[Anna Callahan]: But I hope that you two will introduce Tufts Mutual Aid and introduce yourselves. And somehow my computer is not plugged in, like it's plugged into my ear and my battery is gonna die. So I'm gonna duck out for just one second in this COVID home studio here. But why don't you go ahead and introduce Tufts Mutual Aid and yourself. I have you live now. but I think you're muted. Ah, great, Nikhil, great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure. So Madeline and I are part of the many, many organizers and members of Tufts Mutual Aid. So we're essentially a collective of people who are coming together, well, kind of banded together really quickly after Tufts announced, just like many other universities, it's shut down and like cessation of live classes and other activities and a transition to virtual learning and that meant that people had to move off campus essentially across the country, across the world for like more than five days. So Mutual has been specifically has been focused on making sure that the students who are most in need of resources get the resources that they need. So essentially we're a facilitator. Yeah. Would you like to add anything to that, Madeline?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I think you covered it really well. Yeah, and yeah, I think that about covers it, the basics.
[Anna Callahan]: So can you tell us some of the stories that you've heard as you've been working with the folks that you're working with? What do you hear from people? what's happening in their lives, right, as a result of these changes?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, I think there's just such a huge variety in the circumstances that students are in, and I'll just probably start chronologically from the need to really find the resources to move off campus, essentially. That was the first challenge, I think. A lot of monetary resources for travel, finding a place to stay, so housing, and also finding food and other resources that you need for literally just packing and all these things that just come up. unexpectedly because this is like by definition a very unexpected situation. So after that we've obviously as an educational institution had to deal with as students and also as professors and instructors and just members of the Tufts community had to deal with this new virtual mode of learning. And of course, the experiences that we had in person didn't directly translate to a virtual environment. So many people are in either in homes that do not really support their academic success. So that could be because for a range of reasons, we've heard people with unwell parents or other relatives and people that they're living with in very small cramped spaces or in not emotionally just unsustainable and unhealthy environments as well at home and having added responsibilities. So there are a lot of like academic and policy and systemic changes that had to come about not only in terms of tangible resources but also in terms of the wide variety of situations that students found themselves in and like really making sure that their voices were heard by the administration and allowing them a platform to like voice those changes, voice their concerns and their needs and really get those needs met. and change the expectations that we have as well.
[Anna Callahan]: We have a question from Joel Greenberg. He says, how much notice were people given to move off campus? Seems like a huge burden for students and families.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was about like, I think it was like five days, just about. I think we got the, or maybe six, we got the note, like an email notification on March 10th that we would have to leave campus and everyone had to be gone by the following Monday. And so it was like the five, six days in between there were just a madhouse. Like you could just feel like the panic and the grief in the air. And both of us are seniors. And so there was just the added layer of This time is supposed to be our last, the last couple months, getting to have some closure. And so having to rush all of that was definitely difficult. And about the, a lot of tough students live off campus anyways. Most juniors and seniors live in off-campus houses. And so there are a lot of folks who have stuck around. But obviously, it's very different since we can't be seeing each other anymore. Yeah.
[Anna Callahan]: Yeah. And would you say, I mean, obviously you don't know numbers, but maybe you do, like what percentage of tough students actually had to leave town, like had to find, like were on campus and had to find somewhere else and ended up maybe going home?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, do you know any numbers off the top of your head?
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like it should, it has to be above half the student body, definitely. It has to be at least 60 to 70 percent of students because students who left campus are either juniors or seniors because you have to stay on campus for the first two years, so that's already half the population of Tufts. And then there's obviously seniors like me who did live on campus or juniors, whatever year you are, even graduate students who had to just leave. So honestly, it's definitely in the thousands. If you include graduate students as well, it's definitely in like about four or five, easily 5,000 or more. So yeah, it's just massive. like move out of students. And that's just, that's a tough as a medium-sized school. There are obviously, you know, state schools across the country and, you know, other places that have to, that essentially are moving literally millions of students across the country and the world. So lots.
[Anna Callahan]: Yeah. And so, you know, it's interesting because when I, when I first heard of Tufts Mutual Aid, I thought, okay, it's like, you know, the other mutual aid societies helping provide you know, helping people make sure they're safe, that they can pay their rent, that they can get groceries and things, but it sounds like you are also pretty deeply involved in making sure that students who have to now continue their education are able to do that part of it. So, like, how do you balance those or, you know, You know, what do you feel has been happening for students who have to continue their education, have to do everything online? Like, how disruptive has that been to their education? Maybe talk about that side, just the educational aspect of it.