According to my kid, the UMich President sent out an email today to students that said he feels school will be back in session in the Fall.
Hopefully, he’s a good prognosticator.
He didn’t exactly say that:
kid needs to work on his critical reading skills. hahahaha
Look, UMichigan is one of the most expensive public universities in the U.S. with OOS tuition at 53K (average). Of course he is going to put a positive spin on fall semester, even though his exact quote is ambiguous at best. All of these colleges want to make sure that students commit to their 2020/2021 class and current students don’t drop out or transfer to their local colleges.
All the college presidents are saying the same thing, which is essentially a) we have taken a huge financial hit, b) we care about health and safety of our students, faculty, and admin, and c) we have no idea what the new normal will be next academic cycle.
As I have said before, colleges will encourage new students to commit to the college and then take the path of least resistance which is online courses in the fall which will be announced in mid-summer. Once students are committed it will be easy for all colleges to extend the online learning through spring 2021. They will lose revenue from room and board, but tuition will still be paid for the academic year. I hope I’m wrong.
Potato. Potato. 
As my mom used to say “Oy!”
Geez, Louise. There’s always at least “one” in the crowd. He’s “cautiously optimistic” = he “feels.” ?♂️
Northwestern announced their hiring freeze:
"The sobering reality for us is that COVID-19 is having a significant impact on many elements of universities’ funding. Our challenges are similar to those faced by other universities and colleges across the country, including:
Financial hardship for many families, requiring increased financial support for a number of our students, which we are committed to providing;
Dramatic declines in many financial markets, causing a decrease in the value of our endowment and a reduction in endowment payouts supporting the University’s operating budget;
A reduction of more than $25 million in revenues from room and board and student fees related to the decision to refund these charges for Spring Quarter; and
The loss in revenue due to the cancellation of many on-campus courses and programs.
In addition to the current financial challenges, we also need to prepare our institution for potentially more financial disruptions. Philanthropy may decrease, as our alumni and supporters face financial challenges of their own. Research funding from private or government sources may decline. Enrollment in certain programs may not reach pre-pandemic levels. And certain community-defining activities, such as Athletics, may be severely impacted. Finally, our return to on-campus instruction in the summer or fall is not guaranteed.
Despite the fiscal pressures, we believe we have an obligation to help vulnerable members of our academic community and our larger community. Along with providing refunds for certain student fees and room and board, we assisted more than 1,500 students through our COVID-19 emergency assistance fund, providing more than $1.5 million for students’ travel and technology needs as we transitioned to remote learning. We partnered with Compass Group to leverage the federal relief package so that all hourly food service workers will continue to receive benefits and compensation equal to their current full-time status for the entire Spring Quarter. We also partnered with the City of Evanston to establish a food bank for Evanston community members impacted by the pandemic."
"Certain underlying principles will guide our actions:
We will fully honor all student financial aid commitments, and we will provide increased financial support to undergraduate students with demonstrated need.
We will work to minimize the disruption to our academic mission. We will continue to support intellectual eminence and impactful research.
We will prioritize the preservation of jobs whenever possible.
We also will work to protect our endowment, which represents a strong fiscal foundation that must serve Northwestern in perpetuity.
Given the recent budgetary shortfall, we have worked diligently to put the University on more stable financial ground, and many of the measures we have already taken will benefit us now and in the future. We have introduced greater rigor and discipline in our budgeting practices.
However, the magnitude of the financial risk we now face requires us to take additional measures, which include:
Pausing all facilities projects, except those related to the safety and reliability of our campuses and projects that are in the final stages of permitting and close-out;
Pausing new staff hiring until further notice, except for hiring supported by external grant funding or critical to the core mission of the University, with the understanding that we are trying to protect our current workforce for as long as possible;
Significantly slowing academic hiring and retentions, with each hire subject to careful evaluation;
Keeping all individual faculty and staff salaries for fiscal year 2021 at current levels (except when contractually required or salary adjustments associated with promotion and tenure decisions);
Asking all schools and units to defer discretionary spending. Large expenditures are reviewed by the senior vice president for business and finance to ensure our resources are directed towards our most essential functions.
