Companies lend students a helping hand amid campus chaos

Students nationwide are being forced or encouraged to leave their dorms.

In light of challenges these students face, some private businesses are now lending a hand.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of students across the country were told with very little notice to vacate their college dorms after in-person classes were canceled because of the coronavirus outbreak, invoking a sense of panic and in some cases, helplessness. 

Students in all parts of the U.S. were told to move out of their dorms completely, weeks before they were scheduled to do so. As the panic set in, however, some businesses stepped up to help those in this time of national crisis. 

U-Haul announced Thursday that it will offer free 60-day storage to college students with no other place to store their belongings. 

[RELATED: Colleges nationwide tell students to leave dorms early...but won’t promise refunds]

“We don’t know how every student is affected. But we know they are affected,” U-Haul President John Taylor said. “More and more universities are giving instructions to leave campus and go home. Students and their parents are in need of moving and storage solutions. We have the expertise and network to help, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

As students leave campus and complete their coursework online, AT&T is stepping up to help ensure every student has the resources to do so.

The telecommunications giant said it will provide unlimited internet data for all home customers. AT&T said it will also waive any late fees for customers experiencing “economic hardship related to the coronavirus pandemic.”

[RELATED: Thousands demand UCSD ‘cancel’ student fees after classes go online]

Frontier Airlines is lending a hand to students rather than holding out their hands to taxpayers. While it is not offering no-strings-attached free travel for students trying to get home or someplace to finish their semester coursework, the Denver-based airline announced that “students with a .edu email address who sign up for a new Discount Den membership and book a flight will receive a $100 voucher for future travel!”


 

If you know of any other businesses offering a hand to students during the coronavirus pandemic, let us know at contact@campusreform.org.

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