Colleges and Universities Provide Critical Support in Coronavirus Crisis
In the weeks before the coronavirus took an obvious foothold in the United States, one industry was leading the way in risk-mitigation tactics, adapting its business models, and disseminating key information on the virus.
The answer might surprise you: It was higher education.
Higher education may not typically be thought of as a fast-moving, highly adaptable industry. But many colleges and universities led the effort in the United States to mitigate COVID-19’s spread, sending their students home before spring break — well before governors’ stay-at-home orders and mounting case totals in most states — and quickly shifting their educational offerings online.
For a sector that educates nearly 20 million students and employs millions more, this was no small feat.
As the virus rapidly spread, colleges and universities have stepped up to support their communities in creative ways, thanks in part to their efforts to get students home safely first.
With beds in dormitories suddenly empty and hospital beds quickly filling up, some schools, including Tufts University near Boston, have made the space available for patients suffering from the coronavirus or other ailments.
And while student-athletes are no longer playing in campus recreational facilities, the open spaces are still home to energetic activity. Cornell University’s basketball facility is now a “makeshift mask factory,” with volunteers sewing masks (a safe distance apart) for healthcare workers in Ithaca. The University of Southern Maine has turned its gym into a homeless shelter to provide housing and social distancing to a vulnerable population in Portland.
Higher education institutions are using their medical prowess to tackle the virus head-on. Groundbreaking research on coronavirus testing, vaccines, and protective equipment is already underway at institutions including Tulane University and the University of Maryland. The University of California, Los Angeles is one of many institutions with medical schools that have set up community coronavirus testing sites. Other schools, including SUNY Sullivan in New York and Johnson County Community College in Kansas, have delivered ventilators or other medical supplies to nearby hospitals.
Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania are serving a critical public-interest need by compiling and disseminating key information on the virus and its spread across the country and the world.
Colleges and universities also are hard at work addressing the basic needs of their communities. Westchester Community College in New York set up a drive-through lane for locals in need to pick up several days’ worth of free food, and the University of Chicago has pledged to donate 225,000 meals over 10 weeks to community members.
We are living in undoubtedly trying, even frightening, times. As we navigate this crisis, higher education is contributing steady leadership, vital research, and compassionate service to meet the needs of our local communities and the nation.
Susan Whealler Johnston is president and CEO of the National Association of College and University Business Officers. NACUBO is a membership organization representing more than 1,900 colleges and universities across the country.
