From National Association of Scholars <[email protected]>
Subject CounterCurrent: Week of 8/30
Date September 1, 2020 5:59 PM
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New Book Outlines Fifteen College Reopening Scenarios

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CounterCurrent: Week of 8/30
New Book Outlines Fifteen College Reopening Scenarios

CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: COVID-19; Reading Time: ~2 minutes
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** Featured Book - The Low-Density University: 15 Scenarios for Higher Education by Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Reopening America’s 5,000+ colleges and universities after COVID-19 campus closures is surely the greatest logistical quagmire higher education administrators have faced in recent memory. In order to properly obey government health protocols and assuage the fears of students and parents alike, schools will have to rework every aspect of their normal operations.

These challenges have led some university systems, such as the University of California and California State, to decide ([link removed][UNIQID]) relatively early on to throw in the towel and hold most classes online with “limited exceptions” (e.g. fields where hands-on work is absolutely necessary, such as nursing and the hard sciences). Others have dragged their feet during the summer months, only to come to the same decision ([link removed][UNIQID]#43c2f5f17a28) , including the University of North Carolina, Michigan State, and Notre Dame.

While it’s debatable that the coronavirus pandemic has really ushered in a “new normal ([link removed][UNIQID]) ,” rather than an aberration that should be seen as anything but, colleges and universities will certainly have to adapt for the foreseeable future. Most governmental leaders have made a true return to normalcy contingent upon the successful deployment of a coronavirus vaccine, a work still in progress.

So, in the meantime, what are colleges and universities to do? Is there a one-size-fits-all solution for every school? What about a two- or three-sizes-fit-all plan? According to Joshua Kim ([link removed][UNIQID]) and Edward Maloney ([link removed][UNIQID]) of Georgetown University, fifteen ought to do the trick.

In their new book, The Low-Density University: 15 Scenarios for Higher Education ([link removed][UNIQID]) , Kim and Maloney outline a wide variety of reopening options on a spectrum between “Back to Normal” and “Fully Remote.” Within these two extremes, the remaining thirteen scenarios fall under five categories, including those related to: 1) when the semester will start; 2) which students, if any, will be on campus; 3) what curricular changes will be made; 4) the location of instruction; and 5) the instructional method. The full book is available to read for free on Project MUSE ([link removed][UNIQID]) .

The authors are clear that no one option is right for every school, or even all those within a particular type of institution (e.g. urban, private colleges). But their book is a helpful compendium of the different options deemed viable by higher education administrators around the country. Kim and Maloney call it “a framework for making future decisions,” one that they hope will be of continual help to colleges and universities in the months and years of planning and re-planning to come.

Surely some reopening scenarios will be more successful than others, and only time will tell which is which. Let us know in the comment section ([link removed][UNIQID]) (click the button below) how your schools are reopening and if you can find their scenarios for reopening in Kim and Maloney’s book.

Until next week.

John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read the Book ([link removed][UNIQID])
Leave a Comment ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on COVID-19 and American higher education:
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July 10, 2020


** Don’t Bail Out Colleges. Help Students Instead. ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Andrew Gillen

To make it out of COVID-19 alive, colleges and universities need to 1) support students directly and 2) allow alternative educational providers to enter the market.

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July 07, 2020


** Curing Higher Ed in the Wake of COVID-19 ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Adam Ellwanger

The current model of higher education is utterly dysfunctional. COVID-19 has given us an unprecedented opportunity to make it work again.

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May 06, 2020


** Academic Freedom and Online Education: A Statement of Principles ([link removed][UNIQID])
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National Association of Scholars

Academic freedom is under threat now more than ever, as administrators hold unprecedented control over the form and content of distance learning.

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April 18, 2020


** Critical Care ([link removed][UNIQID])
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National Association of Scholars

American higher education will undergo an unprecedented financial crisis in the coming months. Critical Care is a plan to guide the federal response to these unprecedented disruptions facing higher education in the midst of the pandemic.


** About the NAS
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The National Association of Scholars, founded in 1987, emboldens reasoned scholarship and propels civil debate. We’re the leading organization of scholars and citizens committed to higher education as the catalyst of American freedom.

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