Online learning. Mask requirements. Limited student services. Dining room revamps. Expanded trained health services. University campus life is in a state of pandemic flux, and higher learning institutions across the country are struggling with an avalanche of changes that go far beyond exams and lectures – although those are issues, too.

“It’s a watershed moment, no doubt, for higher education, and it’s a crisis for a lot of reasons,” says Ralph Gigliotti Ph.D., director of the Center for Organizational Leadership at Rutgers University, which focuses on leadership research and consultation for higher education institutions.

“It’s complicating so much of the work that we do, it’s laden with uncertainty and it’s hard to really decipher what the right response is because there’s no clear end in sight.”

Gigliotti says one basic struggle higher education leaders have is true across the board: How to preserve and protect the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and guests from the community while still exercising and deploying the operations and programs and services for which colleges and universities are known.

“We are values-based organizations, so when crises strike, we need to respond in a way that’s consistent with who we say we are,” Gigliotti says of higher education institutions. “So this is a test for leadership. How do you respond in a way that is value centered but that also recognizes the financial implications for the decisions that are being made?”

In other words, getting people to pay for an experience that looks very different from the one they signed up for.

“What makes higher education so unique as a context is there are so many different stakeholders, each of whom view colleges and universities through different lenses,” Gigliotti explains. “So parents, of course, have a whole set of priorities that need to be taken account of.”

It’s something leaders at the University of Tennessee has been grappling with, organizing a Re-Imagining Fall Task Force to submit recommendations that are being implemented with help from Steve Smith, dean of libraries and special adviser to the chancellor on reopening.

“I think the biggest challenge is the same challenge everyone in the world is facing right now,’’ Smith says. “We’re making all the plans we can to be as safe as we can, but we’re just living in a time of uncertainty.

“More than any particular thing, it’s just very challenging to just process the uncertainty. So people naturally are anxious. We know we make the plans as firm and as clear and as safe as we can, but the end of the day, it’s impossible to prevent all the risks.”

Rutgers, based in New Jersey, was hit hard by the pandemic – and earlier than in Tennessee. Officials announced weeks ago classes were going almost entirely online for the fall semester, with some exceptions for different majors. They also created a 100-page “Returning to Rutgers’ guide for all aspects of what a return to campus would look like.

“It’s ongoing and it’s fluid, but there’s no doubt been a lot of attention to detail, especially by the emergency management team, to make sure that there’s some clarity around what a return to campus will look like,” Gigliotti says. “Each state is adopting different guidelines and policies for what’s permissible and not permissible, so for many leaders in higher education right now there is just a constant wrestling with how to ensure health and safety while still ensuring true continuity of what we do best in higher education.”

Worth the cost?

Rutgers recently announced the university is reducing its tuition by 15% to reflect being mostly online. The university, which is facing a $160 million budget shortfall, is like many other colleges looking to make the college experience during COVID-19 worth the high price.

MTSU will not be reducing tuition.

“Obviously, in-person courses are preferred, but we’ve had to balance the mission of maintaining a high-quality educational experience with the need to mitigate the risk of this virus as much as possible,” University Provost Mark Byrnes says. “We’ve made significant investment in classroom technology to make the online and remote experience as effective as possible, and I’m very proud of the work our faculty and support staff have done toward that aim.”

UTK also isn’t reducing tuition for the 2020-2021 school year.

“My kids are beyond college now, but not so far beyond that I can’t imagine how I would’ve felt,” Smith explains. “Through all of this, I’ve tried to think from the frame of when my child was in college and what would I want to hear and see. We understand that this is an unprecedented time for all of us.

“We were flexible in the spring when we had to go remote. We did millions of dollars of refunds without anybody even asking for them. We were leaning into that to make it work for folks, and we’re leaning into it now to try to continue that Volunteer tradition.”

Owen Driskill, assistant director of news and information at UTK, says the school has gone to great expense to be prepared for in-person and online classes.

“Our faculty are prepared for a variety of instructional methods, including face-to-face, hybrid and fully online. About 55% of courses offered this semester will include some face-to-face instruction. While the method may be different, the quality of instruction reflects the exceptional educational experience our students have come to expect,” he says.

