Rome is Burning while Higher Education is Fiddling

They just don’t get it.

It brings to mind the adage, “When Rome burned, Nero fiddled.” This referred to the Great Fire in Rome in 64 AD where Emperor Nero, who loved music, was alleged to have played during the catastrophe.

This spring I had hoped to see a robust review and major changes to the way colleges and universities provide higher education. The requisite changes would include an overhaul of the entire structure, from courses to majors to administration to teaching, due to a looming budget gap. This gap was not so much created by the pandemic as fully exposed by it. It is pretty simple math. If you shut down the country for 3 months, you don’t get all those taxes - the sales tax, the road tax (gasoline taxes), or even payroll taxes from now-closed businesses - coming into state and federal coffers. Simultaneously, the unemployment payments to millions (needed, but pricey!) have wiped out any reserves a state may have once held. This creates a Big Gap in funding public universities where 80% of all college students attend. Tuition will not make up the difference. Small private schools with tiny endowments have even fewer financial options at their disposal.

When you combine the desperate need for BIC’s (Bottoms in Chairs), plus awareness of a virus that passes easily between people in close quarters, what is the plan for student safety when the colleges reopen this fall?

Try this one on for size. Purdue University is counting on 44,000 students, ages 18-24, to Protect Purdue when they return this fall. How? With a kit comprised of two masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, instructions on social distancing, and a Protect Purdue pledge. Right. After the plan was unveiled to the Purdue faculty, even they said they were “concerned” and “less confident” about the faculty’s safety in teaching this medium-sized city of students.

Ya Think?

So the question remains; is there enough “safe” space on most campuses for students? Duke University’s solution is to gobble up the already super-tight apartment market near its' campuses to offer a blend of lottery-based and assignment by class level student housing. So much for knowing where you may be sleeping this year at your school!

You should be getting the information right now about your school’s plans for your student. Below are some suggestions on how to work on this. If you haven’t heard from the school, start dialing right after reading this blog. Especially if you need any kind of exception or accommodation.

A. HEALTH STATUS MATTERS. Is your child in good health, or, do they need a medically certified “accommodation?” As you know, under Title II of the ADA, a student with documented medical issues must be provided reasonable alternative education options. Your student may need to do a semester online, or have a single room of their own on campus. Check with their doctor(s) to see if your student qualifies for medical accommodation. Talk to the college administrator in charge of this issue for clarification about what they have to offer. Then, with facts in hand, you can make the right decision.

B. OFF-CAMPUS HOUSING WITH FRIENDS. If your student is rooming with a responsible group of friends, consider off-campus housing up to and including renting a private house. A home with three bedrooms might be affordable for three students. With room and board in many schools running over $1,000 per month, you might break even going off-campus. Don’t forget to factor in parking permits or renting near campus bus lines. Your student must be able to manage the shared household duties and keep to a budget. And, make sure every students’ parent(s) signs the lease. If this is your choice, START NOW! There won’t be any decent housing left by August 1st.

C. DON’T ROLL THE DICE ON AN “IFFY” FRESHMAN. This may not be the best time to let your shaky kid “try college.” This fall is not going to be normal at all. Social distancing will clash with traditional “going off to college” fun. Those mixed messages may overwhelm a “study if I have to” type of student. Unless they are a self-motivated & self-disciplined student who can handle BOTH starting college and starting it very differently, I would look at plans B & C. As discussed before, a year of working and sandbagging needed money could be a great idea. Choosing NOT to borrow $10-30,000 to go off to college under these special circumstances may help your student out more in the long run.

D. THE CURTAIN CAME DOWN ALONG WITH THE VIRUS. The virus is just like Toto in the Wizard of Oz movie, pulling back the curtain on the Great Wizard. In a June 12 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, outlier Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University makes a profound observation about higher education during the pandemic:

“It’s pulled back the curtain. Like any consumer product, it’s created additional transparency around the value-to-price ratio, what people are getting for their money. You could have 50% of international students not show up and 20% of domestic students not show up this fall. So it’s demand destruction. These Zoom classes that everyone has been doing, I would argue it’s not as much that people are disappointed in the Zoom classes, it’s that they’re disappointed in what the Zoom classes have revealed. Everyone knows that Zoom classes are not as good as the real thing, but people understand we’re in a crisis. I think what people are most disappointed in, as parents have collectively said, “That’s what I’m paying for?” (Emphasis and highlight added)

He describes this reversal of perceived value as one of the top reasons parents of current and future college students are taking stock of all their options. If you DON"T have a student in college now or starting this fall, you still have time to chart an alternate course. For most others, get your student through as quickly and as safely as possible.

In my book, ENOUGH! The College Cost Crisis, the entire final third, or Section Three, of the book, is devoted to alternative ways to get a college degree at a 40-90% discount on the dollar. If you know someone who needs to save tens of thousands of dollars, my book provides real ideas and practical options. This pandemic is making us all rethink the path and the price of higher education.

Don’t stop reading this blog over summertime! Next week I start a series that takes you through the Online College Options. You WILL want to check it out to see if this could work for your student. It does for ONE in FOUR college students today!

Until next time,

All my best,

Bonnie Burkett