The water crisis in Pine Bluff has caused people and institutions to struggle in different ways, with the plight of those affected well documented.
That group includes the students at UAPB. When the water to the school's boiler system became a trickle and ceased to work, those students were shipped off to area hotels including at least one in Little Rock.
Knowing college students, that was probably fun for a while, but as the days progress, being away from their home is likely starting to get old.
When Gov. Asa Hutchinson was here this week to listen to area leaders talk about how the water problems were affecting life in Pine Bluff, UAPB Chancellor Laurence Alexander told him that there wasn't enough pressure for students to flush the toilet.
"My hope is that they wouldn't have to be in a hotel more than a week because I think it can wear on the students anything beyond that," said Alexander.
Alexander, like every other person in the room, said he wanted the water pressure issue fixed as soon as possible, which is an outcome that Liberty Utilities officials have been unable to say will happen by a specific time.
"The other alternative is to release them and send them home, which is a real downer because they went home last spring around the same time," he said, adding that he worried that if they went home, they would not return.
Yes, last spring, at almost this precise time, covid was heading our way, and it would not be long, just a couple of weeks from now in fact, that the first case identified in the state would be found in Pine Bluff.
Obviously, covid has pushed us to extremes we didn't know existed, but being sidelined two years in a row while at college, well, we agree with Alexander. With such disruptions, a student would certainly be excused for just ditching the whole idea of college or at least this college.
Mayor Shirley Washington said, as well, that she feared the same thing. She said she had talked to her granddaughter and the news was not encouraging.
"She talks to many of her friends and some of them are considering dropping out if they have to go back home," Washington said. "That's the last thing we want to do. We most definitely want to bring this to an end as soon as possible."
Things, and by that we mean the various water pressures coming out of Liberty's water plants, are improving. In the same way that Liberty pushed higher water pressure to Jefferson Regional Medical Center and got that institution back to almost normal on Wednesday, let's push the pressure to UAPB and bring these students back home. The school has worked extremely hard to increase enrollment. We do not need to let that go to waste, and we do not need to let college careers be sidetracked if there is any way to avoid it.