Depending upon how the pandemic evolves, we may continue these adjustments over the summer and perhaps into the next fiscal year. We also may ask our units to make further adjustments in expenditures.
Questions may arise as to whether Northwestern’s endowment might help us bridge any financial gap caused by the pandemic. These endowed funds tend to be restricted for specific purposes and a portion of them are allocated to illiquid investments that are not easy to unwind to support current spending needs. Funds within the endowment, in most cases, were provided by donors as a promise of support to future generations of students, faculty and staff. The endowment was not established to fix budget shortfalls or manage crises, but rather to provide key resources needed to preserve our mission of academic excellence and research eminence far into the future."
“Funds within the endowment, in most cases, were provided by donors as a promise of support to future generations of students, faculty and staff. The endowment was not established to fix budget shortfalls or manage crises, but rather to provide key resources needed to preserve our mission of academic excellence and research eminence far into the future."
That is a frightening statement from a college with an ~$11B endowment (>$500K per student). It basically means under no circumstances (not even a once in a 100 year pandemic) are we willing to draw on the capital of our endowment. Instead we will only ever seek to use the income for current expenses, while raising funds to increase our invested capital.
When is enough enough? In other words when should you just be raising money to pay for current expenditures (eg to pay for specific programs for the next 1-4 years) or one off expenses (eg a new building) rather than raising more permanent capital for the sake of it?
The attitude displayed here would definitely discourage me from donating. And makes me keen on laws that would force colleges to disburse a higher percentage of their endowment or pay taxes if it reaches more than a certain amount per student.
tbf, that $11b has taken an huge hit with the market declines, and NU has no way of knowing if/when its coming back. It could be years before they get back to that number. IMO, given the unknowns, it prudent to defer a bunch of stuff and hold the line on salaries until they know more.
If Northwestern and UMich who are in much better shape financially, announced cuts and hiring freeze and whatnot, I am really worried about my alma mater, also my daughter’s school.
My objection is not to colleges cutting back somewhat, as most of us are doing. It is their principle that the endowment is sacrosanct and the capital should never be touched, however large it becomes and no matter how unusual the circumstances, while continuing to seek donations to increase it further. A certain amount is necessary for a college’s financial security. Beyond that you are simply taking money for its own sake that could do a lot more good elsewhere. In that sense it’s similar to colleges like Harvard taking CARES Act funding that other colleges need much more. Top schools lead by example and this is a bad one to set.
Germany is cautiously opening up schools next week for finalists, that’s grades 9/10 in some tracks and 12/13 in others.
No more than 15 to a class, mask wearing yet to be determined. If a class has been larger than 15, tough luck, teacher has to come in twice. They’re all civil servants and have to suck it up, but it’s not like anything else much has been going on for weeks now except for online schooling. (H is lucky, teaches physics, no more than 8).
Finals will take place in late May, but those have always been in gyms, with individual desks spread out to prevent cheating, so pretty safe anyway.
Mid May, if infection rates keep going down, all upper school levels in all tracks are going “live”. Probably still with 15 per class, so lower school levels must stay home. Which I think is right, though it’s a bit of a conundrum for us, because then both H and I will be essential workers and will have to split childcare. Assume H will go in on 3 days and I on 2.
They’re also mooting fourth grade k because that’s when tracking decisions are made and “kids are being prepared for middle school”. I think they’re nuts. Kids and schools will cope.
A bunch of scientists, almost exclusively male, had a plan prepared which involved mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing for elementary grades. They were laughed out of the room.
Just like residential colleges, I cannot imagine elementary schools can reopen before testing and tracing is established and infection rates are under control, South Korea style.
