I hope that this missive finds everyone safe and well! If you are anything like me you have grown weary of the constraints that the COVID-19 pandemic imposed upon our lives. While I appreciate spending the time near my family along with my vastly reduced commute time and not having to play parking spot roulette if I venture out for a mid-day meeting, I also find myself spending no little time worrying about my faculty and staff colleagues and about our students. I also worry about the future of higher education in the United States and about the future of institutions like the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Public regional universities are not wealthy places. They always operate close to the bone, serving the overwhelming majority of the nation’s college students. They do not possess multi-billion-dollar endowments (UM-D’s, for instance, stands at around $60,000,000) and the bulk of their operating budgets are allocated toward faculty/staff salaries and benefits and student aid/support. They tend not to generate millions of sponsored research dollars nor are they supported the way that they once were by state tax dollars; they are tuition-driven institutions. And yet, it is in these very schools that the vast majority of American college students, many of them the first in their families to ever attend college and an increasing number from underrepresented populations, study, learn, and earn their degrees. These universities are, in short, the primary driver of American social mobility and equity. The COVID pandemic, while posing but the latest challenge to these schools, may be the most deadly. Indeed, the nation is already seeing small colleges and universities shuttering their doors as well as even the nation’s best known and well-funded colleges/universities adopting severe cost-cutting measures. Higher education as we knew it, will never look the same.
While prospects for schools like ours may look ominous, UM-Dearborn is better positioned than many to not only ride out this storm but to emerge stronger. First off, campuses like ours are well acquainted with environments of scarcity and finding ways to make due with less. Indeed, recent campus initiatives around digital education, student support, and careful stewardship of scarce resources enabled a relatively smooth transition to remote learning and for the campus to quickly establish the necessary reserves to cover its immediate needs. Likewise, the lack of university housing, dining, clinical medical programs, and a big time athletic program, also positions the university well to weather this latest shock. Our history as a primarily commuter campus also benefits us and may, in fact, entice new students to study with us as they wonder about the efficacy of spending more money for a residential experience further from their homes in this uncertain time. Finally, our connection to one of the world’s great universities also stands as reminder of both the power of a Michigan degree as well as the durability of the university granting those degrees.
Don’t get me wrong, the immediate future is filled with a great many challenges for both the university and the college but I firmly believe that if any regional public university can survive this storm, this one can. Will it look the same as it did back in March of this year? Undoubtedly not. Still, it will continue to do what it has done throughout its history; provide access to the very best public education available to a population that deserves exactly that. There is lots of work ahead and I look forward to sharing our progress with you as the university navigates this most challenging of times.
