College leaders may be talking a big game about planning to reopen this fall, but such plans are dependent on many factors — perhaps most notably, government orders, guidance, and flexibility. In Massachusetts, where higher education is a significant part of the regional economy, a coalition of public and private colleges is urging the state government to provide certain assurances as institutions prepare to welcome their students back.
A group of public and private campuses — including wealthy, selective research universities; community colleges; and tuition-dependent private colleges — asked that Massachusetts health insurers cover testing costs not absorbed by the federal government. They wanted local leaders to assist with providing testing, protective equipment, and cleaning supplies, in addition to enacting contact-tracing systems.
It’s not just about the decisions we make. It’s also about how our communities are going to respond.
And they echoed the calls of 14 college leaders who met with White House officials this month: if colleges prepare comprehensive reopening plans, they said, the Commonwealth should give them a “safe harbor from liability.”
Such requests, released publicly on Wednesday, show higher education’s desire for collaboration with the state, said Laurie A. Leshin, the leader of the group, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and a member of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening advisory committee.
Waiving liability would require a “legislative solution,” and the most significant vulnerability would be if people got sick on campuses, she said. Already, colleges have seen lawsuits regarding tuition costs for online classes. She said colleges are “not necessarily” waiting for such a waiver to resume in-person classes, but that it is a widely considered step, including by industry.
“We’re doing everything we can think of to be safe,” she said. “We’d like to be protected.”
The coalition showed this presentation to officials working on reopening this month, Leshin said. She said issues like protective-equipment supply and insurance coverage of tests are still under consideration. The campuses also asked Massachusetts to urge colleges to develop reopening plans for their own institutions.
That even some of the nation’s wealthiest colleges, like Tufts and Boston Universities, are seeking state support shows how challenging reopening campuses might be. Leshin said presidents have told her that they view the decision about the fall as one of the most important of their careers. About two-thirds of nearly 780 campus plans collected by The Chronicle say leaders are planning for in-person operations.
Massachusetts college leaders surveyed by this group said screening all students, faculty, and staff may be difficult.
As colleges and universities have struggled to devise policies to respond to the quickly evolving situation, here are links to The Chronicle’s key coverage of how this worldwide health crisis is affecting campuses.
The survey, which received responses from 86 public and private colleges, asked whether they could enact such testingprocedures if they had enough testing and personal-protective equipment. Just 59 percent say they would be “very” or “somewhat” confident they could do so, while 15 percent responded that they are “not confident at all.” Nearly 75 percent of registered voters said students should be tested before they return to school or college, according to a Morning Consult poll published on Tuesday.
Socializing the changed norms — like testing, wearing masks, and following social-distancing practices — will be critical, Leshin said. “It’s not just about the decisions we make. It’s also about how our communities are going to respond.”
The question of repopulating campuses is particularly significant in Massachusetts, where college is a cornerstone of the economy. Hundreds of thousands of students typically enroll in the state’s 100-plus colleges. No students would mean empty apartments, quiet restaurants, and lower tax revenue.
The coalition, dubbed the Massachusetts Higher Education Working Group and comprising 14 colleges, reported on Wednesday that campuses in the state spend $24.5 billion annually and pay $10 billion in salaries to higher-education employees. Professors do breakthrough research in the sciences, and that work can get to market through the region’s start-up ecosystem.
Massachusetts also has many small, tuition-dependent colleges that were already facing challenges before the current crisis, as enrollment declined; keeping students away might bring closures.
“There is no doubt that higher education is a jewel in the crown of Massachusetts,” Leshin said. “It’s one of our most visible industries, and it’s a driver of a strong economy, a strong innovation sector in Massachusetts.”
Even with testing capacity and the ability to trace contacts exhaustively, the presidents outlined plans for reimagining core aspects of college life. It is “likely” that classes will be held both in person and digitally, and students could live in “family-like ‘households,’ clustering students with shared courses to minimize contacts.” Meals might be served in to-go boxes.
Such sketches echo conversations happening nationally. Colleges have proposed lowering room occupancies, holding classes outside, and asking professors to teach behind plexiglass.
