College made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/04/us/politics/coronavirus-zoom-college-...

Casey, N. "College made Them Feel Equal. The Virus Exposed How Unequal Their Lives Are." New York Times. May 5, 2020.

Colleges in the United States boast about being great equalizers, attracting students who come from a wealthy as well as low-income backgrounds. Due to financial aid programs, low-income students have equal academic opportunities in these institutions. While this equality does extend to remote-learning as far as access to education based on tuition fees being the barrier goes, it does not translate into equity due to a range of other factors such as access to technology, internet, or study spaces.

The COVID-19 pandemic broke down the sense of equality students faced. As outlined in this New York Times article, when students were in the same dorm rooms eating the same dining hall food, the disparities in their backgrounds were not as apparent as they are over video chat. In this article, the narrative traces the lives of two students from Haverford College, both of whom are teammates on an athletic team. While one of them is quarantining at a family vacation home in Maine, the other is helping parents' with their food truck business in Florida which has suffered due to the stay at home order.This story is not an isolated incident. Many students across the world do not have electricity, food, or quite simply- a feasible study environment. They get somewhat of a level playing field on college campuses, which has been taken away due to remote learning. The same narrative plays into Energy Vulnerability when talked about from a college student's standpoint.