@MaineLonghorn While I am not sure of the policy of the Pennsylvania unemployment office, I know that in California students who are laid off from their campus employment are eligible to file for unemployment.
The base benefits may be small but the additional $600 a week by the federal government makes it a considerable amount. Not sure if your daughter would want to go that route but it’s worth looking into!
Not all schools respond to this crisis the same way. Some have taken more measured approaches. A couple of examples:
Caltech - a) Salary freeze; b) Hiring slowdown; c) Deferral of non-essential renovation and construction projects
MIT - a) Pause hiring except for essential personnel; b) Suspend merit increases; c) Reduce budgetary funding for physical space improvements; d) Reduce other expenses; e) Pay cuts for senior administrators
.
I understand the bit about liquidity and restricted funds, but the part about fiscal responsibility and financial stability…isn’t this a “future generation” of students, faculty and staff that past donors were promising to support? You obviously can’t run a school with a budget shortfall every year, but in this extraordinary circumstance, accessing the endowment seems reasonable, maybe even necessary, in order to “preserve the mission.”
Is this the same federal relief package that schools like Harvard are being criticized for using?
Different topic - with all pros and cons about online learning (mostly cons really), my kiddo doesn’t seem to mind doing online learning as much as she misses her social life on campus.
I saw her watching a video of her OChem professor giving a lecture, he was talking so fast I couldn’t make out what he said. I thought the speaker was bad. But she told me that she watched him in double speed. I said don’t you want to listen carefully and slowly? Ochem is hard… She said she understood everything, normal speed would be too slow. She told me this is the one thing she will miss greatly if they ever go back to in person learning, she won’t be able to speed him up live. Crazy kid.
Same for my D. That’s why she wants to live with college friends in a rental near the campus if school is online in the Fall…she attends an LAC where 95+% students live on campus.
Here’s the Purdue weekly update:
TO THE PEOPLE OF PURDUE:
The global pandemic which has altered every previous reality of daily life has, of course, inflicted great harm on the nation’s colleges and universities. American higher education, often criticized for its antiquated ways and its slowness to change them, has improvised and responded with admirable, even amazing alacrity to enable students to finish this semester with the progress they anticipated.
The central question now, assuming governmental authorities permit reopening of our schools by the customary August start dates, is should schools do so, and with what new rules and practices. Purdue University, for its part, intends to accept students on campus in typical numbers this fall, sober about the certain problems that the COVID-19 virus represents, but determined not to surrender helplessly to those difficulties but to tackle and manage them aggressively and creatively.
Institutions committed to the on-campus educational experience face special difficulties in returning our operations to anything like their previous arrangements. At Purdue, we have pursued a conscious policy that promotes density of our population. Our campus master plan aims at bringing people more closely together. Our housing policies, with significant success, have been designed to encourage on-campus living. And there are far more of us; we have grown our entering classes, both undergraduate and graduate, by some 25%, while investing heavily in programs like learning communities that foster higher retention and graduation.
There were sound reasons for these steps. Serving more students is our most worthy social mission. Making the campus more convenient and walkable likewise has obvious merits. Most important, all the evidence reveals that students who live and spend more of their time on campus succeed academically at higher rates. The learning experience is enhanced not only by being closer to faculty, labs, and classrooms, but also by being closer to other students, especially those from different backgrounds.
Now, sadly and ironically, the very density we have consciously fostered is, at least for the moment, our enemy. Distance between people, that is, less density, is now the overriding societal imperative. It could be argued that a college campus will be among the most difficult places to reopen for previously regular activities.
But in other respects, a place like Purdue may be in better position to resume its mission. Our campus community, a “city” of 50,000+ people, is highly unusual in its makeup. At least 80% of our population is made up of young people, say, 35 and under. All data to date tell us that the COVID-19 virus, while it transmits rapidly in this age group, poses close to zero lethal threat to them.