“The Office of Information Technology is installing equipment to support real-time hybrid instruction. The technology will also enable lectures to be recorded so that if a student must miss class, the course content will be available to view on demand.

“New spaces for comfortably engaging in online classes will be available to both on- and off-campus students. Our goal is to make students feel that the entire campus is their classroom. They can be on campus, with access to campus spaces and resources, and take classes in various formats,” he continues.

“Over the summer, the university has invested in training instructors to enhance their delivery of online and hybrid teaching. When finished, more than 570 full-time, part-time, and graduate student instructors of record will have completed specialized training this summer.

“The university continues to invest in and fund student services, including advising, academic coaching, career guidance, and health, wellness, and counseling services that will be available in face-to-face and virtual formats. As always, students will have many opportunities to engage in extra-curricular activities that will give them a meaningful college experience. We will offer in-person and virtual programs featuring speakers, comedians, performers, cultural events, concerts and more.”

Richard Kaplan, executive director of Ivy Tutors Network, says many of his clients are facing this very difficult choice of paying for college in an uncertain time, including his own son, who was supposed to start his sophomore year this fall but instead is taking a leave of absence.

“Like many colleges in the U.S., his school plans to bring students back to campus but conduct a majority of classes remotely,” Kaplan says. “For my son, this feels like the worst of two worlds. It endangers the students and campus workers and townsfolk – though it does protect the professors – while offering inferior education at the same high price that will deepen his student loan debt.”

One advantage of these challenging pandemic times is that they were able to negotiate additional scholarships, Kaplan adds.

“The financial needs of the students and their families run counter to the desperate needs of the schools themselves, their staff and the locals who depend on the college students for a majority other income.’’

Anna Helhoski, a student loan expert at online personal finance company NerdWallet, says if a student’s school goes remote for COVID-19, the only thing that changes for students is the total amount they can borrow to pay for school.

“If your college goes remote, tuition is unlikely to be lower at most schools, but your cost of attendance could still be lower if you’re not living in dorms or using a meal plan,” Helhoski says. “For students who need help with living expenses, you can still use financial aid and loans as your funding source.”

If students are living in an apartment off-campus, for example, they can use loan money to pay for rent. Or, if they will be staying at home with their parents, a loan could help pay for supplies and food.

A different experience

At UT Knoxville, finding the right balance of community and social distancing for nearly 30,000 undergraduate students is challenging at best. No matter how it’s attempted, the social experience of the contemporary college or university is going to look very different, from residence halls to dining halls.

“The campus experience is so important to students and such a big part of their lives,” says Owen Driskill, assistant director of news and information at UTK. “Just finding ways to preserve as much of that as we can, as safely as we can - it’s been an interesting challenge, and I think we’ve come up with some interesting ideas.

“We want to do everything we can to help them have the experience they can while keeping everybody as healthy and safe as we can.”

Masks will be mandatory inside buildings at UT and MTSU.

-- Photograph Provided

Debra Sells, vice president for student affairs and vice provost for enrollment services at Middle Tennessee State University, says its primary changes are in shifting student activity and programming spaces for use as classrooms to allow for social distancing.

“We’re also not allowing external groups to reserve on-campus ballrooms or other spaces for non-university events, and we’re shifting services such as counseling, tele-health, career counseling and academic advising to be able to be delivered both face-to-face and remotely,” Sells says.

Food halls and dining services are looking at changes on most campuses. At MTSU, the food service is managed by Aramark and must comply with corporate, state and campus guidelines for social distancing and safe delivery.

Seating areas in food venues will be reduced, outdoor dining will be encouraged and to-go options will be prepacked or served by staff, Sells explains.

UTK will be using a grab-and-go option to limit the time spent in food facilities and are introducing an app for students to make a reservation or order food in advance. And these are changes that will likely remain post pandemic.

“We’re going to be on the other side of this at some point, but the lessons that we’ve learned, I think, are going to be adapted and persist and make the campus experience even better and more efficient,” Smith says.

MTSU’s annual convocation ceremony, which welcomes new students and officially opens the new academic year, will be moving to a remote experience this fall, and traditional opening activities for students are being reconfigured to focus on online or small group activities.

Moving in to residence halls is scheduled for five days instead of three, with assigned move-in days and times and no access to the “We-Haul” volunteer crews.

