents has refused the request of college students and parents in Georgia who asked to opt in to a pass-fail grading system this spring semester, saying students should rise to the challenges they face after campuses shut down.
In their live coronavirus updates, Inside Higher Ed reported that Michigan has implemented a new rule that will allow food assistance benefits to be more easily provided to college students. It is usually difficult for college students to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. Part-time students are required to work at least 20 hours per week in addition to attending college. That requirement was removed for students enrolled in career and technical education programs. Inside Higher Ed also reports that, according to a new study by the Century Foundation, community colleges are getting disproportionately less funding than other types of institutions in the CARES Act emergency grants to help students deal with financial hardship caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The shift to distance learning has accelerated a trend that has been growing over the past several years, according to the Hechinger Report. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, from 2012 to 2018, the number of institutions where the majority of students took at least some coursework online has doubled, to more than 800. The growth was fastest at the public four-year colleges. Despite the growth, the New York Times reports that it is unlikely that this change will trigger a permanent exodus from brick-and-mortar campuses to virtual classrooms. “What we are talking about when we talk about online education is using digital technologies to transform the learning experience,” said Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. “That is not what is happening right now. What is happening now is we had eight days to put everything we do in class onto Zoom.” However, experts say there will be some lasting impacts, accelerating the integration of technology into higher education.
With college commitment dates approaching, high schools seniors face a difficult decision. Many students and their families don’t want to put down deposits for online learning that may last indefinitely. Those that had planned to go to college far away are also coming to the realization that it would cost more than choices closer to home. The Hechinger Report spoke with students rethinking the traditional four-year college route altogether.
The Chronicle reports that amid the confusion around whether or not campuses will be open in the fall, recent data show that students and their parents are making alternate plans. A survey from the Art and Science Group found that one in six high school seniors say they definitely or most likely will change their plans to attend college in the fall because of the coronavirus. Of those, 16 percent say they will take a gap year.
In The Chronicle, Richard A. Hesel, a principal at the Art & Science Group, presented data from recent surveys of prospective freshmen on family finances. According to Hesel, half of the students surveyed reported a parent or guardian had lost a job, been laid off, or been furloughed as a result of the pandemic. Most expect to pay much less in tuition and fees if campuses do not reopen and they end up studying online.
Presidents and chancellors at residential campuses are publicly weighing what reopening might look like amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The University of North Carolina system said that it intends to reopen for the fall semester, while acknowledging that plans may change, and that some precautions to stem the spread of the virus may be necessary. The Universities of Oregon, Illinois, Georgia, North Dakota, and Alabama have made similar announcements. The financial risks of delaying re-opening are dire, leading some college leaders to take a bolder stance. Brown University Christina Paxton, called the loss of tuition revenue “catastrophic” in an op-ed in The New York Times that was met with mixed reaction. “It’s not a question of whether institutions will be forced to permanently close,” Paxson wrote. “It’s how many.”
NPR explored the various ways college may be experienced in the fall, including virtual learning, delayed starts, a hybrid model of online and face-to-face, reducing the number of people on campus, and bringing all students back with changes like testing and smaller class sizes.
To get an idea of how small, undergraduate-focused liberal-arts schools are handling the crisis, The Chronicle Review spoke with G. Gabrielle Starr, President of Pomona College, and Leon Botstein, President of Bard College. “We are prioritizing people over other things,” Starr said. “We’ve put a pause on some construction and renovation projects. It’s much more important to get students to campus and pay, as long as we can, all of our workers.” She also touched on the need to invest in safety precautions like air filtration and decreasing density on campus. For advice in this arena, Pomona has enlisted the help of an epidemiologist. Of the re-opening process, Botstein said, “I liken this to driving a car in a thick fog. You go very slowly. You get out of the car and make sure the deer isn’t in the middle of the road. Then you get back in the car and move another few inches.”
Sweet Briar College announced that they plan to invite all students back to campus in the fall, with a few requirements. College officials say every student will be tested regularly for coronavirus in the fall, all students will live in singles and social distancing will be enforced in classrooms and dining halls.
The University of California San Diego is introducing its Return to Learn, a program that aims to test students, faculty and staff on campus on a recurring basis for the coronavirus. The initial phase of the program will begin this month with students currently living on campus. The evidence-based program also includes plans for exposure notification and isolation housing for on-campus resident students who test positive for the virus.
US News & World Report highlighted the increased stress students are facing amid the pandemic. Brad Klontz, a psychologist and associate professor at Creighton University in Nebraska said that social isolation can cause existing mental health struggles to worsen. “Your vision of how your life was going to be at this time has changed,” Klontz said. “You’re adjusting to these significant changes in your life, and it could lead to a clinically significant impairment in some area of your life, and for a lot of people I think it is. This is traumatic, and it could potentially last a lifetime.” College students are facing changes to their financial situation which may affect their ability to stay in school, as well as worries about future career and job prospects. Many student health centers have remained open to students, providing their services virtually. Some colleges are offering workshops and group counseling, while some private companies like Mindstrong have offered texting therapy through apps. To stay connected, some students are hosting Netflix parties where they can watch the same movie and chat with each other, or using the QuarantineChat mobile app to talk on the phone with someone randomly assigned.
