Published by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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Fall semester was supposed to deliver the coup de grâce. A survey of collegebound high-school seniors conducted in March by the Art & Science Group, a consulting company, found that 17 percent of respondents were rethinking their plans to attend a four-year college full time. If that sort of student uncertainty translated into enrollment drops, and thus tuition-revenue losses, across the board, the consequences could be devastating.
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The pandemic affects everyone equally. While Covid-19 can infect anyone, its spread has “shined a light on all the disparities that exist” between more affluent college students and lower-income ones, many of whom are of color, says Wil Del Pilar, vice president for higher-education policy and practice at the Education Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group. Wealthier students may be able to take a gap year and return to college when they like, and they may have easier access to the technology and resources to stick with remote learning. “What we see from the research on low-income students and students of color, if they don’t enroll, they’re not coming back, or it’s very challenging to come back” Del Pilar says. “That, to me, is extremely concerning.”
The peculiar dynamics of recruiting under Covid-19 may further contribute to inequity at many colleges, says Nanci Tessier, a senior vice president at the Art & Science Group. Many colleges were more generous in granting deferrals, in hopes of hanging on to students who might not be inclined to commit to attending this fall. But students who defer tend to be more affluent. If you commit to a certain number of deferrals, and they are wealthier and probably white, Tessier says, “it makes it harder to shape a more diverse class for the fall of 2021.”
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