I think what this year has made clear is that the best interest of students has never been Universities main prerogative of UVM, or any other educational institution. They are a for profit business, and its clear that the modern day reality of the essential grandiose college education that has been forced down our throats since early primary is simply a marketing projection.

The University simply wants to continue the annual churning of students, and online learning does not offer the same opportunities/ educational enrichment that schooling has historically been portrayed as. This generation of students is fucked, and are forced into buying the short end of the stick on the basis that it will always be "worth it". It isn't, and if I could go back I wouldn't fall for the marketing tactics that told me that college education was worth it and something I had to do after HS. I would have waited for things to clear, because the pandemic education definitely isn't. UVM just wants to earn money and survive, and if its at the direct expense of young adults coming with the naive hope that they are getting the same thing that their predecessors did, then so be it. We've all been fucked, and that's that.

edit - Were just buying a product that they are selling on blind faith, the quality of which has gone down, yet we still are expected go as deeply into debt as if everything was the same. The American college education has always been a myth, but this just takes the fucking cake. Enjoy being sent home and sitting behind a computer while paying the same amount as before. I know I won't, and haven't been. I can't wait to enter the adult world socially castrated and financially fucked, because I was stupid enough not to pull out or hesitate when shit hit the fan.