The Daily - Bursting the College Bubble

Episode Date: May 5, 2020

Universities across the United States have long prided themselves on bridging the differences between their students. How the coronavirus has instead reinforced inequalities that campus life can hide. Guest: Nicholas Casey, a national politics reporter at The New York Times, who spoke to faculty and students at Haverford College, a liberal arts school near Philadelphia. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: When the students were sleeping in the same dorms and eating the same dining hall food, the disparities in their backgrounds weren’t as clear as they are over video chat. Here’s a peek inside two students’ vastly different worlds.

From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, colleges across the U.S. have long prided themselves on bridging the differences between their students. Nick Casey on how the coronavirus has instead reinforced them. It's Tuesday, May 5th. Nick, where did this story start for you? Well, the virus was starting to spread across the U.S. and I started to make lots of calls to people to see what was going on. Friends,

family members, some old sources of mine. And one of the people that I chatted with was a professor at Haverford College named Anita Isaacs. Anita, hi, how are you doing? Hi, Nick. I'm okay. How are you? And she started telling me about how strange it was to be a professor right now. Where are you right now. Where are you right now? I've been asking this to everybody. I'm locked down in Bethesda, Maryland, miles and miles away from my place of work, from my books, and from my students. So Anita is an old source of mine. I've known her for more than 10 years. We met each other when I worked as a foreign correspondent in Mexico at the Wall Street

Journal. If I remember right, you were a young reporter that was very curious about Guatemala. She's a political scientist. She covers Central America. She covers Mexico. And all of our conversations always had to do with those two things. But when she would talk, she'd tell me a little bit about what it was like working at Haverford, a liberal arts college just outside of Philadelphia. 1,200 students, very elite college. The tuition's about $76,000 when you add up room and board. And about half the students there receive financial aid to some degree. And I could always see that part of her work was about these kids that she was teaching

and just the environment of Haverford itself. It was a Quaker institution. It was really into equality, social justice. And most importantly, one of its missions and Anita's mission was about creating a level playing field for undergraduates that came from all walks of life, whether they were wealthy kids or whether they were poor kids. They all have to eat the crummy food at the Haverford Dining Center. They all live in the same dorms. They all have the same internet. They're all in the same classrooms. So we have this physical and intellectual environment in which there is a fair amount of equalization.

No matter how unequal America might be, no matter how unequal the world was, there was this one point in a student's life where they could actually get an experience that felt like equality. It's imperfect. It's very imperfect, but there is a kind of leveling of a playing field. Right. Outside the walls of a college, there are all sorts of differences, but in the classrooms, on the quads, there's this idealized notion, if it can be accomplished, that people are kind of equal. Yeah, she calls it the great equalizer. That's a phrase that you hear a lot of people involved with college education talking about. And Haverford was the ultimate bubble for that. So how is this playing out in her classrooms?

Well, Anita's teaching this one class right now, and it's called Forced Migration and Refugees. So they're studying people that got kicked out of Latin America and tried to start new lives in other parts of the world, especially the U.S. It's a course in which ethnicity intersects with class. And so we are patently aware, just by virtue of the way the students engage with the material of the class differences as well as our ethnic diversity. And her class itself is composed of a wide array of students with different backgrounds. Some are wealthy, some are not. These classes are difficult because we deal with very difficult material that is politically polarizing and that is very personal always for a certain number of

students in my class. So when Anita's thinking about a lot of this, she's kind of seen this little laboratory for everything that she likes in this classroom itself. And the class had been going great. We had just had by far the best class of the semester. We were literally covering a board with our ideas, our arms sort of interwoven with each other's arms in an incredible display of community. In a lot of ways, everything that Anita was kind of preaching and thinking about is what draws her into teaching to begin with, was really materializing and becoming apparent in this class that she was teaching on the Haverford campus. It was so exciting.

And then over spring break, everything fell apart. The University of South Carolina made a major decision to cancel class next week. The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of some 20 million college students. Everybody ended up being dispersed. And this community, this small community of our classroom and the bigger community or bubble of Haverford was burst. community or bubble of Haverford was burst. It was devastating because the bubble that we can be lulled into believing that Haverford provides and those bonds that we had forged were ripped apart in some ways, or at least really loosened. So what actually happens to Anita's class? Well, everybody goes home and they try to reassemble the class on Zoom. Hi, everyone.

And Anita was telling me about how it's kind of awkward to have everybody trying to talk. Okay, why don't you all unmute this today and so that we're actually talking to each other rather than living in this world where all I see are red microphones off. But eventually, Anita got the rhythm of it, and class started to work. And then one night, one student sent me a message. Anita got an email from one of her students in the class, who was late sending in a chapter from her thesis. who was late sending in a chapter from her thesis. And she described the intense panic that was preventing her

from being able to write a single sentence. And Anita said the email just floored her, everything that was going on in the student's life right then. So I decided that I'd give that student a call. So Tatiana, tell me where you're speaking to me from. I'm at home right then. So I decided that I'd give that student a call. So Tatiana, tell me where you're speaking to me from. I'm at home right now, sitting on my kitchen counter. And who is this student? So her name is Tatiana Lathion. She was born in Indiana, but largely grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where her parents own a Puerto Rican food truck.

