Through the Covid-19 pandemic, Minnesota college students are finding it even harder to manage their daily lives due to the lies and lack of preparations from their universities. Two colleges in Minnesota, one private and one public that show exactly this issue are the University of St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota. 

St. Thomas and the U of M both alike show a lack of communication with their students. They also provide statements riddled with false statements that they publish to everyone. St. Thomas stated, “we will improve our ability to keep this virus at a manageable level and remain open to in-person instruction.” This statement calmed families’ concerns about paying tuition for online classes. But a student from the University of St. Thomas stated that she had only online classes and no plan from the school of when her classes return in person.

She also said, “My friends are all concerned with the education that we are even receiving from this online school”. That statement brought up one of the biggest concerns for online school for students of all ages: will the education they receive online be the same as in person? The answer to this is simple, no. 

Teachers are failing to follow the same structure they would be using if they were in person. “This change in education is causing many students to fall behind when compared to previous years”, says a student from St. Thomas. So the twisted news that universities have shared about being in person not only frustrates parents, with the issue of cost, but with the concern of the education that their child is receiving.

Among the issues of keeping true to their word is the fact that colleges are struggling to keep their kids on campus. Many Universities have promised to keep students on campus until Thanksgiving. This statement on keeping students on campus was released not only by St. Thomas but the University of Minnesota. 

Lots of students were found to put up complaints about this because if they were not having in-person classes why would they pay for university fees. More recently they canceled the plan to stay at school until Thanksgiving because it is not reasonable to anyone except for those in the dorms. 

Another issue is the cost of tuition for students who receive no in-person education. A student interviewed from the University of Minnesota stated, “they said they would decrease the tuition for being online but all they did was take away room and board, which I would not have to pay anyways since I am a junior”. All the colleges are taking away is one hundred or so dollars even though that does not make a dent on their thousand dollars tuition. 

This little bit of aid is really affecting people’s opinions on college tuition. When the option is brought up to many students paying full private school tuition for online classes from their own house versus community colleges for some in-person classes and some from the house, the majority of students lean away from normal colleges. Some students are choosing to take a gap year and do community college to get some credits because the money for online school is too much. 

Among all of this bad news, some good news appears at the universities. The University of Minnesota is doing a great job offering hundreds of Covid tests to their students if the student wants. This is crucial to the student body because it provides the university with the best resources to manage the containment of Covid.

Overall, college life is changing for several students and colleges are not helping families as much as families would like. Will this go better for future college students? That remains uncertain, but for now, chaos will ensue for a while longer.