Coronavirus Impact
In an interview in Psychology Today, Yusen Zhai, a licensed professional counselor and the lead clinic supervisor at the Edwin L. Herr clinic, speaks about his recent research on the impacts of COVID-19 on mental wellbeing. “Not only does the threat to health lead to poor mental health, but the losses and grief and unprecedented disruptions of students’ lives can also contribute to significant distress,” said Zhai. He highlighted the disproportionate impact on marginalized groups. “Historically, racism and xenophobia emerge whenever infectious disease outbreaks occur,” he said. “Further, marginalized groups encounter various barriers to mental health services, which continues to widen health disparities. Therefore, solidarity and additional courses of action are urgently needed to support college students in this challenging time.”
A poll by the MassINC Polling Group shows that many of the most underserved Massachusetts high school students and their families are reconsidering higher education plans in light of the coronavirus pandemic. Eighty-six percent of the 367 parents polled expect their child in grade 10, 11 or 12 to be at least “somewhat likely” to attend college during the next few years. But there are profound demographic gaps in the so-called “coronavirus effect.” Twenty two percent of Black respondents and 26% of Latino respondents reported some changes to college plans due to the pandemic, compared to 17% of white respondents.
In an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed, Maximillian Matthews, of the Upward Bound TRIO program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argues that institutions must center the needs of marginalized students during the pandemic, citing a mortality rate for African Americans that is three times higher than for white people, and the disproportionate financial losses for black households during the economic downturn. Matthews asks, “How student-centered are the decisions that are our institutions making? Are they planning services, activities and investments with the specific needs of Black and Latinx students in mind? What about the students with disabilities, multiple identity intersections, mental health needs and special health conditions, and/or those dealing with academic hardships?”
In an op-ed in the Washington Post, W. Carson Byrd, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Louisville and William D. Lopez, an assistant clinical professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan, echoed this sentiment. “Unless universities purposefully center the experiences and needs of students of color in their reopening plans, they will increase racial inequity regardless of whether classes are held in person or online,” they write. “Using a colorblind approach for all students’ educational and health needs misses the reality that even the most resource-rich campuses harbored racial inequities before the pandemic…” They call on colleges to ask themselves what resources are needed to support students of color so they may continue their coursework during the pandemic, including basic and reliable Internet service.
In the Hechinger Report, Pamela Melgar, a second-generation Guatemalan student at Tufts University expresses her concern that the coronavirus will limit access to opportunity for low-income students and students of color. “Even with perfect conditions, students like me who are applying to college hesitate to take that leap of faith, she writes. “The pandemic has made some students – in both high school and college – rethink whether they can afford to pursue higher education…” Melgar worries that these students might lose hope.
Carl T. Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the University of Washington and the author of Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World, criticizes the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for institutions of higher education, which failed to recommend testing for students returning to campus and issued an explicit statement of non-recommendation for the practice. He wrote, “The CDC’s decision not to recommend such testing for higher education is inexplicable and irresponsible, particularly given that colleges are environments where Covid-19 spreads easily, and large outbreaks are likely.” He says the statement’s assertion of a lack of evidence for testing on college campuses is disingenuous. Bergstrom consults for Color Genomics, Inc. on Covid-19 testing logistics.
The Chronicle reports that, in anticipation of steep enrollment drops this year, colleges and access groups are working to keep students on track through scholarships, free summer courses, and virtual hand-holding. In a national survey conducted this spring, one in six high-school seniors who before the pandemic expected to attend a four-year college full time said that they will choose a different path this fall (these changes to college plans are hitting people of color the hardest). In mid-June, the University of South Florida announced that it would provide $20 million in scholarships to help incoming and current students affected by the pandemic start or stay in college. The university is also asking its peer mentors to reach out to all 5,000 enrolled freshmen over the summer to help them feel connected to the campus community. Other colleges, like Tallahassee Community College, are offering free summer courses to enrolled freshmen. Edsource reports that California State University will offer freshmen some real-world school spirit before classes begin with free swag bags of shirts, visors, caps, markers, pens and academic calendars all bearing the school name and logo. Their current plans include possible drive-by distributions on campus, with timed reservations and loadings directly into car trunks, as cheerleaders perform from a safe distance. “We want to go the extra mile to ensure students have some connection to the campus and can wear their swag proudly,” said William Franklin, CSU Dominguez Hills vice president for student affairs. Giving out the school attire is “meant to give a sense of belonging and help you know you are coming into a learning space.”
