The quarantine quarantined the minds of students

By James Kaihorn
May 1, 2020

First, let’s start by establishing what COVID-19 is, According to hopkinsmedicine.org “Coronaviruses are a type of virus. There are many different kinds, and some cause disease. A newly identified type has caused a recent outbreak of respiratory illness now called COVID-19.” COVID-19 made its first appearance in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.  Initially it was a virus that studies said started in China and made its way to the U.S. Even though the U.S was introduced to it we didn’t really take it seriously until death rates due to the virus started increasing at alarming rates.

 On Sunday, March 15th every student-resident at Cabrini received an email stating “Per the President’s email, all students will need to leave housing by Monday at 5:00pm.”

That felt like the beginning of the end. President Taylor needed everyone to be clear of everywhere so everything can be thoroughly disinfected. Also in the email Cabrini’s residents were told to pack essential items and everything they’ll need for the next two weeks. Many students were thinking that things would be fine after the two weeks were up, but the virus had other plans.

During the weeks of social distancing the virus got stronger and death rates started increasing. On March 27th 2020, the students received another email stating that President Taylor extended the duration of social distancing and we will be able to return to campus on June 1st.

So during this time at home and away from school, students are still assigned work. We students have to complete the remainder of the semester online.

Here’s the dilemma for most students. The semester will be ending some time in early May (the exact date varies for most schools) but not everyone have the same access to any online technology to be even able to work.

Some students don’t have WiFi or any source of internet. Most students don’t have laptops and due to the virus all libraries are closed, which limited plenty of students from doing their work. So a lot of students were affected by the epidemic.

At least I know I was one of them students who were affected.

Monday March 30, I sent all of my professors an email stating how much of an effect this epidemic had on me. The email stated “Good morning Professors, sorry but this whole epidemic we’re currently experiencing is tragic and inconvenient for me personally. I am emailing you guys to apologize for submitting late assignments. I am trying my best. My family can’t afford our bills and the people just came and shut our wifi off and after 5 years of having my laptop it finally gave out on me and I am not working at the moment so I can’t afford a new one and I’ve been going to my cousin’s house to do my work but she works a lot and I don’t feel comfortable with the other company she has in and out of her house so I only go to work when she’s there. I hope this doesn’t sound like a bunch of excuses but that is why I am submitting late assignments. This is such a struggle for my whole household. I don’t even know if I can finish this semester. And it’s worse because I am the only college student in my house so no one knows what I am going through, some days I sit in my room and cry not knowing if I am going to be able to finish my years at Cabrini, and to make everything worse I am already on academic probation so I can’t afford to mess up at all this semester. Sorry for the long novel but I really just needed some people to talk to that could just hear me out because I really have nobody at the moment thank you. And if I am not able to come back next semester I want to thank you all for everything I really learned a lot being you guys, Thank You.”

At the point I felt my lowest, I am already on academic probation and felt as though my college journey was over. But it’s not just me. This is a crisis occurring everywhere that is called “Chronic Absenteeism.” According to attendancework.org chronic absenteeism is a “student is missing 10 percent or more of the total number of days enrolled during the school year. It includes both excused, unexcused, out-of-school suspensions, and in-school suspensions that last more than one-half of the school day.”

I later took a poll to my social media page so see how many other people were affect by the epidemic and in just one hour 200 college students from different universities all over responded  and said they were affected negatively, and I asked “how does this affect you?” mainly everyone said they had lack of supplies but Cabrini sophomore Daimeira Malone, an education major said “Being home makes me lack motivation to complete assignments. When I am here I tend to slack on my work and i don’t like feeling like this but I am just not motivated.”

Daimeira Malone, Sophomore, Education Major

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James Kaihorn

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