Move-in is starting a little bit earlier than normal at UT with families reserving three-hour slots for 7 a.m.-11 p.m., with students allowed just two helpers during move-in.

Enrollment has increased from last year, too, so the university will not be able to move to single-room occupancy to accommodate social distancing. But the school is not pushing the traditional requirement that freshman live on campus

“We’re being very flexible,” Smith says. “We know that people for various reasons may need to change their dorm plans.”

Vanderbilt University also is moving forward with a return to on-campus learning, planned in partnership with Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt School of Nursing, that takes into account a resurgence of COVID-19 in conjunction with the annual flu season.

In-person undergraduate classes will begin Aug. 24 and end Nov. 20. All undergraduate students will complete the final week and take final exams remotely.

There will be no fall break this year, and the school is asking students to stay in the Nashville area on weekends through the end of in-person classes. Undergraduate residential students who are able to do so will leave campus for the Thanksgiving holiday and not return until the spring semester.

Health services strained

Most campus student health services are not meant to function as more than a general practitioner substitute. That is likely to change on campuses across the country as they reopen during a pandemic.

At UTK, telemedicine was expanded in the spring and will be continued, and Smith says the school is also expanding the student help center hours to 24/7 to accommodate an increase in need. It also will be hiring additional staff.

“We will have the nurse hotline that students can call,” Smith adds. “Our health center will do the testing of symptomatic students, as well as asymptomatic close contacts. But a student health center is not a hospital or an emergency room. They were never built for that purpose, and we’re just not set up to do that.”

Dr. Spencer Gregg, UTK’s director of student health center, works closely with county and state public health authorities, so all the testing and services the center is providing are compliant with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the state.

Gigliotti says Rutgers is placing a large emphasis on health care.

“I know some schools, especially if you’re in states where there’s a required quarantine before coming to campus, or before visiting the state from another state, are going to have mandatory testing of students upon arrival to the campus. And of course, student health centers are going to play a critical role with the delivery of those tests,” Gigliotti says.

Increased safety measures

Providing testing for the virus is part of the new safety precautions students will find on campuses this fall.

For MTSU’s ‘Safe to Return to Campus Plan,’ all students, faculty, staff and visitors to campus will be required to wear face masks or coverings while inside campus buildings, with limited exceptions. The university has purchased a supply of MTSU-branded masks to provide to the community as part of the state’s Tennessee Strong initiative.

At UTK, masks also will be mandatory with a fine for students who are not in compliance. Masks will be provided to all students – also branded with the school logo – and indoor and outdoor spaces are being reimagined to accommodate social distancing when possible.

“We’re outfitting all the classrooms with technology to support hybrid teaching, as well as face-to-face teaching. We’re telling students if you’re feeling sick, don’t come to class. So even if you’re in a face-to-face class, we’re providing those classes and instructors with the ability to record their lectures,” Smith explains.

UT has also ordered 75 hammock frames and tents for outdoor classrooms to expand the use of the space they have.

“At first blush that doesn’t seem to have much to do with safety, but the more safe that you feel, the more you can be outdoors, the more likely it is you’re going to want to comply with mask-wearing,” Smith says. “We’ve spent the last seven years, even before the pandemic, making the campus a much nicer environment overall. We’ve already put in a lot of outdoor furniture in shaded areas. But we’re going to be doing more.”

Opportunity within crisis

Institutions of higher education will face unintended changes as they navigate the reopening of schools, from continuing on-campus research to placing student teachers in schools addressing outbreaks.

But the hope is everyone will come out stronger on the other side, with positive long-term changes beyond the pandemic.

“Within this crisis lies a lot of opportunity for leaders of higher education to really think deeply around who we are, who we serve and who we want to be,’’ Gigliotti says. “And to respond to this crisis and to the return to some new normal for the upcoming academic year with careful thought around those questions is important.’’

He encourages students, parents, faculty and staff to be aware of their own schools’ guidelines, to be familiar with the policies, to know what the contingency plans look like should an outbreak occur in the months ahead and to try to the best of their abilities be comfortable with ambiguity.

“There’s no doubt that this is going to be a disruptive year ahead for all of us,” Gigliotti points out.

And flexibility is going to be key – with a virus in flux anything is on the table when it comes to changes.