Student Union
Young People Tire of Coronavirus Stereotypes
Darla Veitch, a 19-year-old student attending the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is not the stereotypical college student, gathering in crowds at the beach or in bars.
The farthest she strays from home, she said, is her backyard.
“The last time I went out was probably three months ago, to Home Depot to get some plants to put in our garden,” said Veitch. “Very crazy.”
Images of parties and bars frequently paint a picture of young people who are ignoring social distancing guidelines, like wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic. As students have returned to college campuses, cases have risen.
But not all young people are mingling at parties without wearing masks.
Veitch said she is taking online classes because she expected the pandemic would not let up anytime soon.
“It’s been very boring,” said Veitch. “I spend a lot of time...well…all my time indoors with my family. Occasionally my boyfriend visits me.”
He sits two meters away with a mask, and has precautionary testing. He results have been negative.
“For nine months, I haven’t been able to hug my boyfriend or my friends or go on campus. And I know I’m taking this extremely seriously. I definitely think with the climate of politics and what’s going on in our country, I feel very useless because I can’t go out and do something about the events I’m seeing because I don’t want to put other people’s lives at risk,” she added.
Being cautious on campus
Coleman McJessy, a junior at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, says that he and most young people around him are social distancing, not partying, and always wear masks.
“Masks have become a way of life. I don’t know the last time I’ve seen someone have to get reprimanded by a professor or by campus security for not wearing a mask,” the 20-year-old said.
McJessy lives in a dorm with roommates and gets tested twice a week. The university offers the testing for free. Anyone on campus for any reason is required to participate.
People are also required to wear face coverings outdoors and indoors in shared, but not private, spaces.
On October 5, Trinity had no active cases on campus. But one week later, 47 active cases were confirmed among students, out of around 2,100 members of the student body.
While McJessy says he and his friends stay on campus mostly, they take extra precautions off campus and are more strategic when making plans.
“If I go to Target to get food, I make a list, go in, and go out. You don’t really do anything just because it’s a spur of the moment thing because you want to make a plan to do the activity whether it’s going off campus or on campus,” McJessy said.
“And [you ask], ‘How safe is it going to be? What’s the chance of getting the virus?’ I think those are questions that are in the back of everybody’s mind,” he added.
Theo Carter, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, also tries to stay indoors as much as possible despite living alone in a dorm on campus.
“I spend a lot of time in my dorm,” Carter said. “I typically go out once a week to get groceries...I probably stay indoors around 80% of the time.”
Frustration with peers
Young people following pandemic regulations express frustration at peers who do not.
“It’s very frustrating and very hard. Because I also want to be going out and partying, but feel a responsibility to not do that so that I don’t endanger myself and others,” Carter said.
“Everything on the news is telling you to stay inside, but you go around and see everyone else ignoring mandates and they’re not social distancing,” Carter said.
Like many adults, some students on campus are not wearing masks and social distancing, he said.
“They’ll wear them under their chin or just hold them. Just walking around campus, they don’t really wear them at all,” Carter said.
As of October 13, the University of North Carolina-Charlotte had 287 confirmed positive cases, 243 among students. There were 17 on-campus active cases.
“Of course, it’s hard to be young now and you want to party and hang out with friends, but they are also educated enough to follow the guidelines of this pandemic,” said Veitch, who said she’s unfollowed some friends on social media after seeing them ignore social distancing.
College administration plays a big role, said McJessy.
Trinity has done “a really good job of creating rules that can be followed and that aren’t unreasonable, such as a testing protocol so that we know when somebody is sick and how to adjust our schedules for that. And a strict no-tolerance policy,” he said.
“My campus is almost entirely a residential campus, so it’s very easy, if there is loud music and lights blasting from a dorm, for campus security to knock on their door and see what’s going on,” he added.
‘We’re not fully to blame’
Veitch said she understands why people are pointing fingers but that young people shouldn’t be fully to blame.
“While we’re pointing the finger at young people, we have adults going to indoor rallies and super spreader events that have now resulted in the White House being completely covered with this horrible virus. It’s a little hypocritical,” Veitch said.
