By Emma Ewart
The impacts of Covid-19 have been felt across the country in almost every aspect of our lives, but for Lowertown university students, the pandemic’s impacts have affected their plans for their immediate and long-term futures.
On March 13th, the University of Ottawa cancelled all in-person classes and moved the rest of the term online. The University recently announced that online learning, with some limited exceptions, will continue in the fall semester. Many Lowertown university students, having just finished a semester of unsatisfying online classes, are worried that universities will not be able to resolve the logistical and technological issues that plagued our classes throughout March and April. As a Lowertown resident who attends university outside Ottawa, it is difficult to justify the already high cost of tuition for a semester of online classes. This is even more significant considering that the sense of community, the ability to make friends and have one-on-one discussions with professors, and the use of university services like libraries, computer labs or gyms are all not part of the online class experience.
For students who have already experienced a month or more of the impacts of Covid-19 on a university classroom, the online class experience leaves a lot to be desired. Technological concerns are a big issue for students, as well. “Now that everything is online, it is a lot harder to access resources, help, and important information you need to be successful in classes,” says Yodit Asrat, a 23-year-old University of Ottawa student. She continues, “I understand that finals have to be done online but it may impact how well people can concentrate because you’re forced to do finals in a comforting space instead of a university auditorium, which can really impact people’s grades.”
Furthermore, online classes highlight economic disparities among the student body, as universities provide a place where students can access the internet. For many in our economically diverse Lowertown community, not every student has reliable internet access in their home, meaning that lower-income students are at a disadvantage compared to those who can pay for faster internet or data plans. “If you don’t have Wi-Fi at home you’re still forced to put yourself in dangerous spaces just to do a final.” Yodit continues. Mithila Ali, a 22-year-old Carleton student, adds that “the stress of writing it online where the system can crash is nerve-wracking.”
While professors have tried their hardest in a difficult situation, a lot was lost when classes went online, including one-on-one face time with professors, the classroom setting and reliable internet. There were often internet delays and confusion, not to mention browsers crashing while trying to answer a professor’s question. Emails to professors often went unanswered, and for students s like myself, my learning was in a different time zone making scheduling of classes a challenge.
For Lowertown students, hard choices will have to be made now that the University of Ottawa has announced it will be doing its classes online in the fall. If online classes are what needs to occur to maintain safety and slow the spread of Covid-19, students understand and respect that, but they struggle to justify the cost of a full semester’s tuition for a semester of online classes, particularly in the challenging job situation. Many Lowertown students have lost the jobs they might normally rely on for summer employment, such as summer camps and recreational programs that traditionally hire students. “If they continue with online classes in the fall it might be difficult to do all the classes I want for my program. In my case because I am minoring in Mandarin, doing a language class like that is very difficult online so that will be a challenge. Also in the final year there are a lot more seminar courses and year-end projects that may be affected by the courses being online. So this will impact my choice in courses,” notes Mithila Ali. She continues, “I might even take less courses just because I know that doing five to six courses per semester online will be difficult for me without the resources from physical attendance.”
While the impacts of Covid-19 cannot be avoided, Lowertown university students hope that in this upcoming fall semester some sort of solution can be worked out that will allow students to learn in an equitable and safe learning environment, one where economic and class differences can be accounted for.