Millions of American college students are in for a disappointing start to the new year. Amid the rise of the “Omicron” COVID-19 variant and ensuing surge, universities across the country are shutting down and reverting to “online learning” for the first few weeks of the Spring semester or for some remaining portion of the Winter semester. This includes elite private schools like Yale University and Duke University, Fox Business reported, as well as some public colleges like the University of Washington.
This is no small matter. It’s nothing short of a betrayal of students. And it’s one that has no legitimate basis in science or public health.
It’s hard to overstate the harm caused by sending students home to pantomime their college experience behind a laptop screen. These young Americans are being deprived of the social interactions, extracurricular experiences, networking opportunities, and academic resources that make the college years so pivotal.
This can have drastic mental health impacts. An astounding one in four young Americans considered suicide at the height of 2020’s lockdown restrictions, according to the CDC. Similarly, a Harvard survey found that almost half of young adults showed symptoms of depression during that time period. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect similarly tragic implications for students at campuses that shut down again this Spring.
www.newsweek.com/colleges-shutting-down-spring-semester-are-betraying-students-opinion-1664988