Private businesses lead the way in helping students amid coronavirus upheaval

As  COVID-19 has pushed the nation’s colleges and universities to a completely online format, private businesses are stepping up to aid students. 

From companies such as Adobe Creative Cloud and Cengage Unlimited providing free or discounted software programs to Enterprise offering reduced price rental cars for relocating students, a number of companies are supporting students during the coronavirus pandemic.

As each business publicly offers assistance to students, even more are starting to follow suit. 

[RELATED:  Colleges nationwide respond to coronavirus by canceling in-person classes] 

These announcements come amid a mass change in education format not only by our colleges and universities but also K-12 schools. 

Enterprise 

With colleges and universities announcing campus closures in response to coronavirus concerns, Enterprise wants to make it easier for students to get home to their families by reducing the age minimum and waiving the young renter fees for rentals through May 31, 2020. 

U-Haul


As students across the country were forced to suddenly move out of dorms and other on-campus housing with little notice, U-Haul offered them 30 days of free self-storage.

Charter 

Image source: YouTube/Wotchit News

Charter Communications announced that it will be giving two months of free broadband and WiFi to households with both college students and K-12 students.

VitalSource 

VitalSource is giving free access to their catalog of e-textbooks and other course materials for students at impacted at two and four-year non-profit colleges.

Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile

Image source: YouTube/KHON2

In addition to waiving overage charges and late fees to support customers who may be financially affected by the COVID-19 crisis, the major cellular service provider has added 15GB of high-speed data for all consumer and small business accounts. Verizon’s two competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, announced similar actions. 

Adobe

Image source: YouTube/Wall Street Journal

Adobe is giving higher education and K-12 institutional customers of their Creative Cloud apps the ability to request temporary “at-home” access for their students and educators. This is being granted through May 31 at no additional cost and is available globally.

Cengage 

This student resource website is providing free access to online platforms and online textbooks via a Cengage Unlimited subscription through the end of the semester.

iClicker 

iClicker’s online student engagement solution is free of charge for students whose instructors are moving their courses online in response to COVID-19.

If you know of other businesses that are offering help to students, let us know by emailing contact@campusreform.org

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @_EverettKatie