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Congress is formally opposing U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s controversial borrower-defense rule, assailed by critics as making it more difficult for borrowers to have their student loans forgiven if they’ve been defrauded by for-profit colleges and universities.

Ten Republican senators on Wednesday joined Democrats in approving a resolution expressing disapproval of the rule, joining the House, which passed a similar measure in January that would restore the rules that existed under the Obama administration.

However, the measure, which would undo DeVos's rule and bring back the Obama administration's policies, still needs President Trump's signature, a prospect Illinois Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who sponsored the resolution, called "unlikely" moments after the measure passed, 53 to 42. Durbin, at a news conference, was already preparing for a fight to overturn an expected veto by Trump.

Advocates opposing the controversial rule had become hopeful that Trump might sign the resolution after a Politico Pro report that Trump told Republican senators during a meeting Tuesday that he is “neutral” on the resolution. But Politico reported later that Trump was in favor of DeVos’s regulation after speaking with her on the phone. The White House on Wednesday also pointed to its statement in February that Trump's advisers would recommend vetoing the measure if it reaches the president’s desk.

Still, advocacy groups, including Third Way, the National Consumer Law Center, the American Federation of Teachers, the Institute for College Access & Success, and Young Invincibles, hailed the vote and said they were holding out hope Trump would cancel the rule.

The congressional votes are “an unequivocal, bipartisan message that military-connected students who have been defrauded out of their hard-earned GI Bill and burdened with unnecessary student loans should have a fair and equitable process for relief,” said Tanya Ang, vice president at Veterans Education Success. The group said veterans have been particularly targeted by for-profits because GI Bill benefits do not count toward a federal requirement that no more than 90 percent of the revenue of a for-profit institution come from federal funds.

DeVos angered the veterans' group and others last September when she issued the rule, replacing the policies the Obama administration created after the collapse of the Corinthian Colleges chain and subsequent flood of debt-relief claims.

Believing the Obama administration's policies were too permissive and essentially gave borrowers the chance at “free money,” DeVos added additional requirements for borrowers to get relief.

DeVos’s rule, for example, requires borrowers to demonstrate they suffered financial harm from their college’s misconduct and that the college made deceptive statements with “knowledge of its false, misleading, or deceptive nature.”

The new rules also added a three-year time limit for those borrowers to file claims, and each case will be considered individually, even if there is evidence of widespread misconduct at an institution.

Education Department spokeswoman Angela Morabito said in a statement after the vote, “It’s disappointing to see so many in Congress fooled by misinformation from the Left and the fake news narrative about our efforts to protect students from fraud. Students, including veterans, who are defrauded by their school and suffer financial harm as a result deserve relief, and our rule provides them relief.”

Pointing to the complaints by for-profit institutions they were singled out under the Obama administration rules, she said, “Instead of the Department picking winners and losers, and targeting its political enemies, our rule ensures equitable treatment of all institutions.”

Texas senator John Cornyn, the Senate’s second-highest-ranking Republican, also painted the Obama administration rules as too lax on Tuesday, equating the previous rules to presidential candidate (and fellow senator) Bernie Sanders’s proposal to eliminate all student debt.

Widespread loan forgiveness, he said, would be unfair to those who worked their way through school or decided to take the cheaper option of going to community college instead of a four-year institution. The cost to taxpayers, he said, is especially unfair to those who chose not to go to college.

Cornyn said Congress does need to act on the nation’s estimated $1.5 trillion of student debt. “We’re going to have to come up with some common-sense answers and not live in a fantasy land,” he said.

Proposing a more targeted approach, Cornyn said he will soon introduce a bill allowing veterans to use their GI Bill benefits to pay down student debt they incurred before joining the military.

However, Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski, one of the resolution’s 10 Republican supporters, said in a brief interview she worried the rule might have unintended consequences.

“I didn’t think that the new rule would give adequate notice to student borrowers that there had been deficiencies in their institutions,” she said.

Opponents of DeVos’s rule had been hopeful of getting four Republican votes to pass the resolution in the Senate after six Republicans voted for the House measure. They also believed it would be hard for Republican senators in difficult re-election races to vote against the resolution, as proponents painted the choice as supporting either defrauded students or “predatory” colleges.

Speaking on the Senate floor before the vote, for instance, Durbin called deceptive for-profit institutions “the coronavirus of higher education.”

And indeed, of the four Republican senators considered to be in the toughest races, three voted for the resolution: Maine’s Susan Collins, Colorado’s Cory Gardner and Arizona’s Martha McSally. Of the vulnerable candidates, only North Carolina’s Thom Tillis voted against the resolution.

And in a statement, North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Robert Howard tried to capitalize on the vote. “Senator Tillis today stood with Betsy DeVos and predatory universities, voting down a measure that would help students defrauded by their college get back on their feet and get out from under their student loans,” he said.

Republican senators Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Iowa’s Joni Ernst, Missouri’s Josh Hawley, Indiana’s Todd Young, Ohio’s Rob Portman and Alaska’s Dan Sullivan also voted for the resolution, in addition to a procedural motion Tuesday evening allowing the motion to be debated and voted on.

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An appellate court’s decision could put more weight on universities to prevent further sexual harassment of students after they make a complaint to Title IX officials.

The opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Wednesday expands upon a December decision in the same court that limited which behaviors universities could be found liable for allowing after a student reports sexual harassment. A university isn’t liable if a claimant experiences panic attacks after seeing the student who harassed them on campus, federal judges said. But if further “severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” harassment occurs and the university does not prevent it, they can be proved liable, according to the March 11 opinion.

The Sixth Circuit judges reviewed a case against the University of Michigan, which argued the university inadequately responded to repeated sexual harassment claims made by Rebecca Foster, a student enrolled in the university’s executive master of business administration program from 2013 to 2014. While she attended the program in Los Angeles, another student allegedly forced himself on Foster, which she reported to the university’s Office of Institutional Equity. She was granted a no-contact order, according to the opinion.

The accused student later violated the order, blocking Foster from doorways, texting her, writing threats on Facebook and detailing Foster’s Title IX claim via email to other students in the E.M.B.A. program. The university followed up on Foster’s communication about the incidents and banned the accused student from a class and from attending commencement events in Ann Arbor, Mich., according to court documents. He was arrested after showing up to a commencement event and sent back to California, the opinion states.

Because Foster experienced further harassment after Michigan was aware of the incidents and failed at its attempt to protect her from the student, the university is liable for “deliberate indifference” to her claims under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funds, Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote in the Sixth Circuit opinion.

With both opinions, the Sixth Circuit appears to be establishing a standard of harassment that plaintiffs need to prove in order to pursue cases against institutions for inadequately responding, said Laura Dunn, a lawyer who represents sexual assault survivors. The federal judges are outlining a need for “tangible, verbal harassment or interaction” to occur, and not just a claimant’s “proximity” to the accused student.

“It seems to be carving out that we do need credible harassment and we need to assess the quality of that harassment, whether it’s severe or pervasive enough,” Dunn said. “That creates another barrier to reporting and using Title IX on campus.”

Judge Jeffrey Sutton dissented from Moore’s opinion and outlined the limited time period Michigan had to respond between when Foster reported the harassment and the final E.M.B.A. classes, which spanned just more than two weeks. The university did what it could to protect Foster, and still her harasser persisted, which does not mean Michigan’s response meets the “‘high bar’ to imposing Title IX liability on a university,” Sutton wrote.

“It’s not a university’s job to do the impossible -- to ‘purge their schools of actionable peer harassment,’” Sutton wrote. “It’s a university’s job to respond in good faith to allegations of harassment to eliminate the problem. That’s what Michigan tried to do and tried to do in good faith.”

The Sixth Circuit ultimately reversed the decision of the district court where Foster originally filed the lawsuit, which had held “it would be simply impossible” for a jury to conclude Michigan had violated Title IX.

The federal court's opinion makes a statement about how far universities must go to protect their students, said Joshua Engel, Foster’s attorney. If initial measures are not effective in separating a harassing student from a victim, the university is obligated to keep trying until it succeeds, he said.

“It’s a dynamic process,” Engel said. “The school puts in place what seems reasonable, but when the accused student says, ‘I’m not going to follow these rules,’ the school can’t just say, ‘We did something, good luck.’”

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The pace of disruptions due to the novel coronavirus accelerated across U.S. higher education Wednesday. Several statewide systems and more than 100 colleges and universities now have announced campus closures or moved in-person classes online. Here are some of the developments from March 11.

New Guidance for Colleges in New Jersey, Medical Colleges

March 11, 6:28 p.m. The New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education issued new guidance for colleges and universities to make coronavirus-related decisions that affect campus life. The guidance addressed material hardships students might face, travel directives, continuity of instruction, quarantine facilities and procedures, cleaning protocols, and efforts to reduce anxiety

"These considerations include handling basic needs for those who need it (such as housing and food); notifying the surrounding community -- including municipal and county leadership and the local business community -- and decision-making involved with re-convening in-person instruction if an institution has decided to move its classes online," the office of Zakiya Smith Ellis, New Jersey's higher education secretary, said in a statement.

The Association of American Medical Colleges released new recommendations after a meeting at the White House. They covered:

• Increasing the availability and capacity of testing.
• Ensuring adequate supplies and stewardship of personal protective equipment.
• Holding patients harmless for the cost of testing and treatment.
• Increasing the availability and use of telehealth.
• Supporting hospitals’ efforts to expand capacity to meet surging needs.

"America’s academic medical centers are committed to mounting a vigorous response to contain and mitigate COVID-19 and to providing quality care to any patient affected by this public health emergency, including the under- and uninsured," Dr. David J. Skorton, the association's president and CEO, said in a statement. "Because of their expert faculty physicians, highly trained health care teams and cutting-edge medical technology, major teaching hospitals consistently maintain a heightened level of preparedness to respond rapidly to any major event at any time."

-- Paul Fain

Man with University of Delaware Connections is State’s Presumptive First Positive Case

March 11, 5:45 p.m. The Delaware Division of Public Health has announced the state’s presumptive first positive cause of COVID-19, which involves “a New Castle County man over the age of 50 who is associated with the University of Delaware community.”

The man affected was exposed to another confirmed case in a different state, according to officials. He is not severely ill. He isolated himself at home when symptoms appeared.

Epidemiologists are attempting to identify other individuals who were potentially exposed. Students, faculty and staff members with concerns about exposure risks are being asked to contact a University of Delaware call center.

-- Rick Seltzer

More Universities Plan Remote Classes

March 11, 5:30 p.m. Several more major universities and systems have announced plans of varying scale for remote classes, affecting hundreds of thousands of students: the University of North Carolina system, Penn State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Kentucky.

Penn State is strongly discouraging many students from returning to campus for several weeks. Penn is asking students to leave by Sunday.

The University of North Carolina system’s institutions will move from in-person instruction to “a system of alternative course delivery, where possible and practical, no later than March 20.” The alternative course delivery is to officially start March 23 and last indefinitely, but the system aims to return to in-person instruction as soon as possible.

Outside events and gatherings of 100 or more people are being canceled or postponed, and the university is suspending sponsored travel to in-state gatherings of 100 or more people, as well as travel outside the state, unless specially authorized.

