michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.”

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Today: Colleges across the U.S. have long prided themselves on bridging the differences between their students. Nick Casey on how the coronavirus has instead reenforced them. It’s Tuesday, May 5. Nick, where did this story start for you?

nicholas casey

Well, the virus was starting to spread across the U.S., and I started to make lots of calls to people to see what was going on — friends, family members, some old sources of mine. And one of the people that I chatted with was a professor at Haverford College named Anita Isaacs.

nicholas casey Anita, hi. How are you doing? anita isaacs Hi, Nick. I’m OK. How are you?

nicholas casey

And she started telling me about how strange it was to be a professor right now.

nicholas casey Where are you right now? I’ve been asking this to everybody. anita isaacs I’m locked down in Bethesda, Maryland, miles and miles away from my place of work, from my books, and from my students.

nicholas casey

So Anita is an old source of mine. I’ve known her for more than 10 years. We met each other when I worked as a foreign correspondent in Mexico with The Wall Street Journal.

anita isaacs If I remember right, you were a young reporter that was very curious about Guatemala.

nicholas casey

She’s a political scientist. She covers Central America. She covers Mexico. And all of our conversations always had to do with those two things. But when she would talk, she’d tell me a little bit about what it was like working at Haverford. It’s a liberal arts college just outside of Philadelphia — 1,200 students, very elite college. The tuition’s about $76,000 when you add up room and board. And about half the students there receive financial aid to some degree. And I could always see that, like, part of her work was about these kids that she was teaching and just the environment of Haverford itself. It was a Quaker institution, was really into equality, social justice. And most importantly, one of its missions, and Anita’s mission, was about creating a level playing field for undergraduates that came from all walks of life, whether they were wealthy kids or whether they were poor kids.

anita isaacs They all have to eat the crummy food at the Haverford dining center. They all live in the same dorms. They all have the same internet. They’re all in the same classrooms. So we have this physical and intellectual environment in which there is a fair amount of equalization.

nicholas casey

No matter how unequal America might be, no matter how unequal the world was, there was this one point in a student’s life where they could actually get an experience that felt like equality.

anita isaacs It’s imperfect. It’s very imperfect, but there is a kind of leveling of a playing field.

michael barbaro

Right. Outside the walls of a college, there are all sorts of differences. But in the classrooms, on the quads, there’s this idealized notion, if it can be accomplished, that people are kind of equal.

nicholas casey

Yeah, she calls it the great equalizer. That’s a phrase that you hear a lot of people involved with college education talking about. And Haverford was the ultimate bubble for that.

michael barbaro

So how is this playing out in her classrooms?

nicholas casey

Well, Anita is teaching this one class right now, and it’s called Forced Migration and Refugees. So they’re studying people that got kicked out of Latin America and tried to start new lives in other parts of the world, especially the U.S.

anita isaacs It’s a course in which ethnicity intersects with class. And so we are patently aware, just by virtue of the way the students engage with the material, of the class differences as well as our ethnic diversity.

nicholas casey

And her class itself is composed of a wide array of students with different backgrounds. Some are wealthy, some are not.

anita isaacs These classes are difficult because we deal with very difficult material that is politically polarizing, and that is very personal, always, for a certain number of students in my class.

nicholas casey

So when Anita is thinking about a lot of this, she’s kind of seeing this little laboratory for everything that she likes in this classroom itself. And the class had been going great.

anita isaacs We had just had by far the best class of the semester. We were literally covering a board with our ideas, our arms sort of interwoven with each other’s arms in an incredible display of community.

nicholas casey

In a lot of ways, everything that Anita was preaching and thinking about as what draws her into teaching to begin with was really materializing and becoming apparent in this class that she was teaching on the Haverford campus.

