Balancing Public Health and the Student Experience

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.  

Our first panel, on July 22, discussed how public health guidance is impacting the “return to campus” for institutions in the U.S. and Canada, with particular emphasis on how higher education leaders are thinking about creating a meaningful and safe student experience in 2020.  

Panelists included:

Brent Cooley, MS CIH, CSP
Environmental, Health, & Safety Deputy Director
University of California
Office of the President

John Doersksen, PhD
Vice Provost
Academic Programs Western University

Harold (Bill) Kohl III, PhD
Professor Epidemiology and Kinesiology
University of Texas at Austin

John Pierce, PhD
Vice Provost Teaching and Learning
Queens University

Day-to-Day Life in the Age of COVID-19

As panelists reflected on how their day-to-day life has changed since the pandemic, they mentioned both persistent challenges (like the inability to virtually recreate that two-minute conversation with a student or coworker in passing) and the determination of their colleagues to make it work. They also spoke about the how fluid the current situation is, with plans changing on a daily basis, and how that creates an environment where flexibility is key.

"The first thing that has really surprised me is how far-reaching the pandemic planning implications are. You think you've come to a decision and then all of a sudden all the downstream effects just keep popping up each way, every way you look."
— John Doerksen, Western University

"One of the biggest hurdles [is replacing] those two-minute conversations you would have in a hallway with someone where you get a whole lot done...But our staff at [Queen’s University] have rallied like never before. We’re a highly-decentralized university, but there’s been a real will to try and work together."
— John Pierce, Queens University

"One of the biggest hurdles has been some of the differences in the public health mandates across the state of California. Ten campuses in 10 different counties have 10 different public health mandates…But we have an amazing wealth of talent in emergency management, public health, occupational health physicians and our academic research enterprise."
— Brent Cooley, University of California

"Community-based spread is different in Austin than it is in El Paso, than it is in the Rio Grande Valley or in Dallas, and the flexibility that each institution has to work with balancing….the local community spread of the virus with needing to protect the health of students, faculty and staff, I think has been the strength."
— Bill Kohl, University of Texas-Austin

Public Health Planning and Coordination 

Brent Cooley and Bill Kohl, who both work for institutions that have campuses throughout their respective states, spoke to the importance of cross-campus coordination and communications — whether that be through emergency command centers, websites, or town hall meetings. Cooley also discussed the institution’s decision to develop guiding principles for responsible operation (e.g., mask wearing on campus) regardless of whether such mandates were also required by a particular county.

At the campus level, John Pierce spoke about how valuable his physical plant team has been in helping identify the available spaces Queens University could use to help implement new protocols or measures. UT-Austin’s Kohl reiterated the importance of understanding the dimensions of available space — and that he had gone as far as to post new occupancy limits outside of the rooms. “Not a high-tech solution,” he said, “but a communication-based solution that will allow people to be more aware of the physical space around them in our universe and on campus.”

"Very early in the crisis we basically established a Fundamental Emergency Management Command System. Each campus had an emergency operation center and at the highest level, at the Office of the President, we had our management response team, which was pushing information down to each of the campuses. But we were also receiving information up from the location."
— Brent Cooley, University of California

"Here in Austin, we established the Austin Response Team because we have campuses for the School of Public Health all over the state. The single most important thing we did, and we're continuing to do, is develop communication strategies. We held town hall meetings for faculty. We held town hall meetings for staff. We held town hall meetings for students."
— Bill Kohl, University of Texas-Austin

"I've gotten to know my physical plant people better than ever because they're now instrumental in seeing, ‘What is the actual physical space? What are the measurements of the physical space? What does it look like if students are two meters apart or six feet apart?’ In some ways, we've done an inventory accounting that exceeds anything we've ever done even to now."
— John Pierce, Queens University

Inventive Solutions to Preserve the Learning Experience

All panelists were forthcoming about the challenge of effectively meeting social distancing and greatly-reduced capacity limits within typical academic spaces. Western University’s Doerksen highlighted how many of its classrooms are seeing reductions to 20% normal capacity, making several of little use in terms of face-to-face meetings. At Queens, Pierce discussed the struggle to reconcile past efforts focused on optimizing academic spaces for active learning with new space requirements. He emphasized the expense sometimes associated with outfitting new spaces to accommodate instructors’ technology needs — which becomes even more problematic when you consider such solutions may only be temporary. Other panelists spoke about the particular challenge that specialized facilities such as labs, rehearsal spaces, and clinical space present.

Potential solutions discussed included prioritizing in-person experiences that are critical to academic progression, custom face-shields for music students, and DIY laboratory kits (which would be subject to extensive review by safety and risk management professionals). Several panelists agreed that the reality of the moment means that pedagogy will need to be shaped by the classroom spaces available and not the other way around — and that is not always an easy discussion to have.

"The knock-on effect [of the new space requirements] is that the curriculum can't be offered in a way that it was imagined because the physical space is now determining how pedagogy works. We're having to go back to instructors and say to them, ‘This is what your physical space looks like, what can you do in that space?’"
— John Pierce, Queens University

"To determine what should be face-to-face versus online, we developed a framework that focused on student academic progression and trying to help our students progress through their programs as much as we possibly can. So we’ve identified certain lab experiences or studio experiences that are priorities for finding a face-to-face solution. And then, of course, the rest is delivered remotely."
— John Doerksen, Western University

"[The adaptation of teaching to a new space] is the biggest challenge on our campus. You can do things differently in an English classroom than in a chemistry classroom … There's a lot of goodwill, but it's hard work because often the solution that works in one discipline isn't ideal in another. And yet students are going to expect a common framework for the learning environment and we need to try to get there."
— Brent Cooley, University of California

Support for Extra-Curricular Campus Experiences

At different points throughout our conversation, the panelists emphasized the importance of experiences that typically happen outside of the classroom: casual student interactions, extra-curricular activities and resident life. Doersken emphasized the important role co-curricular and extra-curricular experiences play in helping students maintain a connection to the university and college.  

Several panelists also highlighted the unique needs of their graduate students — many of whom need to complete field work, exams, or other activities that are crucial to graduating, getting credentialed, or other academic goals.  

All of these experiences, the panelists agreed, are daunting to recreate in the virtual environment.

"Really all the spaces that we have for the broad student experience — everything from recreation, to pubs and student restaurants, to spaces for mental health, programming for faith practices, prayer rooms and those kinds of things — all of those are actually really crucial for students to feel that there's a connection to the university community."
— John Doerksen, Western University

"A lot of my time has been focused on how I can get my new incoming doctoral master’s students the experience outside the classroom that I think is absolutely critical for graduate education. So much of what happens in graduate school you learn from others or  from small groups that aren't classroom-dependent. We're taking steps to try to figure that out with remote work groups and other solutions."
— Bill Kohl, University of Texas-Austin

"For graduate students with thesis defenses, comprehensive exams, and high-stakes things like interviews with potential employers, we had to adapt quickly and create some emergency spaces they had access to good internet, a good working space. We even rented out residence rooms as alternate workspaces – in a careful way with the students spaced out – so they could work on theses to get them ready for submission."
— John Pierce, Queens University

The Benefits and Limitations of Outdoor Spaces

Although the benefits of bringing activities outdoors are well-understood, some institutions are geographically better positioned to take advantage of that opportunity than others — which was reiterated bluntly by John Pierce who, when asked about the use of outdoor space for classes at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, stated “I have a climate problem with this one.” However, panelists did stress the importance of thinking creatively about how to conduct both coursework and extra-curricular activities outdoors.

"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."
— Bill Kohl, University of Texas-Austin

"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."
— John Pierce, Queens University