How Can the Government Force Universities To Open
By Claudia Neuhauser, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of Research and Technology Transfer, Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston; and Brian Herman, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and former Vice President for Research, University of Minnesota and University of Texas Health, San Antonio.
The federal government was quick to provide flexibilities to higher education when the country started to shut down in March with counties ordering people to stay at home and closing stores, restaurants, and other businesses. Without the flexibilities the federal government provided, higher education would have run afoul of numerous rules and regulations as they ramped down their research and moved classes online. But after months of flexibilities, the federal government is ready to get higher education back into the classroom and labs.
International Students
Higher education experienced a whirlwind of anxiety during the last two weeks when the federal government tried to take away the flexibility to allow international students to be enrolled in fully-online programs. It started when ICE sent a Broadcast Message on July 6 on reinstating the rule on in-class instruction for F-1 students for fall semester. The reaction was swift. A number of states and universities started to sue the federal government, and the federal government backed down on July 14. If the government had not backed down, colleges and universities would have been forced to offer enough courses in person to allow international students to continue their education.
ICE’s July 6 reversal of the flexibility to offer online education to international students should not have come as a complete surprise. The flexibility was always meant to be temporary: “This temporary provision is only in effect for the duration of the emergency.” Of course, nobody thought that the emergency had ended.
Current international students breathed a sigh of relief when ICE reversed itself. What will happen to new international students, however, is not so clear. Current guidance for new international students who have not yet arrived in the US is that “they should remain in their home country.” Since the rule on the limit of online or distance courses for international students has been around since 2003, it seems very likely that the federal government will insist on its enforcement at a later point.
Flexibilities for Research
When research universities ramped down their research operation, a lot of research came to a screeching halt. Without access to research labs and core facilities, research staff were often unable to continue much of their research. The federal government added flexibilities in March that authorized agencies to continue to allow recipients of federal awards to pay the salaries of research staff even if they were unable to work due to COVID-19. This was a much welcome relief. However, this flexibility was not meant to be a long-term solution.
On June 18, the Office of Management and Budget announced in a Memorandum that the allowability of salaries on paused grants would end on September 30. Universities are asked to find other sources of funding for those who are currently paid on research awards but are unable to work due to COVID-19 and demonstrate that they are actively reducing their overall operational costs. Moreover, agencies may evaluate whether a paused research project has a reasonable chance of resuming, and if not, may decide not to provide any future funding to a project. Other flexibilities that were important initially but should no longer be needed were rescinded as well.
Asking universities to figure out how to handle their research operation during the pandemic and not expect that the federal government would continue to pay for research staff who have been sidelined by COVID-19 is reasonable. It is in line with efforts of research universities to open their research operations, and many research universities have been able to resume most of their research after a relatively short pause. Almost six months should be enough time for most investigators to come up with alternative research plans instead of spending down funds without being able to meet goals.
Online Education and Financial Aid
If higher education thinks that they dodged the bullet when the federal government reversed itself on the ruling for international students, they may be in for a surprise. The federal government has another, much bigger lever to force colleges and universities to bring students back on campus, namely Title IV funding, or student financial aid. This funding includes Pell grants and federal loans. Institutions must be accredited by an accreditation agency that is recognized by the US Department of Education to be eligible for Title IV funding.
Higher education receives significant funding through the Title IV Student Financial Aid Programs. Total Student Aid from the Federal Government exceeded $150 billion in the 2017–18 academic year. This aid comes in the form of federal grants and federal loans. Federal grants include Pell grants, which are need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students. Financial aid provides much needed help for students to pay for living and educational expenses. Students typically need to attend an accredited institution to be considered for financial aid, and about 70% of undergraduate students end up receiving some form of financial aid.
Accreditation for distance education institutions, defined as delivering 50% or more of their programs as distance education is different from accreditation of traditional brick and mortar institutions. With COVID-19, almost all institutions moved to distance education. The federal government was quick to allow institutions to move to distance education without jeopardizing their accreditation and thus risking to lose all financial aid. During the first wave of COVID-19, the US Department of Education gave broad approval to institutions to offer distance education through December 31, 2020. If institutions plan to extend that level of distance education into spring semester, they may need approval to do so from an accreditation agency unless the Department of Education extends the flexibility beyond December 30, 2020.
Distance education brings its own challenges, and the various regional accreditation agencies and the national accrediting commission for distance education have expectations on ensuring the quality and integrity of online programs. Just moving the lectures to Zoom is not enough. Faculty who teach are supposed to receive training in how to deliver distance education and reduce cheating on assignments and exams.
Colleges and universities might not want to wait until after the November election to figure out the likelihood of an extension of this flexibility. With the pandemic raging in the US and no serious attempts to get it under control, higher education will most likely find itself forced into a hybrid model or a completely online shadow of itself not only for fall 2020 but also for spring 2021 and even beyond.
Colleges and universities have invested time and resources over the summer to improve their online education. They need to continue to do so during the fall semester. This may mean a temporary change in expectations of how faculty spend their time. These improvements may just turn out to be the best investment when we look back after the pandemic ends and realize that the technology disruption in higher education that pundits have long predicted finally happened, and institutions that made those investments in people and technology are the ones thriving in a post-COVID-19 world.