Penn State University will move to remote instruction from March 16 through April 3. It plans to go back to in-person classes Monday, April 6, at the earliest.

During the three weeks following spring break, Penn State undergraduate and law students at all campus locations are being “strongly discouraged” from returning to on- and off-campus locations and dwellings. Residence halls and dining facilities will not be reopened for normal operations during the period, beyond facilities already in use.

Graduate students are also being asked to participate in classes remotely and not come to campus “specifically for face-to-face instruction.” Students who must be on campus will be worked with on an individual basis.

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania is extending its spring break for all students aside from those in health-related schools or programs who have already had break or who are in clinical rotations. Penn plans to migrate classroom teaching to virtual instruction for both undergraduate and graduate classes, to begin March 23 and continue through the rest of the semester.

Penn is asking students who are out of town to not return to campus. Those on campus are being asked to leave by Sunday.

The University of Kentucky will remain open but continue instruction through “online or other alternatives” from March 23 through April 3 -- the two weeks after its spring break for most students. It intends to go back to normal course delivery April 6.

Kentucky students will be able to return to campus residence halls. Research and health-care activities are set to continue as planned. But all international travel sponsored or endorsed by the university has been indefinitely suspended. Any travelers arriving from Europe and Japan will be required to “self-isolate” for 14 days before being allowed on campus.

Further, the University of Kentucky is strongly discouraging university-sponsored or -endorsed domestic travel.

-- Rick Seltzer

No Fans for March Madness Tournaments

March 11, 4:51 p.m. The National Collegiate Athletic Association will move forward with its men’s and women’s championship basketball tournaments without public spectators, Mark Emmert, the NCAA's president, said in a statement Wednesday.

This means only essential staff and some family members will be permitted to be in the audience of the upcoming weeks of March Madness tournament games, which begin March 17. The precautions will help to protect the fans from transmitting COVID-19, as “behavioral risk mitigation strategies are the best option for slowing the spread of the disease,” the NCAA’s coronavirus advisory panel said in a statement.

A number of individual institutions, athletic conferences and governments have already canceled or issued limitations or bans on spectators at NCAA events across the country.

“While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States,” Emmert said. “This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes. We recognize the opportunity to compete in an NCAA national championship is an experience of a lifetime for the students and their families.”

-- Greta Anderson

Striking Grad Students Criticize UC Santa Cruz's Move Online

March, 11, 4:45 p.m. Striking graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have put out a statement regarding the university's move to suspend face-to-face classes and begin instruction online in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The university, the students said, has weaponized the public health crisis to break the wildcat strike.

"We see the university’s turn to emergency measures as a rehearsal for a permanent shift to large scale online instruction, accelerating the creep of online teaching with little oversight, with no bargaining, and with little to no transparency," the statement said. "As UCSC looks for ways to operate in the spring after losing around 80 graduate student employees, the turn to online learning would set an alarming precedent for how a university can function without its workers."

The university dismissed or declined to appoint around 80 graduate student teaching assistants who were withholding grades. The graduate student strike began in December. It is a labor action in demand of a cost-of-living adjustment by the university.

“For undergraduates, this is not the education that they paid for,” the statement said. “Online teaching is a poor substitute for learning in a classroom, and has been shown to diminish the value of a university education."

The grads will continue with a digital picket, which involves continuing to withhold grades, keeping any grade updates off Canvas, not teaching classes online and having undergraduates submit assignments directly to TAs.

The university responded, "As local, national and global public health recommendations increasingly shift to efforts to mitigate transmission by social distancing, UC Santa Cruz is proactively taking steps to protect our campus community. In our assessment of the current situation, we believe that this is the best action for our campus and the broader Santa Cruz community."

-- Lilah Burke

SUNY and CUNY Move to Distance Learning

March 11, 3:55 p.m. The State University of New York and City University of New York systems will move to distance learning for the rest of the semester, the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced.

"This will help us reduce density and reduce the spread of this virus," the governor said in a statement on Twitter.

A statement from the governor's office later clarified that the two public university systems will "implement plans to maximize distance learning and reduce in-person classes, beginning March 19, for the remainder of the spring semester in light of the evolving novel coronavirus situation in New York. All campuses will develop plans catered to the campus and curriculum-specific needs while reducing density in the campus environment to help slow possibility for exposures to novel coronavirus. Distance learning and other options will be developed by campuses."

Hundreds of thousands of students will be affected by the move, making it one of the most significant yet seen across the country. SUNY reported fall head-count enrollment of more than 415,000 across its campuses. CUNY reported nearly 275,000 in 2018.

The SUNY Student Assembly issued a response voicing appreciation for the move while also acknowledging the fact that students will require assistance.

"Continuing SUNY’s tradition of inclusive and accessible academic excellence is as important as ever," the assembly's statement said. "The SUNY Student Assembly looks forward to working with Chancellor [Kristina M.] Johnson and her team to ensure that students have all the resources and support that they need as we make this transition.”

-- Rick Seltzer

AAC&U Conference Cancellation

March 11, 3:32 p.m. Another association has called off a conference, as the Association of American Colleges & Universities canceled its 2020 Conference on Diversity, Equity and Student Success, which had been slated to be held in New Orleans March 19-21.

AAC&U is planning to present some keynote sessions and workshops virtually. Materials from presentations for concurrent sessions will go up online. The association plans to reach out to those registered soon with information about participating virtually or options for refunds.

“The health and safety of conference participants and AAC&U staff members are our highest priorities and were the determining factors in this difficult decision,” AAC&U said in a statement.

-- Rick Seltzer

Big Ten Says Hoops Tournaments Still On

March 11, 3:15 p.m. The Big Ten Conference said Wednesday afternoon that its men's basketball tournament will continue as scheduled. The games are set to tip off this evening.

"The Big Ten Conference’s main priority is to ensure the safety of our students, coaches, administrators, event staff, fans and media as we continue to monitor all relevant information on the COVID-19 virus," the Big Ten said in a statement.

The Ivy League on Tuesday canceled its men's and women's basketball tournaments over coronavirus concerns. Some basketball players criticized the move, creating an online petition calling for the tournaments to be reinstated.

"The hypocrisy of our Ivy League presidents is baffling and alarming," said the petition. "We are disappointed and disheartened that they would discriminate against one sport and allow the others to continue to compete."

On Wednesday the conference dropped all athletics practice and competition through the remainder of the spring.

Local authorities have banned large gatherings in San Francisco and the Seattle area, according to news reports.

-- Paul Fain

University Closures Continue

March 11, 1:30 p.m. The University of Massachusetts system, the University System of Maryland, the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University are among the latest institutions to move classes online and to urge students to leave campus.

UMass's five campuses will "shift to a virtual mode of instruction" beginning on March 16 and through at least April 3, the system said in a statement. Most of the system's 75,000 students will not be on campus during that time, said UMass.

The University System of Maryland on Tuesday urged all of its universities across the 12-institution system to prepare for students to remain off campus for at least two weeks after the system's spring break, which begins Saturday and ends on March 22.

George Washington and Johns Hopkins both announced the suspension of in-person classes, which will move to online or remote versions.

UVA’s shift to online instruction will begin on March 19, James E. Ryan, the university’s president, said in a statement.

“Students who are away on spring break are strongly encouraged to return home or to remain home if they are already there,” Ryan said. “Students on grounds and in Charlottesville are strongly encouraged to return home by this weekend.”

Georgetown’s move to online will begin on March 19. The university strongly encouraged undergraduate students to move to their permanent addresses.

“We understand that for some number of students there will be a compelling reason to remain on campus,” the university said in a statement. “Campus will remain open and key services will be available.”

-- Paul Fain

More Campus and Conference Suspensions

March 11, 12:30 p.m. Michigan State University was one of the latest and largest universities to announce the suspension of all in-person classes, effective at noon Wednesday. The university said in a statement that health authorities were investigating and monitoring someone linked to the campus for coronavirus-related concerns.

Notre Dame University also announced Wednesday that it is moving to online instruction and canceling in-person classes, beginning March 23 though at least April 13.

By Wednesday morning, roughly 90 colleges and universities had shut down their campuses or suspended in-person instruction and moved it online or to distance delivery, according to a crowdsourced Google sheet created by Bryan Alexander, a futurist, researcher and senior scholar at Georgetown University.

Several others are helping Alexander maintain the database, which is being populated by contributors throughout higher education. It has crashed several times due to heavy traffic.

ASU+GSV, a meeting focused on education technology, postsecondary education and workforce development that had been scheduled for April in San Diego, has been postponed until the fall.

Organizers of the conference, which hosted 5,500 attendees last year, said postponing was “the best option to protect our community and to have a truly productive convening.”

The American Association of Geographers also announced the cancelation of its April meeting in Denver. The group said Wednesday morning that it would shift to an online version, free of charge.

-- Paul Fain

Low-Income Students and Campus Shutdowns

March 11, noon. Harvard University is giving students less than a week to pack up, leave campus and not return after spring break is over.

Primus, a student organization at Harvard that advocates for the university's low-income and first-generation students, put out a statement highlighting several ways this expectation will be close to impossible for students who are not privileged.

Many can't afford unexpected travel costs to get home. They're expected to pay for storage units for on-campus belongings. Students won't be able to rely on their on-campus jobs. And they're being ask to make all these changes while still attending classes this week.

On top of that, students will have to take courses online, which requires internet access and computers.

"These closures disproportionately affect the most vulnerable groups of students on campus," said Anthony Abraham Jack, assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, later adding, "I know what it means to be affected by something that money can't stop, but money helps you through. So when you don't come from money, you feel the full brunt of it."

Beyond financial constraints, some students may not have safe homes to return to, he said. Jack said he knows of one student who lives an hour from home but never visits, because the student is queer and doesn't get a bed at home. Other students never had three square meals a day and a consistent roof over their heads until coming to college, Jack added.

"Even if college is hell, it can still be a sanctuary for some students," he said.

Primus has organized a document of resources and answers for students on financial assistance and help from alumni. But Jack said it's unfair to expect students to take on the job of the university.

"We must be better, as college officials, at outlining processes so students can just be students," he said. "Right now, colleges are addressing this pandemic almost solely as a public health issue, when it's actually one affecting inequalities on campuses."

-- Madeline St. Amour

Unrest at the University of Dayton

March 11, 11:30 a.m. A large crowd including students from the University of Dayton gathered on the Ohio campus yesterday after the university on Tuesday suspended in-person classes due to coronavirus concerns. The university called on all residential students to leave campus by 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Students began gathering in large numbers after the announcement. The Dayton Daily News reported that police officers from multiple departments, some wearing riot gear, cleared the crowd, which dispersed by 2:15 a.m. One person was injured in the disturbance, according to the university.

Students were not reacting to the coronavirus measures, the university said, but instead “wanted one last large gathering” before Dayton’s spring break, which begins Friday.

“A large disorderly crowd that grew to more than 1,000 people gathered on Lowes Street starting around 11 p.m., throwing objects and bottles in the street and at police, and jumping on cars,” the university said in a written statement. “Police gave verbal orders to disperse which were ignored. Police initially launched pepper balls, which contain powder with an irritant that disperses quickly, that were unsuccessful in reducing the crowd size.”

