Since 2017, our Adaptations interviews with higher education administrators, professors and academics have explored how higher education institutions evolve and adapt to changing paradigms. Today, higher education institutions are experiencing significant challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In July and August, we convened three Virtual Adaptations panel discussions featuring prominent higher education experts to compare notes, highlight the issues they’re facing, and share potential solutions. Our goal for these discussions was to broaden understanding and to provide a platform for peer institutions to learn how others are thinking about and addressing these issues. Our summaries of the sessions are intended to serve the same purpose.
Following our first panel on public health and the academic experience, our second panel, on August 6, discussed town-gown relationships — specifically how the short-term needs of universities and colleges and the towns they are located in have fundamentally shifted due the pandemic — and how some long-term ones are likely to change as well. We also explored how the relationship between city and campus, and the physical infrastructure that both offer, can be leveraged to support public health, financial viability, and sustainability in a COVID-19 age.
Panelists included:
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Kenneth Hargreaves, MS, MBA
Day-To-Day Life in the Age of COVID-19
The panelists reflected on some of the incongruous changes in day-to-day life during the pandemic, from conducting calls in casual clothing with people from all over the world to providing a high-quality education in multiple formats, be it online, hybrid or in-person. All three of the panelists credited their colleagues and institutional staff for rising to the challenge in a number of ways.
In terms of positive developments, Dr. Jennifer Massey said she believes the student affairs profession has changed for the better in terms of offering online support and other mental health features to students. Ken Hargreaves mentioned how he has collaborated with other local institutions to navigate some of the rules and regulations for reopening in Los Angeles County. He anticipates that this collaboration will likely continue in the future as a forum to share best practices on a number of campus topics. In a similar vein, Hargreaves said he now meets with the Pasadena city manager weekly instead of quarterly, and has more check-ins with other government officials, a change that may end up being permanent because it improves connection and communication. Stacey Sickels Locke described new and creative ways virtual platforms are now being used — including for virtual class reunions — which are generating “some great opportunities for philanthropy, alumni relations and development.”
On the flip-side, Massey acknowledged the challenge of providing educational equity in the online format for students with different backgrounds and access to resources, a particular concern for “students who are located in rural communities or in indigenous communities where access to high speed or broadband internet is challenging.” Another challenge is funding, as Sickels Locke noted private donations are in high-demand as universities look for new and needed sources of funding.
Fiscal Support in the Age of COVID-19
As the Associate Vice President for Alumni Engagement and Development at UMBC, Sickels Locke said donors are recognizing the importance of and greater need for generosity in today’s world. And while some delays in state and federal funding for capital projects exist, she also believes philanthropic support will not decline, especially because many donors have long-standing ties to institutions as the result of years of giving.
Massey added that small or medium donations to emergency funds can add up to help students and institutions, with one small example being faculty and staff choosing to donate refunded parking pass money instead of keeping it. Meanwhile, Western is doing its best to increase support for current and incoming students, such as providing additional funding to low-income families.
Sickels Locke also acknowledged increasing donations specifically for diversity and inclusion, as these themes have become an important focus of donors. She also pointed to it as an area of opportunity for alumni engagement programming.
The End of the Road for Town-Gown?
At the conclusion of the panel, panelists were asked what the future of town and gown looks like — will the brick and mortar college experience come to a halt and radically change the way institutions interact with the spaces around them? All three panelists made it clear that they don’t see this happening as a lot of students need and prefer the in-person experience. But, Massey suggested, the potential shift to more online instruction could still affect the way students interact with the physical campus. As a Geography scholar who thinks in that context, she reiterated that “I think we're going to see a shift in the way in which people connect with their physical campus and the geographies of their campus, but I do not see bricks and mortar universities going away completely any time soon.”
Hargreaves and Sickels Locke also explained how the town and gown relationship is different from institution to institution, as both Caltech and UMBC work with research entities and will always have employees and students interacting with the surrounding area.
Promoting Community Engagement, Minimizing Community Spread
With many students coming back to campuses at schools located in highly-populated areas, Massey explained how Western University is preparing to receive all of its first-year and returning students and how that influx of people might impact the surrounding London, Ontario, area. International students are coming back early and will be required to quarantine for 14 days with the school providing all the resources they will need, from food to health services and social connections. Small groups of students were brought in for summer orientation to walk through distancing protocols.
Sickels Locke, who has worked at both UMBC and University of Maryland-College Park, noted that both campuses are deeply connected to the greater community. She said UMBC is challenging itself to serve the community in these times. She noted that this dedication to supporting the community is also prevalent at the individual level — with some faculty “driving for curbside pickup 45 minutes from their homes in order to patronize the businesses that they know they'll need when they come back.”
Fostering Community Connections, Regulating Space
In discussing community relations, Sickels Locke reiterated that UMBC sits right in the middle of a community. Over the summer, some students still lived in the area and interacted in the community, while community members used the campus in a variety of ways as well. Providing opportunities for the community to connect to the campus is one of the many important ways community connections are forged.
