Mutual Aid for Higher Education
- The Sportula: Microgrants for workers in Classics
- Historians Relief Fund: Microgrants for AHA members
- Black Trowel Collective: Microgrants for archaeology students from working-class and historically looted communities
- Moving Funds for BIPOC Students
- UT Austin’s Black Studies Graduate Student Organization
- Teaching Assistants’ Association: For University of Wisconsin Graduate Students
- Solidarity with Columbia Academic Student Workers
Do you know about a mutual aid org for higher ed students or workers that’s not on this list? Share it using this form.
VFC Publications
- Visionary Futures and Making Change in the Academy With Data. Nightingale, August 27, 2020. By Amanda Henrichs with the VFC.
The College Crisis
Since the start of the pandemic, a wide array of organizations have been tracking the spread of the disease and its impact on various industries. The intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and university studies has led to interesting work, including data-based analyses of reopening plans and digital storytelling such as a choose-your-own-adventure game.
Visualizing the Return to Campus at Scale
The Coronavirus Corpus is designed to be the definitive record of the social, cultural, and economic impact of the COVID in 2020 and beyond. Covid Tracking collects data on the spread of COVID-19. Various websites are mapping the spread of pandemic in the United States.
The Chronicle of Higher Education is currently tracking over 1000 colleges’ plans for reopening in the fall. The Chronicle is also exploring the data in terms of university type. Visualizations of the Chronicle’s data on reopening have been made available, as well as this data visualization of the “Top 100” Universities’ Fall Plans.
Inside Higher Ed is tracking the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic in academic institutions. Karen Kelsky of “The Professor is In” is also recording hiring freezes since March.
The College Crisis Initiative is an undergraduate intitiative collecting and visualizing data on campus reopenings, focusing on four-year institutions. Their data and visualizations may be the most comprehensive.
Bearing Witness and Rewriting the Narrative
Bearing Witness is an effort to document and interpret the events associated with the novel coronavirus epidemic in the United States as it pertains to racialized minorities.
University of Miami’s digital humanities team is likewise working to shift the narrative on the return to campus.
For a digital storytelling project exploring the return to campus, check out this choose-your-own-adventure game.
Advocating for Change and an Alternate Future
Bess Williamson’s accessibility policy statements for return to campus during the pandemic have played a crucial role in many attempts to negotiate with university administrations.
Georgia Tech’s “COVID-19 Event Risk Planning Tool” also offers useful resources for advocacy.
Humanist Mutual Aid is an initiative to bring together workers in higher education for mutual support.
New and Forthcoming Projects
If you’re aware of another project studying Covid-19’s impact on higher education, please write to the visionaryfuturescollective@gmail.com.