Samuel L. Stanley, president of Michigan State University: Michigan State has
elevated our research and medical programs to recognize and better address
health disparities related to COVID-19 and from other causes. For instance,
we’ve partnered with a local county health department to provide COVID-19 testing to at-risk communities. We
are also working with the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit to
improve access, affordability and outcomes for Michigan’s most vulnerable populations.
Additionally, we are helping to lead a statewide initiative with
Detroit Medical Center to address health disparities among women of color
throughout the state.
Meanwhile,
we established an online resource for working, teaching,
learning and researching. This summer, faculty and staff have been participating
in professional development programs for online and hybrid learning to ensure
the best experience possible for our students. And we are realizing the
continued need for more frequent communication to keep our many audiences —
students, faculty, staff, alumni, families and the community — informed through
all the uncertainty.
Ana Mari Cauce, president of the University of Washington: We have been
reexamining an array of long-standing practices and assumptions – whether it be
who has the equipment and access that students, faculty and staff need to
receive or offer online instruction or becoming more flexible with our version
of “pass or fail” grading practices.
But
our June 13 graduation ceremony is freshly on my mind. The move to a fully
online ceremony was such a difficult and disappointing decision to have to
make, as graduation day is truly the most cherished of traditions for students
and their families, and for our entire campus community. Yet our Office of
Ceremonies created what I believe was a wonderful, touching and
meaningful virtual experience for our graduates. We,
of course, hope students will still return to campus next year for a second
in-person ceremony.
How do you expect the characteristics of the next few admitted
classes to change in response to the virus?
Stanley: For many universities, maintaining enrollment has become a
significant priority. That will continue over the next few entering classes.
This is particularly true for international student enrollment, which is so
important to the goal of U.S. colleges and universities to be culturally
diverse institutions with worldwide influence.
Michigan
State expects to see more in-state students, given parental and student
concerns about traveling away from home, and they will have an educational
experience that is much more reliant on online and remote learning. Faculty
members are working to put about half of their classes online, shift about a
quarter of their classes to a hybrid model of instruction and move the
remaining in-person classes into larger rooms to allow for 6 feet of physical
distancing.
Yet
we will continue to provide in-person teaching where it clearly matters —
laboratory work, creative arts, small seminars. It will also be important to
seek ways to add more social and experiential activities that are consistent
with remote or social distancing measures.
Finally,
we’ll ask everyone to take greater personal responsibility to mitigate exposure
and spread by wearing face coverings, limiting the size of in-person classes
and regulating large gatherings. This will be a challenge, but we took similar
actions to ban
tobacco use on campus, and it required student, faculty and staff
buy-in to make that possible. It is incredibly important that students unite in
embracing the protective actions necessary to create a safer environment on
campus.
Cauce: Resilient just barely begins to describe the incoming
classes I expect to see. For everything they will have experienced – incomplete
or online-based school years, detachment from friends and loved ones and
perhaps direct impacts from this virus on their families – to have persevered
through this phase in their lives and stayed dedicated to their education is
nothing short of remarkable. I expect they will have a deep appreciation for
the in-person campus experience. My biggest concern is making sure that the
disproportionate financial impact of COVID-19 on low-income families,
first-generation and underrepresented students does not set us back at a time
when we were making real progress in ensuring that
more of them have access to colleges and universities offering high-quality
education.
Can you do college without sports?
Stanley: While sports aren’t a true necessity, the college
experience to many people includes earning a valuable degree and watching or
participating in intercollegiate athletics. Sports unify a campus and create a
strong identity. And once students graduate, sports can be an important means
of keeping connected to their college or university. We often say, “You are
students for a few years but alumni for a lifetime.” I also know that sports
play an important role for student-athletes as many earn their degrees and go
on to success in a completely different sphere, thanks in large part to an
athletic scholarship or the skills they gain as a member of a team.