UD students gathered in large crowds on Lowes Street in the South Student Neighborhood Tuesday night in reaction to the news that university housing would close Wednesday for most students due to the spread of the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/82XL9uCR04

— Flyer News (@FlyerNews) March 11, 2020

-- Paul Fain

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This special collection includes our best advice on teaching online during the coronavirus pandemic. We hope it will offer guidance during these uncertain times.

As fears of Covid-19 lead colleges across the country to send students home, they risk leaving many low-income students in the lurch.

A bill to help some borrowers have their student loans forgiven is likely to be vetoed, but a bipartisan vote shows that even members of her own party are not in lockstep with the education secretary.

The white employees filed charges of racial discrimination, asserting that the university moved to fill positions with black candidates.

Martin Philbert remains on paid administrative leave as an external investigation into his behavior proceeds.

Relief Fund for Students Affected by Closures

March 11, 11:22 p.m. The new Student Relief Fund is offering to match donations of up to $5,000 for grants aimed at the hundreds of thousands of college students who are affected by campus closures over COVID-19 concerns, who may face hunger and homelessness as a result. Believe in Students, Edquity and the Rise Fund are matching the donations. The grants will be distributed as emergency aid by Edquity and the FAST Fund, which has locations in 18 cities around the U.S.

-- Paul Fain

 

New Guidance for Colleges in New Jersey, Medical Colleges

March 11, 6:28 p.m. The New Jersey Office of the Secretary of Higher Education issued new guidance for colleges and universities to make coronavirus-related decisions that affect campus life. The guidance addressed material hardships students might face, travel directives, continuity of instruction, quarantine facilities and procedures, cleaning protocols, and efforts to reduce anxiety

"These considerations include handling basic needs for those who need it (such as housing and food); notifying the surrounding community -- including municipal and county leadership and the local business community -- and decision-making involved with re-convening in-person instruction if an institution has decided to move its classes online," the office of Zakiya Smith Ellis, New Jersey's higher education secretary, said in a statement.

The Association of American Medical Colleges released new recommendations after a meeting at the White House. They covered:

• Increasing the availability and capacity of testing.
• Ensuring adequate supplies and stewardship of personal protective equipment.
• Holding patients harmless for the cost of testing and treatment.
• Increasing the availability and use of telehealth.
• Supporting hospitals’ efforts to expand capacity to meet surging needs.

"America’s academic medical centers are committed to mounting a vigorous response to contain and mitigate COVID-19 and to providing quality care to any patient affected by this public health emergency, including the under- and uninsured," Dr. David J. Skorton, the association's president and CEO, said in a statement. "Because of their expert faculty physicians, highly trained health care teams and cutting-edge medical technology, major teaching hospitals consistently maintain a heightened level of preparedness to respond rapidly to any major event at any time."

-- Paul Fain

Man with University of Delaware Connections is State’s Presumptive First Positive Case

March 11, 5:45 p.m. The Delaware Division of Public Health has announced the state’s presumptive first positive cause of COVID-19, which involves “a New Castle County man over the age of 50 who is associated with the University of Delaware community.”

The man affected was exposed to another confirmed case in a different state, according to officials. He is not severely ill. He isolated himself at home when symptoms appeared.

Epidemiologists are attempting to identify other individuals who were potentially exposed. Students, faculty and staff members with concerns about exposure risks are being asked to contact a University of Delaware call center.

-- Rick Seltzer

More Universities Plan Remote Classes

March 11, 5:30 p.m. Several more major universities and systems have announced plans of varying scale for remote classes, affecting hundreds of thousands of students: the University of North Carolina system, Penn State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Kentucky.

Penn State is strongly discouraging many students from returning to campus for several weeks. Penn is asking students to leave by Sunday.

The University of North Carolina system’s institutions will move from in-person instruction to “a system of alternative course delivery, where possible and practical, no later than March 20.” The alternative course delivery is to officially start March 23 and last indefinitely, but the system aims to return to in-person instruction as soon as possible.

Outside events and gatherings of 100 or more people are being canceled or postponed, and the university is suspending sponsored travel to in-state gatherings of 100 or more people, as well as travel outside the state, unless specially authorized.

Penn State University will move to remote instruction from March 16 through April 3. It plans to go back to in-person classes Monday, April 6, at the earliest.

During the three weeks following spring break, Penn State undergraduate and law students at all campus locations are being “strongly discouraged” from returning to on- and off-campus locations and dwellings. Residence halls and dining facilities will not be reopened for normal operations during the period, beyond facilities already in use.

Graduate students are also being asked to participate in classes remotely and not come to campus “specifically for face-to-face instruction.” Students who must be on campus will be worked with on an individual basis.

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania is extending its spring break for all students aside from those in health-related schools or programs who have already had break or who are in clinical rotations. Penn plans to migrate classroom teaching to virtual instruction for both undergraduate and graduate classes, to begin March 23 and continue through the rest of the semester.

Penn is asking students who are out of town to not return to campus. Those on campus are being asked to leave by Sunday.

The University of Kentucky will remain open but continue instruction through “online or other alternatives” from March 23 through April 3 -- the two weeks after its spring break for most students. It intends to go back to normal course delivery April 6.

Kentucky students will be able to return to campus residence halls. Research and health-care activities are set to continue as planned. But all international travel sponsored or endorsed by the university has been indefinitely suspended. Any travelers arriving from Europe and Japan will be required to “self-isolate” for 14 days before being allowed on campus.

Further, the University of Kentucky is strongly discouraging university-sponsored or -endorsed domestic travel.

-- Rick Seltzer

No Fans for March Madness Tournaments

March 11, 4:51 p.m. The National Collegiate Athletic Association will move forward with its men’s and women’s championship basketball tournaments without public spectators, Mark Emmert, the NCAA's president, said in a statement Wednesday.

This means only essential staff and some family members will be permitted to be in the audience of the upcoming weeks of March Madness tournament games, which begin March 17. The precautions will help to protect the fans from transmitting COVID-19, as “behavioral risk mitigation strategies are the best option for slowing the spread of the disease,” the NCAA’s coronavirus advisory panel said in a statement.

A number of individual institutions, athletic conferences and governments have already canceled or issued limitations or bans on spectators at NCAA events across the country.

“While I understand how disappointing this is for all fans of our sports, my decision is based on the current understanding of how COVID-19 is progressing in the United States,” Emmert said. “This decision is in the best interest of public health, including that of coaches, administrators, fans and, most importantly, our student-athletes. We recognize the opportunity to compete in an NCAA national championship is an experience of a lifetime for the students and their families.”

-- Greta Anderson

Striking Grad Students Criticize UC Santa Cruz's Move Online

March, 11, 4:45 p.m. Striking graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have put out a statement regarding the university's move to suspend face-to-face classes and begin instruction online in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The university, the students said, has weaponized the public health crisis to break the wildcat strike.

"We see the university’s turn to emergency measures as a rehearsal for a permanent shift to large scale online instruction, accelerating the creep of online teaching with little oversight, with no bargaining, and with little to no transparency," the statement said. "As UCSC looks for ways to operate in the spring after losing around 80 graduate student employees, the turn to online learning would set an alarming precedent for how a university can function without its workers."

The university dismissed or declined to appoint around 80 graduate student teaching assistants who were withholding grades. The graduate student strike began in December. It is a labor action in demand of a cost-of-living adjustment by the university.

“For undergraduates, this is not the education that they paid for,” the statement said. “Online teaching is a poor substitute for learning in a classroom, and has been shown to diminish the value of a university education."

The grads will continue with a digital picket, which involves continuing to withhold grades, keeping any grade updates off Canvas, not teaching classes online and having undergraduates submit assignments directly to TAs.

The university responded, "As local, national and global public health recommendations increasingly shift to efforts to mitigate transmission by social distancing, UC Santa Cruz is proactively taking steps to protect our campus community. In our assessment of the current situation, we believe that this is the best action for our campus and the broader Santa Cruz community."

-- Lilah Burke

SUNY and CUNY Move to Distance Learning

March 11, 3:55 p.m. The State University of New York and City University of New York systems will move to distance learning for the rest of the semester, the state's governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced.

"This will help us reduce density and reduce the spread of this virus," the governor said in a statement on Twitter.

A statement from the governor's office later clarified that the two public university systems will "implement plans to maximize distance learning and reduce in-person classes, beginning March 19, for the remainder of the spring semester in light of the evolving novel coronavirus situation in New York. All campuses will develop plans catered to the campus and curriculum-specific needs while reducing density in the campus environment to help slow possibility for exposures to novel coronavirus. Distance learning and other options will be developed by campuses."

Hundreds of thousands of students will be affected by the move, making it one of the most significant yet seen across the country. SUNY reported fall head-count enrollment of more than 415,000 across its campuses. CUNY reported nearly 275,000 in 2018.

The SUNY Student Assembly issued a response voicing appreciation for the move while also acknowledging the fact that students will require assistance.

"Continuing SUNY’s tradition of inclusive and accessible academic excellence is as important as ever," the assembly's statement said. "The SUNY Student Assembly looks forward to working with Chancellor [Kristina M.] Johnson and her team to ensure that students have all the resources and support that they need as we make this transition.”

-- Rick Seltzer

AAC&U Conference Cancellation

March 11, 3:32 p.m. Another association has called off a conference, as the Association of American Colleges & Universities canceled its 2020 Conference on Diversity, Equity and Student Success, which had been slated to be held in New Orleans March 19-21.

AAC&U is planning to present some keynote sessions and workshops virtually. Materials from presentations for concurrent sessions will go up online. The association plans to reach out to those registered soon with information about participating virtually or options for refunds.

“The health and safety of conference participants and AAC&U staff members are our highest priorities and were the determining factors in this difficult decision,” AAC&U said in a statement.

-- Rick Seltzer

Big Ten Says Hoops Tournaments Still On

March 11, 3:15 p.m. The Big Ten Conference said Wednesday afternoon that its men's basketball tournament will continue as scheduled. The games are set to tip off this evening.

"The Big Ten Conference’s main priority is to ensure the safety of our students, coaches, administrators, event staff, fans and media as we continue to monitor all relevant information on the COVID-19 virus," the Big Ten said in a statement.

The Ivy League on Tuesday canceled its men's and women's basketball tournaments over coronavirus concerns. Some conference basketball players criticized the move, creating an online petition calling for the tournaments to be reinstated.

"The hypocrisy of our Ivy League presidents is baffling and alarming," said the petition. "We are disappointed and disheartened that they would discriminate against one sport and allow the others to continue to compete."

On Wednesday the conference dropped all athletics practice and competition through the remainder of the spring.

Local authorities have banned large gatherings in San Francisco and the Seattle area, according to news reports.

-- Paul Fain

University Closures Continue

March 11, 1:30 p.m. The University of Massachusetts system, the University System of Maryland, the University of Virginia, Georgetown University, George Washington University and Johns Hopkins University are among the latest institutions to move classes online and to urge students to leave campus.