On September 26, President Donald Trump hosted more than 200 people in the White House Rose Garden to announce his nominee for the Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barrett. Images of the event showed most attendees did not wear a face mask. After the event, more than two dozen people were reported to have contracted the coronavirus, including the president, first lady Melania Trump and several aides.
President Trump received treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and is now back on the campaign trail. His doctor says the president tested negative “on consecutive days.”
Being responsible
Veitch said she bears a responsibility to others.
“I have elderly friends and adult friends who are 50-plus years old that I can’t imagine if something happened to them because of my negligence,” she said.
“I think it’s extremely important for young people to set the standard for behavior, especially because we are the future for this country and this planet. I definitely think we should take more responsibility,” she said.
“I think there is a lot of cynicism about college kids and I don’t think that’s necessarily granted by the numbers, at least by my personal experience here. I do wish that there would be a more complete understanding of college students,” McJessy added.
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Pro-Palestinian protests spread on US university campuses
U.S. university campuses are seeing pro-Palestinian protests daily. Students are demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and demanding that humanitarian aid be allowed to flow into the territory. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.
US police clash with students who demand colleges cut financial ties to Israel
Police tangled with student demonstrators in the U.S. states of Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
At the University of Texas at Austin, hundreds of local and state police — including some on horseback and holding batons — clashed with protesters, pushing them off the campus lawn and at one point sending some tumbling into the street. At least 20 demonstrators were taken into custody at the request of university officials and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, according to the state Department of Public Safety.
A photographer covering the demonstration for Fox 7 Austin was arrested after being caught in a push-and-pull between law enforcement and students, the station confirmed. A longtime Texas journalist was knocked down in the mayhem and could be seen bleeding before police helped him to emergency medical staff who bandaged his head.
At the University of Southern California, police got into a back-and-forth tugging match with protesters over tents, removing several before falling back. At the northern end of California, students were barricaded inside a building for a third day at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. The school shut down campus through the weekend and made classes virtual.
Harvard University in Massachusetts had sought to stay ahead of protests this week by limiting access to Harvard Yard and requiring permission for tents and tables. That didn't stop protesters from setting up a camp with 14 tents Wednesday following a rally against the university's suspension of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee.
Students protesting the Israel-Hamas war are demanding schools cut financial ties to Israel and divest from companies enabling its monthslong conflict. Dozens have been arrested on charges of trespassing or disorderly conduct. Some Jewish students say the protests have veered into antisemitism and made them afraid to set foot on campus.
Columbia University averted another confrontation between students and police earlier in the day. The situation there remained tense, with campus officials saying it would continue talks with protesters for another 48 hours.
On a visit to campus, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called on Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign "if she cannot bring order to this chaos."
"If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard," he said.
Shafik had set a midnight Tuesday deadline to reach an agreement on clearing an encampment, but the school extended negotiations, saying it was making "important progress."
On Wednesday evening, a Columbia spokesperson said rumors that the university had threatened to bring in the National Guard were unfounded. "Our focus is to restore order, and if we can get there through dialogue, we will," said Ben Chang, Columbia's vice president for communications.
Columbia graduate student Omer Lubaton Granot, who put up pictures of Israeli hostages near the encampment, said he wanted to remind people that there were more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas.
"I see all the people behind me advocating for human rights," he said. "I don't think they have one word to say about the fact that people their age, that were kidnapped from their homes or from a music festival in Israel, are held by a terror organization."
Harvard law student Tala Alfoqaha, who is Palestinian, said she and other protesters want more transparency from the university.
"My hope is that the Harvard administration listens to what its students have been asking for all year, which is divestment, disclosure and dropping any sort of charges against students," she said.
Columbia encampment inspires others
Police first tried to clear the encampment at Columbia last week, when they arrested more than 100 protesters. The move backfired, acting as an inspiration for other students across the country to set up similar encampments and motivating protesters at Columbia to regroup.