anita isaacs It was so exciting. And then over spring break, everything fell apart. archived recording 1 While millions of college students have been sent home during this pandemic and now have to take classes online, earlier this morning — archived recording 2 The University of Washington — archived recording 3 Stanford University is cancelling classes. archived recording 4 The University of South Carolina made a major decision to cancel class next week. archived recording 5 The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the lives of some 20 million college students as campuses — anita isaacs Everybody ended up being dispersed. And this community — this small community of our classroom — and the bigger community, or bubble, of Haverford was burst. It was devastating because the bubble that we can be lulled into believing that Haverford provides, and those bonds that we had forged, were ripped apart in some ways, or at least really loosened.

michael barbaro

So what actually happens to Anita’s class?

nicholas casey

Well, everybody goes home, and they try to reassemble the class on Zoom.

anita isaacs Hi, everyone.

nicholas casey

And Anita was telling me about how it’s awkward to have everybody trying to talk.

anita isaacs OK, why don’t you all unmute this today so that we’re actually talking to each other, rather than living in this world where all I see are red microphones off. OK, so —

nicholas casey

But eventually, Anita got the rhythm of it, and class started to work. And then one night —

anita isaacs One student sent me a message.

nicholas casey

— Anita got an email from one of her students in the class who was late sending in a chapter from her thesis.

anita isaacs And she described the intense panic that was preventing her from being able to write a single sentence.

nicholas casey

And Anita said the email just floored her, everything that was going on in the student’s life right then. So I decided that I’d give that student a call.

nicholas casey So, Tatiana, tell me where you’re speaking to me from. tatiana lathion I’m at home right now, sitting on my kitchen counter.

michael barbaro

And who is this student?

nicholas casey

So her name is Tatiana Lathion. She was born in Indiana but largely grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, where her parents own a Puerto Rican food truck. Tatiana says that her life plan probably wasn’t going to include college. She hadn’t really been thinking about it.

tatiana lathion College is obviously super expensive. And my brother, he only did a semester of community college before he dropped out. So for me, it wasn’t really that of a high priority, I guess you could say. But then my guidance counselor got a hold of my grades and —

nicholas casey

But, she had a guidance counselor that looked at her grades and said that she probably was going to qualify for a free ride at a really good school.

tatiana lathion And she called me into the office one day, and she was like, you need to apply to all these scholarships, and one of them was QuestBridge. So that’s how I got involved —

nicholas casey

So she applied to college through a program called QuestBridge, which matches up underprivileged students with colleges that are looking to offer full-tuition scholarships. And to her surprise, she got one. And she was off to Haverford.

nicholas casey What did you know about Haverford before they told you that you were going to go there with a full scholarship? tatiana lathion So basically little to nothing. I kind of googled the school right after, [LAUGHS], figured out where that one was. And, yeah. nicholas casey And how did you feel when you found that out? tatiana lathion It was a pretty weird feeling. It was like right after lacrosse practice had ended. We were driving home, and I just happened to check my email on the ride home. And I was like, oh, mom, guess what? I’m going to Philadelphia for the next four years. [LAUGHS] So that was cool, I guess.

michael barbaro

And what was the experience like for her at Haverford, given that she really never expected to be there?

nicholas casey

Well, you know, Tatiana is one of the first to say that she came from a very different background than many of her classmates. But I think she really took like a duck to water when she got to Haverford. She immediately got on the lacrosse team, and that’s where she made all of her best friends. She lived with them in the same floor of a dormitory, and she built her life around the game and also around academics there. And during those four years that she was at Haverford, things had gone very well, had really lived up to many of the ideals that Anita talks about. And Tatiana was at the end of her time. She was a senior. She was about to go out into the world. And then suddenly, the pandemic came and threw everything into jeopardy.

