So before I start off my rant on how colleges are putting out students into the world that’s infected with a “Deadly Disease,” I would like to point out how President Trump is handling this pandemic very lightly. Toilet paper and bottled water is running out. Are humans getting ready for the apocalypse?
On the morning of March 11th, I woke up to see that many of my friends were packing up their bags and leaving until the fall semester because their institutions told them they have 10 days to get off-campus. The institutions my friends attend are considered elite American universities, like Amherst, Smith, and Harvard top tier schools.
These universities are disgusting with their lack of empathy and moral understanding of people’s situations. Not everyone can pack their things and fly back home, that’s not a luxury many students have. As many know, this capitalistic society only gives a F*CK about the rich, and moving might not seem like a big deal. These universities that I named have 30 BILLION DOLLAR ENDOWMENTS, will spend 0.1% of that money to buy complexes for low-income students. Would that really hurt their pockets? No. There are homeless students who expected housing till May.
What the hell are they supposed to do now?
What these colleges have done is irrational and unfair. With their wealth and all the money these students are paying in tuition, they had the funds to accommodate some student needs but they didn’t. This decision could result in lawsuits because of false promises and that isn’t a good look for them. Universities and colleges should allow students to stay on campus for safety reasons, but these institutions instructed them to abruptly evacuate. Now we have international and homeless students who do not have an immediate place to go, who don’t have safety nets put in place.
I propose these prestigious institutions use their prestige to secure campus living for these students. Higher up faculty at these intuitions should also open up some of their many properties.
NEC, being the money-hungry school that they are, chose not to close the college because students may ask for a refund of the rest of their tuition. So, they’ve made the decision to move classes online and let students stay or go home.
Here at NEC, the campus is somewhat diverse with students coming from different parts of America and all over the world. NEC’s population is 52% white, with the rest non-white and international students; the international students come from mainly two places, Asia or Europe. Since the Coronavirus outbreak, many countries around the world have put a travel ban in place. On March 14th, President Trump announced European travel restrictions including the United Kingdom and Ireland. Spain and China are currently on lockdown, higher authorities in these countries demanded that everyone put themselves in self-quarantine.
As I was writing this article I was listening to stories of NEC students and two in particular stood out to me. The two stories had many common factors; the main one was how online classes will effect international students who have returned home. Given different time zones, classes in the morning like 8 am may turn into 3 am or 5 am, which I believe is absurd. Though I don’t believe that NEC should close the school, I do believe they should have anticipated this problem.
