In college, my academic and athletic successes came from the work I put in during the week to be able to enjoy the weekend with my friends. The weekend being a sunny 75-degree day playing dye with my friends or throwing a party at night. The multitude of hours of training and working on schoolwork earlier lead to a care-free weekend where I could focus on myself, being happy, and having fun to blow off steam.
COVID-19 changed all this. Instead of working for the weekend, I am working for the day I can step back on the University of Delaware campus, hopefully with a GPA that didn’t falter too much and an aerobic capacity that hasn’t irreversibly shrunken. I’ve faced this new reality and realized that although unfortunate, closing universities, stores, and athletic events is necessary so we can have a normalized future. The cancellation and postponement of sports events is a “potential revenue loss for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and MLS [that] could exceed $2 billion” each month (Kurtenbach, 2020).
The University of Delaware has been hit very hard with having to overcome a 65 million budget shortage, 65 million that was anticipated by students being on campus (Alamdari, 2020). The construction on the south green and the new football stadium put a massive strain on the University budget and with students at home, it will be impossible for the budget to be balanced. The federal Government aid packages have given a lot to universities but its a small percentage of what is actually needed. Incoming freshmen and students already enrolled at UD will probably bear the extra costs that online has brought to the school and with many uncertain about the fall semester or even being able to return to UD because of financial reasons the hit will be harder. A survey by SimpsonScarborough which analyzes higher education enrollment surveys has projected that fall enrollment will be down 20%.Minorities being especially hit. With massive unemployment and worries about the future, some graduating seniors and current college students have to set their plans on supporting their families and not place financial burdens on themselves or parents ( Jaschik, 2020).
Luckily both my parents continue to be employed and although the economy and job market have shrunk drastically, I am confident that once I graduate I will still have a good opportunity and be able to pay back my student loans. The social distancing will carry well into the fall and probably the spring semester of the 2020/2021 school year but its all temporary until we can find a viable vaccine or see that a majority of the population possess antibodies.
It is very tough to say if colleges will welcome students back in the fall, Most universities are publically telling students that they will but without precedent, it is very tough to say if that is the truth. Colleges need to take care of their students, faculty, and their own pockets. The main drive for colleges to reopen will be the financial losses from another semester online. The lost revenue from football games to low enrollment (Quintanna, 2020).
Through quarantine, I have realized how important walking to classes and interacting with people was for my motivation and overall mental health. The walk from My dorms to classes, although 20 minutes lead to some variance in my day and helped me have some social interaction. Depriving college students of those experiences will lead to less motivation, low mental health, and further declines in enrollment. If someone told me that my first semester of college would be via video and not include parties, rowing, and meeting new people I probably wouldn’t be in college. Colleges and the Federal Government will have to make a very hard decision on Fall 2020 very soon, but with the economy at such a low and the outlook on vaccines looking better by the day, opening colleges in the fall looks to be Promising.
Works cited
Alamdari, Natalia. “University of Delaware Faces Multimillion-Dollar Budget Shortfall as Coronavirus Slashes Revenue.” Delawareonline, Delaware News Journal, 27 Apr. 2020, http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2020/04/27/university-delaware-loses-millions-revenue-after-closing-campus/3034831001/.
Jaschik, Scott. “Inside Higher Ed.” Colleges Could Lose up to 20 Percent of Students, Analysis Says,2020,www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2020/04/29/colleges-could-lose-20-percent-students-analysis-says.
Kurtenbach, Mark. “Professional Sports Leagues Are Bleeding Billions of Dollars in Revenue.” MarketWatch, MarketWatch, 24 Mar. 2020, http://www.marketwatch.com/story/professional-sports-leagues-are-bleeding-billions-of-dollars-in-revenue-2020-03-18.
Quintana, Chris. “Students Are Weary of Online Classes, but Colleges Can’t Say Whether They’ll Open in Fall 2020.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 21 Apr. 2020, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/04/19/coronavirus-college-universities-canceling-fall-semester/5157756002/.
-Miguel Palacios
ENGL110 Spring 2020 11:15-12:05 
This is very well structured and informative; I had known about the financial burden to school but not that it was to the extent you mentioned. It really is insane how much the short time we spent walking from class to class and simple interactions with others impacted our day to day lives. Unfortunately this is a case of “you don’t know what you have until you lose it,” but hopefully things will be back on track by fall so we can all return to campus
-Abby Selbst
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I really love the way you structured this piece. Starting in the beginning with how a typical week on UDs campus looked for you and how that has changed since social distancing began. Myself and many of my friends have also spoken about how difficult it is to stay motivated when you don’t have the ability to interact with your friends face to face. Something else you pointed out is how this is effecting collegiate athletes and the school’s budget. Both of these were things I hadn’t even thought of before but are both very concerning. I know how important it is for athletes to be consistently working and that’s much more difficult to do now. And how the monetary strain on the school has the potential to affect all of us in the next coming years. Truly a well-written and thought-provoking piece.
– Brianna O’Doherty
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