With Caltech located in Pasadena, California, Hargreaves said the school is in a similar situation as UMBC and has always looked for ways that it can be a resource to the community. In the midst of the pandemic, they have been able to offer up some of their larger outdoor spaces for city-hosted events. And Caltech is actively working with the city’s health department and leadership on public health and safety protocols, including things like speed limits and signs to slow cars down.
Six months ago we would not be able to get on a call and connect so many people at one time … Now I think people are used to, "Oh, ok, this meeting's online ... gotta download Zoom, Webex, Bluejeans, or other software ... Now I'm in the meeting." … We're doing virtual reunions, which we never could have done before.
We are providing online mental health supports in ways we just were not doing before. Our Writing Center and Learning Skills Development and Success department now offer virtual support. My hope is that post-COVID, we continue to offer these things on campus.
[A group of local higher ed institutions] meets every couple of weeks, and we've been able to affect change with regard to what the county's put forth for re-opening protocols for the higher education and research enterprises. That organization and collaboration didn't exist pre-COVID.
This year we have gone to “the show must go … online.” We've continued to have our performing arts performances, and we've done them all virtually and made them available to people for free. We did that so that we could actually pay the performers under contract with us, and then also give something back to the community.
We're looking at how to make our virtual events available for the town. If we're going to bring arts events online, how do we get that into a community newsletter so that people could watch? What are we doing on campus that could be helpful for parents who are home having to be teachers of their children?
We're really seeing this as a collaborative effort with our students, staff, faculty and broader community ... to do our very best to ensure that our students have a successful transition back to campus.
In the morning, there are often more strollers and dogs on leashes on campus than there are students walking around. We are proud of that and we want that, but we do have signs up at all the pedestrian entrances reminding people to wear a mask and keep distant.
At UMBC, the coaches are doing virtual workouts. They're monitoring individual efforts by the athletes, but then they're also still gathering in virtual environments to create the sense of team. They're trying to preserve that sense of continuity and [connection to] the physical space.
We are seeing donors step forward and want to provide funding to help the student experience broadly, both in terms of financial supports for students, but also to help us to increase, for example, supports for student mental health.
[A shared sense of] urgency is a fundraiser's greatest challenge and opportunity, because we often can't make a case for why something is urgent. Emergency funds have been very generously supported at educational institutions all across the world, because donors recognize that students have some unique needs at this time.
We're [thinking about what] non-academic activities we can arrange in the outdoor world around the campus to keep [residential students] occupied. We want to get them engaged with things so that it helps their mental health and helps their wellness. But we don't have the best inventive solutions now because tents, outdoor spaces become impossible when winter comes.
Outdoor spaces are better than indoor spaces. If there are creative ways that instructors can use outdoor spaces, I'd encourage that. Rice University is putting classrooms and tents outside and air conditioning the tents, such that it makes it a little bit more comfortable and easier to distance for classroom instruction. We'll see how that works.
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
—Jennie Massey, Western University
—Ken Hargreaves, Caltech
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
—John Pierce, Queens University
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
—Jennifer Massey, Western University
—Ken Hargreaves, Caltech
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
—Jennifer Massey, Western University
—John Pierce, Queens University
—Bill Kohl, University of Texas-Austin
External Relations Officer and Assistant Vice President
Strategy Implementation
Caltech
Jennifer Massey, Ph.D.
Associate Vice President
Student Experience
Western University
Stacey Sickels Locke, MBA, CFRE
Associate Vice President for Alumni Engagement and Development
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
—Ken Hargreaves, Caltech
—Ken Hargreaves, Caltech
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
—Jennifer Massey, Western University
Universities are important providers of intellectual talent for companies … There's always going to be a ring of companies around a university eager for those collaborations and partnerships. I do think we're looking at how we bring that online, but in some cases, it's wearing a mask and going to work.
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
—Ken Hargreaves, Caltech
A significant number of employees are buying gas, they're buying food, they're picking up groceries, they're using day care locally ... Many of our [Caltech] community members live in the city of Pasadena or nearby. I think we're an inherent part of the fabric of the community.
—Jennifer Massey, Western University
Perhaps we will see an increase in low residency programs, where some learners come to campus for intensive periods of time and then complete their studies online while other more traditional learners use our space during the traditional academic semester.
This year we have gone to “the show must go…online.” We've continued to have our performing arts performances, and we've done them all virtually and made them available to people for free. We did that so that we could actually pay the performers under contract with us, and then also give something back to the community.”
—Ken Hargreaves, Caltech
We're looking at how to make our virtual events available for the town. If we're going to bring arts events online, how do we get that into a community newsletter so that people could watch? What are we doing on campus that could be helpful for parents who are home having to be teachers of their children?
—Stacey Sickels Locke,
University of Maryland Baltimore County
We're really seeing this as a collaborative effort with our students, staff, faculty and broader community working together to do our very best to ensure that our students have a successful transition back to campus.
—Jennifer Massey, Western University
