America’s Students Face COVID-19: U.S. Universities' Policy Responses to the Evolving Pandemic

Abstract

How has the COVID-19 pandemic shaped the college experience of an entire generation of students? Across the United States, a natural experiment has been taking place at universities and colleges as they each constructed varying COVID-10 policies. This paper attempts to make sense of this natural experiment by means of a nationwide survey and regression analysis to shed light on the question of what universities did to respond to COVID-19, what students at those institutions thought of those responses, and why. It investigates this previously unexplored aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic by contributing an original data set including information on the public health policies implemented by over 600 universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning during the early months of 2022 to respond to COVID-19, as well as data from over 1,000 students on their attitudes towards their institutions9 policies. I ûrst summarize what early research tells us about higher education in the era of COVID-19. Then, compiling survey responses, I introduce data on the prevalence of individual components of COVID-19 policies at these institutions. Combining these characteristics into a composite index, which I call the Institution Stringency Index (ISI), I analyze the impact of the ISI on student attitudes towards institutions, as well as determinants of the ISI policy components. While this paper is a limited initial foray into the policy area of COVID-19 policy in higher education, it points to important policy implications for potential future circumstances such as a new variant of COVID-19.