Wednesday, December 1, 2021

COVID just won't go away

The aching reality that is emerging around the world is that COVID is not going away but, instead, continues to morph in ways the allows its spread in vulnerable as well as prepared communities. Spring breaks in 2022 may have contributed to a rise in the latest COVID variant, resulting in some campuses returning to mask mandates. The persistence of COVID and its variants in 2022 was addressed by new recommendations from the American College Health Association. The ACHA recommendations remained in place but variation in campus approaches increased as campuses moved into 2023.

The COVID pandemic has become an endemic and campus changes from the last two years will likely morph into long-term adjustments. With the shift to viewing COVID as an endemic to be managed, and changing policies related to its control, those with preconditions that potentially make them more vulnerable to the virus will become more at risk again. The good news is that American College Health Association's research demonstrated that higher education was more effective in implementing vaccination policies than the broader public. Going forward, perhaps higher education can continue to be a leader in mitigating the ongoing presence of COVID.

The impact of the initial waves of COVID (previously summarized) caused educators to ponder and respond to a "lost generation" of students whose experience is captured in a collection of essays by first-year students at Oregon State University. Part of addressing current students' needs involved masking and vaccination mandates, which turned into booster mandates but the "ripple effects" of the pandemic went far beyond what these measures will achieve. Faculty and their ability to respond to the pandemic received mixed reviews from students. Some educators have warned that a false narrative, which includes sweeping generalizations that don't reflect the reality of diverse enrollment, should be corrected if institutions are to navigate toward a positive future.

Multiple assessments documented the impact of the COVID pandemic. The disruption wrought by COVID resulted in many high school graduates being less well prepared. The National Survey of Student Engagement found that the impact of moves to virtual and other restrictions to students' engagement was more impactful for first-year students. However, NSSE findings indicated that students have been relatively satisfied with teaching and learning at their institutions during a very difficult time. Steps to take for the pandemic that has become endemic, tips from a counselor about fostering wellness during continued COVID uncertainty, as well as Inside Higher Education's "Back on Track" offered some help as institutions planned to support students struggling to stay afloat during this very difficulty time.

As the Omicron variant gained recognition, higher education institutions were warned to prepare for its inevitable arrival (or recognition) in the U.S.A. Some institutions responded to the spread of Delta and the emergence of Omicron by reinstating previous mandates, moving exams online, and cancelling campus events, while the majority of institutions resumed in-person instruction, utilizing other mitigation strategies instead. Cornell University reported 469 cases and cancelled mid-year graduation and moved finals online. Georgetown, NYU, and Princeton quickly followed Cornell's example, reflecting fears that the Omicron variant could quickly spread through in-person events. Striving to stay open during the Omicron scare led to innovation on the part of some institutions, resulting in their leading their communities to better testing and more effective mitigation.

While institutions switched back and forth in reinstating or dropping previous COVID control strategies, the question of how 2022 would look remained unclear. Institutions with rising COVID rates reinstated mask mandates in the Summer of 2022. This lack of clarity was perhaps behind Inside Higher Education's "Live Updates" which pulled their posts related to COVID management together in one place. As the winter surge of the Omicron variant declined and legal challenges to mask mandates undermined a consistent response, states began to roll back mask mandates and colleges followed their lead.

Unfortunately, politics sidetracked consistent response with Arizona institutions being a prime example - some responding with paused mandates and others maintaining their efforts to prevent COVID spread. Governor DeSantis declared that higher education institutions in Florida should refund 100% of tuition if they go virtual, an obvious assertion of a political view. The newly elected Republican Attorney General of Virginia issued an advisory that state institutions cannot impose vaccination mandates. University of Virginia President, Jim Ryan, responded by saying that the issue of vaccinations is moot because 99% of UVa's students are already vaccinated. Jason Miyares (the Virginia AG) isn't only seeking to restrict state institution's COVID strategies but also has dismissed two institution's legal counsels, because as his spokesperson says, "The attorney general wants the university counsel to return to giving legal advice based on law, and not the philosophy of a university."

The effects of the pandemic impacted niches within the student population in very different ways, with Black and Latino students and students with work and personal life complexities hit more heavily. Students aren't the only people who have been impacted by COVID. The higher education workforce contracted by 4% in fall 2020 and we don't know whether this portion of the workforce has now returned or has declined further. The distribution of decline was very different, depending on type of work, with part-time faculty, administrative, and student support staff suffering the most. Another way that faculty and staff have been impacted is in compensation. Michigan State University faculty recently protested loss of salary which has now been restored with a $1,500 bonus granted from excess revenue that resulted from more robust enrollment. Staff were not included in the bonuses, resulting in the trend of protecting faculty first and foremost.

Numerous lawsuits sought tuition and fee refunds for loss of educational benefit when institutions shifted to online and shut down, or limited access to, campus resources. The decisions vary significantly depending on the circumstances and the jurisdictions involved, with some cases dismissed and others resulting in millions of dollars of reimbursements.

Regardless of the challenges institutions faced, their presidents are confident and believe that adjustments have been made that will promise a positive future. Some question if this confidence is justifiable or warranted but the survey results are likely to have been influenced by the common expectation that leaders are the custodians of hope. Institutions will be best served if leaders can maintain hope while still facing the reality of adversity. Facing adversity is particular important in one of the findings of the presidents' survey - a shocking proportion of them (73%) indicated that race relations were either good or excellent.

Now two years and beyond the COVID pandemic, I'm left wondering what we knew or could have predicted about the devastation that the world has experienced. Unfortunately, higher education has not been seen by the public as helping to address COVID. The U.S.A. government has also wavered and lost credibility as a result of action or inaction. Critics charged Trump from the beginning with ignoring the pandemic plan assembled by the Obama administration (wouldn't you love to know what it recommended?). I've begun to think that no one could have predicted the impact of global inequities in health services, public skepticism about science and research around communicable diseases, or the fact that a virus could so effectively evade control by changing its very composition.

It's truly amazing that as COVID emerged in 2020 that the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) advised that the world's "lack of unity is a bigger threat than the virus." How prophetic of where we are now! And perhaps the battle against COVID should study and propose strategies that could begin to deal with this devastating and systemic contributor to the pain that has reached deeply into so many people's lives around the globe.

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