The Higher Education Squeeze of the Coronavirus
Read Time:2 Minute, 47 Second
by Bill Formby
It is now mid-August in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and much the same as it is in every other city with a large university. But this year is different from last year and practically every other year prior to this one. Normally, by now this time of year the streets are becoming more crowded with vehicles thanks to the early influx of university students.
Local residents have usually started to avoid a number of the restaurants in the downtown area trying to avoid the crowds brought in by the students returning to classes. Local bars have begun to fill up and the talk is usually about how well the football team is going to do this year.
The same scene is being played over and over in cities with major colleges around the country. Students trying to get the last few apartments or part-time jobs lined up. But, because of the Corona 19 virus, this year is different.
Other than the owners of businesses that have built themselves up based on an instant, though temporary, growth in the population of 35,000 to 50,000 thousand people are now squirming if they were not already nauseated by the knowledge that their businesses are about to be hurting, if not closing for good.
For a city like Tuscaloosa that has a population of about 100,000 people, this could mean the loss in gross revenue of around $200 million. That is not counting the $10 million loss in revenue they will lose because of the 7 lost home football games. There will be hundreds, if not thousands of jobs lost along with the lost tax revenue.
Then there is the University itself. Alabama, like many universities, will be teaching most of their classes remotely which have students clamoring for refunds on apartments and/or university housing.
This is putting a squeeze on the universities paying for it on both ends, On one end the students feel that they should not be paying as much for online learning as they do for in-person classes. In an earlier post, I pointed out that online learning may not be the same quality as face to face learning.
At the same time, the time and preparation of online classes may well be more intense for the faculty for schools that do not have a full-time online program. Professors who usually depend on giving live lectures must now reduce those to written lectures.
In other words, the quality of higher education, in general, may be reduced, at least for the fall term. How much this quality will be reduced remains to be revealed. But it will hopefully have an impact on the learning process.
Despite the hope for a vaccine by the end of this year, the time needed to get it dispensed may even cost another term. So it is feasible that universities may not be back in full session until the Fall of 2021, thus adding another year of school loans to current students. Hopefully, we will by then we have a new president and congress who can help with the situation instead of making it worse like Trump no doubt will.
In case you missed it: The Book Nook: An Introduction to Online Learning by Julie Globokar
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This is tough on all involved. My daughter just went off to Brigham Young, and they are teaching most of their classes, at least partly remote. So, she will have the college experience at least, as she’s staying on campus.
That’s good to hear Jess.
I only have a few students since I teach at a continuation school for the students that do not fit in or do well with regular schools, so I am lucky. My best friend is in an actual school environment and they are dicking the teachers around.
I’ll be teaching my classes remotely this year also.
Kent State has implemented a number of changes, with many classes being taught remotely, such as mine, and face to face classes with the caveat of moving to remote depending on the behavior of the virus. Everything is in flux.
According to the New York Times a number of college and universities are being hit with demands for reductions in tuition since students and parents see remote classes as of being less quality than face to face classes. I know that you teach both ways Mike. What do you think? By and large I agree with the students except that as an instructor I find the on line classes more difficult to prepare for if they are not already pre planned.