The Arrogance of American Higher Education
We are living in unprecedented times fraught with uncertainty and privation. Long the darling of the higher education world, American colleges and universities are at a crossroads that threaten their very survival — and perhaps the well-being of the students they labor to educate.
Millions of college students will return to their campuses ready for a fresh start this fall. However, this semester is anything but fresh as it begins in the encompassing shadow of the greatest global pandemic since the Spanish Flu in 1918. The world has reckoned with Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) over the spring and summer months. Regardless of political leaning or partisan perspective, it is evident that the United States has not rid itself of this relentless, menacing virus quite yet.
What many thought might be a quick, harmless brush with a new strain of coronavirus has shown itself to be anything but quick or harmless. Shelter-in-place orders, quarantine requirements, state-mandated mask policies, a run on toilet paper and other hygiene products, and the closure of local and global businesses have been the norm.
Last spring, the high school and college Classes of 2020 had their senior years cut short with virtual commencement ceremonies as their consolation prize.
We have spent the summer months isolated from others, canceling vacation plans, and watching the infection rate and death toll spike and dip, then spike and dip. The current trend seems to show the number of new cases decreasing, although testing and reporting are sporadic and largely unpredictable. We have seen this before. Near the end of May this year, our state and federal leadership put economic reentry plans into action, resulting in a dramatic increase in the number of positive Covid-19 cases. This summer has not been one filled with healing or relief, rather a quiet submission and disconcertion as to what lies ahead.
What Comes Next?
King George, in the Broadway and Disney+ juggernaut Hamilton, asks rhetorical questions I think appropriate for American higher education institutions and their leaders:
What comes next? You’ve been freed. Do you know how hard it is to lead? You’re on your own.
Awesome, wow.
Do you have a clue what happens now?
And his answer — his sublime realization — is simple: it’s much harder when it’s all your call.
The message regarding the start of the fall semester has remarkably been consistent across American higher education institutions: we will return to face-to-face instruction in the Fall.
Regardless of what one thinks of this brazen commitment, institutions have made clear their intentions for students, faculty, and staff this fall. Plans for the great (and “safe”) return to campus litter the email inboxes of parents and students, ambiguous as they may be. The decision to return is complex and involves many factors, and certainly highlights the difficulties of leading institutions of higher education through the systems and cultures that constitute them.
Ill-Advised or Ill-Minded Leaders?
In the wake of the daily news updates regarding campus closures, students are still returning to campus as I write and even as you read. My university recently opened its gates to the flood of students and parents nervously eager to see how the semester proceeds.
Campus leaders have worked to assuage parents’ fears and hesitations. Most letters and emails written by university presidents, provosts, or any other titled higher education professional end with something like this:
We are doing all that we can to ensure a safe and healthy return to campus for our students, faculty, and staff. We have taken extreme steps to implement our new safety measures so that we can provide the best learning environment for students. We look forward to greeting you soon! #BetterTogether
But what does it mean to “do all we can” or “provide the best learning environment for students”? Surely there is more to student success than merely health safety measures.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently walked back its fall reopening plan after only a week of on-campus classes. Their student Covid-19 infection rate increased by almost five times during the first week of class. Their health safety measures failed.
“I don’t apologize for trying to give this campus the opportunity to return to its mission on behalf of the people of North Carolina,” said Bob Blouin, the provost at UNC-Chapel Hill. Blouin stated that if earlier assumptions about infection rates’ tapering off over the summer had been correct, the university would have had a “high shot of making this.” Other university officials went on to place the blame on students’ socialization patterns.
The very fact that early assumptions about the spread or containment of Covid-19 did not match reality over the past weeks and months should have led UNC-Chapel Hill to act differently rather than carry on with original plans. Yet, this is the arrogance of American higher education.
It is arrogance that says the pandemic will not affect our campus.
It is arrogance that says implemented safety measures void all risk.
It is arrogance that says we should not apologize for striving to educate students.
