Okay, look, bottom-of-the-page, let’s talk about where this is all heading.
If COVID isn’t contained, then campuses currently planning in good faith for in-person or hybrid instruction are going to all have to switch to online courses. There will be no other alternative.
(1/x)
If COVID isn’t contained, then campuses currently planning in good faith for in-person or hybrid instruction are going to all have to switch to online courses. There will be no other alternative.
(1/x)
That’s going to lead to these stark discrepancies: near-full tuition for a radically reduced college experience.
Students and parents will rightly be outraged.
But the ways we currently finance university education leave no other alternatives.
(2/x)
Students and parents will rightly be outraged.
But the ways we currently finance university education leave no other alternatives.
(2/x)
This is one of the MANY ways that the Trump administration’s “lets all just deal with it” plan is not actually a plan.
Huge chunks of the economy don’t function if the virus is still running rampant. That’s not just retail/entertainment/dining.
(3/x)
Huge chunks of the economy don’t function if the virus is still running rampant. That’s not just retail/entertainment/dining.
(3/x)
(And DONT GET ME STARTED on how we’re demanding parents of young children functionally drop out of the workforce.)
(4/x)
(4/x)
But for universities, here’s where we’re headed.
One way or another, higher ed is going to go over a fiscal cliff. Either universities are forced to drastically cut tuition and then find a Magic way to meet costs OR universities deal with radically reduced enrollments.
(5/x)
One way or another, higher ed is going to go over a fiscal cliff. Either universities are forced to drastically cut tuition and then find a Magic way to meet costs OR universities deal with radically reduced enrollments.
(5/x)
Harvard and the Ivies have large enough endowments to weather the storm. Most other universities do not.
COVID-19, left unchecked, may end the U.S. university system — one of the few remaining areas of excellence in eyes of the rest of the world.
(6/x)
COVID-19, left unchecked, may end the U.S. university system — one of the few remaining areas of excellence in eyes of the rest of the world.
(6/x)
This is a government failure. It is going to require a government solution.
If COVID continues unchecked, there is effectively going to need to be a bailout of university education. The government will have step in to cover the massive dip in 2020-21.
(7/x)
If COVID continues unchecked, there is effectively going to need to be a bailout of university education. The government will have step in to cover the massive dip in 2020-21.
(7/x)
When that time comes, please spare me the “disruption”-talk and all the “too-costly-anyway” talk.
Sure, the foundations of higher ed were already unstable. The trend lines were pointed in bad directions. But the current crisis isn’t a natural extension of those trends.
(8/x)
Sure, the foundations of higher ed were already unstable. The trend lines were pointed in bad directions. But the current crisis isn’t a natural extension of those trends.
(8/x)
We have a once-in-century pandemic, made collossally worse by inept government management.
If higher ed dies from this, it’s government incompetence that will have killed it.
(Fin)
If higher ed dies from this, it’s government incompetence that will have killed it.
(Fin)