Tatiana says that her life plan probably wasn't going to include college. She hadn't really been thinking about it. College is obviously super expensive, and my brother, he only did a semester of community college before he dropped out. So for me, it wasn't really that of a high priority, I guess you could say. But then my guidance counselor got a hold of my grades. But she had a guidance counselor that looked at her grades and said that she probably was going to qualify for a free ride at a really good school.

And she called me into the office one day and she was like, you need to apply to all these scholarships. And one of them was QuestBridge. So she applied to college through a program called QuestBridge, which matches up underprivileged students with colleges that are looking to offer full tuition scholarships. And to her surprise, she got one and she was off to Haverford. What did you know about Haverford before they told you that you were going to go there with a full scholarship? So basically little to nothing. I kind of Googled the school right after, figured out where that one was. And yeah. And like, how did you feel when you found that out?

It was pretty weird feeling. It was like right after lacrosse practice had ended. We were driving home and I just happened to check my email on the way home and I was like, oh mom, guess what? I'm going to Philadelphia for the next four years. So that was cool, I guess. And what was the experience like for her at haverford given

that she really never expected to be there well you know tatiana is one of the first to say that she came from a very different background than many of her classmates but i think she really took like a duck to water when she got to haverford um She immediately got on the lacrosse team. And that's where she made all of her best friends. She lived with them in the same floor of a dormitory. And she kind of built her life around the game and also around academics there. And during those four years that she was at Haverford, things had gone very well. It had really kind of lived up to many of the ideals that Anita talks about. And Tatiana was at the end of her time. She was a senior. She was about to go out into the world. And then suddenly the pandemic came and threw everything into jeopardy. We'll be right back. So, Nick, the pandemic hits over spring break.

Tatiana is sent home along with all the other students at Haverford. What has it been like for her suddenly finishing her senior year of college at home. Well, it's been really tough. Her parents' food truck business is way down. A huge part of the business is selling lunch to office workers. But now all the lunch spots have canceled because people aren't in the offices anymore. But the expenses of the food truck are still piling up. If the business does have to close, I know my parents are considering just getting like them taking out loans.

And obviously that's a big step. But of course, we've been through so much already. I'm sure this isn't like our first crazy trip down disaster lanes. Would they potentially have to depend on you for assistance? Possibly. They're really trying not to right now. But it could possibly come down to that.

We'll see what happens. So there's that. And then there's trying to go to school in the middle of all this. How's it been just trying to concentrate in a house that's like not a classroom anymore and you gotta go to class there? Yeah, it's super interesting. Like right now, my parents are both in the same room as me right now. Yeah, I can hear them. It sounds like they're making food or something. Yeah, they're bustling about. She's trying to find places in her house that she can still be in college. So I unfortunately do not have a desk in my bedroom.

So I have been using the porch or the dining room table is covered with my school stuff right now. I know I have referred. I had my spaces. I never could really do work in my room. know at Haverford I had my spaces I never could really do work in my room so I would always go either to the library or to 30 basement and just grind it out for an all-nighter um I obviously don't really do all-nighters anymore because like that's disruptive to the rest of the family um and then like trying to find the moments in the day where it's quiet enough to like sit down and read and try to type a bunch of pages has been challenging, but we are trying our best. And is she able to do her coursework for Anita's class?

She's trying to keep up, but the truth is she can't. So basically she just gets to the point where she sits down at her computer and writes this email asking for a few more days. I was wondering, do you have that email that you wrote to Anita? Yeah, I think so. Do you think that you could just read the email out in your own voice? Sure. I'll try not to cry. Let me see. I don't think I can read this without bawling. Let me see. I don't think I can read this without bawling. I like wrote it while I was crying. It's out about thesis and stuff. It's a little stressful at my house at the moment. And with everything shutting down, there's no real place for me to go to get away from everything. So I can focus.

That being said, I'm so, so sorry. This chapter is so late. But I don't think I'll be able to finish it tonight. I feel terrible. But I was not able to get it done today. But it seems like every time I sit down to work, I have this panic moment that it's all literally for nothing now. And the problems that are occurring at home just feel so more relevant.

