Smaller, less wealthy colleges and red state universities thrived
Students who attended mid-level, red state universities were more likely to attend football games, see their classmates in person and thrive at college than peers who attended prestigious, pricey universities.
A trio of education researchers explored the current data on university closures and COVID restrictions in an opinion piece in The Hill.
Harvard Professor Paul Peterson and Heritage Foundation researchers Jay Greene and John Schoof said that “prestigious” universities are only beginning to roll back some restrictions.
They wrote:
Ivy League and other high-prestige colleges and universities across the country are only slowly lowering the educational barriers that have turned undergraduates into dull, emotionally disturbed lambs by limiting their social contacts, restricting their access to dining halls, and, worst of all, denying them in-person instruction throughout the 2020-21 academic year and beyond.
The education researchers explored a variety of studies, surveys and reports to come to their conclusion.
MORE: Educators have irrational fear of COVID, the ‘unvaccinated’
“A West Point study shows that students forced to take classes online did not enjoy classes as much as classmates lucky enough to win the lottery and go to class,” they noted. “They also performed at dramatically lower levels on the final exam. On other campuses, virtual learning led to declines in course completions, course grades and exam scores.”
Campus suicide and other mental health issues continue to remain a problem.
Students in Republican states generally fared better than students in Democratic states, according to a paper cited by the researchers.
“If an institution was in a state that was controlled by a Democratic governor and a Democratic legislature, that institution was significantly more likely to be predominately online or fully online,” a November 2021 paper noted. “Institutions that were represented by Republicans, whether it be Republican-controlled legislatures and Governors, had greater odds of in-person instruction.”
Regular readers of The College Fix won’t find this information shocking. After all, there are numerous examples of universities treating students like poisonous, disease-ridden vectors of transmission.
Consider that Fordham University banned students from drinking water out of a bottle in order to stop the spread of COVID among its highly-vaccinated population.
Mount Holyoke College required students to mask alone, while outside, even if they had tested negative for COVID 17 times. They also continue to keep students in prison-like conditions.
“My perception of time was pretty much non-existent, and I pretty much had no motivation,” one Penn student said of her time in COVID jail. “There was nothing to look forward to in there.”
MORE: UCLA sued for hiding professor’s advice on racism and police
IMAGE: The Harvard Shop/Instagram
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.