Future of Higher Ed: No More "Normal"

How Will the Pandemic Change Higher Education?
“This crisis demands that colleges step back from self-absorption.”

by Trinity President Patricia McGuire, Published in the Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle of Higher Education reached out to college staff members, professors and administrators and asked: “How will the coronavirus change higher education?” Here is Trinity President Pat McGuire’s response, published by the Chronicle on April 10, 2020.

No More “Normal”: Let’s reclaim our moral purpose as sources of knowledge, service, and even hope.

Disruption births opportunity. Amid our coronavirus grief, awareness grows that the trajectory of the crisis is uncertain, and that a “return to normal” may never come. That could be a hidden gift for higher education, an opportunity to create real change.

Pedagogically, the recent flight to online learning has reinforced the value of “live” classroom instruction for students and teachers who thrive in each other’s presence. But rather than set up a false choice between online and in-person instruction, we should envision a distinctively hybrid future in which the faculty will have far more freedom to develop instructional designs using both virtual and live classes. Asynchronous delivery allows for flexible scheduling for both students and faculty members, possibly accelerating degree completion.

Rethinking instruction requires reimagining faculty work and rewards, but let’s not leave other workers out of the equation. Staff personnel in admissions, advising, finance, and more are running universities from their kitchen tables. Sadly, other staff members have lost their jobs, particularly hourly workers employed by contractors in food service or facilities.

This crisis should finally force higher education to confront its deep social inequity. As the pandemic spread, elite colleges closed quickly, sending their mostly wealthy students home to secure environments with plenty of food and computer access. Other institutions serving large numbers of low-income students faced difficult choices about how to keep some lights on, so that students could still get essential services.

This crisis demands that colleges step back from self-absorption and focus on how we can better serve our neighborhoods and the larger community. Let’s reclaim our moral purpose as sources of knowledge, service, and even hope. By serving the needs of those in crisis, we will better secure our own futures.

Patricia McGuire is president of Trinity Washington University.

Chronicle of Higher Education: “The coronavirus crisis has — in what seems like an instant — upended much of modern life, and higher education has not been spared. Campuses are closed, courses moved online, commencements canceled. Uncertainty and fear cloud the future. In the short term, students scramble to figure out their fall plans, the faculty faces hiring freezes, and administrators debate once-unimaginable options, like whether to declare financial exigency.The pandemic might also permanently change the character of higher learning in America — its culture, its role in society and in the economy, and the business models that sustain it. With this in mind, we reached out to college staff members, professors, and administrators with a straightforward question: How will the coronavirus change higher education?”