OLIVIA RASH
rashol@lopers.unk.edu

With a national emergency declared on March 12, large corporations have made it their mission to provide for the community and help prevent the spread of Coronavirus or COVID-19. Companies like Charter-Spectrum have announced that they will provide free broadband for two months to households with students who do not already have an account with the company. 

This will begin on March 16. The company said it will also waive installation fees for new households. 

Charter said, “Charter’s advanced communications network will ensure our more than 29 million customers – including government offices, first responders, health care facilities, and businesses – across 41 states maintain the connectivity they rely on.”

Other companies have also come up with helpful services for college students who are affected by school shutdowns and changes in their semester. Adobe is making home-access to Creative Cloud, for college students available for free to those whose schools already have Adobe provided in labs on campus. Schools like UNK are able to apply for their students to get access to this service, currently UNK administration is applying for the access. 

This service will be available until May 31. “Adobe also has a vital role to play in schools, businesses, and government agencies, and earlier this week we began to offer free 90-day access to Adobe Connect, our web conferencing solution, until July 1, 2020,” said Adobe. “This offer gives users the ability to join meetings, trainings, and virtual classrooms from the safety of their homes.” 

Staying in touch with professors for updates on UNK’s access to Adobe Creative Cloud is still suggested.

U-Haul has also taken an extremely kind step to assist students whose colleges have completely shutdown for the semester and are no longer allowing students to stay on campus. The company has a network of 22,000 locations across all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces. The company is offering free 30-day self-storage to the new customers with college ID’s. 

This type of offer is usually only extended to communities impacted by a natural disaster, but this will be the first time the company has offered it company-wide. U-Haul also accepts third party pay, which enables family members to fund their loved one’s moving and storage needs. 

In addition to U-Haul offering free storage to students in need, they offer Collegeboxes, this is a service that provides boxes and packing supplies to be delivered to a student’s residence. Once packed, an at-home service will pick up the boxes from the dorm or apartment at no additional charge. 

“We don’t know how every student is affected. But we know they are affected. More and more universities are giving instructions to leave campus and go home,” said U-Haul President John “JT” Taylor. Students and their parents are in need of moving and storage solutions. We have the expertise and network to help, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”