I would like to clarify my thoughts for those who take umbrage at my speaking out about how we (Higher Ed) are handling the return of students to campus in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. 1/

First, I am speaking to our motivation for the decisions that we are making. I believe, and unapologetically so, that we have a unique social contract with our students, their families, and the communities that we serve. 2/

Said social contract requires a higher duty of care to those constituents. Chief among that duty is the protection of the health and safety of our students, staff, and community. In order to protect our people, we must understand that which threatens them. 3/

Here lies one of our biggest problems- we do not yet understand what it means to survive COVID-19. As this is a new virus, we don’t fully understand all that it does to our bodies. Time would provide us with an opportunity to better understand the virus and it’s impact. 4/

The rush back to campus life is what concerns me. Doing so places an enormous amount of stress on everyone involved- administrators, staff, faculty, students, parents, communities, etc. 5/

It also, and we are seeing this play out in real time, is creating adversarial relationships during a time when we need unity.

Since we have forgone caution, I think it is important to understand why. The “why” is where we (Higher Ed) run the risk of losing public support. 6/

If the decision to return to campus is being made because of student safety (campus is safer than home), that meets the social contract test. However, that argument is most successfully made by institutions that serve a certain type of population (Pell Grant/1st Gen, etc) 7/

If the decision was made because of financial worries, that raises an interesting ethical dilemma. That is, what is in the best interest of the common good? The survival of an inst. that provides economic resources to a community or the health/safety of said comm? 8/

This particular point can be argued a million different ways depending upon where one sits. So, I will leave it for a later time.

If the return to campus decision was made because of political pressure, this is the hardest pull to swallow in terms of the social contract. 9/

We live in a divided country. Too many of us have lost faith in our institutions because we feel as if they no longer really represent us and our interests. We interpret facts based on how we identify politically. Truth is defined subjectively instead of objectively. 10/

If, but for the political pressure, one would have made a different decision than the course of action they chose, then via the social contract we have a problem.

There is one other motivation to be examined- the genuine belief that it is ok to return to normal. 11/

This school of thought is generally found in places that 1) have incredible resources and believe they can mitigate their risk because of those resources and/or 2) are in locations where the virus poses less of a threat (less densely populated areas, etc.) 12/

There is more to say but my five-year old has just wandered into the bedroom and in an effort to promote marital harmony, I must spring into action. #PandemicLife #nationbuilding 2.0

One last point- all of this is hard. None of us have dealt with a global pandemic before. We will work hard and still get plenty of stuff wrong- myself and @PaulQuinnTigers included. I am most interested in (and speaking to) the motivation behind our decisions.