Cauce: We could, but we don’t want to. My heart aches for those
student-athletes whose senior years were cut short or missed completely in the
spring. With the fall coming, I know football is on the minds of many – and it
is a huge source of pride, connection and community among our students, alumni
and throughout the region. But every sport is filled with dedicated individuals
who represent us so well that losing competitive sports would be a real loss to
their experience and ours. I would add that the same loss would hold true if we
are unable to resume our performing arts events and reopen our museums — these are
places where students come together and that keep our alumni returning to
campus.
Do you see any challenges of doing research with social
distancing rules in effect?
Stanley: Scientists whose laboratories were paused stayed
productive doing work such as analyzing data and a significant number of
publications and grant proposals are going out our doors. Research has also
carried on in the agricultural sciences and areas that received clearance to
work on COVID-19 projects.
Research
spaces have always followed rigorous health and safety protocols, so much of
this isn’t new. Our labs are following detailed multistep programs as they
reopen, from evaluating air and water systems to physical changes that
accommodate new safety measures to defining occupation density, planning
staggered shifts, stipulating face coverings and other measures. Nearly 300 of
our labs have already turned in safety plans and 28 buildings were open as of
July 1. Research related to human subjects is still restricted, though, and
will likely be one of the last phases to resume because human contact is the
primary source of infection.
Cauce: Absolutely. The adjustments we are making aren’t easy, but
our faculty and students play a vital role in the world of discovery generally,
and directly in the fight against COVID-19. Our Virology Lab was among the first to develop a viable test
and we are – as are many talented scientists at other universities around the
world – working toward treatments and a vaccine. Our experts in psychology, sociology,
public policy, law and so many other areas are also increasing our
understanding of the pandemic’s effects. Research has never been more critical,
and we will rise to this challenge.
How will higher education make up for lost ground and lost
revenue?
Stanley: Public universities and colleges, in particular, will
suffer from state appropriations cuts and other budget impacts. We will have to
find innovative ways to maintain the faculty, staffs and facilities that have
created the best research universities in the world. In addition, I’m genuinely
concerned about our most vulnerable students, who, due to health concerns or
family financial setbacks, may be unable to continue their pursuit of a college
degree, perhaps forever. It will be important to maintain or broaden access to
a college education – at a point when the nation needs it for many reasons,
including to address inequity.
Cauce: The lost revenue is a deep concern. The cruel irony is
that while our UW Medicine enterprise has been saving lives and answering the call
against COVID-19, that very work has forced a projected $500 million in financial losses largely
due to the shuttering of all non-urgent procedures. Auxiliary units such as
Facilities, Housing & Food Services, Athletics and our Study Abroad
programs are also facing significant losses. Federal and state stimulus support
is helping, and we are hoping for further recognition of the vital work that
universities like ours have done and will do during the recovery – however long
it takes. But, as concerning as these losses are, we are just as concerned
about the losses yet to come as state budgets contract. Higher education is
often in the “discretionary” column in these budgets, but the fight against
COVID-19 has demonstrated again that the work universities do is anything but
discretionary.
Where’s the silver lining?
Stanley: As a physician with a background in infectious disease
research, I hope society gains a renewed appreciation for science and medicine
as we address this massive public health crisis. We are demonstrating the
enduring value and return on investment from research universities such as
Michigan State. We’re collaboratively bringing to bear a huge store of
knowledge and the means to apply it to defeat the virus, while supporting our
communities with vital skills and resources, and, by the way, training the next
generation of scientists, doctors, educators and creators.
Cauce: It has revealed incredible strength, capability and
creativity across our university and all of higher education, and it has forced
us to be flexible in ways that don’t always come naturally to those of us who
are planners. Yet, in a world characterized by climate change and increasing
interconnectedness and migration, these attributes will be increasingly
important in the future. Our students, faculty and staff have adjusted
remarkably well in the face of this unprecedented challenge. I know it hasn’t
been easy or everything we would have wanted, but the response has been
extraordinary, and we will take everything we learned this spring and make the
fall quarter experience even stronger.
For the entire
interview from the Conversation, click here.
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