UMass's five campuses will "shift to a virtual mode of instruction" beginning on March 16 and through at least April 3, the system said in a statement. Most of the system's 75,000 students will not be on campus during that time, said UMass.

The University System of Maryland on Tuesday urged all of its universities across the 12-institution system to prepare for students to remain off campus for at least two weeks after the system's spring break, which begins Saturday and ends on March 22.

George Washington and Johns Hopkins both announced the suspension of in-person classes, which will move to online or remote versions.

UVA’s shift to online instruction will begin on March 19, James E. Ryan, the university’s president, said in a statement.

“Students who are away on spring break are strongly encouraged to return home or to remain home if they are already there,” Ryan said. “Students on grounds and in Charlottesville are strongly encouraged to return home by this weekend.”

Georgetown’s move to online will begin on March 19. The university strongly encouraged undergraduate students to move to their permanent addresses.

“We understand that for some number of students there will be a compelling reason to remain on campus,” the university said in a statement. “Campus will remain open and key services will be available.”

-- Paul Fain

More Campus and Conference Suspensions

March 11, 12:30 p.m. Michigan State University was one of the latest and largest universities to announce the suspension of all in-person classes, effective at noon Wednesday. The university said in a statement that health authorities were investigating and monitoring someone linked to the campus for coronavirus-related concerns.

Notre Dame University also announced Wednesday that it is moving to online instruction and canceling in-person classes, beginning March 23 though at least April 13.

By Wednesday morning, roughly 90 colleges and universities had shut down their campuses or suspended in-person instruction and moved it online or to distance delivery, according to a crowdsourced Google sheet created by Bryan Alexander, a futurist, researcher and senior scholar at Georgetown University.

Several others are helping Alexander maintain the database, which is being populated by contributors throughout higher education. It has crashed several times due to heavy traffic.

ASU+GSV, a meeting focused on education technology, postsecondary education and workforce development that had been scheduled for April in San Diego, has been postponed until the fall.

Organizers of the conference, which hosted 5,500 attendees last year, said postponing was “the best option to protect our community and to have a truly productive convening.”

The American Association of Geographers also announced the cancelation of its April meeting in Denver. The group said Wednesday morning that it would shift to an online version, free of charge.

-- Paul Fain

Low-Income Students and Campus Shutdowns

March 11, noon. Harvard University is giving students less than a week to pack up, leave campus and not return after spring break is over.

Primus, a student organization at Harvard that advocates for the university's low-income and first-generation students, put out a statement highlighting several ways this expectation will be close to impossible for students who are not privileged.

Many can't afford unexpected travel costs to get home. They're expected to pay for storage units for on-campus belongings. Students won't be able to rely on their on-campus jobs. And they're being ask to make all these changes while still attending classes this week.

On top of that, students will have to take courses online, which requires internet access and computers.

"These closures disproportionately affect the most vulnerable groups of students on campus," said Anthony Abraham Jack, assistant professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, later adding, "I know what it means to be affected by something that money can't stop, but money helps you through. So when you don't come from money, you feel the full brunt of it."

Beyond financial constraints, some students may not have safe homes to return to, he said. Jack said he knows of one student who lives an hour from home but never visits, because the student is queer and doesn't get a bed at home. Other students never had three square meals a day and a consistent roof over their heads until coming to college, Jack added.

"Even if college is hell, it can still be a sanctuary for some students," he said.

Primus has organized a document of resources and answers for students on financial assistance and help from alumni. But Jack said it's unfair to expect students to take on the job of the university.

"We must be better, as college officials, at outlining processes so students can just be students," he said. "Right now, colleges are addressing this pandemic almost solely as a public health issue, when it's actually one affecting inequalities on campuses."

-- Madeline St. Amour

Unrest at the University of Dayton

March 11, 11:30 a.m. A large crowd including students from the University of Dayton gathered on the Ohio campus yesterday after the university on Tuesday suspended in-person classes due to coronavirus concerns. The university called on all residential students to leave campus by 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Students began gathering in large numbers after the announcement. The Dayton Daily News reported that police officers from multiple departments, some wearing riot gear, cleared the crowd, which dispersed by 2:15 a.m. One person was injured in the disturbance, according to the university.

Students were not reacting to the coronavirus measures, the university said, but instead “wanted one last large gathering” before Dayton’s spring break, which begins Friday.

“A large disorderly crowd that grew to more than 1,000 people gathered on Lowes Street starting around 11 p.m., throwing objects and bottles in the street and at police, and jumping on cars,” the university said in a written statement. “Police gave verbal orders to disperse which were ignored. Police initially launched pepper balls, which contain powder with an irritant that disperses quickly, that were unsuccessful in reducing the crowd size.”

UD students gathered in large crowds on Lowes Street in the South Student Neighborhood Tuesday night in reaction to the news that university housing would close Wednesday for most students due to the spread of the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/82XL9uCR04

— Flyer News (@FlyerNews) March 11, 2020

-- Paul Fain

Editorial Tags: CoronavirusIs this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: Display Promo Box: Live Updates: liveupdates1

Canada’s Capital English Solutions Toronto has announced it will be changing its name to Mentora Language Academy Toronto this month, and has opened a new career college,┬áMentora College of Business & Technology.

According to the company, the switch to the more internationally-recognised Mentora brand is an effort to align the Toronto presence more closely with┬áBAU GlobalÔÇÖs┬áMentora Language centres, located throughout the world, including┬áWashington DC,┬áBerlin, and┬áIstanbul.

Established in Toronto in 2012, CES Toronto has been a brand known for its high standards in quality English language training for students worldwide.

“Our main goal is to provide international students with enriched English language instruction”

According to a statement from the language academy, the rebranding will include a logo and name change, but its “advanced curriculum, quality education and fun social activities will stay as they always have”.

CES Toronto executive director of Operations, Emrah K. Oyman, is leading the rebranding effort and said he is looking forward to the future.

ÔÇ£Our main goal at Mentora Language Academy is to provide international students with enriched English language instruction, and the skills to thrive in academic and social settings,” Oyman added.

 

As part of the new brand, the Toronto location has also opened a new career college, Mentora College of Business & Technology.

As the newest addition to the BAU Global brand ÔÇô an international network of universities, colleges and language schools spread over three continents and eight countries ÔÇô having access to this worldwide academic community gives students in Toronto richer experiences during their programs and more opportunities after graduation.

Currently accepting students for 2020, the career college offers diplomas in Business Administration Management and Hotel Management.

Both diplomas feature a work placement, allowing students to receive on-the-job training.

The post Capital English Solutions Toronto rebrands appeared first on The PIE News.

Rupesh Singh couldn’t get a loan from a bank in India to fulfil his dream to study in Australia. But he was determined to get there, and when he did, it started a journey that has seen him build a small business into a large multinational education company. He talks to The PIE about his authentic insight into how to ensure international students succeed.

 

The PIE: We’d love to know a bit about how you became such a successful entrepreneur…

Rupesh Singh: I come from a very small city in India called Varanasi. ItÔÇÖs considered a holy city, with a lot of spirituality, music and meditation. It has a very humble culture. Wages are low, life is simple, and most people make around $200 a month. Very few people from my city have had the opportunity to go overseas.

My first job was as a fire & safety officer with Oil and natural gas corporation (ONGC). I was one of only eight candidates selected for the training from the All India entrance exam. It was my first job, and I learnt a lot of life lessons because I was challenged every day. I was then headhunted by Essar Group, a very large oil, steel, telecommunications company. During that time my friend and I attended an event hosted by Wollongong University where we both were given on-the-spot admission to study in Australia. I just couldnÔÇÖt believe it.

The PIE: That must have been very exciting..

RS: My friend was from Gujarat. The banking system in Gujarat was very straightforward. He was able to secure an education loan fairly easily. In my small city, people are very conservative, especially about money. I went to see the local bank manager, of the State Bank of India branch, and he told me ‘No, you wonÔÇÖt do well, and youÔÇÖll ruin your dadÔÇÖs savings’. Basically I had no chance of a loan.

The PIE: Wow.

“I went to see the local bank manager, and he told me ‘No, you wonÔÇÖt do well, and youÔÇÖll ruin your dadÔÇÖs savings'”

RS:  My friend and I then went to see the vice president of my company. India is a bureaucratic country, as you know. We needed an appointment and we got an appointment, after 15 days (because there were 15,000 employees in that company). We went to see him and asked for a sponsorship to study IT in Australia. He just looked at us strangely and refused.

Around that time, we had heard stories about the generosity of Shashi Ruia. He was probably one of the 10 richest people in India. One morning, after finishing the night shift, we took a train to Mumbai and went to his office where we asked his secretary if we could meet him. And she basically just laughed at us.

We waited all day, then travelled back to work, did another night shift and next morning we were again at his office and again we were refused. We were told that ‘he has meetings’. This was repeated for a third and a fourth morning. There was no sleep for three nights. On the fourth refusal, we decided to visit Mr Ruia’s house the next morning. We were there at 06:00 and left a little note and we went for a coffee. When we came back, his security said ‘he wants to meet you’.

The PIE: This is an incredible story.. 

RS: He was amazing. Really nice. And within three hours, he gave us both a sponsorship, telling us to go and study in Australia and come back and work for him. So we applied and we got the visa and we came to Australia.

So he did that for me and I continue to be extremely grateful.

The PIE: And how did you find life in Australia?

RS: In the beginning it was very tough. During that time there was a recession in Australia, many companies were closing. I literally went to door-to-door in Wollongong looking for a job because shops were not hiringÔÇô no one hiring at all. I tried for work in a petrol station, a car wash, you name it. Then I started going to every house, asking ÔÇÿcan I teach your kids? Can I mow your lawn?’

The PIE: Seriously? IÔÇÖm seeing a trait of persistence here.

RS: Yes I had to, there was no money. I had around AUS$130 left and I had to pay AUS$150 rent in two days and I couldnÔÇÖt get a job in the first 15- 20 days. In reality, I could have arranged money, I could have asked my parents, but I really didnÔÇÖt want to do that to my family.

All the savings my dad had, he had saved for my sisterÔÇÖs marriage. So that was another big responsibility. It got to the stage that I only had two days left before I ran out of money.

I went to Centrelink at 6am where they told me that ‘this is only for Australian citizens. We canÔÇÖt provide a job for you’. I persisted and said ‘IÔÇÖm not leaving unless I get something.’ At 3pm, the Centrelink employee ÔÇô who probably felt sorry for me ÔÇô arranged a job, which was like nearly two and a half hours from where I lived in Wollongong. The job was in Brookwell, in Sydney. To make the job, I had to run for 20 minutes, take a train to Central and take a bus and then run another 20 minutes.

The PIE: What were you studying?

RS: I was studying IT. I then transferred to Sydney because the job was in Sydney, I completed my advanced diploma in IT in a private college and ÔÇô after doing every job you can imagine: restaurants and building construction ÔÇô I started doing a lot of tutoring to many students.

“These students have the same issues that I had when they come to Australia ÔÇô theyÔÇÖre looking for accommodation”

This way, I saved AUS$30,000-40,000, and since I was so desperate to complete my studies I went back again to university and completed my postgraduate in IT.

The PIE: And how did you transition from postgrad to entrepreneur?

