J.M.: I think most professors care about their students both academically and personally, and some manage to break through the anonymity of large classes and forge personal connections. That is certainly Dr. Walsh’s goal. “I want [students] to be successful in my course. I want them to learn and engage,” she told me. But with the mass absences of the past academic year, she said, “it’s been a struggle to do that.”
Colleges were only able to function at all early in the pandemic because faculty members and staff took on an unsustainable burden of extra work. To give students personal attention, faculty members need reasonable workloads, including smaller classes, which means universities need to hire more full-time faculty members.
To justify greater public spending, universities must convince the public that higher education is more than a pathway to students’ individual economic success. College is at least partly a public good, because well-educated and highly-skilled people enrich society both economically and culturally. Student loan forgiveness is one way to acknowledge this fact.
‘Reality check: the pandemic isn’t over’
Steven McCornack, East Lansing, Mich.: I wonder whether the author has actually talked with his students about why they are disengaged and absent. I don’t presume to know about his students, but mine were absent because they were working two to three jobs to cover their family’s expenses, because their parents were unemployed, disabled or dead. My students were Zooming from hospital bedsides, with dying grandparents; being full-time caregivers with family members in hospices, or in emergency rooms awaiting their own admission for low oxygen levels. Reality check: The pandemic isn’t over! Why do we persist in treating all that we currently are experiencing with denialism, or view the traumas students are still experiencing as something incidental from the past, that they need to now get over? More importantly, how will increasing standards address student PTSD, grief, illness and support of family members?
J.M.: As important as higher education is, some things are more important. People facing health and family crises or who need to work long hours might not have the spare time and focus to be full-time students. They might be better able to care for themselves and others if they take fewer classes, or don’t enroll at all, until they are in position to get the most out of college: not just a degree, but an education.
But the economic value of a degree can put pressure on students to stay enrolled even when other needs are more urgent; another year without graduating is also another year with lower average earnings. In addition, universities often make financial aid contingent on studying full time; federal loan programs require half-time enrollment. These rules may need to change so more students can learn effectively while advancing toward a degree at a manageable pace. Universal preschool and affordable child care would also help students who are parents.
‘My son has made no close friends at college’
Julie, Rhode Island: Parent here, of a student who just finished sophomore year. A lot of these kids are disengaged because they were completely isolated their freshman year. My son has made no close friends at college. His first year there, classes were online, the dining halls were closed, there were no in-person extracurriculars, dorm lounges were closed and students were not allowed to have other students in their rooms. He had little opportunity to get to know other students.
‘Learn as much as you can, and take as much pleasure in it as you can.’
J.M.: Nothing has been easy in the last two years: learning, teaching, parenting, working. College can seem trivial in such times. What’s the point of analyzing lines of Milton when so many are dying? I wish it were possible for my students to see the 50 or 80 minutes we spend together as a refuge. The world’s pain and fear are not going away, but here we are, a community of learners, figuring out things that have mattered to people for ages.
Molly, don’t lose hope. Learn as much as you can, and take as much pleasure in it as you can. The fact is, our society is going to need people like you and your peers who are capable, compassionate and disciplined. Addressing the long-term aftermath of the pandemic, not to mention numerous other problems, will require all the brainpower and commitment we can muster. No, it won’t be easy to finish your degree in the current conditions, and things are unlikely to get easier after you graduate. But you’re now in a position to become someone who will do much good for the world. I know you can.
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