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michael barbaro

We’ll be right back. So, Nick, the pandemic hits over spring break. Tatiana is sent home, along with all the other students at Haverford. What has it been like for her, suddenly finishing her senior year of college at home?

nicholas casey

Well, it’s been really tough. Her parents’ food truck business is way down. A huge part of the business is selling lunch to office workers.

tatiana lathion But now all the lunch spots have canceled because people aren’t in the offices anymore.

nicholas casey

But the expenses of the food truck are still piling up.

tatiana lathion If the business does have to close, I know my parents are considering just getting — them taking out loans, and obviously that’s a big step. But of course, we’ve been through so much already, I’m sure [LAUGHS]. This isn’t our first crazy trip down Disaster Lane, so. nicholas casey Would they potentially have to depend on you for assistance? tatiana lathion Possibly. They’re really trying not to right now, but it could possibly come down to that. We’ll see what happens.

nicholas casey

So there’s that, and then there’s trying to go to school in the middle of all of this.

nicholas casey How’s it been just trying to concentrate in a house that’s not a classroom anymore, and you’ve got to go to class there? tatiana lathion Yeah, it’s super interesting. Like right now, my parents are both in the same room as me right now. nicholas casey Yeah, I can hear them. It sounds like they’re making food or something. tatiana lathion Yeah, they’re bustling about.

nicholas casey

She’s trying to find places in her house that she can still be in college.

tatiana lathion So I unfortunately do not have a desk in my bedroom. So I have been using the porch, or the dining room table is covered with my school stuff right now. I know at Haverford I had my spaces. I never could really do work in my room, so I would always go either to the library or to 30 basement and just grind it out for an all-nighter. I obviously don’t really do all-nighters anymore, because that’s disruptive to the rest of the family. And then trying to find the moments of the day where it’s quite enough to sit down and read and try to type a bunch of pages has been challenging, but we are trying our best.

michael barbaro

And is she able to do her coursework for Anita’s class?

nicholas casey

She’s trying to keep up, but the truth is she can’t. So basically, she just gets to the point where she sits down at her computer and writes this email, asking for a few more days.

nicholas casey I was wondering, do you have that email that you wrote to Anita still? tatiana lathion Yeah, I think so. nicholas casey Do you think that you could just read the email out in your own voice? tatiana lathion Sure, I’ll try not to cry. [LAUGHS] Oh, I see. I don’t think I can read this without bawling. I wrote it while I was crying, and it’s just [EXHALES] bringing it back. So it says: “Hey, Anita, I think I’m really stressed out about thesis and stuff. It’s a little stressful at my house at the moment. And with everything shutting down, there’s no real place for me to go to get away from everything so I can focus. “That being said, I am so, so sorry. This chapter is so late, but I don’t think I’ll be able to finish it tonight. I feel terrible, [SNIFFLING] but I was not able to get it done today. (CRYING) But it seems like every time I sit down to work, I have this panic moment that it’s all literally for nothing now, and the problems that are occurring at home just feel so more relevant. “My parents own a food truck, and that’s their main source of income. And with the city closing down restaurants now, I’m not sure their savings will allow them to both survive this quarantine and still keep the business. And with me being home, I know that that is just extra expenses that they need to cover. And since I’m not working right now, I can’t help them. So I’m contemplating living with my brother possibly or getting a part-time job. I know these shouldn’t be excuses for not completing my work, but I am finding myself just a little more overwhelmed with each passing day, as everything has started to sink in. “This is not the email I wanted to send to you today, and I’m very disappointed in myself for putting myself in this situation. I’m so sorry, again, and I want you to know that I’m still working on it. Best, Tatiana.” [SNIFFLES] Yeah.

