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Research Article
How U.S. Public Universities Responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic in March 2020: Lessons Learned from the Variations in Timing of Key Decisions
Michael E von Fricken
George Mason University
Corresponding Author
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This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
The timing of the pandemic response decision can affect the national mass migration of millions of students back to campus thus limiting community spread. During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the United States were faced with making difficult decisions often without explicit or uniform guidance from state and national leadership. This study examines how and when public universities responded to the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, regarding decisions to cancel international travel, switch to online learning, transition faculty and staff to remote work, limiting on-campus housing, and implementing campus closures. Data was collected on university timing and decision making for medium to large public universities with more than 5,000 enrolled students, representing 412 institutions, 7M people, and all 50 states and Puerto Rico, between February 27 and March 31st, 2020. Substantial heterogeneity in decision making and the timing of those decisions as they relate to key state, national, and global emergency announcements were observed. The WHO pandemic declaration coincided with announcements to move away from on-campus learning. Universities decisions were made largely at the university level and not coordinated by government agencies, leading to staggered announcements and major variations in university timelines between states and within states. The importance of synchronizing university decisions in a national emergency scenario cannot be understated. Dissonant university decisions and announcement dates may potentially lead to mixed messaging and a reduction of the effectiveness of early interventions. Clear guidance is needed moving forward regarding university operations for fall and summer.
Keywords
COVID-19, epidemiology, Public university pandemic response, University policy
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Due to technical limitations, Table 1 is provided in the Supplementary Files section.
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This is a preprint. It has not completed peer review.
Research Article
How U.S. Public Universities Responded to the COVID-19 Pandemic in March 2020: Lessons Learned from the Variations in Timing of Key Decisions
Michael E von Fricken
George Mason University
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 15 May, 2020
No community comments so far
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
The timing of the pandemic response decision can affect the national mass migration of millions of students back to campus thus limiting community spread. During the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, universities across the United States were faced with making difficult decisions often without explicit or uniform guidance from state and national leadership. This study examines how and when public universities responded to the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak, regarding decisions to cancel international travel, switch to online learning, transition faculty and staff to remote work, limiting on-campus housing, and implementing campus closures. Data was collected on university timing and decision making for medium to large public universities with more than 5,000 enrolled students, representing 412 institutions, 7M people, and all 50 states and Puerto Rico, between February 27 and March 31st, 2020. Substantial heterogeneity in decision making and the timing of those decisions as they relate to key state, national, and global emergency announcements were observed. The WHO pandemic declaration coincided with announcements to move away from on-campus learning. Universities decisions were made largely at the university level and not coordinated by government agencies, leading to staggered announcements and major variations in university timelines between states and within states. The importance of synchronizing university decisions in a national emergency scenario cannot be understated. Dissonant university decisions and announcement dates may potentially lead to mixed messaging and a reduction of the effectiveness of early interventions. Clear guidance is needed moving forward regarding university operations for fall and summer.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Due to technical limitations, Table 1 is provided in the Supplementary Files section.