It is arrogance that says the spread of the virus is the students’ fault.
Let me be clear. The arrogance to act against reason, research, and rationalization has nothing to do with benefiting students’ education or success in college. It benefits no one and is detrimental to all. Tentative plans are just that: tentative. The environment changes, circumstances change, so plans must change. When we consider what is “best” for students, are we truly considering all options?
The “Fall” of College Athletics
Covid-19 has even imperiled top-tier athletic programs across the country. I enjoy college football as much as the next person. I have eagerly awaited the 2020 football season ever since Joe Burrow and the LSU Tigers routed every team they played last year. College athletics offers that kind of excitement, entertainment, and elevated talent year-round.
With the announcement of the PAC-12 and the Big Ten conferences’ withdrawal from fall athletics, many fans were eager to learn the fate of other top athletic conferences (such as the ACC, Big 12, and SEC). Many universities have made the decision to keep their seasons afloat while paring down the number of games and excluding non-conference matchups. Some coaches claim it is actually safer for the players to be on campus than back at home. Others see the situation as more nuanced.
Rarely are monumental health decisions based on the wants or wishes of students. Yet, when it comes to an athletic powerhouse conference like the SEC, it seems that student-athletes’ desire to play outranks rationality and research. Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman tweeted recently:
There is no doubt about it. College Football is a money-making machine. According to Business Insider, there are at least 24 schools that make over $100 million annually from their athletic departments. Some of the most profitable programs bring in close to $200 million a year — an amount many colleges’ endowment hardly reaches. Many times, local communities greatly benefit from athletic events. Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home to the University of Alabama, stands to lose close to $2 billion in local business revenue if football is canceled.
Perhaps college athletics is more nuanced, but the question remains — as it has for decades — is college athletics about the student-athletes, or is it about the multi-figure revenue stream?
Lack of Attention to Online Learning Preparation
Online education for the latter half of the Spring 2020 semester was not a complete failure in most respects. It was unanticipated and most university professors had less than a week to prepare for delivering engaging classes in a less than engaging virtual environment. For millions of part-time college students, online education is the norm. For others, it might be seen as a step down in quality. But, we can agree on this: it was a necessity in 2020.
With several universities walking back their reopening plans at the beginning of the fall semester, is the transition to online education inevitable for this fall? I speak only for myself when I say I certainly think so. Are most universities prepared to make the switch should that time come? We’ve had an entire summer to implement that part of the “plan” too, so I certainly hope so.
Of my gravest concerns, preparedness for delivering online courses this fall rises to the top. With the nearly universal commitment to on-campus instruction for the fall, it is my fear many universities did not take action to train and develop professors and lecturers for the possibility of online environments. For those that have, their students will have a greater likelihood of success this semester, regardless of what happens.
Planning for online course delivery is not planning for failure.
It is the right and prudent thing to do when the future is simply uncertain.
Far too often American higher education institutions rest on their laurels and seek to make no further advances or preparations for the unthinkable. Pandemics have a way of changing that. Hopefully, institutions have taken steps to right their ships toward an end that bolsters preparedness and readiness for excellence no matter the circumstance.
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The coming weeks will provide a telling commentary on the state of American higher education. We will surely learn of failure to contain Covid-19 amongst students, faculty, and staff at multiple — if not most — institutions. High profile institutions, community colleges, religious institutions, private and public colleges — all of American higher education will be touched by this pandemic. It is not a matter of if, but when. Universities that have prepared to take action, that are unafraid to cancel or further delay on-campus learning, these universities that will survive and thrive during this pandemic.
Student success depends upon more than mere health safety measures. Student success encompasses the whole university. Student success takes into account a holistic view of the student experience. It evolves, adapts, and reconsiders. This is a trying time for institutions, both financially and paradigmatically. Higher education is transforming before us. We have a responsibility and duty to promote the success and health of students — whatever the cost, whatever the circumstance, whatever the future holds.