Students’ college experience both in and outside of the classroom, including their engagement in university life and relationships with peers and faculty, is fundamental to their well-being and success.

• The pandemic has eliminated nearly all engagement opportunities for students with remote learning, in addition to the cancelation of study trips, extracurricular activities, internships, and graduation ceremonies.

Students are disproportionately at risk for housing insecurity, with some students fully dependent on their campus accommodations.

• For students whose institutions did not reopen, a lack of housing, as well as food insecurity (due to on-campus dining options also remaining closed) have become major and prolonged dilemmas.

For some students, being home, whether their own or their families’, meant a return to volatile circumstances.

• Reports show that family violence has risen as a result of COVID-19.
• LGBTQ+ students who may be “out” on campus may have returned to hostile or unsupportive families or communities.
• Although some institutions have granted exemptions which allow students with extenuating circumstances to continue to reside on campus, services have been vastly reduced, requiring these students to essentially live in isolation.

Substantial campus- and community-based job loss for students have their families have heightened students’ financial hardships, making it more challenging for them to meet their basic needs.

• This issue, in turn, then additionally contributes to housing and food insecurity.

In the academic realm, the change to remote learning was predicated on students having reliable internet access and technology, which is not the reality for all students, and with the shutdown of businesses or labs which offer this technology to the public, remote learning is made even harder.

Students of color are facing additional challenges:

• AAPI students have encountered mounting discrimination and xenophobia as a result of COVID-19.
• Students from China, who comprise the largest number of international students at American institutions are particularly vulnerable to these experiences due to the geographic origin of COVID-19.
• Disparities in underlying comorbidities, access to and quality of health care, and living and work conditions caused by structural racism have led BIPOC to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19.