In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, unemployment rates in the U.S. rose to their highest level since the Great Depression as of mid-April. In the past week alone, the U.S. Department of Labor reported more than 1.4 million new unemployment claims.

Diandra J. Prescod, associate professor and program coordinator of counselor education and counseling psychology at the Neag School, is working to combat the obstacles faced by those Americans who have lost their jobs or been furloughed as a result of the pandemic. She wants them, first and foremost, to have hope.

“I see sports at its best as a great example for our country to be a better team and better teammates,” says Doug Glanville.

“We have a lot to be worried about as adults, but at the center of what is going on in our heads should be how we are talking about back-to-school with our children,” says Sandra Chafouleas, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and school mental health expert.

“We have a lot to be worried about as adults, but at the center of what is going on in our heads should be how we are talking about back-to-school with our children.”

Americans are starting to really examine the statues in their communities including here in our state. We are all acting as curators.

Listen in as faculty member Megan Staples discusses the challenges teachers face in online learning settings.

UCTV Sports’ Students of Storrs podcast interviews Doug Glanville, former MLB player, now sport management faculty at the Neag School, in a discussion on athlete activism and the intersection between sport and society.

“A lot of this is based on district funding, and things like that, which unfortunately tend to be so tied to the proportion of kids and families who are living in poverty,” said Sarah Woulfin, professor of education leadership at The University of Connecticut.

Schools play a critical role in fostering emotional safety for adults and students. In responding to COVID-19, schools planning to reopen must include efforts that define a safe school environment as having not only physical elements such as cleaning practices, ventilation conditions, and physical distancing protocols, but also emotional elements.

“Like monuments, mascots are not just symbols of a dark past, but barriers to a more just future. If schools and communities are to reckon with the past and present of systemic racism, and move toward a future of human rights, both monuments and mascots must fall,” says Glenn Mitoma, an assistant professor of human rights and curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut, and director of UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.