© 2024 KLCC

KLCC
136 W 8th Ave
Eugene OR 97401
541-463-6000
klcc@klcc.org

Contact Us

FCC Applications
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

UO to Provide $1 Million in Student Crisis Funding, but Student said ‘It’s Not Enough’

Elizabeth Gabriel
/
KLCC News

 

During the University of Oregon’s online town hall yesterday, President Michael Schill announced they have created a student crisis fund to provide $1 million in support. 

 

Schill said the funds will go to students with limited income and resources due to public closures in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. 

“If you have problems, you’re unable, say for example, to pay your rent or afford groceries--many of you are employed at the university, maybe not living here,” said Schill. “You may be having issues handling that. You should let us know.”

The UO will provide $500 to those in need of financial support. But if you break that down, the fund will only support roughly 2,000 students.

The announcement comes after the UO has been asking for donations. Two weeks ago, the president of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, Sabinna Pierre, was told by an administrator that there was only $35,000 in an emergency fund to help students.  

Although the crisis funds can help with rent and utilities, students can’t use it  for tuition. 

David Rollins is a senior Anthropology student at the University of Oregon. His question for the town hall asked the university to consider reducing tuition to the same cost of community colleges.

 

Rollins does not believe the UO will be able to reduce tuition right now. But he hopes the school will begin to consider ways to do so in the future, as well as the experience they are providing the student body.

 

“In this sort of situation where we are making drastic sacrifices as a student body to be able to still be part of this institution—and we're also the ones funding their positions—I think they have really their responsibility to reciprocate and make sacrifices for the student body,” said Rollins. “Which would mean making a legitimate sort of pitch to be able to subsidize us.”

 

But during the town hall, Schill said the UO will not reduce tuition because “we need to be able to fund the university.”

 

“As far as I know, no school in the country is discounting tuition and we can't either,” said Schill.

 

Since the UO is committed to providing all of the same services that they were providing before, Schill said there cannot be a reduction in tuition.

“The costs of remote education are actually greater than the costs here,” said Schill. “You have to set up a whole new structure to be able to do that.”

However, the UO will waive students’ late fees for at least two months. And since services such as the EMU and the rec center will be closed, Schill said the UO has reduced their mandatory fees by 34%.

 

But Rollins thinks tuition should be reduced because students will not get the same quality of experience this term. Rollins referenced his experience after taking his first remote Spanish class.

 

“I had my first zoom meeting yesterday and it worked somewhat well because I have a class of 20 people,” said Rollins. “So there's some sort of leeway there. But when classes are any larger than that threshold—you lose the ability to ask questions, the ability to practice with your classmates.”

 

He said the class was already a dual model before the COVID-19 outbreak, in which students have in-person classes and complete homework online. But despite the UO’s efforts, he said this experience will not be the same as learning a language in-person.

 

“A lot of the stuff that I learned online was confusing to me until my professors or instructors would explain it to me in-person” said Rollins. “But I know I would have done poorly in the last two terms if we didn't have those in-physical experiences. So I'm anticipating to do significantly worse to be honest.”

 

He thinks the administration knows student performance will decrease, and believes that is the reasoning why students can choose to make all classes pass/no pass. To the UO’s credit, this is a decision universities across the countries have made in order to reduce student stress.

 

But he believes the UO’s commitment only focuses on money rather than student experience. Rollins referenced a conversation he had with his roommate last night, feeling like “an academic commodity.”

 

“It seems like that's sort of the decision making they do in general—which is just the academic institution above all else” said Rollins. “And the student body at the moment is just sort of the cash crop for them.”

 

During the town hall, Schill suggested students “double down” and take more classes since they are stuck at home.

 

“Rather than putting the covers over your head and sort of saying, ‘Well, I’m just going to go to sleep for two months or so and then all this will be over,’ I would double down,” said Schill.  

 

But taking more classes means paying more money. And for some students, paying the university more money—without having a reduction in tuition—is not a realistic option.

 

“I think—yet again—they're just making these little decisions that can basically coerce the student body to stop talking about things,” said Rollins. “‘Oh, you know, we decided to take care of that with the $1 million fund.”

 

Rollins said he identifies as lower-middle class. As he prepared to graduate in summer 2020, he said this is the first year he has not struggled to pay for his tuition. And if tuition is not attainable for him, he thinks there are a lot of other students that are struggling to pay for classes.

 

Elizabeth Gabriel is a former KLCC Public Radio Foundation Journalism Fellow. She is an education reporter at WFYI in Indianapolis.
Related Content