Students share concerns about worldwide campus shutdowns
Schools all over the world are becoming ghost towns, all of because of the rapid transmission of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, the latest global pandemic that has sent the world into a panic. Thursday, Utah State University joined the increasing number of schools taking preventative measures when President Noelle Cockett announced USU will switch to online classes after the March 10 announcement, as well as cancel all events and suspend university travel through at least April 8. Most recently Utah State encouraged students to leave campus housing.
Some schools, like Harvard and Stanford universities, have even told students to leave the campuses in their entirety.
Niyonta Chowdhury-Magana, a USU student, explained her frustrations about having to cancel the events she co-organized. “The International Banquet, The Bengali New Year, Bangladesh Education Night, Global Picnic. Canceled,” Chowdhury-Magana said. “My radio show I had already prepared episodes for got canceled. Six organizational weekly/monthly meetings I’m part of got canceled. Events I was looking forward to — Powwow, Fiestas Americas, Aggie Radio events — all canceled. ”
At the University of Missouri, junior Evie Stone was forced to come home from her study abroad in Japan early, despite classes at Sophia University continuing.
“Mizzou is choosing to cancel my classes and force me to take an involuntary gap semester, which will cost me thousands of dollars in tuition and fees that I can only assume they do not plan on reimbursing.” Stone said. “They didn’t reach out to me to ask about how I was feeling about the conditions over here, or what I felt was in my best interest; they made a blanket decision that is causing much more harm than good in my case. I live 95% of my day the same as I did before coronavirus, the other 5% being that I choose to eat near my house when the trains are crowded instead of traveling downtown.”
Shannon Hussey, a Southeast Missouri State student, is in a similar situation. Her study abroad has been canceled, meaning she won’t have the needed credits to graduate early.
“The university has left a lot of student workers in the dark. I don’t think they realize that if we don’t work, we can’t pay the rent,” Hussey said.
In addition, Hussey has type 1 diabetes, which makes her a high-risk patient if she were to test positive with the virus.
“It’s scary to think that either my friends or I could show any symptoms and quite literally die,” Hussey said.
At Whittier College in California, senior Isabella Zonni was told that classes would not resume after spring break, which she and her peers are currently on.
“I was supposed to be flying out to Europe, which won’t be happening anytime soon,” Zonni said.
The University of Texas at Austin just extended spring break by a week and is going fully online, encouraging students who can to leave campus. At the University of Dayton in Ohio, students were seemingly protesting the changes by standing on top of cars and throwing objects at police. According to Flyer News, Dayton’s student paper, it was not a protest, but “one last party” before the campus closed down. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Harvard University, which is forcing students to leave campus, including student housing, by March 15.
Satoshi Yanaizu, an international student from Japan, told Harvard’s school paper The Crimson he would be in a similar situation even if he did leave campus.
“The town I’m from, we have like 70 cases already, the same as the entire state of Massachusetts,” Yanaizu said. “If I go back, I have no guarantee I will be in a safer environment, It might be even worse.”
In addition to international students, low-income students are also being affected. The Crimson recorded that nearly 20% of students are on full financial aid. The sudden need to find transportation home, and finding temporary housing or places to store their belongings will be difficult, if not impossible. Fortunately, Havard students have taken matters into their own hands and have started working on finding classmates places to stay and offering rides if needed.
On the other side of the world is Austrian senior Gretta Renner. The government came in and shut down all universities without warning, giving the staff very little time to prepare. Not only can people not enter the campuses, but students are not leaving either.
“The cases are increasing every single day, but I think they’re handling it well,” Renner said. “They’re taking action early instead of waiting for it to get worse.”
Erica Williams attends the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, England, where there will be no classes until after Easter as cases across the U.K. have increased to 1,391 with 35 deaths as of Monday.
While panicked citizens are out buying hand sanitizer and toilet paper in bulk, students at universities across the world are being affected in similar ways. Now is the time to stay alert, connected and help those who need it most.
@dillydahle