Many College Students Facing Dire Circumstances Amid COVID-19

By Carter Delegal on July 14, 2020

The google images that come up for ‘college student’ are telling: pictures of 20-somethings hunched over books in quaint libraries are accompanied by shots of smiling faces with binders and folders, strolling through the halls of their well-kept institutions. These images might seem perfectly representative. After all, one may think, college students just study and learn (and party, tailgate, etc.), as they are generally well-off and free from worry.

That the majority of college students do not fit into this simplistic picture has been made abundantly clear in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A large number of students find themselves in the thick of economic hardship, which, for many, was near unmanageable prior to this year’s recession and has only gotten worse ever since. According to a survey of nearly 40,000 college students, 3 out of 5  are experiencing food or housing insecurity as a result of the pandemic.

This striking statistic aligns with recent research on the challenges college students face in navigating the ever-increasing costs of college tuition.  Insidehighered.com reports that 70% of students have some sort of employment while in school, with about a quarter of them working full-time. For students from lower-income families, this work is often necessary to keep up with payments: such families are typically required to pay an average of $8,000 and $12,000 for a year of school at a community college and a 4-year institution, respectively, even after federal aid and scholarships.

And yet, faced with a demanding school schedule, many students still struggle to earn enough money to fully support themselves. Instead of cutting back on school or on work, which is often not a viable option, students will find themselves forced to spend less of their budget on food and housing. In fact, some researchers estimate that “the incidence of food and housing insecurity is now greater among college students than it is in the general population.”

https://pixabay.com/photos/mentor-school-students-college-3512369/

So, when the pandemic came around and many people were forced out of work and deprived of access to their institution’s resources, a  difficult situation became dire for the most vulnerable students. And, consistent with most of the pandemic’s effects, it took a particularly harsh toll on students of color, magnifying inequities within the college system: the survey mentioned above, which was carried out by Temple University’s HOPE Center, found that black students were 19% more likely to experience basic needs insecurity than their white peers.

Fortunately, some programs have been put in place to address the challenges students are facing. The CARES Act, for example, provided 14 billion to colleges and universities nationwide for emergency grants, healthcare spending, and the like. However, as the Florida College Access Network reports, funds were not distributed as of April or early May, right when students needed them the most. Moreover, even when the CARES act aid became available, higher education institutions were tasked with coming up with a system of distributing the aid, which was further complicated by changing federal specifications of eligibility criteria.

More and more college administrators have slowly become aware of the financial burdens incurred by many of their students, but the pandemic has rushed those stark realities to the forefront. To help students in the short-term, administrators can focus on bolstering their financial aid and emergency fund infrastructure and improving the visibility of these resources. Schools can also stay attuned to the ways in which their Fall plans will affect more vulnerable students, including those who may be counting upon on-campus housing as the only affordable option. But the problem of college-related impoverishment might very well require large changes to the way in which higher education is funded and the way in which the needs of the ‘typical’ college student are conceived. If such a change comes about, it will be one among many that we can attribute to this terrifying, difficult, and eye-opening pandemic.

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