Consolidated Administration: The Key to Delivering a 60-Year Curriculum
Shift the status quo to achieve long-term success and viability for your university.
The COVID-19 outbreak has seized the attention of senior leaders and emergency management teams of colleges and universities across the country. The recent headlines are staggering:
In my research on crisis leadership in higher education, I define crises to be events or situations of significant magnitude that threaten reputations, impact the lives of those involved in the institution, disrupt the ways in which the organization functions, have a cascading influence on leadership responsibilities and obligations across units/divisions and require an immediate response from leaders (Gigliotti, 2019). We now find ourselves at a defining crisis moment. Although the long-term impact on colleges and universities is unknown, the short-term impact of the pandemic is significant, including the cancellation of in-person classes and university events, dramatic shifts to fully online instruction, and restrictions on student, faculty, and staff travel. In the flurry of activity, questions are rightfully being raised about digital inequality and the effect on students who lack access to the technology required, the challenges facing students who are homeless or food insecure, and the financial impact on hourly workers across our institutions. The timing of the crisis is most damning as institutions consider alternatives for admitted student sessions, commencement activities, spring athletic competitions, and other end of year programs — what would otherwise be an enlivening and energizing time on our campuses.
For most of us in higher education, we tend to experience crisis from a distance, monitoring institutional and environmental crises that could potentially disrupt the operations of our department or school, and deferring to senior leaders and emergency management experts in providing guidance on how best to maneuver through these difficult situations. In many ways, dimensions of this public health emergency mirror those of past incidents, including a great deal of stakeholder uncertainty, a reliance on partnerships with regional and national health officials, and the design of formal and informal campaigns across campuses to encourage healthy habits. Yet there are many dimensions of this exigency that feel quite different. As suggested by the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom, on March 3rd, “This virus is not SARS, it’s not MERS, and it’s not influenza. It is a unique virus with unique characteristics.” The uniqueness of the virus and the uniqueness of the crisis have the potential to paralyze institutions of higher education; yet, from what we have seen across our higher education ecosystem, the response has been encouraging.
In short order, we have witnessed the exchange of ideas and best practices across our networks of collaboration in managing this public health crisis. Formal and informal leaders across institutions have demonstrated a willingness to support one another in moving to a virtual delivery of university curriculum. And despite the potential impact on short and long-term reputations and the financial bottom line of our institutions, the general response to the crisis has focused most centrally on the health and well-being of our communities. We can take pride in these values-based responses to an otherwise troubling and disorienting event of great magnitude.
As I write in my book on Crisis Leadership in Higher Education, crises shift the national and international spotlight to the leadership decisions and actions at our institutions. As we continue to wrestle through the uncertainties and fears of this current moment, below are some guiding principles that can help orient us in productive and forward-moving directions:
Editor’s note: This piece was submitted on March 14, 2020.
Shift the status quo to achieve long-term success and viability for your university.
Author Perspective: Administrator, COVID-19