RS: When I graduated I couldnÔÇÖt get a job and probably that was the best thing that happened in my career. I was lost as to what to do and then I thought, the only skill I have is my IT knowledge, so I planned to start an IT training company.

Other IT training companies were closing as they believed that people had no money and so could not afford to pay for the training. My attitude was that if they donÔÇÖt have a job, what are they going to do, they need to upgrade, and I came up with a concept. Our offer was to train students for three months in technical skills, arrange live projects in companies and students were only required to pay after 12 months.

I explained to the bank that I needed them to provide study loans that I would guarantee. It was not standard for the bank to approve and I succeeded after several meetings with senior bank members. The first advertisement cost me the entire balance on my credit card AUS$3,000 and I had no money in my savings account. I then enrolled eight students and the company earned AUS$80,000 in the first week. I trained my students every day and then the company expanded and became a Microsoft Gold Partner and Cisco Partner in training and Infrastructure solution services within a year.

The PIE: And what was your next step?

RS: I acquired a struggling English language school ELSIS. The school had nearly AUS$600,000 liability. I used to supply computers and I got to know the college. They asked me to be involved and help the college to stay afloat. So I did and I eventually acquired the college. We re-located the college to Sydney CBD from Bondi Junction in a much smaller location with immediate savings (AUS$12,000 rent compared to AUS$60,000).

The business still had difficulty and at the beginning, we only had 15 days to turn things around. We learned very quickly that we needed to improve the way the college was doing business, and, with my IT background, we brought in new sophisticated IT systems and an improved communication platform.

“In the first few months we increased revenue by AUS$500,000”

Over the next 4-5 days, we met more than 100 agents, and very quickly, came up with a few promotions and assurances to our key recruitment partners. This was very successful, in the first few months we increased revenue by AUS$500,000 and the college was profitable from that point on.

The PIE: No way.

RS: During that time I noticed that many students completing ELSIS studies needed further study and these students progressed to courses at other colleges or universities. So, it was obvious that we needed to expand and offer higher education and other diploma courses.

We approached Victoria University and, although we were a small college at the time, they accepted our proposal. We then worked with their senior staff and, after 18 months, we established the VU Sydney campus.

The PIE: How did business develop?

RS: With VU we collaborated together, and developed a set of in-demand courses to offer at the VU Sydney campus. It has grown significantly over the years and now has nearly 2,500 students. We have excellent management and governance processes and committees.

The success of this and other ECA endeavours is our focus on nationality mix. We are not just reliant on one or two nationalities. We profile students from each country and further we profile students from different cities within the same country and run targeted campaigns as students requirements vary from city to city. We have developed sophisticated systems with targeted marketing, scholarships and have managed to create a very successful managed campus for our partner universities.

The ECA business consists of ECA online, University Partnerships with two major universities in Australia, our own Higher Education college, three VET colleges, Job Ready Programs, Internships and an English College. ECA is planning to extend the partner university campus model in the UK and NZ in 2020.

The PIE: So you have a good granular understanding of each student market and price points needed to recruit?

RS: We have a dedicated recruitment team within Australia and in a number of overseas countries that provide market intelligence for ECA on course trends and work opportunities.

We also developed a system where we can accurately predict the visa risk rating 12 months in advance for each country, and we work with partners using our transparent system.

The PIE: And how did your experience of being a student help, do you think, as you built up your businesses?

RS:┬áWhen we first started Victoria University Sydney, we found that a number of good students failed subjects in the first semester [at the managed campus]. These students have the same issues that I, and many international students had when they come to Australia ÔÇô theyÔÇÖre looking for accommodation. And the real estate agents want to see payslips and evidence of work experience. Students when they arrive donÔÇÖt have all this.

“Internships have been part of the business model since day one”

By week five, mid-term assignments are due and theyÔÇÖre still struggling to find accommodation and part-time jobs. I thought, I need to fix this situation or it is going to be the same for students in the next semester.

Therefore, I supported a student housing business 2 Stay which now has 600 beds across Australia. We provided fully furnished accommodation with internet and latest computers and they started to settle down and their results improved.

The PIE: So your success was due to understanding the difficulties in transitioning..

RS: On top of that, our students study a university degree and our business model is to provide internships to all our students.

When I graduated, I couldnÔÇÖt get a job because I didnÔÇÖt have work experience.┬áSo we are helping all our students in that area. We place around 2,000 internships at present. Internships have been part of the business model since day one. Our model of support called the ECA advantage, which offers airport pickup, accommodation support, free workshops to assist in finding casual jobs, free industry in-demand certifications to ensure that our students graduate with latest knowledge plus a number of other value-adds.

The PIE: How big is ECA altogether?

RS: Now, within the group, we have 670 employees in Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. We established the first Australian University Operation in India. ECA has a presence in many countries. We have now people working for us in Spain, Italy, South America, Indonesia, China, India, and the Philippines.

We are considering listing the company in the near future.

The PIE: You must feel very proud. 

RS: I love people. I love my students. Education is my passion. We currently have around 8,000 students studying with us. And now it will grow further because we have recently started a partnership with Swinburne University. We have built a beautiful campus in Parramatta.

The PIE: What do your parents think about your achievements?

RS: Actually, my parents didnÔÇÖt even know much of what I did until a few years back, to be honest.

It was only when my Dad saw my picture with prime minister Modi and attended an event then probably, my father realised that, maybe IÔÇÖm doing something useful. He keeps asking me when I am going to finish my PhD!

The post Rupesh Singh, CEO, Education Centre of Australia appeared first on The PIE News.

Turkish purpose-built student accommodation provider UNIVA has invested £10 million into UK-based student property and facility management company Opto Living. 

The investment deal with Opto Living was finalised in February 2020 and will see the acquisition of 140 luxury student studio suites in Cardiff city centre. 

“Quite simply, students will find that there will be no better place to live in Cardiff”

Opto Property Group will develop and act as the main contractor, while Opto Living will be the operator and facilities manager of the brand-new site under the name of UNIVA & Opto Cardiff.

“We’re delighted to have invested with Opto Living to deliver a new standard of accommodation to those studying in Cardiff,ÔÇØ said UNIVA chairman, R─▒za Erkanl─▒.┬á

“With this partnership between our like-minded and forward-looking organisations, we will deliver exceptional student living at competitive prices.

“Quite simply, students will find that there will be no better place to live in Cardiff.”┬á

Amenities at the new accommodation will include a wide range of sporting and leisure facilities including a basketball court, tennis court, games room, clubhouse, spa treatment room and wellness salon. 

It will also have a private dining room, on-site management and security, and a 24/7 reception service.

“UNIVA & Opto Cardiff defines luxury student living,” said Jerald Solis, director of Opto Property Group.

“Developed in close consultation with Cardiff City Council, it has been carefully designed to meet the exacting needs of the students at the three prestigious universities in the city.┬á

“The development centres around the concept of ‘Collective Living’ as we strive to future-proof the accommodation to meet the needs of the broad spectrum of those living in our building.”

UNIVA is TurkeyÔÇÖs first and largest purpose-built student accommodation provider. It is a subsidiary of Erkanli Holding, a real estate investment specialist with experience in domestic and international projects.

UNIVA currently provides fully furnished student houses in Turkey, with a total capacity of 4,911 bed spaces, which will increase to 10,000.

The company is set to continue investment into the UK and will be followed by stakes in the German and Spanish student housing markets.

The post Turkey: UNIVA invest £10m in UK PBSA market appeared first on The PIE News.

Colleges are rushing to serve their students via technology as an emergency stopgap. But once they build up that capacity, there’s little reason for them to abandon it.

Colleges are rushing to serve their students via technology as an emergency stopgap. But once they build up that capacity, there’s little reason for them to abandon it.

Nearly two months after the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, homesick African students studying in the country have given up on pleas to their governments to evacuate them from the locked-down city of Wuhan, regarded the epicentre of the epidemic.

While nearly 50 African countries have students enrolled in universities in the coronavirus hit Hubei province, only a handful of the countries mainly from north Africa have acted on desperate pleas to evacuate their students, with countries in Sub-Saharan Africa expressing reservations about the move or adopting a wait-and-see stance.

“We still stand with our demand to be evacuated and plead with Kenya government to act fast”

The decision not to airlift the students is being linked to fears that the move could see the rescued learners bringing the virus home where health systems are too weak to deal with an outbreak, while in other cases cost implications are being cited as a possible reason.

Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Mauritius, Mauritania, Morocco, Seychelles, South Africa and Tunisia have acted to move their citizens, while the rest of the countries on the continent advising their desperate to ÔÇ£stay putÔÇØ and comply with control measures imposed by Chinese authorities.

South Africa, SSA regionÔÇÖs most developed economy, has moved to rescue its 190 students studying in Wuhan, while the Indian Ocean island state of Seychelles has indicated that it would be airlifting its citizens from the city.

ÔÇ£We as Kenyan students in China have made it clear to our embassy and relevant officials that Kenyans in Wuhan need evacuation, however, the government has been slow to respond, but we still stand with our demand to be evacuated and plead with Kenya government to act fast,ÔÇØ Kenyan student, Festus Kosgei, told The┬áPIE News on March 9.

The situation in Wuhan, he said, is desperate with people spending as many as 18 hours a day indoors doing nothing.

ÔÇ£This is totally irresponsible, especially now that COVID-19 is almost being declared a pandemic, any wise government would evacuate its people very fast,ÔÇØ lamented the third-year student at the University of Wuhan.

ÔÇ£I am a Kenyan, I simply came to Wuhan to study and go back home safely. No amount of money can guarantee us safety; we just want to be home. The risks here are real,ÔÇØ Judy Serrem a Kenyan student stranded in Wuhan pleaded in twitter post last month.

Kenya like its neighbouring Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan has adamantly refused to bring home students, instead choosing to support them with essential supplies, while ÔÇ£closely monitoring the situation” according to the countryÔÇÖs envoy to China Sarah Serem.

I spoke to my sister about an hour ago, she is fine and trying to keep calm. She said the lock-down is stricter than it was at the beginning and that they are running short of supplies РRebecca Ndirangu #SundayLive pic.twitter.com/kSKszHiHOK

ÔÇö Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) March 1, 2020

The East African nation has so far released US$18,000 to support its 97 students in Wuhan with ÔÇ£essential suppliesÔÇØ including self -protection gear and hand sanitizers, according to the envoy.

ÔÇ£For how long shall the Kenya Embassy pretend to be helping us, for how long shall Kenyan foreign office ignore our calls for evacuation?ÔÇØ asked another Kenyan student, Mark Kipkorir.

A similar position has been taken by the West African country of Ghana, AfricaÔÇÖs leader in terms of population of students in China (6,500) with the countryÔÇÖs health minister announcing that the country was ready to ship tons of non-perishable local foods for its 300 students stuck in Wuhan.

According to Farook Lalji, director of Koala Education Consultants ÔÇô a student placement company with operations in Kenya and Nigeria ÔÇô the COVID-19 crisis is yet to negatively recruitment companies since many had already sent their students to universities abroad during early January and February before the crisis escalated.

