FINAL: What does the COVID-19 pandemic mean for college right now?
#TempleSocEd
College is an important time of students lives, it’s where they learn to be independent, social, create life long relationships, find out who they are, learn for the future, and so many other important lessons. COVID-19 has sort of paused that and shifted the norm of college. Students were sent back to their homes, colleges went virtual, and students stress hit a high. For some students their homes are unstable and they have a better life at college, it’s unfair how they had to be sent back but while some students lost their jobs they were unable to pay rent and afford to live on their own. Students also lost motivation to learn and are having a hard time actually processing the information that they are learning because it’s not the same education they are meant to be getting. We have been learning to adapt with these changes that life is throwing at us but for some it’s harder than others.
Living with five girls at school comes in handy when you have to interview college students, recently I interviewed my two roommates, Ivanna and Yadria. While we all live in the same house we all have very different experiences with how COVID-19 is affecting our college life.
My first interviewee was my one roommate Ivanna, Ivanna is a business major in Fox. The first question I asked her was “How do you think Temple is handling this pandemic? Compared to other colleges/universities?” She said that she thinks that all colleges are handling this different. She visited her one friend that goes to college in Boston (got tested prior to going)and said that they test their students one to two times a week and if you are positive they isolate you. There hasn’t been many cases at that college because of how they are handling it. Compared to Temple she thinks that Temple could offer more testing, she said they have the money to do more testing but they don’t. It is hard to get a test and many students have been turned away when they want to get tested. Offering testing before going home is nice but they should just have more tests available for students. She thinks that they should especailly offer more testing because we are located in the city and have other communities around us, its not fair to them if we are spreading it because we don’t have much testing. She also thinks that it was rude of Temple to offer housing again in the Spring after they send students home in the Fall. It’s a waste of money and time for students and their families to be kicked out of the dorms after moving in and buying a bunch of things for their dorms. My second question that I asked was “How has the pandemic affected your living arrangements? Your job?” She said that for her living arrangements, nothing really changed other than staying at school and not going home so she doesn’t risk getting her parents sick and spreading it. As for her job she said that Jumpstart is online, which is nice because she doesn't have to rush after school to get to the school she is supposed to be at. When she goes home and if she works, she works at Marshalls and says that they have a lot of new rules such as; wiping the counter down after each customer, wearing a mask all the time, they have to clean every hour, and the store has limited people in it. My third question I asked was “What as been stressful about college during a pandemic?” She said that staying indoors in hard because she is used to walking to her classes and getting outside and spending time with friends in between classes. She also said that she spends a lot more time on her computer then she used to and she doesn’t really like that but she has to. Another question I asked her was “What are some things that are getting you through this school year?” She said that living with people she likes is really getting her through it, she enjoys when she makes little things to look forward to such as going to get coffee or planning to watch a movie at night. She also has created a routine that helps her be productive and go through the day. Another thing that is getting her through is that she got an internship and is looking forward to that in the summer.
The second person I interviewed was Yadria, Yadria is a senior at Temple studying criminal justice. The first question I asked her was “How do you think Temple is handling this pandemic? Compared to other colleges/universities?” She said that she thinks that Temple is handling this very poorly, and that the administration is more focused on the money aspect rather than the students well being and receiving an education that they are paying for. She also said that she feels like the school is blaming the students for spreading the virus but Temple is the one who brought back all the students and didn't offer much testing. She also said that they are not being that transparent with the students because they say one thing and then go back on their word, for example in the summer when they said the classes will be in person and then they changed a bunch of classes to online without telling the students until we found out. Also, Yadria took a leave of absence because she feels like she doesn’t learn that well online and wants to receive the education that she is paying for, because of that she feels very left out and says that Temple isn’t sending her the emails that they are sending everyone else. For example, she never received the email about spring break being canceled and had to hear it from someone else. I also asked her “How has the pandemic affected your living arrangements? Your job?” She said that for her living arrangements that she is just wasting money on an apartment in Philly when she could just live at home rent free. For her job it has affected her greatly, since she took a leave of absence she took the opportunity to get a job, she has lost three of her jobs due to COVID-19 and has still not received her unemployment check from the government when she was supposed to. Another question I asked her was “What are some things that are getting you through this in college?” Her response was that she is looking forward to the future and her future job. By studying for the LSAT she hopes that it will help her pass it and then get a good paying job. I also asked her “What as been stressful about college during a pandemic?” She said that she has become less motivated to do her studying for the LSAT and she has a lot of anxiety about the future because she doesn’t know what it will look like. She is also very stressful for the Spring semester because she is going to go back to school but learning online doesn’t work well for her so she is stressed and anxious about that.
Both Ivanna and Yadria are very good students and are affected first hand with this pandemic. They both have different experiences and learning strategies and have been trying to make the best out of this situation.
While reading the New York Times article College Made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are, a lot of different situations were brought up. One that stuck out to me was Russian student who was in the states for school and her family was back in Russia. This stuck out to me because my one friend at Temple is from France and wasn't allowed to go back. Not till recent, Thanksgiving break she was allowed to go back to France to see her family after not seeing them for over a year. Ms. Lanthion had to help her family food truck while her sports team traveled and vacationed for break. Some students don’t have the opportunity to just go relax during this pandemic, they have to go help their families afford to pay the bills or help with the family business. Working on top of school during COVID-19 is a struggle because it just adds more weight to peoples shoulders when they already have stress. This article was a perfect thing to read to prove that people are struggling and your not alone. It also shows how unequal people are because this pandemic is pretty much calling people our for not being as fortunate, and thats sad. America has to do a better job and learn from this to create a better future. Maybe some parts of this pandemic is a blessing to show us what we have to work on in the future.
To answer the big question “what does COVID-19 pandemic mean for college right now?” It looks different for everyone, not two people have the same exact experience in this. Some people live at school, some people live at home, some people have lost their job, some people have to focus on school while focusing on how they will get by another week, there are so many different experiences that people are dealing with it’s hard to pin point just one answer for this questions. All I know for sure to answer this questions is that people are struggling with all types of different things and we are all in this together. We need to realize all these inequalities that we are facing right now and acknowledge them for the future so that we can fix our mistakes and create a better future. We will beat this virus and come out of it stronger than ever. This experience that we are facing is teaching us lessons and making us stronger.
