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Pandemic Semester: A Conversation With Student Journalists, Leaders

caption: A student walks on campus at the University of South Carolina on September 3, 2020 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
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A student walks on campus at the University of South Carolina on September 3, 2020 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

We talk to campus leaders around the country about a challenging semester for college students.

Guests

Andy Thomason, senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education. Author of a forthcoming book about the academic fraud scandal at the University of North Carolina and what it revealed about college sports and higher education. (@arthomason)

Fana HaileSelassie, student government president at Spelman College. (@SpelmanSGA)

Colleen Martin, president and editor-in-chief of The Heights, a student newspaper at Boston College.

Lizzy Lawrence, editor-in-chief of The Michigan Daily, a student newspaper at the University of Michigan.

Jon Ort, editor-in-chief of the Daily Princetonian, a student newspaper at Princeton University.

Pascal Albright, managing editor at The Daily Wildcat, a student newspaper at the University of Arizona.

From The Reading List

Chronicle of Higher Education: “Here’s Our List of Colleges’ Reopening Models” — “The coronavirus pandemic left higher-education leaders facing difficult decisions about how to reopen campuses.”

Boston Globe: “State to head up contact tracing at Boston College amid COVID-19 outbreak” — “The unprecedented move is an effort to ‘more effectively’ coordinate tracing work among Newton, Brookline, and Boston, which surround BC, and ensure that the state’s infection rate remains low, Governor Charlie Baker said Tuesday. The college will collaborate with the state.”

Washington Post: “The latest crisis: Low-income students are dropping out of college this fall in alarming numbers” — “In August, Paige McConnell became the first in her family to go to college — and the first to drop out.”

Chronicle of Higher Education: “Spring Planning Has Begun. Here’s What Colleges Are Thinking So Far.” — “The fall semester is barely underway, but several colleges are already announcing their instruction plans for the spring. The bottom line, so far, is that few institutions will change their approaches — whether face to face, remote, or a mix of the two.”

Washington Post: “A group of students knew they had covid-19. They hosted a party over Labor Day anyway.” — “When a police officer pulled up to a house near the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio, last weekend, he found seven young men hanging around on the front porch, unmasked, drinking beer and listening to Southern rock music.”

Washington Post: “How and why the Big Ten decided to play football this fall” — “After more than a month of announcements, protests and silence from the conference office, the Big Ten on Wednesday reversed course, announcing that it will play an eight-game football season beginning the weekend of Oct. 23-24 after it was originally postponed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”

This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]

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