The Daily Barometer, Oregon State University’s student newspaper, reports that students are feeling the mental, physical and social effects of full-time online learning. One student told the paper that the lack of social contact has exacerbated her existing mental health struggles. “I was already dealing with depression and now the isolation is causing me to feel very overwhelmed,” she said. However, according to Assistant Director of Mental Health Promotion Bonnie Hemrick, there has been a decrease in students seeking counseling since the transition to remote learning. “There have not been as many students seeking our services as we would typically see this time of year. We are currently trying to determine the reason behind this so that we can try to address any concerns that students may have,” Hemrick said.
The Post Athens is also covering stories of students struggling amid social distancing. Jokanovic, a senior who suffers from severe anxiety and mild depression, said she has been struggling to maintain a regular routine. “This past year, I felt that I was improving mentally and taking steps to handle my inner struggles in a better way,” Jokanovic said. “So, having a self-realization that I was falling back into my old ways because of isolation really gave me a wake-up call.” Michelle Pride, Ph.D., the embedded clinician for athletics at OU, said she is still providing mental health services for student-athletes remotely through the university’s Telehealth system. Pride said while social isolation can definitely exacerbate symptoms of existing mental health issues, most people are not entirely isolated from one another. “This is an important distinction because people who are sheltering in place still have access to phones and computers, which can allow them to connect with their social support communities and mental health resources,” Pride said. She said while people are social distancing, it is important to develop creative ways to connect with one another emotionally.
The Diamondback, University of Maryland’s student newspaper, reports that the Help Center, a peer counseling and crisis intervention hotline, has not been able to operate since the campus closure, causing hopelessness and distress for the Center’s student volunteers who typically connect students with mental health resources. “I think that in times like this, people just want to be able to talk to someone and kind of figure stuff out, and I think that the Help Center could really be used to do something like that,” said volunteer Matt Leichman. “It’s a shame that we’re not able to.”
In an op-ed in Inside Higher Ed, Nick Ducoff, the co-founder and CEO of Edmit, a college admissions firm focused on financial information, argues that colleges hoping to resume “business as usual” in the fall are doing their students a disservice. He outlines several strategies colleges can implement to help students succeed, including providing a debt-free degree. Acknowledging that while not all colleges can front tuition, they can offer income share agreements. She also promotes experiential learning with applied work and learning opportunities, adopting mentor programs, making varsity athletics club sports, and offering late enrollment.
While many colleges have offered partial refunds of room and board as a result of school closures, administrators have insisted that students should not get back any of their tuition payment, this despite concerns that students are not getting the full value of their tuition dollars. Class-action lawyers have filed suit against a range of institutions and are actively seeking additional plaintiffs. (Penn State and Boston University are two of the most recent high profile institutions to face lawsuits.) Examining this point of contention, the New York Times asks, “what should we expect from colleges and universities?” The answer, it turns out, is complicated. The cost of educating a student is higher than the cost of tuition, room and board at many institutions, and refunds could imperil the jobs of administrators, janitors and instructors who lack tenure.
Auburn University Student Counseling and Psychological Services is taking steps to work through the challenges posed by the coronavirus. According to the assistant director for outreach and mental health initiatives, Dustin Johnson, any student enrolled at Auburn University has 24/7 access to a phone consultation with a representative from SCPS. The center has also developed various ways to offer additional services, including self-care activities like Color My Mondays, where students can access mindfulness coloring pages and learn the best tips for mindful living, and dance parties on Fridays, which are hosted through Zoom. COVID-19 discussion groups are also available to address questions and concerns.
In the Daily Trojan, University of Southern California student Alin Maimon praised the university for its response to the pandemic. “Communication from the administration has been frequent and thorough,” she writes. “USC Student Health has provided several resources for both mental and physical health, and the offices of the president and provost have kept students and parents updated on grading policies as well as changes to international and summer programs.” The administration also spearheaded the creation of the USC Student Basic Needs Fund and the USC Employee Support Fund, Maimon writes, to help students and staff financially affected by the pandemic.
Education Dive reports that, under the CARES Act, the U.S. Department of Education will give an additional $1 billion in coronavirus relief to minority-serving institutions, including historically black and tribal colleges, as well as to select other schools that serve high shares of low-income students. The funds aim to provide more support for typically under-resourced schools that serve needy students.
The Chronicle reports that Eastern Michigan University is distributing CARES Act student-relief funds to summer-school students in the form of tuition credit, which may violate the spirit, if not the letter, of the coronavirus-stimulus law. The college received about $13.7 million through the coronavirus-relief package, about $6.8 million of which it must distribute to students affected by the pandemic. The emergency financial-aid grants are supposed to go to students to cover “authorized expenses related to the disruption of campus operations due to coronavirus.” However, the university is limiting the distribution of at least some of the funds to students enrolled in summer courses, in what appears to be the form of a tuition credit.
In a survey of 187 two- and four-year college presidents, Inside Higher Ed examined how campus leaders’ views and actions are evolving amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They found that presidents’ primary concern in the immediate and long term are about the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on low-income and underrepresented students, recognizing that even in the best of times those students are most vulnerable to disruptions in their education. The study also found that presidents remain unsure about when students might return to their campuses. Nearly half said they expected to return the majority of courses to an in-person format by the start of the fall semester.
