The University of California, Riverside (UCR) established the Loan2Learn program with funding from the CARES Act to provide technology assistance to UCR students.
The program has helped over 2,000 students finish their coursework and continue their studies by lending laptops, tablets, hotspots, and software.
Many students who have benefited from this program work full-time while attending school, supporting their families, and supporting themselves without parental involvement.
The program has helped many students access dedicated computers to complete their coursework at home.
As students returned to the classroom, the access issues amplified during the pandemic didn’t disappear, so Emily Candido, student technology coordinator with ITS, decided to continue Loan2Learn at UCR.
The main goal is for the program to become a permanent offering — and it has turned to the community to help make that possible.
With donors’ help, the department can purchase additional tablets, chargers, and headsets.
Further support will mean warranties on existing devices can be extended, and new laptops can be purchased, enabling ITS to assist even more UCR students.
ITS hopes to raise $7,000 this Give Day to set the program on the path to sustainability.
Without Loan2Learn, hundreds of current students, many of whom are from low-income families and would be first-generation college students, wouldn’t have reliable access to the laptops they need to complete their coursework.
Without this crucial program, there will be over 600 students who will need to find loaner laptops elsewhere, placing a burden on the 24-hour kiosk rentals or crowding into the computer labs to use a public computer.
In other news, UCR has reported a record for first-year applications for fall 2024, with 57,240, according to numbers released March 6 from the UC Office of the President.
The previous UCR record was set this past year when 56,462 first-year students applied for the fall quarter of 2023.
UCR had the highest percentage of first-year students in California applicants among the nine UC undergraduate campuses, with 85%, or 48,633, of its applicants from California.
Forty-nine percent of UCR’s first-year applicants are from underrepresented communities, which include Black, American Indian, Latino, and Pacific Islander.
That’s a higher percentage than seven other UC campuses; only Merced had more applications from underrepresented communities.
UCR has the second-highest percentages among the UCs in two key categories: first-year students from low-income families, 47%, and applicants who would be first-generation college students, 48%.
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