It could, however, hit their business hard should the outbreak not be brought under control by July this year when universities in destinations such as Australia hold round two of student recruitments, he noted.

Companies, he said, were apprehensive of the future especially with upcoming recruitment drives by a number of Australian universities where representatives are to meet prospective students in Nairobi, with one scheduled for this week already having being cancelled.

ÔÇ£The rules imposed by authorities on control of COVID-19 allows entry to the country only for people who have spent 14 days in a country that has not reported any single case of the disease, unfortunately, our collaborators do not meet the condition and the event had to be cancelled,ÔÇØ said the director, without disclosing further details.

“No amount of money can guarantee us safety; we just want to be home”

His sentiments are shared by Irene Kamau, director OF 3M Overseas Education Advisory Centre in Nairobi, who said that they were keenly observing the unfolding situation, hoping it would not negatively affect their business.

So far, she said, no cancellations of their placements had taken place.

China is emerging as a favourite study destination for African students, hosting a total of 81,000 Africans in 2018 according to Study International, with the majority of them enjoying various categories of Chinese government scholarships.

The post Evacuation hopes fade for many African students on lockdown in Wuhan appeared first on The PIE News.

More and more colleges and universities are moving classes online and closing campuses as precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus.

But some experts are concerned about the potential effects on colleges with fewer resources, like regional and community colleges, and their students.

“I think everybody’s worried,” said Mildred Garcia, president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, a membership organization for regional state colleges. “This is something that people have not really experienced in a big way.”

Several community colleges have canceled in-person classes in Washington State, where more than 160 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Shoreline Community College, about 12 miles north of Seattle, switched to remote learning for most courses on Tuesday.

“No one can practice for something like this,” said Cheryl Roberts, president of the college. But Shoreline had a head start on preparations, as well as some past practice in moving courses online.

The college activated an infectious disease protocol and started working on a continuity of business plan when the outbreak began in China weeks ago, Roberts said. Shoreline also dealt with “snowmageddon” last year, which helped prepare faculty and the college for moving to online platforms quickly.

The department that handles online learning held extra trainings last week for faculty members, she said, and there is extra support available for students as well. While there are fewer than 10 people in the department, Roberts said they are prepared for an uptick in demand.

Another concern is students who may not have access to computers or internet connections at home. For many low-income students, their device is a smartphone. Shoreline is repurposing 70 laptops from its computer labs for students to borrow, Roberts said, and campus services like the library and online tutoring will remain open.

Staff are currently working on a plan for if the campus has to go completely remote for a long period of time. This includes connecting students with community services for food and finding ways to deliver checks for those who apply for emergency funds.

They’re also thinking about how to ensure online platforms are accessible for students with disabilities, and how to offer counseling remotely as students deal with stress from this disruption.

The college is also trying to develop a live chat system so that students will have still have “high-touch” service in a high-tech system, Roberts said.

“People’s needs aren’t going to go away,” she said.

In fact, students’ needs might increase.

“I think students will have a harder time finishing the semester because these changes will be so disruptive,” said Rebecca Anne Glazier, an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Because regional and community colleges generally serve less privileged populations, Glazier expects many will wait to close campuses until they feel they have to. Closures of school districts could prompt that, she said.

If that happens, many students could have to juggle childcare and getting access to courses online. Lower-income students who work on their phones may have limited data plans, which may not be enough to suddenly handle online coursework and lectures for all of their classes.

If colleges end up closing campus housing and sending students home, there have to be supports for helping students with those transportation costs, said Wil Del Pilar, vice president of higher education policy and practice at the Education Trust. There’s also the question of whether institutions are prepared to reimburse students for housing costs.

“I think it could have a differential impact on students, especially students who are the most vulnerable,” Del Pilar said.

There also could be economic effects, Glazier said. Working students might have their shifts cut if people are staying home and not using services. Those in the service industry might get fewer customers and thus fewer tips.

“As professors, we just need to recognize how many pressures our students are under,” she said. “Maybe just give a little bit of grace.”

Colleges in rural areas might be better prepared for this than people would expect, though, according to Randy Smith, president of the Rural Community College Alliance.

These institutions often have to deal with weather disasters, like fires and tornadoes, Smith said.

“I think we face a lot of risks in that way,” he said. “Certainly our emergency plans are very active.”

For the most part, rural areas also have access to high-speed internet, as well, Smith said. Nearly all rural colleges have some offering of online courses already, he added.

But concerns remain over the other resources students have. Garcia, from AASCU, pointed out that many students at regional colleges are low income, and while many institutions have policies for loaning laptops, it may not be enough to cover everyone who needs one.

At Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, a statewide community college system, staff are working on a plan in the event they need to close completely, according to Jon Barefoot, assistant vice president for public safety and emergency preparedness. That includes figuring out how to make support services available. He doesn’t know the exact need for loaner laptops, for example, but he knows the current supply is limited.

Fortunately, the system had already been working on business continuity planning before the coronavirus infection started to spread, and faculty already were encouraged to keep backup plans and lessons in the learning management system for times they are sick.

Still, working at a community college system with fewer resources than elite private institutions, Barefoot said they know that “we won’t have the ability to waste resources” in times of crisis.

If they start moving classes online or close campuses, staff will start tracking expenses to hopefully be reimbursed by the state or federal governments, he said. Shoreline Community College is already tracking expenses, Roberts said.

Beyond the logistics and technical issues, some experts are also concerned with how this could affect learning, especially for traditionally underserved students.

For coursework that’s entirely online, students who aren’t well prepared tend to not do as well, according to Sandy Baum, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research institution. These students tend to be lower income, students of color and men.

“If you don’t already know how to study and learn, then you’re going to struggle with a purely online course,” Baum said.

If students were in corequisite courses and suddenly get moved online, they’ll lose that additional help, Del Pilar added. Many colleges haven’t figured out how to move those additional supports online, he said.

Synchronous classes -- those that have all students log on at once to listen to a professor in real time -- are better than asynchronous classes to prevent this, she said. But it mostly comes down to building relationships between faculty and students.

Sending personal emails, calling students by name and working on discussion boards in real time can help students engage with online courses more, Glazier said.

Still, online courses have a retention gap of about 10 to 40 percent across disciplines and colleges compared to face-to-face courses, she said.

“I think we’ll have to pay real close attention and learn from the situation,” Garcia said. “Those who are less resourced, we need to figure out better ways of taking care of them.”

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Amid growing concerns about the potential spread of coronavirus, colleges across the country are telling students to go home.

Harvard University, in Massachusetts, was one of a rapidly growing number of colleges that announced on Tuesday it would transition from in-person to online instruction and ask students to depart campus in an effort to help contain the spread of the new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory illness known as COVID-19. Harvard instructed students not to return after spring break, which starts this weekend, and said students would complete their coursework remotely "until further notice."

University officials said students who must remain on campus due to extenuating circumstances “will also receive instruction remotely and must prepare for severely limited on-campus activities and interactions.” Graduate students will also transition to working remotely “wherever possible,” the announcement said.

"The decision to move to virtual instruction was not made lightly," Harvard president Lawrence Bacow said in a statement. "The goal of these changes is to minimize the need to gather in large groups and spend prolonged time in close proximity with each other in spaces such as classrooms, dining halls, and residential buildings."

Other colleges that made major announcements about changes to the academic schedule on Tuesday include Berea College, a Kentucky institution where tuition is free and where every student works in a campus job. Berea said the college would cease instruction this Friday and ask students to move out on Saturday.

“Faculty are requested to give immediate consideration to how their courses can be brought to closure in that time, and we apologize for the very short notice. Because most students will have left campus and not all will have internet access, instruction should not continue, although assignments for students to complete and submit can be part of the plan and electronic communications may continue,” Berea’s president, Lyle Roelofs, said in a statement.

Berea said it would provide accommodations for students for whom returning home would be a hardship, and said all students will continue to be paid for their campus work positions through the end of the semester even if they are off campus and unable to work.

Cornell University, in New York, also said it was moving to online learning for the remainder of the semester after its spring break, which starts March 28. Students are receiving instructions on moving out of campus housing, but they can seek permission to stay if they are unable to return to their permanent residences.

"While there are currently no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Tompkins County, we want to do all we can to minimize the community spread of the virus, which could prove challenging if many of our community members were to leave for spring break (March 28-April 5) and return to campus," Cornell president Martha E. Pollack wrote in a message to the campus.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology also is transitioning to online instruction on March 30 and requiring undergraduates to leave the campus by next Tuesday, March 17. The university said it would "consider limited exceptions to allow certain undergraduate students to remain on campus." Online instruction will continue through the remainder of the semester.

Duke University, which is currently on spring break, has asked all undergraduate, graduate and professional students not to return to campus, if at all possible. Duke has suspended in-person classes “until further notice” and plans to begin remote instruction March 23.

“Students who do remain in campus housing or in the Durham area should be aware that access to many facilities and services -- including dining, recreation and libraries -- will be limited. In addition, student activities and gatherings will be curtailed,” the university said in a statement.

Smith College, a liberal arts college in Massachusetts, is asking students to leave campus by March 20 and telling them not to expect to return this semester. Alternate modes of instruction will start March 30, after an extended spring break.

"Room and board will be provided only to students who have no option but to remain on campus, including those from countries with travel restrictions, those whose legal residence is Smith College and those with other extenuating circumstances," the college said in its announcement.

Another liberal arts college, Bucknell University, in Pennsylvania, instructed students to leave campus by March 17 and said the university would transition to online learning for the remainder of the semester. And Colorado College, a liberal arts college that offers one class at a time in 3.5-week blocks, said it would offer the next block via virtual learning and that students should plan to remain off campus at least through the end of the next block and possibly for the remainder of the academic year.

Other institutions that said they are suspending in-person instruction in favor of remote teaching and would ask students to leave campus for shorter periods include Johns Hopkins University, in Maryland, which is asking undergraduate students not to return to campus after spring break and to stay home until April 12; Rutgers University, in New Jersey, which is starting spring break early and asking students to remain off campus through at least April 3; Indiana University, which is encouraging students to return home to take classes remotely through at least April 6; and Syracuse University, in New York, which is asking students to leave campus this week and not return until in-person teaching resumes no earlier than March 30.

Baldwin-Wallace University, in Ohio, is switching to remote instruction and encouraging students to return to their homes through April 10. Youngstown State University, also in Ohio, said it would extend spring break for an additional week, through March 22, and use the time to finalize alternative instructional modes "that will allow most students to continue their education without coming to campus during the coronavirus outbreak."

A growing number of colleges have announced closures or transitions to online learning in recent days (for more information, see Inside Higher Ed's roundups from Monday and Tuesday).

The California State University system on Tuesday instructed leaders of its 23 campuses to “consider shifting the delivery of as much of the curriculum as possible to non-face-to-face modalities” to minimize disruptions to student learning caused by the coronavirus. The system said "in-person instruction should cease for two to four days while faculty and administration focus on the final details of converting to non-in-person instructional modalities."

The University of California, Los Angeles -- which is on a quarter rather than a semester system -- said Tuesday it is transitioning to online learning through April 10, the second week of its spring quarter. Students will be encouraged to start the spring quarter remotely, though university housing will be available for those who need it.

