Local college and university presidents are concerned about the future of higher education. During a Wednesday virtual meeting with Judge-Executive Al Mattingy, they shared the challenges and successes in providing quality education at their respective institutions while battling an ongoing virus and its effects.
According to Kentucky Wesleyan College President Thomas Mitzel, his staff became “extremely worried” when Gov. Andy Beshear asked all campuses to shut down last spring.
“Students go away. You are only talking to them online or by phone,” he said. “Although our students have grown up with ubiquitous technology, they’ve never had to use it in this particular sense, so it’s a brand new area for them.”
Mitzel worried whether students and legislators would trust higher education institutions to teach in-person classes as the number of positive COVID-19 cases climbed. Fortunately, he said, KWC saw its highest enrollment in six years for the Fall 2020 semester.
“They did come back to new rules and regulations,” Mitzer noted. “You have to have 36 square feet of physical distancing per student in the classroom. You have to have one-way hallways and staircases. We removed most of our furniture in the public areas.”
Brescia University President Fr. Larry Hostetter said postsecondary education had been turned on its head due to the pandemic. Though Brescia’s mission had remained unchanged, Hostetter described the new way of learning at his university.
“We are allowing all of our on-ground students to take a course either by going to the classroom — and the classrooms have been modified, everyone is six feet apart and students and teachers wear masks — but if a student preferes, each of those classes is offering a Zoom connection,” he said. “Students can attend class through Zoom. Students can watch a recording of the class if necessary. Teachers with underlying medical conditions can also teach remotely.”
Owensboro Community & Technical College President Scott Williams said his staff had to get creative in providing quality instruction to their students, many of whom attend OCTC to learn trades. Instead of attending lectures in-person, students now participated in that part of their education online, he said. The only time students attended campus was for the hands-on components of the course.
“We have been able to do that very successfully — 60% of our courses have an on-campus component,” Williams said. “I’m pleased to say that last spring, even though we had the disruption of COVID-19, we still saw an increase in those credentialed learners.”
While all three schools said their enrollment numbers had remained fairly steady thus far, Williams said OCTC was experiencing its first notable decline in enrollment this semester.
Hostetter said he’d noticed a major decline in the number of high school seniors — some of them potentially future Brescia students — filling out FAFSA applications.
“All of the enrollment folks are saying — and this is a nationwide trend — that senior students have been very reluctant in inquiries, applications and filling out the FAFSA forms,” Hostetter said. “So we’re all kind of putting together specific efforts, plans, campaigns trying to get them to fill out the FAFSA form.”
For example, Brescia is not requiring students to take the ACT or SAT exams to be admitted for the upcoming academic year. So far, the move has already proved helpful. After making the announcement two weeks ago, Hostetter said his university had seen an uptick in its number of admissions.
Nonetheless, Hostetter remained concerned about the future of higher education, citing financial issues that were likely going to prove cumbersome for many colleges and universities to overcome.
“I think next year is going to be rough,” he said. “I think higher education is going to go through a very difficult period if we don’t have additional help from the federal and state government. I think that’s going to be critical in terms of any kind of stimulus package that could come out.”
Williams said in spite of historical trends saying otherwise, OCTC had not experienced increased enrollment as a result of increased unemployment.
“To be honest, it’s been contrary to that,” he said. “That’s the model that’s always held true, but people have been so uncertain, they don’t know where the future lies. There’s almost a ‘deer in the headlights’ reaction. They don’t know what to do — especially undecided students.”
According to Williams, decreased enrollment was affecting community colleges across the nation in the face of COVID-19.
One of the biggest problems facing higher education, Hostetter said, was an inability to see, connect with, and recruit college students.
Hostetter said: “It will not surprise me to see schools go under as a result of the pandemic, as we have already seen.”
