Abstract:

There exists a growing body of research highlighting the racial and ethnic inequities across the continuum of COVID-19 morbidity, hospitalization, and mortality. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that COVID-19 cases and mortality rates are double to four times higher respectively, among African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Native Americans than White populations. The evidence to date reaffirms that structural and institutional racism have been the driving forces behind these and other COVID-19 disparities.

The aforementioned leads to a consequent query: What impact did structural and institutional racism have, if any, on minority college students who were already inherently at risk of attrition? This paper will present the results of research assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on African-American and Hispanic/Latino college students. In developing this investigation and composing its theoretical framework, the findings of researchers Fruehwirth, Biswas, & Perreira (2021), Pensiero et al. (2021) among others were studied, as well as the Department of Education’s 2021 Office of Civil Rights report on the disparate effects of COVID-19 on minority students.

Research asserts that general difficulties associated with distanced learning and social isolation were found to contribute to educational problems at a higher rate for African-American and Hispanic students during COVID-19. Over half of these students reported changes in finance, over one-third had a change in their living situation (35%), and almost half (46%) indicated that their academic performance and career goals were impacted by educational issues related to COVID-19. Moreover, Correia et al. (2022), noting the disparities in symptom severity, access to health care and mortality among those of different races, genders and geographic regions during the peak of the COVID crisis, cited a correlation in the differing levels and types of stress and anxiety experienced by said demographics who were undergraduate students attending universities in the southeastern region of the United States. Summarily, there was found to be a significant variation in worry, food insecurity and stress response among female, gender expressive, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Asian American, and Black/African American students, as well as significantly greater worry about contracting the virus among students from urban areas than rural.

In advance of COVID-19, Raudenbush and Eschmann (2015) purported that minority (specifically African-American and Hispanic/Latino) and low-income students disproportionately experienced greater learning losses as a result of in-person class cancellation and distance learning formats due to a lack of familial support and online learning resources. The economic and mental health impact of the pandemic only served to compound this reality.

Delving deeper into these and other disparities, their causalities and consequent educational disruptions will enable colleges to develop interventions to better support students from diverse backgrounds, specifically students of color, in overcoming the spillover effects on the mental, physical, and economic health of these students due to COVID-19, with the ancillary outcome being reduced attrition and an increase in rates of completion.

Keywords:

COVID-19, macroaggression, African-American, Hispanic, Latino, college, students, attrition, remote learning, distance learning, online resources, disparities.