The rapid move to online education formats has raised concerns among faculty. Rudy Fichtenbaum, the president of the American Association of University Professors, said that while the group applauds administrators’ efforts to keep students, faculty and staff safe, it is hearing from members that decisions about closing campuses or moving instruction online “are being made without adequate faculty involvement in decision making” in violation of AAUP guidance.

“In certain situations, it is necessary to close a campus or move to online instruction to safeguard the health of the campus community,” Fichtenbaum said. “Faculty and academic staff -- through their shared governance bodies or, when applicable, their unions -- should be consulted on how best to implement this decision. In order to ensure full participation, administrations should share information with faculty and seek input from the appropriate faculty bodies. In cases where the institution is moving to an all-online model to avoid virus transmission on campus, it is incumbent on administrations to provide all instructional faculty with the appropriate software and training. Administrations should also consider the needs and limitations of students, who may lack access to the internet or face other obstacles to completing their coursework remotely.”

In college sports news, the Ivy League called off its basketball tournaments and said it would impose strict limits on spectators at other events. Mark Emmert, the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, said that NCAA member colleges and conferences will make their own decisions regarding regular season and conference tournament play.

“As we have stated, we will make decisions on our events based on the best, most current public health guidance available,” Emmert said in a statement. “Neither the NCAA COVID-19 advisory panel, made up of leading public health and infectious disease experts in America, nor the CDC or local health officials have advised against holding sporting events. In the event circumstances change, we will make decisions accordingly.”

And in news from the high seas, the Semester at Sea study abroad program, which is affiliated with Colorado State University, said it would end the voyage early, citing U.S. Department of State and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warnings against cruise travel. The study abroad program, which had been scheduled to visit seven countries on four continents, had to alter its itinerary and was at one point denied permission to dock in the Seychelles by public health and port authorities, even though the program says there was no evidence of health concerns.

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The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation owns the famed architect’s Taliesin estate in Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Arizona. Both are national historic landmarks. As of last summer, both are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Both locations are also homes for the School of Architecture at Taliesin -- at least for a few more months.

The school’s board voted at the end of January to close after the current semester. Leaders involved cited an unsustainable business model and an inability to reach an agreement with the foundation on an acceptable plan for the future.

Just 40 days later, the school’s board reversed course, saying they had heard students’ concerns, raised money and found a sustainable way forward. There was just one problem: they didn’t have the foundation’s blessing. School leaders have been publicly calling on the foundation to extend an agreement under which they use the Taliesin locations.

"The board will look at our options," said Dan Schweiker, who chairs the school’s Board of Governors. "One of those options is to file for mediation and force them to get to the table. We would much rather they came to the table willingly."

That seemed unlikely after the foundation released a Friday statement blasting the school’s handling of the situation. The foundation has two representatives on the school’s board but little information about any new income sources, the statement said.

“The School’s announcements and lack of planning for the consequences of its earlier decision have adversely affected the lives of its employees who were terminated, generated distraction for its students from their studies and future planning, upset its alumni community, and disrupted the Foundation’s own important work,” the foundation’s statement said in part. “The board has demonstrated more concern about seeking blame for its decision to close than creating a sustainable business model for itself.”

Such a war of words between related entities is unusual, although not unheard-of, in higher education. It has become increasingly common for colleges and universities to waffle publicly about closure plans as financial difficulties loom and fights between different constituencies unfold.

Sweet Briar College remains perhaps the most notorious example after a previous administration there planned to close the small women’s college in rural Virginia in 2015, only to have alumnae revolt and eventually win a struggle to keep the institution open. More recently, Hampshire College announced plans last year to find a partner institution before its board decided instead to keep it independent.

And the battle over the future of Westminster Choir College, in Princeton, N.J., provides an example of a struggle over what to do with parts of related institutions, as its parent, Rider University, has sought at different times in recent years to sell the choir college or move it to Rider’s main campus, even as alumni groups want it to remain independent.

The details of the situation unfolding at the School of Architecture at Taliesin and the foundation are in many ways different from those at other colleges. But the case reflects many of the same important tensions playing out at private institutions across higher education -- over finances, control of campuses, institutional identity and who, exactly, is in charge of individual institutions.

Those fights often capture attention because they turn nasty, but they can also reveal weaknesses in the way some higher ed institutions are structured.

“This is a central governance issue,” said Brian C. Mitchell, a former president of Bucknell University and Washington & Jefferson College who is now a consultant. “The governance practices and protocols of the middle and late 20th century no longer fit the direction of institutions as they move forward into the 21st century. So as colleges and universities adapt and modernize, they also need to look carefully at their governance, which must follow suit.”

A Long History at Taliesin

Citing tradition dating to the 1930s, the architecture school operates at Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis., from mid-May through mid-October. For the rest of the year, it operates at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The school is successor to an apprenticeship program started by Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1930s, according to its current president, Aaron Betsky. The program was essentially three things, Betsky said: a school, an office that produced Wright-designed buildings and a community where everyone lived and worked together.

In the 1980s, the school gained accreditation and split off from the architecture office, which would continue to operate until 2003, Betsky said. The school remained an important part of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation for another decade or so, at which point its accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission, asked the foundation to affirm that its mission was to support higher education.

That wouldn’t have aligned with the foundation’s full mission of “inspiring society” with Wright’s ideas and designs and preserving his Taliesin estates. In Betsky’s telling, the foundation wanted to close the school, but the sides found a solution in which the school became a wholly owned subsidiary of the foundation under independent academic, financial and administrative control.

Reports in 2015 said an agreement was reached that would have the foundation supporting the school through 2019, both financially and by donating the use of facilities. That support was to wind down on a yearly basis, AD PRO reported.

In 2017, the school became its own nonprofit entity, changing its name from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture to the School of Architecture at Taliesin.

“They claimed that if we continued to use that name, they would have to have a right of approval of any student, faculty or staff work that came out into the public under that name,” Betsky said. “That is not something that would be appropriate to an accredited institution of higher learning.”

When splitting off the school as a separate legal entity, the foundation transferred to it the assets and liabilities related to its operation. Net assets transferred included nearly $2 million in cash, investments and pledges receivable, according to the foundation’s audited financial statement.

But the school continued to use Taliesin and Taliesin West. It also paid the foundation for services. In 2017-18, it paid the foundation $248,625 for dining, information technology and human resources services, according to its federal tax statement for that year. It was a significant portion of the school’s total expenses of $1.67 million.

That year the school collected just shy of $392,000 in tuition and fees and slightly more than $129,000 in immersion program fees, according to tax filings.

The school’s lease for the use of the Taliesin estates is part of a memorandum of understanding with the foundation that governs all relations between the two entities, Betsky said. It is up at the end of July, and the sides have been working on a renewal for a year or so, without success.

“The foundation kept wanting more and more and more and finally, at the July 25 meeting, they just said to us, ‘We are not going to renew your MOU under any circumstances,’” Betsky said.

He said that the foundation wanted to charge more for shared services and felt it could use the land better than for the school of architecture. He also said the foundation told the school it wasn’t financially viable.

“Which we thought was odd,” Betsky said. “We have accreditors who have looked at us.”

Without plans for a different location, the school decided to close, Betsky said.

Could the school lease space elsewhere and remain open? Its leaders don’t think so. They already lost the Frank Lloyd Wright name when they split off from the foundation in 2017. Becoming “the School of Architecture kind of near Taliesin” hurts the identity further, Schweiker said.

“It was a marketing challenge when we changed the name from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture,” he said. “That was more difficult than we thought it would be.”

Any Way Forward?

The school of architecture’s board reversed course after hearing from supporters, Schweiker said. A group of Taliesin Fellows has pledged to raise $500,000 for the school by April 30.

It’s not enough to erase all of the school’s problems. Its costs are too high to be spread across the number of students it enrolls, about 30. But it has a business plan to eventually grow to 60 students, and the pledged influx of money would put the school on a path to sustainability, its leaders believe. It will be breaking even when it enrolls between 45 and 60 students and has demonstrated the ability to raise money to carry it until then.

The branding change made enrollment growth slower than originally anticipated, Betsky said.

“We’re running behind,” he said. “That means we have to raise more money, which we have done, and the foundation just doesn’t believe we will grow and that we will continue to attract more students.”

The school also has pro bono legal representation from the firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP. A lawyer there, Jon Kelley, said that the foundation might think it’s convenient to look at some parts of the school’s financial performance and use them to justify not renewing the memorandum of understanding. But that’s not the full story.

“It’s really nothing more than a scapegoat,” Kelley said. “It comes down to whether the foundation is ultimately going to agree to allow the school to continue.”

The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation declined a request for interview for this article. Asked about several details in the school’s telling of events, a spokesperson at the foundation provided a copy of the statement released Friday.

That statement says that the foundation only learned of the school’s new plans to remain open “through stories the School of Architecture’s lawyers had placed in the media.”

The foundation has discussed partnering with several other architecture programs to come to its campuses and establish an accredited program, the statement said. The foundation plans to continue to explore such options.

“Frank Lloyd Wright’s 88-year-legacy of architect training will continue at his two homes,” it said. Later, it said that Taliesin and Taliesin West “remain open and thriving, welcoming record numbers of visitors from around the world.”

The foundation declined further comment until it is directly given more information.

“We do not intend to debate or negotiate this matter in the press or in social media and plan no further statement at this time,” its statement said.

A foundation official has, however, forwarded an internal memo about the situation to Architect magazine. The memo, marked confidential, is from Schweiker, the school’s board chair, and is dated Jan. 23 -- days before the initial vote to close the school.

“I have reluctantly concluded that SOAT is too small to exist in its current form,” it said in part. “We do not have, nor will we have in the foreseeable future the resources needed to successfully operate our current model. We do not have the funding to even have the state of the art software programs that graduates need to gain successful employment.”

The memo went on to call for dropping accreditation and engaging with Arizona State University for a teach-out programs. Such a move on teach-out programs was announced after the school decided to close in January.

“In in-depth meetings with the Foundation on the future of the MOU, we ran across areas, where despite the decades of animosity between the two groups, we have alignment of thought,” the memo said. “Both organizations are dedicated to education and to keeping alive and sharing the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright. To no one’s surprise we have followed different roads though it turns out driving towards the same goal. Having two groups battling each other and fighting for the same donors does neither group service. The Foundation firmly believes in the education aspects presented in Mr. Wright’s will. It only makes sense to avoid duplication of expenses and the energy lost to interfamily dysfunction and embark upon finding a future education path together.”

Schweiker said Monday the board had changed its mind. It has reopened admissions processes while "disclosing uncertainty" to prospective students, a spokeswoman said.

“There was such an outpouring from students, from former students, from architects,” Schweiker said. “We got together as a board and looked at our previous decision and said, ‘You know what the right thing to do, the only thing to do is to reverse that decision.’ And we’re going to make this school succeed, and if the foundation doesn’t want the school around, instead of making it look like we can’t make it, they’re just going to have to tell the world that they do not want the school anymore.”

