With the majority of students returning home, Quinnipiac University has laid off workers in areas like dining and custodial services.
Shaquita Alston has been an employee of Quinnipiac Dining for the past eleven months. She describes the current situation as overwhelming, as it is something nobody has ever experienced before.
“Now that the school is closed, we have to collect unemployment,” Alston said. “I haven’t heard anything yet as far as financial support. All they did was give us a pink slip to collect unemployment.”
Antoinette Orr, a seven-year Quinnipiac Dining employee, described that the months of lost work are going to take a toll.
“Even though we were going to be going out of work in May, we make use of working full time to save up so we won’t struggle during the break period,” Orr said.
Many Americans find themselves in the same boat. According to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the United States could see unemployment rates rise to 20%, which is double the rate documented during the Great Recession. He warned Congress of this potentially disastrous outlook in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night.
The sweeping coronavirus pandemic has shut down schools nationwide, cancelled countless concerts and events, and halted travel almost entirely. With the closing of so many businesses and institutions, many Americans now find themselves without a job.
President Judy Olian announced on Sunday that the remainder of the semester will be delivered online due to the pandemic. The university urged students living on campus to move essential belongings out of their dorms by Wednesday night. With students no longer allowed on campus, dining services are suspended.
“Students are not permitted to return to any of the campuses,” Olian said. “We will provide information at a later date on when and how students can retrieve their belongings from residence halls and other buildings.”
In an email sent to faculty Friday morning, Quinnipiac Dining outlined how it’s going to perform services going forward for the few students remaining on campus.
The empty York Hill dining hall. With no students, employees have been laid off.
“As you are aware, we have significantly reduced our on-campus services and facilities now that students are remaining home for the rest of the spring semester,” Quinnipiac Dining said. “Quinnipiac and Chartwells have made special arrangements for the small number of students who received permission to remain in university housing to ensure they have access to daily meals.”
Newly unemployed Americans are facing yet another frustration. State unemployment websites are crashing due to the volume of traffic. In order to avoid this, some states including New York and New Jersey have decided to stagger applicants based on their last names.
“I believe a lot of the workers here would say it was unexpected, to say the least,” Orr said.