A Brief History
On April 22, 2020, the pandemic of the COVID-19, or SARS-CoV-2, or better known as “coronavirus,” has claimed another victim, as reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer, in this case the venerable Urbana University, an Ohio college that was only the second institute of higher learning in Ohio to admit women as students alongside men.
Digging Deeper
Urbana University, founded in 1850, has been ailing financially for several years, and was acquired by Franklin University in 2014 and operated as a branch of that institution. The school, located near Columbus, Ohio, in the city of Urbana (Champaign County), will end all operations at the end of the current semester. A full time faculty of 100 will become unemployed along with numerous other employees. Students will be able to transfer to Franklin University if they so choose.
While it is obvious that education is taking a terrible hit from the coronavirus pandemic, with school children and university students being ejected from the classroom and faced with a hodge-podge online teaching approach, often ill-considered and ill-prepared, the true impact of the pandemic on education and educators is yet to be determined. Thousands of students have taken to social media to express their discontent with classes being converted to online affairs, and report that they will not be enrolling in classes held online instead of in the classroom. Enrollment is tanking at colleges and universities all over the country, though the final extent it yet to be determined.
Not only are students and their studies being disrupted, it is apparent that colleges are going to be losing enormous amounts of income based on a declining enrollment, and other forced closings of schools of higher learning are inevitable. Meanwhile, the employment situation among faculty and support staff at almost all the colleges and universities across the country is also taking a dark turn, and mass layoffs and work force reductions are already starting.
For the benefit of people who refuse to recognize the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic, and believe this disease is merely another form of the common flu, please take a look at this paragraph we added to our article “What is Really Going on with Coronavirus?”
Update, April 21, 2020: After looking like the death curve had flattened, today we have at least 2782 deaths from cornovirus in the US, with New York (as usual) taking top billing with 764 victims. While protests mount about stopping the lockdowns and “reopening” the country, including encouragement from President Trump, it is apparent a certain class of morons, largely the same sort that are climate change deniers, are still pooh-poohing the threat from coronavirus. Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Phil McGraw are among the prominent mouths with no brain that are comparing the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic to other normal fatal diseases and accidents/incidents that take American lives, but in an idiotic context that misses the point. (Dr. Phil said 360,000 Americans drown in swimming pools each year. The real number is around 4000.) Sure, “only” 45,000+ Americans have died from coronavirus so far, roughly about the number that die from auto accidents each year, BUT THE CORONA DEATHS HAVE NOT COME OVER THE COURSE OF A YEAR, BUT RATHER ALMOST ALL WITHIN THE PAST 6 WEEKS! (The first US death occurred on February 29, 2020.) In fact, lets look at the US death toll from coronavirus over the past 10 days: April 21-2782, April 20-1939, April 19-1561, April 18-1867, April 17-2528, April 16-2176, April 15-2618, April 14-2553, April 13-1714, April 12-1715. The is a total of 21,453 in the last 10 days! It is likely no other cause of death has killed as many Americans in the past 10 days. Normally, the leading cause of death for Americans is heart disease, which kills about 635,260 Americans annually, a rate of 1740 per day, while coronavirus has killed over 2100 Americans per day over the past 10 days. See what we mean??? Given the proper perspective, the coronavirus/Covid-19 pandemic is a big, big deal. Please continue to wear a mask in public and observe social distancing, hand washing and general hygiene to prevent the spread of this scourge. As an added benefit, these measures will also help reduce the spread of the normal influenza virus and the common cold, as well as other diseases. Good luck and be safe!
Here at History and Headlines we value education and we are concerned and upset over the threat to education and higher education the coronavirus pandemic poses. How about you?
Question for students (and subscribers): What other college or university do you know of that is threatened by the pandemic? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Fiske, Edward. Fiske Guide to Colleges 2020. Sourcebooks, 2019.
Pennella, Valentino. SARS-CoV-2: A global pandemic. Amazon, 2020.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by Nyttend of Bailey and Barclay Halls on the campus of Urbana University in Urbana, Ohio, United States, has been released into the public domain worldwide by the copyright holder of this work.