Meanwhile, the virus has proven to be a serious danger to other, older demographic groups, especially those with underlying health problems. The roughly 20% of our Purdue community who are over 35 years old contains a significant number of people with diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and other ailments which together comprise a very high percentage of the fatal and most severe COVID-19 cases.
We will consider new policies and practices that keep these groups separate, or minimize contact between them. Literally, our students pose a far greater danger to others than the virus poses to them. We all have a role, and a responsibility, in ensuring the health of the Purdue community.
The approaches below are preliminary, meant to be illustrative of the objectives we will pursue. View them as examples, likely to be replaced by better ideas as we identify and validate them.
They could include spreading out classes across days and times to reduce their size, more use of online instruction for on-campus students, virtualizing laboratory work, and similar steps.
We will look to protect the more vulnerable members of our community by allowing (or requiring, if necessary) them to work remotely. Like the rest of society, we are learning a lot right now about which jobs are most amenable to remote work, and about new and better ways to do such work.
We intend to know as much as possible about the viral health status of our community. This could include pre-testing of students and staff before arrival in August, for both infection and post-infection immunity through antibodies. It will include a robust testing system during the school year, using Purdue’s own BSL-2 level laboratory for fast results. Anyone showing symptoms will be tested promptly, and quarantined if positive, in space we will set aside for that purpose.
We expect to be able to trace proximate and/or frequent contacts of those who test positive. Contacts in the vulnerable categories will be asked to self-quarantine for the recommended period, currently 14 days. Those in the young, least vulnerable group will be tested, quarantined if positive, or checked regularly for symptoms if negative for both antibodies and the virus.
Again, these concepts are preliminary, intended mainly to illustrate an overall, data-driven and research-based strategy, and to invite suggestions for their modification or exclusion in favor of better actions. They will be augmented by a host of other changes, such as an indefinite prohibition on gatherings above a specified size, continued limitations on visitors to and travel away from campus, required use of face coverings and other protective equipment, frequent if not daily deep cleaning of facilities, and so forth.
Whatever its eventual components, a return-to-operations strategy is undergirded by a fundamental conviction that even a phenomenon as menacing as COVID-19 is one of the inevitable risks of life. Like most sudden and alarming developments, its dangers are graphic, expressed in tragic individual cases, and immediate; the costs of addressing it are less visible, more diffuse, and longer-term. It is a huge and daunting problem, but the Purdue way has always been to tackle problems, not hide from them.
Closing down our entire society, including our university, was a correct and necessary step. It has had invaluable results. But like any action so drastic, it has come at extraordinary costs, as much human as economic, and at some point, clearly before next fall, those will begin to vastly outweigh the benefits of its continuance. Interrupting and postponing the education of tomorrow’s leaders for another entire semester or year, is one of many such costs. So is permanently damaging the careers and lives of those who have made teaching and research their life’s work, and those who support them in that endeavor.
The COVID-19 virus will remain a fact of life this autumn. Natural immunity, which has been slowed by the shutdown, will not yet have fully developed. No vaccine can be counted on until 2021 at the soonest. It is unclear what course other schools will choose, but Purdue will employ every measure we can adopt or devise to manage this challenge with maximum safety for every member of the Boilermaker family, while proceeding with the noble and essential mission for which our institution stands.
Sincerely,
Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
President
@Mwfan1921 I am giving mine that option too (b/c you and others have shared here what they will do). She is happy to have the option, but reluctant due to the fear of the cost. We already signed up on the lease for her to move in August 1 to share an apartment with her roommate. In order for this to work, her roommate would have to do the same. Otherwise $3200+ a month so she can have a social life is a bit much. We will see.
That would be a financial hit!
It could be pricey for us too depending on rental availability…not sure how many four month rentals would be out there, especially to a group of college students.
Hopefully things will become clear by July 1!
So, the lecture wasn’t synchronous and real time? Or does she just prefer to watch the recorded video afterwards to save time?