Malloy: Keeping higher education going during COVID-19 yields critical lessons

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced America’s higher education system into crisis operations for months on end. After the onset of the pandemic led to a nearly universal remote finish to the spring semester at colleges and universities around the country, many of those same institutions planned for a return to campus this fall, only to find themselves quickly pivoting back to remote instruction and operations for a second time this calendar year due to outbreaks among students. The costs to prepare for reopening, to return and then close again; to upgrade remote classroom technologies and other digital infrastructure; and to purchase personal protective equipment and supplies to keep faculty and staff safe have created major budget challenges. Most disconcerting is the threat to the safety and well-being of school students, faculty and staff when outbreaks occur. While there are many challenges still ahead for the country, higher education leaders can learn from what the University of Maine system has done. We can use this moment as an opportunity to innovate and adopt best practices for keeping students healthy and successful.

As chancellor of the University of Maine System, comprised of Maine’s seven public universities and only law school, I brought together a working group of Maine’s college and university presidents to propose state guidance for reopening. Maine’s 38 public and private colleges and universities educate more than 70,000 students, but like most states, enrollment has been impacted by the pandemic. Through the late spring and summer, leaders had to think quickly to anticipate the challenges of offering in-class instruction in the fall. Our higher education system needed to support students and faculty struggling to manage the digital divide. COVID-19 has also exacerbated student mental health issues and financial concerns. It took high-level collaboration among our universities and leadership from administrators, state officials and the federal government to support our students and pandemic operations. Reopening has not been perfect, but we have been able to collaborate on solutions that have given our students the best experiences possible in the circumstances we are facing.

To minimize the spread of the virus in our public universities and shutdowns due to coronavirus outbreaks, it was essential to have a robust testing plan for students coming onto campus and to continue to monitor the health of students and faculty. Maine’s higher education leaders have been proactively working to protect against outbreaks and keep campus communities safe by following the science to implement a rigorous testing strategy. With our flagship University of Maine in the lead, and with support from our other universities, we created an innovative partnership with state health and human service agencies, administrators from Maine’s health care system, faculty and even our students to marshal resources for effectively tracking and containing the coronavirus. These strategies can be put into place in systems across the country to help keep students safe, healthy and engaged in learning.

Higher education has also been challenged to find an answer to the digital divide. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that at least 21 million people in the U.S. lack access to broadband, and that includes many of our postsecondary students, especially those who are lower income or students of color. Only 6.3 percent of Mainers have access to fiber-optic service, and only

4.4 percent have access to one gigabit of broadband internet. The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear that we must correct this problem once and for all. In March of this year, Maine leaders decided to expedite Gov. Janet Mills’ $15 million broadband bond bill to build the infrastructure for better internet access in the state. Our public university system has also done its best to provide Wi-Fi and hotspots for students and community members, but our efforts to bridge the digital divide cannot stop there. We need leaders thinking about how to equip students with broadband and devices outside of school, improve remote instruction and build relationships with students so they feel welcomed on college campuses.

The pandemic has pushed higher education leaders to think differently and work innovatively to address challenges in ways we might not have thought possible before. It is critical that we continue to work together, share best practices and address head-on issues like health and the digital divide. As COVID-19 continues to be a challenge for students, administrators and policymakers, we must persist in our evaluation of current practices for working remotely with students. Faculty, administrators and students should all be prepared to make shifts in their routines and think creatively about how to stay connected to one another if schools have to continue remote learning and operations. If put into practice, the lessons we are learning will help us improve and serve postsecondary students for years to come — pandemic or not.