Online classes boon to chronically ill college students
The return to campus now a cause for concern
Abbie Esterline, a fifth-year student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, found herself missing fewer classes during the pandemic.
She has several chronic illnesses, such as fibromyalgia, that can make it difficult to go to class in person.
“The act of getting up, walking to campus, sitting in class, walking back – on bad days, that can sound terribly exhausting,” she said. With online classes, she could “attend” in her pajamas with her camera off, and still participate.
Esterline is one of a cohort of chronically ill students who found they could perform better academically during the pandemic, at a time when other students struggled with the disconnection from traditional classroom interactions.
Current plans for UWM and most other colleges are to return as much as possible to normal in-person classroom activities this fall. But for students who struggle with that setup, it’s nothing to look forward to.
Annette Ziolkowski, a junior at UWM who has various autoimmune diseases, said it can be difficult to have to go to campus and be around others, especially when everything she may need to help with her illnesses is at home.
She said that under normal circumstances, some students do get class attendance leniencies, but it can vary by professor how accommodating they are.
“I haven’t ever really experienced them being lenient enough to let you miss (class). … You kind of just have to force yourself to be there,” she said.
Annie Tulkin, founder and director of Accessible College, an organization that helps students with physical disabilities and health conditions with the transition to college, said the pandemic has proven that online classes can work.
“Now that students have taken online classes, the question that remains is ‘can you request online classes’ as a reasonable accommodation across the board,” Tulkin said.
Some students expressed concern that no public schools in Wisconsin, and only a handful of private ones, are mandating COVID-19 vaccinations.
“(It’s) kind of scary to know there’s people out there who could still have COVID and could be in contact with other people at school,” said Natalie Winn, a junior at UWM who has Crohn’s disease, psoriasis and arthropathy.
On the other side of Milwaukee, Marquette University is one of the universities requiring shots.
“Having a vaccine requirement on campus (with appropriate waivers when needed) will help to protect against community spread,” said Jack Bartelt, director of the Office of Disability Services at Marquette, in an email.