In the US, colleges across the country have cancelled in-person classes and have told students to leave campus premises, leaving many low-income students with the financial struggles of travelling back to their family homes and book a temporary storage space for their belongings.
Andrew Pérez, a Harvard senior who had to fly home to Los Angeles, considers the travel costs to be the tip of the iceberg, as the universities have offered insufficient guidance for students, especially for those with low-income backgrounds.
A Lending Hand
Advocates for low-income students are worried that colleges have not exercised their COVID-19 contingency plans in favour of their pupils. To counter the drastic yet necessary measures, universities such as Berea College have offered to continue to pay students throughout the end of the semester.
Nearly all of Berea College’s 1600 students receive Pell Grants, which are awarded to undergraduate students who display exceptional financial need. Furthermore, Berea College is attempting to continue courses through remote instruction along with other learning methods, hoping to lessen educational disruption for those with unreliable internet access.
Read more on this story from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
