AMHERST — Community members throughout the region are offering temporary housing and transportation for students scrambling to return home after colleges told them to leave campus and complete coursework remotely because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Early last week, the Five Colleges and numerous other institutions began sending students home as the COVID-19 virus continues to spread. Most of the colleges have already told students that they should not expect to return to campus this semester.
While colleges are offering students the ability to petition to stay on campus, the sudden change of plans has raised alarm among many students. With this anxiety in mind, community members — many of whom have ties to the Five Colleges — are temporarily volunteering their homes and cars to give students extra time to work out long-term accommodations and reach transportation hubs.
Eva Lau, an Amherst college alum, set up a Google spreadsheet to coordinate contact information of volunteers in one place after noticing people asking for help or offering their assistance online. As of Monday morning, over 60 people have signed up to help students with temporary housing or transportation.
“It’s been amazing to me just seeing what people are offering and how many people are so willing to open up their homes to these students and offer to drive them, offer food assistance,” said Lau, who is also offering housing and driving assistance. “It’s a tough time for a lot of people right now — not just students — but it’s really inspiring to see that many generous people in the community.”
Among those volunteers was also Sam Crowley, a graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work, who is offering temporary housing for up to seven nights along with storage space and transportation for affected students.
“I have space in my home and I feel like I have the ability to do something to help the community,” Crowley said. “I have some part to play, and now that I own a home and have space in that home, I want to offer it in some way for people who don’t have a place to go while all of this is going on.”
David Yang, a postgrad fellow at Amherst College, signed up to help students reach transportation hubs such as Union Station in Springfield, Bradley International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport, motivated by “a general sense of compassion.”
“I have a car, they need a ride,” Yang said. “It’s easy enough.”
In their responses, volunteers detail information such as what college they live closest to, accessibility, how many students they can accommodate for a specified period of time, and other ways they may be able to assist.
Students interested in accessing the spreadsheet can send an email to c19studentassist@gmail.com with the subject line “Spreadsheet Request.” Those with a .edu email address will automatically receive the spreadsheet.
For students seeking a different form of accommodation, the Hampton by Hilton Hadley-Amherst area hotel is “offering deeply discounted rooms” for Five College students from March 15 through April 30 for a stay of at least five nights, the company said in a Facebook post. A student ID is required. Nationally, U-Haul is offering 30 days of free self-storage for students affected, according to a post on the business’ website.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.