If You Want Students to Come Back, Let Them Go
University students impacted by COVID have four ideas they want university presidents to hear.
I have been talking to university and college presidents, chief financial officers and students recently. All upended by COVID-19. Nobody knows what the fall holds. Institutions are planning for scenarios ranging from all-online to business-almost-as-usual.
But who is in the room during the planning? In some cases, the president and CFO. In other cases the board and cabinet. Everyone cares about students and talks about them. As a former president of one of the nation’s biggest universities, I learned that the people impacted the most were almost never in the room. The students.
You need to talk to your students. In fact, listen to them. Here are some of the key messages students have asked me to pass along:
Delay fall payment. Many students work jobs during school that stopped when the stay-at-home orders started. They counted on those to have enough money to pay for fall registration. Others counted on summer jobs and paid internships that won’t happen. It is not that they will not pay, they just need time. So find a way to manage the cash flow gap for a few months and take a risk on these students. Maybe use some of the institutional CARES funding if you have it. Regardless, these students want to be with you in the fall, but their own cash flow projections just got upended.
Allow students to stop out — no administrative hurdles. Many of our university practices make it very difficult for a student to stop out and start again. I have heard from many students that if all classes are online, then they would rather sit out until classes are face to face. This is not a modality preference, these are students taking welding, studio arts, dance, and other programs where they depend on interactive instruction — and value it. Others just need to have a chance to make some money. However, universities can make it hard. Make it easy for them and you will see them as soon as they can return.
Make transfer easy. Some students will stay close to home. Some will take a full load of classes at an online university that has what they need so they can keep making progress toward their degrees. But often they do so at the risk of not knowing what will transfer back and apply to their degree. Make it easy. Take everything from accredited institutions. In fact, partner with online colleges that align with your mission and agree to full transfer so the students have no risk. They may be gone for the fall, but they will come back and have made progress toward their degree.
Hire students in any way possible and get your university partners and community members to do the same. University students often hold low-skill jobs because they need flexible schedules. They are not low-skilled workers. So, help them with course flexibility, or employ them in flexible jobs that need talent and intelligence. Right now, to keep progressing as students, most need a consistent, decent wage job.
Don’t assume you know what your students need. Ask them. They have needs, and they also have great solutions.
Dale Whittaker is a Senior Program Officer in Postsecondary Success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A former executive at several of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing public research universities, he now works with other rapidly growing institutions with national and global footprints to help them innovate at scale to provide more degrees for more people with greater equity.