On Wednesday about 60 tents remained at the Columbia encampment, which appeared calm. Security remained tight around campus, with identification required and police setting up metal barricades.
Columbia said it had agreed with protest representatives that only students would remain at the encampment and they would make it welcoming, banning discriminatory or harassing language.
On the University of Minnesota campus, a few dozen students rallied a day after nine protesters were arrested when police took down an encampment in front of the library. U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, whose daughter was among the demonstrators arrested at Columbia last week, attended a protest later in the day.
A group of more than 80 professors and assistant professors signed a letter Wednesday calling on the university's president and other administrators to drop any charges and to allow future encampments without what they described as police retaliation.
They wrote that they were "horrified that the administration would permit such a clear violation of our students' rights to freely speak out against genocide and ongoing occupation of Palestine."
Netanyahu encourages police response
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations on U.S. college campuses in a video statement released Wednesday, saying the response of several university presidents has been "shameful" and calling on state, local and federal officials to intervene.
Students at some protests were hiding their identities and declined to identify themselves to reporters, saying they feared retribution. At an encampment of about 40 tents at the heart of the University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor, almost every student wore a mask, which was handed to them when they entered.
The upwelling of demonstrations has left universities struggling to balance campus safety with free speech rights. Many long tolerated the protests, but are now doling out more heavy-handed discipline, citing safety concerns.
At New York University this week, police said 133 protesters were taken into custody and all had been released with summonses to appear in court on disorderly conduct charges. More than 40 protesters were arrested Monday at an encampment at Yale University.
Columbia University demonstrators in talks with administration officials
Officials at Columbia University were continuing talks Wednesday with student demonstrators from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment as the protest reaches a full week.
At 9:41 p.m. Tuesday, university President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik sent an email to the Columbia community setting a midnight deadline for an agreement to be reached about dismantling the encampment and dispersing the protesters.
“I very much hope these discussions are successful,” she wrote. “If they are not, we will have to consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus so that students can complete the term and graduate.”
As midnight passed, Columbia University Apartheid Divest posted a statement on X saying, “We refuse to concede to cowardly threats and blatant intimidation by university administration. We will continue to peacefully protest.”
The statement also said the university had threatened to call the National Guard. But after visiting the university earlier in the week, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said Tuesday she had no plans to deploy the National Guard.
As midnight approached on Tuesday, a student organizer announced that the deadline had been extended to 8 a.m. Wednesday.
At 4:09 a.m., the Office of the President sent an email saying the discussion deadline would be extended for 48 hours, given the constructive dialogue, and the university would report back on progress.
The email announced that leaders of the student encampment had agreed to remove a significant number of tents, get non-Columbia affiliates to leave the encampment and comply with New York Fire Department requirements. They also agreed to ensure that the encampment is “welcome to all” and to prohibit “discriminatory or harassing language.”
This development comes nearly a week after more than 100 students were arrested at the school on April 18, after Shafik authorized police to clear away protesters. Some of the students received suspension notices from the school.
Columbia’s action prompted an onslaught of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at other universities and responses from faculty and politicians.
Students at other campuses, such as Yale, Stanford and New York University, have also rallied around the Palestinian cause, calling for their universities to divest from companies with ties to Israel and for a cease-fire in Gaza. Many also have put up tent encampments on their campuses. About 150 students and faculty were arrested at New York University Monday night.
Columbia also announced Tuesday morning that classes on the Morningside main campus, where the protests are taking place, will be offered in a hybrid format for the remainder of the spring semester. The last day of classes is April 29.
- By VOA News
Paper: International students faced extra pandemic challenges
Astrobites, which describes itself as "a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students in astronomy since 2010," focuses on the challenges international students faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It examines a paper published in the Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education entitled The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on International Students in a Public University in the United States: Academic and Non-academic Challenges.
Read the Astrobites article here. (April 2024)
- By VOA News
15 cheapest US universities for international students
Yahoo!Finance has compiled a list of the 15 cheapest U.S. universities for international students.
Among them: Arizona State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michigan State University.
Read the list here. (March 2024)
