Helping Students Thrive at a Social Distance
The impact of the disruption caused by the Coronavirus on the lives of college students is staggering, with their mental health among the top of the list. In the “silver linings” bucket, are the numerous examples of virtual support being offered by people and organizations who are reaching out to help and, in doing, so, revealing their best selves – from the Jed Foundation, the Steve Fund, and Active Minds to individuals like Yale Professor Laurie Santos who is promoting her positive psychology course online to anyone who wants to take it.
Later today, our friends from NYU, Alan Schlechter, MD and Dan Lerner, co-professors of the Science of Happiness course, will host the second in their online, interactive videocast series called “The Happiest Hour,” launched to keep undergrads connected, create a conversation on how to do as well as one can under the circumstances, and raise some money for a great cause. This week’s topic is on Mindfulness & Meditation with Cory Muscara, an international speaker and teacher on the topics of presence and well-being. Click here to learn more including how to donate to No Kid Hungry – an effort to help feed children whose lives are further challenged by COVID-19.
For more on Alan and Dan, read the Mary Christie Quarterly’s coverage of our most recent event at Georgetown University, and our Interesting People Doing Important Work feature.
-Marjorie Malpiede
Coronavirus Impact
The Chronicle of Higher Education asked college administrators and staff members how the coronavirus will change higher education. Gabriel Starr, President of Pomona College, said the disruptions will challenge institutions to reimagine what community looks like. “What ingenious solutions will our faculty members devise to challenge their classes?,” she wrote. “What students will come up with new ways of finding friends and taking care of one another? How will staff members inspire one another to keep focused on our commitments and find new ways to fulfill them? How will we nurture one another? Those are challenges I know we’re ready to meet.” Starr believes that higher education will continue to be essential, in the near term to stop the virus, and in the bigger picture, finding new ways to learn, teach, form communities, and solve the world’s problems.
The Wall Street Journal reports that students filed lawsuits against Drexel University and the University of Miami in an effort to recover spring tuition, room and board and fees after their campuses closed and their classes moved online. The suits allege the schools are failing to give them the educational experience they paid for, one with in-person instruction. The total cost to attend either the University of Miami or Drexel exceeds $70,000 a year. An additional class-action lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents brought by students at Arizona State and Northern Arizona Universities and the University of Arizona is pending. The Chronicle explained why it may be difficult for schools to issue refunds: Room-and-board charges represent a significant share of college expenses for full-time undergraduate students and colleges are concerned about the result of the large hit to revenue.
The University of Pittsburgh‘s student Senate hosted a Zoom event where 160 community members joined to discuss how current events are affecting mental health and how to address those changes. Jack Rozel, an associate professor of psychiatry and medical director of the Resolve Crisis Services, moderated the panel. The panelists included Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Ann Cudd, University Counseling Center Director Jay Darr, associate professor of psychiatry Sansea Jacobson, professor Christina Newhill and Nancy McKee, a clinical manager at Lifesolutions. A major topic of discussion was how to handle the changes in routine that have resulted from social distancing, online classes and working from home. Jacobson, who is also a child psychiatrist, said she believes it is important to normalize the stress many are feeling due to these abrupt life changes. “It is human to be stressed right now. We all just aren’t as efficient and effective because we are distracted, because we are trying to multitask and we know that that contributes to stress, fatigue and decreased effectiveness,” she said. “Please forgive yourself and know that most of us are working multiple full time jobs right now, and that’s not actually possible.”
Diverse Education reports that Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney (NY) is planning to introduce a bill, Student Debt Forgiveness for Frontline Health Care Workers Act, proposing the elimination of graduate school debt for health care workers who are providing direct patient care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Medical professionals in hospitals and other medical settings are operating in extraordinarily difficult and dangerous circumstances to provide care for critically ill COVID-19 patients and protect our communities,” she said. “The least we can do to recognize their service is to forgive their graduate student loan debt so that they are not forced to worry about their financial wellbeing in addition to their health and the health of their families while they respond to a public health emergency.” Consuelo Lopez-Morillas a professor emerita at Indiana University, Bloomington, has advocated for a similar effort and has started a petition urging legislators to cancel student debt for health professionals, similar to the GI Bill that enabled World War II soldiers to get a college education.
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) introduced the COVID-19 Graduate Relief Act, bipartisan legislation that allows 2020 college graduates to defer their student loans for up to three years. She says the legislation is designed to protect students entering the workforce during the pandemic.
