In our webinar, we will share the results of a multi-institutional survey about undergraduates' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 28,000+ students from nine large research universities responded to our survey (the Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU survey). The results suggest the pandemic exacerbated disparities between students based upon their race/ethnicity, first-generation status, disability, gender, sexual orientation, caregiver status, and social class. In particular, the data suggest the pandemic has had deleterious impacts upon marginalized students' mental health, finances, food/housing security, safety, and more areas. For instance, we have found that mental health disorders are alarmingly high among Latinx, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, and Black students; first-generation students; students who are caregivers; transgender and genderqueer students; and gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual, and asexual students. In our webinar, we intend to demonstrate those disparities among specific student populations and offer policy suggestions for higher education institutions to take to better support students in the fall 2020 semester. We will work with audience members to craft new policy suggestions in an interactive format as well--a step to encourage audience engagement.
Presenters:
Krista Soria, she/her/hers, University of Minnesota
Igor Chriikov, he/him/his, University of California Berkeley