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nicholas casey [SIGHS] What’s just heartbreaking about that is in the middle of everything that you were going through, that you would even worry that you were having to give him excuse. tatiana lathion Yeah. (CRYING) It feels really bad because usually I’m so on top of my work, and it feels like I can’t focus the way I have in the past. I’ve never been one to turn in late work, so it feels daunting to finish the last 40 pages that I still have to write. nicholas casey Yeah, you’re at the finishing line. tatiana lathion Yeah. nicholas casey You are. You are. anita isaacs I basically just sat in front of my computer reading this message and actually crying, because I didn’t know how I could help this student. I felt paralyzed and overcome with grief. And I was devastated in the same ways that occasionally I’ve been devastated in the field, talking to separated migrant families or deportees. It felt the same.

michael barbaro

So how does Anita respond after she gets this letter?

anita isaacs I said, please, can we talk? I just want to talk. And we did.

nicholas casey

Anita gave her a call immediately.

anita isaacs What I wanted to convey to her was that it isn’t worthless. That she has achieved so much, that she has grown so much as a student over the years since I saw her in an intro class to working on her thesis. That she has so many skills, so much capacity. That I will be able to write such brilliant letters for her. That it’s not worthless, that this will pass, and that everything that she has done will have been worthwhile. And that, [EXPLETIVE], I’m going to make sure it is.

nicholas casey

Anita is wanting to let Tatiana know that she’s there for her, whether it’s giving her an extension or just being there for her as a human being. And I think Anita, she’s seeing Tatiana and many of her students, in ways that she hadn’t before.

anita isaacs I was now exposed to the real world. It was like a real live series of episodes that I was witnessing firsthand as a teacher, as I began to interact individually with my students who found themselves in all kinds of different and very, very painful situations.

michael barbaro

Nick, I’m curious what you make of the situation. It feels like the world that Anita wanted to create at Haverford was always a little bit of a fantasy, right? I mean, she called it a bubble, and that’s because in some ways it is a bubble. It wasn’t reality. Is this story about what happens when the reality strikes?

nicholas casey

Yeah, I think their stories make you wonder whether the whole idea that college was a great equalizer was kind of a fiction, because all it took was a virus to show that life was actually extremely unequal for these students. Yeah, they slept in the same dorms, and they went to the same cafeterias when they were in college. But when they had to go home, all of their homes were vastly different. All of these divisions between school life and family life all just started to break down. And some families had the ability to shield their kids from this, and others just didn’t. But you’ve got to remember, on the other hand, there is some strange silver lining to this, which is that what’s happened has actually shown what’s real, and the realities in people’s lives. And I think for everybody involved, whether it’s Anita or Tatiana or any of the other students in that class, it’s created an empathy that you didn’t necessarily have when those differences were papered over. And you have people calling up and saying, is everything OK? In a way that you might not have before this actually threw reality into such sharp relief.

michael barbaro

Right, because the other side of not being able to paper over something is that people now see each other more fully and really than maybe they did on campus.

nicholas casey

Yeah, it’s more of a question of trying to get to something equal by acknowledging what the problems actually are and living through them.

michael barbaro

So as best you can tell, what is next for Tatiana?

nicholas casey

Well, her scholarship at Haverford goes to the end of the year. She’s going to graduate. She’s going to finish her thesis. And she’s going to enter the worst job market in American history that anybody remembers, and that is extremely stressful for Tatiana. But until then, she’s working at the food truck. Florida is gradually reopening. And on Wednesdays, she logs onto Zoom. She goes to the Forced Migration and Refugee class with Anita Isaacs, and all of those differences are very much on display as each of the students struggles and deals with the virus from their homes and their different circumstances.

michael barbaro

Thank you, Nick.

nicholas casey

Thanks, Michael.

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anita isaacs OK, guys, we’re done. Molly, you stay on so we can figure out what to do with this, but let’s — we’re done. Thank you so much. student Bye-bye. interposing voices Bye. Have a good weekend, everyone.

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michael barbaro

We’ll be right back. Here’s what else you need to know today. On Monday, at least 12 countries began easing restrictions on their citizens’ movements, including Spain, Germany, Poland, India and Nigeria. Most of the countries are in Europe, including Italy, whose restrictions were among the earliest and strictest.

archived recording (giuseppe conte) [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

michael barbaro

In a speech, Italy’s prime minister urged Italians to remain cautious —

archived recording (giuseppe conte) [SPEAKING ITALIAN]

michael barbaro