Keep Campus Closed - What Higher Ed is Too
Afraid to Say
Anonymous higher ed pros share their
dissatisfaction with having to reopen
August 10, 2020
What's in this post? Great question. For
starters, it includes some absolutely heartbreaking quotes from people in
higher ed. They cannot share their actual thoughts with their school leaders
for fear of losing their jobs. Also, because I've been posting these all over
Twitter, it seemed fair to include my action items for what higher ed should do
to change course immediately. Lastly, I've added some amazing excerpts from
higher education presidents/leaders who have made the right decision for the
fall.
Because there's very little time left, I'm not
going to bury the overall lede any further:
For the collective well-being of people in this country*, higher education
institutions must not reopen this fall.
This virus does not care about our efforts to
find creative ways to reopen schools.
It doesn't care about paychecks or football or
res life. It will continue to harm our communities until we face the stark
reality that our 'normal' has changed in countless ways. All the energy that's
been invested in university-branded masks, athlete-only testing, and a
hodgepodge of reopening dorm protocols needs to be aimed at the fight against
COVID-19. The only way to stop a tidal wave of COVID-19 from killing many more
people is for higher ed to not open back up.
Comments from the
community
The following comments were posted on social media, sent to me via direct message or email from student affairs administrators, faculty members, and higher education social media managers. They are anonymous because all of these people are concerned that they will lose their jobs for voicing their true opinions at this time.
“If I was a senior administrator, I could not open a campus
knowing that it was going to kill somebody. How anybody could have the
dissonance to not put together the direct causality of opening the campus and
killing somebody or the willful stupidity to deny culpability when it will
happen is mind-boggling.”
“I cannot imagine being forced to try to convince students on
social that they will be safe for in-person instruction. I HAVE, however,
intentionally tried to strike an empathetic tone...our students miss campus and
we do too. They can’t wait to be back and we feel the same way.”
“Students arrive August 17th. We’ve never made it out of phase 1
because of the rates of infection. We had to throw out that plan and just start
telling employees to come back to campus because the students are arriving in
17 days, even as rates of infection rise and the local healthcare system is
known to be stretched beyond capacity. The fear, dread and anxiety about Fall
semester among faculty and staff alike is palpable in Zoom meetings! I enjoy
your tweets but feel I cannot comment on them due to my position. Thanks for
your public advocacy for higher ed to do the right, safe and ethical thing.
Thanks also for exposing the fact that most institutions are doing no such
thing.”
“I’m still expected to 'sell hope' to students regarding a special
re-scheduled commencement ceremony. There’s a lot of 'selling' still happening
on social on more than just Fall plans... and it’s happening everywhere.”
“I feel very much like my job right now is selling a situation I
don’t believe in. I can state my protestations over and over but we need the $
from housing. I feel incredibly ‘doom and gloom’ all the time and emotionally
and creatively drained.”
“Every week of the summer you’d say to yourself, 'surely this is
the week that leadership looks at the data and the situation in the community
and comes to the realization that bringing thousands of students back to campus
is a terrible idea.' But it never happened. For us, at some point, I think we
succumbed to the sunk cost fallacy - we had spent so much money on campus
infrastructure and PPE that we 'didn’t want it to go to waste.' But much of it
goes back to money. If we open now (while collecting tuition and fees) and then
have to shut down in a month, we can throw up our arms and say 'look at the
myriad of things we did to try to make this work. Don’t blame us.'”
“Broke down sobbing to my mom tonight on FaceTime because I am so
emotionally and mentally exhausted playing the "WE CAN'T WAIT TO WELCOME
YOU BAAAACK" person while on the inside I am vehemently against opening
this fall. Sending good vibes to all my fellow HESM colleagues. There's comfort
in knowing I'm not alone.”
“[Our campus leaders] are talking out of both sides of their
mouths on returning for the fall term. Classes are moving online, but [they are
telling people to] please still live on campus.”
“Higher-ed pros after we convince ourselves COVID won't prevent us from reopening safely this fall.”
“As social media professionals, a lot of us have grown accustomed
to managing institutional crises on social media. But this isn’t a social media
crisis or an institutional crisis, for that matter. It’s an everywhere crisis.
Most of us love our jobs and love our institutions (and our PAYCHECKS) and we
want to do good work that serves our communities. But that feels especially
hard right now. Campuses shouldn’t open because we will see COVID spikes at
colleges and universities, students will die, and it’s just not safe.”
“I was telling some colleagues recently that the worst part is
that I can't ever remember a time when I've felt so far removed from the values
I've always loved about working in higher ed. It is an entirely different thing
altogether to have to market something you don't entirely believe in right
now.”
“I am entering my 4th year in higher ed comms and never before
have I believed in the messages I am putting out there less. I feel pretty
powerless. I have strong opinions about reopening campuses (spoiler alert we
shouldn’t do it). I don’t want to return to work. I don’t feel safe. I also
think that too many university administrations, mine included, are playing a
waiting game. Delayed decisions, wishy washy leadership and a failure to be
realistic made my job an absolute mess. So far we have spent the entire summer
promising students that it will be safe and fun to come back to campus. I know
beyond a shadow of a doubt that we will have hundreds of cases on campus. And
I’m sure the administration knows this too. To me, it feels like they are just
crossing their fingers that it won’t be 'that bad,' naively hoping we aren’t
one of the campuses that will inevitably cause a massive outbreak. But don’t
worry, we’re ready for a fun semester! It is any surprise that I am job
searching?”