Image Source: Istockphoto.com/fdastudilloImage Caption: Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin estate in Wisconsin is at the center of a battle between the school of architecture that used to carry his name and the foundation that still does.Is this diversity newsletter?: Newsletter Order: 0Disable left side advertisement?: Is this Career Advice newsletter?: Magazine treatment: Trending: Display Promo Box: Live Updates: liveupdates0

As the coronavirus has spread to additional countries and American states, many colleges and universities are continuing to cancel all institutionally sponsored international travel, and some are restricting domestic travel by air. But the arrival of spring break at campuses across the United States will likely present new logistical, and possibly health, challenges for these institutions, as significant numbers of students, faculty and staff travel independently, leaving colleges reliant on them to self-report possible exposure to the virus.

As a result, a wave of universities have announced plans to shift instruction online after the spring vacation, and some colleges -- including Harvard University and Amherst College in Massachusetts -- have asked students not to return to campus after the break and to complete their classes remotely. Other institutions have urged students to reconsider traveling during the break.

Amherst's president, Biddy Martin, noted the risk posed by students traveling for break in announcing the decision to move to remote learning after spring break.

"We know that many people will travel widely during spring break, no matter how hard we try to discourage it," she wrote. "The risk of having hundreds of people return from their travels to the campus is too great."

Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., which returned from spring break this week, announced Monday that it was canceling instruction for the remainder of the week and shifting courses online through March 30 after "several students returned to campus who have since reported being exposed to an individual who tested positive today for COVID-19."

Earlier in the week, Vanderbilt had sent out a message asking students to comply with self-reporting and self-isolation requirements and saying disciplinary procedures would be used as a stick of sorts to encourage compliance.

“Any student not complying with Vanderbilt’s notification and self-isolation practices will be subject to immediate disciplinary procedures through Student Accountability,” Mark Bandas, the associate provost and dean of students, wrote in a message to the campus Sunday. “If at any time we determine that you have failed to comply with a self-isolation directive that has applied to you, furnished false information to the University, or not reported complete and accurate information about your travel and personal contacts (or the travel and personal contacts of others), you may face major disciplinary action, up to and including separation from the University.”

A Vanderbilt spokesman declined to comment on the specific policies under which students could potentially face disciplinary action, or how Vanderbilt intends to enforce it. He said updates will be shared on the university's dedicated coronavirus website.

Some colleges are asking students, staff and faculty to consider canceling personal travel and are trying to track where individuals go. Spelman College in Atlanta is among those institutions asking students to register their spring break travel inside or outside the U.S. on a university website.

"While we have not historically asked any member of our community to register personal travel, we strongly encourage all students, faculty, and staff to register, as the path of the Coronavirus is fast moving," the college says on its website.

The situation is very fluid. Last week. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Friday issued a statement discouraging personal international travel -- including spring break travel -- and providing instructions on mandatory reporting to countries flagged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for having high rates of viral transmission. On Tuesday, MIT instructed undergraduates not to return after spring break and said courses will be delivered remotely for the remainder of the semester. It is one of a number of universities -- including Cornell University, in New York; Rutgers University, in New Jersey; and Youngstown State University, in Ohio -- that are using the arrival of spring break as an opportunity to transition to remote instruction.

For those colleges that haven't made that transition (at least not yet), they are relying on a combination of self-reporting, awareness and education to mitigate risks associated with personal travel.

James R. Jacobs, a member of the American College Health Association's COVID-19 task force and the executive director of Stanford University's Vaden Health Center, said that while universities are dependent on self-reporting of personal travel, "our goal is well-informed collaboration, where all parties are committed to minimizing risk to individuals and communities."

"Corralling, or even knowing about, personal travel is a challenge," Jacobs said. "A recommended strategy is to use the college’s resources to track and communicate risks and risk-mitigation strategies. To a large extent, we depend on the intellectual integrity and personal ethics of our university travelers to do the right thing."

As for whether colleges should use their disciplinary procedures to enforce compliance with coronavirus-related policies, Jacobs said his position "is to acknowledge that most forms of public health intervention, such as self-isolation, are best achieved when all parties are acting with transparency and with consideration for self and community. This requires a lot of communication and mutual respect. In most jurisdictions, quarantines and other far-reaching public health interventions can be enforced only by public health officials."

Adrian Hyzler, the chief medical officer of Healix International, a company that provides international medical, security and travel assistance services to colleges and other organizations, said he thinks it will be more effective to appeal to students’ goodwill and ability to make sensible decisions than to tell them they can't travel.

“Ask the students to think about the next few weeks and to think about what’s the sensible thing to do and can you survive without going abroad? Can you survive without doing it this once in a situation where you think about yourself, you think about your fellow students? People must assume that once there is a case in their college, it affects everyone,” Hyzler said. He noted that students should be aware of the risk the illness poses to elderly relatives and friends as well.

Many colleges have language on their websites urging students be aware of the risks of personal travel.

Administrators at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., on Friday sent a message to the campus strongly recommending that all members of the university community reconsider any personal plans to travel internationally. Georgetown has suspended all university-sponsored international travel through May 15.

"Everyone should be aware of the associated risk of disruptions to their reentry to the United States or other countries. Based on the quickly evolving international travel guidance, your return to the United States or to campus may be interrupted by federal or state restrictions," the message states.

A message last Friday from Tufts University, in Massachusetts, announced restrictions on university-sponsored travel and also noted concerns about personal travel.

"While the University cannot restrict personal travel, we recommend monitoring CDC warnings and avoiding both domestic and international destinations where COVID-19 is prevalent," the message says.

Henry Oliver, the director of global advancement at West Virginia University, said his institution is focused on educating the campus about the risks of traveling.

"We’ve done some communications that have gone out to the university community that say with the upcoming spring break, take precautions. A lot of it is common sense." He said the precautions include information such as hand-washing protocols. The university has also made information available about how to seek medical care through student health services.

West Virginia does not have a system in place by which students can register their personal travel with the university.

“There’s no way realistically for us to track what everyone is doing personally,” Oliver said. “We just feel that education and awareness are the absolute best remedies that we have at our disposal.”

Andrea Bordeau, a member of the executive committee of PULSE, an association of professionals focused on health and safety in academic travel, and manager of global safety and security at Vanderbilt, said that “all universities are in this together.”

“Institutions of higher education and the larger community as a whole must rely on thoughtful and careful self-reporting that considers the vulnerable members of our communities,” Bordeau said. “We all need to look beyond ourselves right now and remember that age is not the only indicator for risk. Civic engagement is something many of our students are passionate about, and this situation has offered an opportunity for us to consider the implications of our choices and how to best care for our community.”

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Campuses are quickly emptying as colleges opt to move instruction online and encourage social distancing to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. But for institutions that are still occupied and still have full residence halls, administrators and student leaders are working together to keep students from interacting too closely -- even though socializing is a large part of the college experience.

Parties, talks by guest speakers, seminars and various other events that normally bring students together have all but disappeared on many campuses, helped in part by the arrival of spring break and decisions by a growing number of colleges to ask students not to return to their campuses after the break and to take classes online instead.

In Seattle, where the spread of the coronavirus has been extensive and deadly, the University of Washington campus remains open for students to access libraries, dining halls and dorms, but leaders of the Associated Students of the University of Washington, or ASUW, described it as a “ghost town.” The student government organization has canceled all but one of its events and meetings for the remaining week of the winter quarter, and other student groups have followed the lead of the ASUW, said President Kelty Pierce.

“We decided to air on the side of caution,” Pierce said. “There weren’t as many events left -- most happened earlier in the quarter -- but it was a precautionary measure to keep the health and safety of students in mind. There were a number of formals or social gatherings that were canceled within the Greek community, but there were large showings of support for this by students.”

Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., near Chicago, canceled an annual dance marathon scheduled for March 6 through 8 that raises millions for charitable organizations in the local community. This year’s beneficiary, an organization that provides counseling and therapy for children, will likely still receive more than $20 million in donations from other fundraising efforts, but leaders of the Northwestern University Dance Marathon said in a statement that their “hearts are broken” and that they “understand it would have been a health risk to hold NUDM this weekend given the spread of coronavirus.”

Campus officials nationwide should be concerned about COVID-19 “due to the potential for rapid transmission in a congregate setting within campus environments,” according to guidelines issued by the American College Health Association. Classrooms and large events are not the only spaces where students are vulnerable to contracting the illness -- they live in dorms and share bathrooms with dozens of other people, eat in dining halls where buffet-style food is served, and attend parties where cups and e-cigarettes and rolled tobacco or marijuana and other smoking material are shared, said Sarah Van Ormen, chief student health officer for the University of Southern California.

“We know that college students tend to live in larger communities and engage in certain activities that noncollege students don’t,” said Van Ormen, who is a member of the ACHA COVID-19 task force. “Everybody needs to take a look at what they’re doing … ‘If I’m going into these settings, are there things that I can do to minimize risk?’”

It’s important for traditional college-aged students to remember that while they will likely avoid life-threatening symptoms, they could spread COVID-19 to at-risk groups on campus and in surrounding communities, generally people who are more than 60 years old or who have pre-existing health conditions, Van Ormen said. Social distancing is recommended more for these groups, and for people who live in areas where there is widespread transmission, she said.

But even if students don’t meet these criteria, they should be proactive by refraining from being in any social environment with more than 30 people if it’s not essential for them to be there, said Debbie Beck, executive director of student health services at the University of South Carolina and a member of the ACHA task force. Bars and parties are especially risky because people are forced to speak loudly over music and saliva “droplets are coming out” of their mouths, Beck said.

“Limit social interactions,” Beck said. “We have to assume in our community that there is someone that has probably been in contact with or associated with someone who has had the virus.”

Three days before UW became one of the first colleges in the nation to move classes online, Erik Johnson, the president of the university’s Interfraternity Council, or IFC, said he required all fraternities on campus to halt social activities. He said spread of the virus through fraternity parties or other events was top of mind in his decision.

“We need to be cognizant of the fact that our community is young and healthy and the rest of people who are vulnerable to the coronavirus are outside the community,” Johnson said. “Seattle is in a very unique situation right now. This is unparalleled to other universities.”

There are always going to be small gatherings that chapter presidents can’t do much about, but IFC fraternities have largely abided by the social moratorium, and there have not been “noticeable” parties or other social events since, Johnson said. Members have expressed “disappointment and understanding” about the moratorium. Johnson said he anticipated more pushback given that it was the last week before finals.

On a national level, only a small number of colleges so far have put restrictions on large student organizations, such as sororities and fraternities, said Kevin Kruger, president of NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education.

Some fraternity headquarters, alumni and faculty, and alumni advisers are helping spread the word about university and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to prevent contracting or spreading the coronavirus. UW students have been directed to avoid handshaking and general touching, and although they have not been advised explicitly about practicing safe sexual behaviors, the written guidance has implied it, Johnson said, by noting that the agency's guidelines recommend to "avoid close contact with people who are sick" and to "put distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community."

Phil Rodriguez, executive director of Delta Sigma Phi, said the national fraternity has advised chapters to individually formulate housing plans for if a fraternity member is diagnosed with COVID-19 and to communicate with student affairs officialÔÇïs.

“There’s definitely a conversation about being safe and smart as we navigate these unprecedented waters,” Rodriguez said.

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