Politico reports that high school seniors are changing their college plans amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some are dropping their first-choice schools in favor of colleges that are more affordable, while others are thinking about going part-time, or taking a year off so they can work and help their families. There are also concerns that students from low income families who were sent home this semester will never return, and that the achievement gap between low- and high-income students will widen even further. “We’re on the edge of the precipice,” said Bridgette Davis, a researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago who is studying 31 low-income students navigating their first year of college. Many have told Davis they are now less confident that they will successfully finish their current college semester, let alone reenroll in the fall. A survey conducted by consulting firm Simpson Scarborough found that one in five high school students responding to a recent survey said they will likely not attend college next year because of the coronavirus. A slightly smaller share said the situation may cause them to attend a different college than they planned.
AXIOS reported on a new poll by College Reaction showing that three in four college students who secured internships or post-graduate work have had their work canceled, moved remote, or delayed. Half of those students say their plans have been cancelled, while the other half say they’ve been delayed or made remote.
The Conversation assembled a panel of experts to discuss the outsized impact the coronavirus could have on HBCUs. Marybeth Gasman, professor of education at Rutgers University explained that HBCUs face a higher financial risk because they have relatively small endowments and educate some of the most socioeconomically vulnerable students. She also stressed the importance of HBCUs to African American students, highlighting their contributions in STEM, in the preparation of students for graduate school and in medicine. “Without HBCUs,” she writes, “we would see an immediate drop in the number of new black scientists, black professors and black doctors.”
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports on the changes colleges are making to their grading systems. While many universities have been hesitant to make changes, some, including Colby College, University of California Davis and the University of Vermont, have given students the option between taking a course for a grade or taking a class pass-fail. Other schools have made all courses pass-fail, including some Ivy League schools like Yale University and Columbia University. Some students argue that universities should grant them leniency when it comes to grades for this semester as the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic has made it difficult to focus on academics.
The Hechinger Report explains the possible consequences of changing to pass/fail systems. Many competitive professional or graduate programs may not accept those courses as part of their admission requirements. A handful of graduate programs, including Harvard Medical School, have stepped up to say that they will take the circumstances into account. But experts say the biggest impact will be on undergraduates who want to transfer, a larger than expected proportion of students that is likely to get bigger in the wake of the pandemic. Because the rates of academic credit transfers between institutions is already so low, pass/fail grades may force transfer students to take courses a second time. “My concern is it becomes another excuse to not accept their credit, or to give them elective credit and not apply it to their major,” said John Mullane, president of College Transfer Solutions, which works with universities and colleges to streamline the transfer process.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said the U.S. Department of Education intends to immediately distribute about $6 billion in coronavirus relief funding to colleges. Education Dive reports that institutions must use this money to provide emergency grants to students who have been disadvantaged by the virus. They will get roughly $6 billion more at an unknown date to use for their expenses related to the coronavirus.
Student newspapers including Harvard’s Crimson, Syracuse’s Daily Orange, and George Washington’s GW Hatchet, are reporting on the challenges that students face in maintaining their mental wellbeing while social distancing.
In the Hechinger Report, Meredith Kolodner spotlights the dire situation that the pandemic has created for many low-income students, whose graduation rates are low in the best of circumstances; only 14 percent of the lowest-income students earn a bachelor’s degree within eight years of first enrolling, according to government data. But with catastrophic job losses plunging students and their families into economic peril, the risk of dropping out is growing among the students who most need a degree to climb the socioeconomic ladder. “We know from experience that even small, unexpected expenses can really trip up low-income students and interfere with their likelihood of returning,” said Jenna Sablan, an assistant research professor at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. “Now, with the coronavirus, you have a double whammy of not only new expenses but the likelihood of lower incomes both for the student and their families.”
The Chronicle reports that, in the mass, abrupt shift to online learning, disabled students are often overlooked by faculty members struggling to adapt to a whole new arena of teaching. Kristie Orr, director of disability resources at Texas A&M University at College Station and board president of the Association on Higher Education and Disability, says accommodations might shift in the new environment. “Depending on the format of the class,” she says, “the student who needed a note-taker before may not need one now, or they may not have needed one before, but now they need one.” Keeping videos short can help students with disabilities that hinder concentration, Orr says. “We want to make sure they have access to their education and that we’re not providing barriers for them because of the format of a class or because of the way it’s taught.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education published an interactive report to illustrate the way that, over 11 days, more than 100 institutions announced plans to take instruction online, helping to pave the way for the rest of the country to follow.