“My university is doing the bare minimum--no testing for students,
no formal or open tracking system in place. [We're also] operating at an
overflow capacity. We are headed for big trouble.”
“I don’t sleep a ton right now. I'm doing my best with the direction
that's been given. My hope is as we make our way through this that institutions
take a hard look at what systems, policies, and personnel are and are not
contributing to student success and support. A crisis can create challenges,
but also reveals opportunities to improve and we must take advantage of that.”
5 things you can do
right now
Push for pay cuts:
Pay cuts for senior leaders, athletic coaches and those academics who make far more than their peers. And if you are earning more than most and get to live in subsidized university housing than you absolutely need to make a financial sacrifice.
For example, half of the eight Ivy leaders have taken pay cuts of up to 25%. In 2018, the median compensation for this group was $1.4 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from tax filings. Now I know that the Ivy League is a small portion of U.S. higher education, but there are a lot of presidents, chancellors, vice presidents, faculty and coaches who would be just fine if they took a significant pay cut as a way of saving the jobs of countless members of their campus communities.
Shut your dorms down or reduce capacity in a
meaningful way:
Res life is in a panic. Don't believe me? You're acting like you are trained epidemiologists or healthcare professionals. It's not your fault. Your school has put you in this position. And it's likely that campus auxiliaries as a whole are in a stressful state. However, it's a global pandemic. Is it really worth reopening residence halls to max (or only slightly reduced) capacity in order to generate revenue? How many lives will be lost? It will be like sending cruise ships all over the U.S. I know you have masks, stickers, and rules and such, but we all know that this virus doesn't care at all about policies. I'm waiting for presidents, chancellors, and/or vice presidents of student affairs across the country to stop this madness. Sending res life pros into a virus-ridden hellscape is not leadership. It is cowardice personified in a suit.
Make as much constructive noise as you can:
Write as many letters to the editors of both Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle as you can. Let your senior leaders and your community know that this is not what you want. Join forces with your union if you can. Contact local and national media, too.
Ask for assistance from professional
associations:
Y'all might not like me calling you out like this. I get it. Over the years many of your leaders have become my friends and I've worked with so many student affairs associations that I speak in acronyms. So at this time, I have to ask, where are you? Why are you running programs as if it's business as usual? Where is the concerted effort to bring higher ed together to do what's right for students, faculty, staff, as well as the communities in which their schools reside? Get on the Hill and make it clear that reopening higher education is going to hurt America far more than it helps.
Grieve for a fall term without football and then
move on
Conferences are cancelling fall sports and that includes football. Unfortunately, none of the multi-gazillion dollar conferences have decided that ethics trump their revenue streams...yet. However, I have high hopes for the Big Ten to do the right thing. Who knows, maybe the Pac 12 will surprise us. Either way, football as one of the driving forces for certain colleges to reopen is a betrayal.
Thankfully, there are a number of schools/leaders who are doing the right thing
“We followed the science. The students' health, the safety of our faculty, our staff, the people who work here, was paramount.” – Colette Pierce Burnette, President of Huston-Tillotson University.
“If you can live safely and study successfully at home, we encourage you to consider that option for the fall semester." – Samuel Stanley, President of Michigan State University.
“It’s about setting your values and having the courage of your convictions. We said from the beginning that health and safety would be a priority. We know what our values are, we know what our mission is and we were committed to not closing our eyes to science.” – Marjorie Hass, President of Rhodes College.
“I have come to the difficult conclusion that we should not bring students back to campus for the fall semester. Instead, to keep our campus and local community as safe as possible during this period of high risk, we will offer all courses in the fall semester, including those for graduate and post-bacc students, remotely. We have a civic duty to the communities in which we live and work. By limiting the number of students and employees on campus, we will mitigate the potential exposure of many people to the virus—not only those connected to Smith but also those living in the greater Northampton area.” – Kathleen McCartney, President of Smith College.
“Princeton has decided that its undergraduate program must be fully remote in the coming semester. Where schools and universities have started to bring back students, COVID cases have rapidly followed. This combination of health concerns and restrictions will significantly diminish the educational value of the on‑campus experience. It will also render that experience confining and unpleasant for most students.” – Christopher L. Eisgruber, President of Princeton University
“We will not be able to return in person to campus this fall as we had hoped. Based on extensive consultations with our faculty experts in public health and medicine, and emerging guidance from public health officials, we have concluded that returning in person would pose unacceptable risks for you, our faculty and staff, and our neighbors in Baltimore.” – Ronald J. Daniels, President; Sunil Kumar, Provost; Alanna Shanahan, Vice Provost for Student Affairs – Johns Hopkins University
There's still time
This is higher education's Kobayashi Maru test. The test is a fictional exercise that examines a leader's character during a no-win scenario. And right now, the only way to rewire the test is to go with online-only higher education until at least early 2021 and perhaps even longer.
*Note: This post is
entirely focused on U.S. higher education.
