Since Hurricane Maria, the reality of nearly two months without basic services and no sense of when and how Puerto Rico might feel normal again has taken a toll, especially on young people. Students are grappling with the frustration of having their plans and dreams indefinitely interrupted. Some lost their jobs. Others moved back in with their parents or quit school altogether to deal with the new reality. Many are finding themselves among the estimated more than 100,000 Puerto Ricans leaving for the mainland United States, many joining the Latino pool of underpaid labor.
In the midst of this crisis, the recent reopening of the 11 campuses of the University of Puerto Rico has provided much-needed relief for students longing for continuity and a sense of normalcy. Faculty members report that despite the hardships, students are glad to return and eager to make progress toward the completion of their degrees.
Yet for the university, creating a post-hurricane safe haven is not easy. A recent report from the interim president estimates damage at $118 million. Research equipment, materials, and facilities were ruined. Students are struggling to study without basic services, libraries, or online resources. Some campuses have internet hot spots and charging stations, but outside the metropolitan area these services are unreliable or nonexistent. In addition, public transportation has not been fully restored, and with no traffic lights, roads are jammed. Some students have had to miss classes or drop out because they can’t get to their campuses. Moreover, in an ailing economy, many students have to choose between gas and food.
And now the institution faces an additional unforeseen challenge: losing students to attractive offers from mainland universities. Dozens of stateside institutions have offered waivers or in-state tuition to students from Puerto Rico. Several of the initiatives are modeled on those put in place after Hurricane Katrina, in 2005. But a key difference is that unlike colleges in New Orleans the University of Puerto Rico reopened to students about a month after Hurricane Maria.
Since then, although there are no firm numbers yet, we know that excellent students are being lured away by offers that sometimes include tuition waivers, housing, and meals. Although well-intentioned, the collective impact of these initiatives could lead to lower enrollment, closed courses, and additional challenges for the majority of students at UPR — who cannot leave, do not want to, or simply never knew about these opportunities as a result of the lack of phone and internet service.
Another concern about the mainland colleges’ initiatives is an absence of coordination with UPR. Many questions about credit transfers, financial aid, the status of participants during their time away, and incompatible academic calendars have not been adequately answered. For example, because of the late start after Maria, students from Puerto Rico will not complete their current semester until late February or March, after stateside programs have begun the spring semester. In addition, it remains unclear if all credits will count toward their degrees, if and when they continue their studies back home. Students assume that these matters have been worked out, but additional efforts need to be made to ensure that their needs are responsibly met.
The University of Puerto Rico is in a tough position to confront these challenges. Since 2014, it has been subjected to significant budget cuts, approximating $348 million. This year a federally appointed Financial Oversight and Management Board, or “la Junta,” announced austerity measures to cut a third of the university’s already reduced budget over 10 years to help pay the government’s debt to hedge-fund investors.
With increasing cuts, robust enrollment is probably more important now than ever. It is crucial to maintaining the university’s wide range of academic programs. Since its founding, in 1903, the university has nurtured socioeconomic mobility and played a central role in the creation of Puerto Rico’s middle class. The pressure to migrate is significant and opportunities for employment limited, but the institution helps to keep young people in their homeland, sending forth the professionals needed to achieve economic recovery and long-term sustainability.
As UPR makes progress toward providing a much-needed sense of normalcy for students in the midst of desperate circumstances, we urge higher-education institutions on the U.S. mainland to lead initiatives that will support the university’s students while helping to ensure the future of the institution itself. In this spirit, we offer the following recommendations:
- Support efforts to provide students with free meals, drinking water, Wi-Fi, and charging stations. Organizations such as APPU, DeMoS, Protestamos, PAReS, the UPR Student Council, alumni offices, and programs such as the Faculty Resource Network, the NIH-UPR Ipert, CienciaPR have networks that can facilitate collaborations with different campuses.
- Provide tuition waivers and free housing to students actually displaced by the storm, not only those currently studying at the University of Puerto Rico. Mainland institutions should open their doors to students (including returning adult students) who are nearby evacuees or who are still in Puerto Rico but cannot return to the university because of transportation or housing problems.
- Offer visiting fellowships to graduate students who are working on a thesis or dissertation or to faculty members with reduced course loads. Access to libraries, databases, reliable internet service, and places for study s crucial, and sponsoring them is less disruptive to their home institution.
- Develop initiatives for students already enrolled in U.S. colleges who are dealing with trauma and anxiety. They may need counseling, psychological services, or financial support that their families are no longer able to provide.
- Sponsor travel grants that allow undergraduate and graduate students in Puerto Rico to attend national conferences, symposia, and other events on the mainland.
- Create research opportunities for UPR faculty at your institution in the summer of 2018, when they don’t have teaching responsibilities, to help them make up for lost time.
- Organize guest lectures at UPR by mainland faculty members, short-term workshops, or other initiatives in collaboration with local experts on topics related to hurricane recovery and sustainability.
- Spread the word about the importance of sustaining the UPR and the negative impacts of the drastic budget cuts imposed by the Junta.
- Most important, take the time to communicate with faculty and staff members and students in Puerto Rico about their needs, and design strategies in coordination with them. In doing so, mainland universities should be patient and straightforward — and prepared to engage the bureaucracy of a large, public institution in a United States territory.
As we urge you to support local efforts with perseverance and creativity, consider this story about a recent power outage: When the lights went out in a colleague’s classroom at the University of Puerto Rico, his students didn’t complain or contemplate leaving. Instead, they quickly pulled flashlights from their bags and lit up the blackboard so he could continue teaching. At this moment, it is crucial to support those who stay home, to respect their devotion to their university, and to help them illuminate the path toward a viable and dignified future for Puerto Rico.
Isar Godreau is a researcher at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. Yarimar Bonilla is an associate professor of Latino/Caribbean studies and anthropology at Rutgers University at New Brunswick. Don E. Walicek is an associate professor of English and linguistics in the College of Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras.
Correction (11/27/2017, 7:20 p.m.): The original version of this essay misstated the affiliation of Don E. Walicek, one of the authors. He is at the College of Humanities, not the College of General Studies, at the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras. The identification has been corrected.