My parents own a food truck, and that's their main source of income. And with the city closing down restaurants now, I'm not sure their savings will allow them to both survive this quarantine and still keep the business. And with me being home, I know that that is just extra expensive that they need to cover, and since I'm not working right now, I can't help them. So I'm contemplating living with my brother, possibly, or getting a part-time job. I know they shouldn't be excuses for not completing my work,

but I am finding myself just a little more overwhelmed with each passing day as everything has started to sink in. This is not the email that I wanted to send to you today, and I'm very disappointed in myself for putting myself in this situation. I'm so sorry again, and I want you to know that I'm still working on it.

Best, Tatiana. Yeah. Yeah. What's just like heartbreaking about that is like in the middle of everything that you were going through that you would even worry that you were having to give an excuse. Yeah, I just, it feels really bad. Because usually, like, I'm so on top of my work and it feels like I can't focus the way I have in the past. I've never been one to try to leave work, so... It feels daunting, like, to finish the last 40 pages that I still have to write.

Yeah. You're at the fishing line. Yeah. You are. You're at the fishing line. Yeah. You are. You are. I basically just sat in front of my computer reading this message and actually crying because I didn't know how I could help the student. I felt paralyzed and overcome with grief. felt paralyzed and overcome with grief.

And I was devastated in the same ways that occasionally I've been devastated in the field, talking to separated migrant families or deportees. It felt the same. So how does Anita respond after she gets this letter? I said, please can we talk? I just want to talk. And we did. Anita gave her a call immediately. What I wanted to convey to her was that it isn't worthless, that she has achieved so much, that she has grown so much as a student over the years since I saw her in an intro class to working on her thesis, that she has so many skills, so much capacity, that I will be able to write such brilliant letters for her, that it's not worthless, that this will pass and that everything that she has done will have been worthwhile and that, God damn it, I'm going to make sure it is.

Anita is wanting to let Tatiana know that she's there for her, whether it's giving her an extension or just being there for her as a human being. And I think Anita, she's seeing Tatiana and many of her students in ways that she hadn't before. I was now exposed to the real world. It was like a real live series of episodes that I was witnessing firsthand as a teacher, as I began to interact individually with my students who found themselves in all kinds of different and very, very painful situations. Nick, I'm curious what you make of the situation. It feels like the world that Anita wanted to create at Haverford was always a little bit of a fantasy, right? I mean, she called it a bubble, and that's because in some ways it is a bubble. It wasn't

reality. Is this story about what happens when the reality strikes? when the reality strikes. Yeah, I think their stories make you wonder whether the whole idea that college was a great equalizer was kind of a fiction because all it took was a virus to show that life was actually extremely unequal for these students. Yeah, they slept in the same dorms

and they went to the same cafeterias when they were in college, but when they had to go home, all their homes were vastly different. All of these divisions between school life and family life all just started to break down. And some families had the ability to shield their kids from this and others just didn't. And others just didn't. But you got to remember, on the other hand, there is some strange silver lining to this, which is that what's happened has actually shown what's real and the realities in people's lives. And I think for everybody involved, whether it's Anita or Tatiana or any of the other students in that class, it's created a kind of empathy that you didn't necessarily have when those differences were papered over. And you have people calling up and saying, is everything okay?

In a way that you might not have before this actually threw reality into such sharp relief. Right. Because the other side of not being able to paper over something is that people now see each other more fully and really than maybe they did on campus. Yeah. It's more of a question of trying to get to something equal by acknowledging what the problems actually are and living through them. So as best you can tell, what is next for Tatiana? Well, her scholarship at Haverford goes to the end of the year. She's going to graduate.

She's going to finish her thesis. And she's going to enter the worst job market in American history that anybody remembers. And that is extremely stressful for Tatiana. But until then, she's working at the food truck. Florida is gradually reopening. And on Wednesdays, she logs on to Zoom. She goes to the forced migration and refugee class with Anita Isaacs and all of those differences are very much on display as each of the students struggles and deals with the virus from their homes and their different circumstances. Thank you, Nick. Thanks, Michael. Okay, guys, we're, we're done. Molly, you stay on so we can figure out what to do with this, but let's, um, we're done. Thank you so much. Bye-bye. Bye, guys. Bye.

We'll be right back. Here's what else you need to know today. On Monday, at least 12 countries began easing restrictions on their citizens' movements, including Spain, Germany, Poland, India, and Nigeria. Most of the countries are in Europe, including Italy, whose restrictions were among the earliest and strictest. In a speech, Italy's prime minister urged Italians Italians to remain cautious, saying, quote, if you love Italy, keep your distance. And the Times reports that the Trump administration is privately projecting a significant increase in the number of infections and deaths in the coming weeks. increase in the number of infections and deaths in the coming weeks. The internal projections forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by June 1st, up from the current figure of 25,000 cases a

day. And they project a daily death toll of 3,000, nearly double the current number of about 1,750. Despite those projections, President Trump continues to encourage states to reopen their economies. That's it for The Daily. I'm Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.