In the Chronicle, the co-hosts of The End of Sport podcast argue that the National Collegiate Athletic Association must cancel the college-football season. Nathan Kalman-Lamb, the author of Game Misconduct: Injury, Fandom, and the Business of Sport, Johanna Mellis, an assistant professor of world history at Ursinus College, and Derek Silva, an assistant professor of criminology at King’s University College at Western University, in Canada, write that the NCAA and member institutions must acknowledge the damage they have already done by pushing the sports to commence. “Then again, we should not be surprised that institutions that have historically downplayed the risk of harm for young athletes – especially Black athletes – are inflicting more harm on those athletes by promoting and facilitating (and, let’s be real, compelling) their participation in summer football activities on campus during the pandemic,” they write.
Education Dive reports on the ways that colleges are attempting to transform student behavior in the fall. While many are modifying physical spaces, reconfiguring classrooms and common areas, establishing grab-and-go meal locations and installing plexiglass partitions in libraries, those measures will be useless without students’ participation in safe and respectful practices to prevent virus spread. David Wippman, the president of Hamilton College, says that top-down, punitive enforcement will likely fail. Experts say that institutions will have to instill a sense of stewardship and community responsibility, and that student engagement in the development and implementation of pandemic-oriented social contracts is crucial. “We’re putting in place all these rules,” Wippman said, “but we want the students themselves to be talking to and encouraging each other for everyone’s collective benefit.”
Scripps College President Lara Tiedens explains in the Washington Post why she has chosen to keep the campus closed in the fall. “Although there are pressures to invite students back to campus, we are choosing not to put members of our communities (both those who comprise our campuses, and those around us) at increased risk for the sake of finances, reputation, or conformity,” she wrote. Tiedens says Scripps is focusing their efforts on enriching the student experience and reinforcing their values this fall and calls on others to do the same.
As the pandemic worsens, Education Dive and the Chronicle report that more colleges are reversing plans for in-person instruction this fall in favor of a mostly virtual term. University of Southern California changed its fall plans at the beginning of July. Occidental College, Emory University, and Dickinson College announced more virtual operations than previously planned. University of California at Berkeley, Morehouse, Grinnell, and Spelman Colleges, and Clark Atlanta University made similar announcements. David A. Thomas, Morehouse’s president, told The Chronicle that the high infection rates and case numbers in Atlanta and Georgia, coupled with the politicization of the virus, contributed to his decision. “We can’t count on the public policy environment to reinforce or guide our decision making,” Thomas said. Never before in his higher-education career has he operated without that trust, he said. Higher education experts expect more reversals to follow over the next few weeks.
The Chronicle reports that the typical college experience, erased by the pandemic, provides necessary stability, security, and basic needs for many first generation students. These trappings of campus life kept many students enrolled, and first-generation students and their advocates say their education may be endangered by their elimination. Low-income and first-generation students “disproportionately bore the brunt of Covid-19,” said Anthony Abraham Jack, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. What you don’t want is for them to fall through the cracks even more with online learning.”
Diversity and Inclusion
The Chronicle spoke with four student activists about their demands relative to racial injustice which include severing ties with the police, removing symbols of oppression, hiring people of color, and diversifying the curriculum. “We’re past the point of conversation and reforms and panels,” said Maliya Homer, president of the Black Student Union at the University of Louisville. “We can’t panel our way out of this oppressive system that controls us.”
A new report by the Education Trust, a nonprofit research organization, demonstrates that black students have less access to the most selective public colleges in the United States than they did 20 years ago. The organization gave a letter grade to each of 101 public colleges, depending on what share of their students were Black or Latino in 2017, compared with the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds from those demographic groups in each college’s state. A college that achieved diversity relative to its state population received an A. Poorly performing colleges received an F. Most colleges failed; About half of colleges received passing grades for Latino-student representation, while less than a quarter did for Black-student representation.
New international student enrollment nationwide is anticipated to drop to the lowest level since after World War II, when tracking began, according to a recent analysis by the head of the National Foundation for American Policy. After abandoning their policy that required foreign college students take in-person classes in the fall or lose their visas, the Trump administration seems to be making attempts at further restrictions. Education Dive reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a guidance document that foreign students who expect to attend a U.S. college but have not yet left their home countries should remain there. Miriam Feldblum, executive director of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, a coalition of top campus executives who support open migration policy, says that colleges must be ready to take speedy and appropriate legal action against a future rule.
