Max Boot

Dear Commons Community,

The Washington Post’s Max Boot imagined World War II taking a very different turn in his latest column concluding that if President Franklin D. Roosevelt had taken Trump’s approach, “this column would be in German.”

Boot, a conservative and a critic of President Donald Trump, suggested in amusing detail how the War would have played out had former President Franklin D. Roosevelt acted as Trump is currently doing amid the deadly coronavirus pandemic.  Here is an excerpt:

“The 75th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany got me thinking about how World War II might have turned out if President Franklin D. Roosevelt had acted like President Donald J. Trump.

Picture the scene a few months after Pearl Harbor. The first U.S. troops have arrived in England, and the Doolittle raiders have bombed Tokyo. But even though the war has just begun, the Trumpified FDR is already losing interest. One day he says the war is already won; the next day that we will just have to accept the occupation of France because that’s the way life is. He speculates that mobilization might be unnecessary if we can develop a “death ray” straight out of a Buck Rogers comic strip. He complains that rationing and curfews are very unpopular and will have to end soon. He tells the governors that if they want to keep on fighting, they will have to take charge of manufacturing ships, tanks and aircraft. Trumpy FDR prefers to hold mass rallies to berate his predecessor, Herbert Hoover. He even suggests that Hoover belongs in jail along with the leading Republican congressmen — “Martin, Barton and Fish.”

In reality, of course, Roosevelt focused with single-minded devotion on defeating the United States’ enemies until the day of his death. Old political battles and agendas fell by the wayside. “Dr. New Deal” had been transformed, he explained, into “Dr. Win-the-War.”

Trump, by contrast, cannot focus on a single subject for the length of a paragraph. So it is no surprise that he has already gotten bored with a war against the coronavirus that isn’t going his way. He is taking his cues not from FDR but from Sen. George Aiken, the Vermont Republican whose plan for the Vietnam War was summed up as “declare victory and get out.” In Trump’s case, that means getting Americans out of the home whether it’s safe to do so or not.

Coronavirus deaths are surging past 86,000 and unemployment claims past 36 million, but Trump sounded on Monday as if the pandemic is already over. “We have met the moment and we have prevailed,” he declared. It’s as if Roosevelt had declared Victory in Europe before D-Day…

…It remains to be seen whether the “very stable genius” will succeed in distracting the public. He has definitely distracted himself. The Post reports: “Trump has been distracted recently from managing the pandemic by fixating on Flynn and related matters, ranting in private about the Russia investigation, complaining about Comey and others in the FBI and making clear he wanted to talk in the run-up to the election about law enforcement targeting him, according to one adviser who spoke with the president last week.”

Was für ein Präsident!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I want to thank my students at Hunter College this semester for their participation and willingness to adjust to the move of our courses to online mode during the coronavirus pandemic.  Last week, students submitted their final papers, and on Tuesday and Thursday evening, they made brief presentations of their projects using Zoom.  Since our abrupt switch to online mode back in March because of the coronavirus, we had to make a lot of adjustments to how our course was conducted.  Using asynchronous discussion boards on Sunday through Tuesday and Zoom sessions on Wednesday worked fairly well but only because there was enthusiastic participation by just about all of the students.   I would also mention that most of my students teach in New York City public schools and had to completely readjust their schedules as they moved to remote learning for all of their own classes. 

If you would allow me a self-indulgence, here is a comment from one of my students on how the course went:

A man prays by himself on his roof during Ramadan

Dear Commons Community,

The coronavirus pandemic  has transformed how Muslims in Israel and the Palestinian Territories are experiencing Ramadan. Essentially  Muslim worshippers are being kept out of mosques due to the fear of the spread of Covid-19.   The last time Muslim worshipers were not allowed into mosques throughout the entire month of Ramadan was when crusaders controlled Jerusalem in the Middle Ages. 

Now, the coronavirus pandemic has done what the intervening centuries had not: largely emptying the often crowded and chaotic spaces of Aqsa, Islam’s third holiest site, where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.  As reported by the New York Times:

“The restricted entry to the compound is only one example of how the pandemic has radically transformed the way Muslims in Israel and the Palestinian Territories have experienced the sacred fasting month of Ramadan as they cope with government social distancing measures.

Instead of attending elaborate fast-breaking feasts with extended family members and smoking water pipes at thronged cafes, Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians have spent much of their time in unwelcome isolation.

Standing outside one of the shuttered entrances to the Aqsa compound, Mohammed Suleiman, a school security guard from Jerusalem, held back tears as he spoke about his desire to pray at the mosque.

“The Aqsa is healthy, but we aren’t,” said Mr. Suleiman, clutching a green and red prayer mat. “I hope we can return to it soon because I feel lonely without it.”

In April, the Islamic Waqf, the Jordanian-backed religious body that administers the mosque compound, decided to close the site to the public throughout Ramadan, citing public health concerns.

The Aqsa, which Jews revere as their holiest site and refer to as the Temple Mount, is often at the center of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

In one of the few large open spaces near the Aqsa compound last week, some 30 worshipers, including Mr. Suleiman, gathered under the blazing sun for traditional Friday afternoon prayers, while keeping a distance of several feet between each other. Nearby, a large contingent of Israeli police officers stood guard.

While the Aqsa has been closed to the Muslim public, the imams who work there have continued to deliver sermons in it, livestreaming over Facebook special Ramadan evening prayers, known as taraweeh, as well as Friday afternoon prayers. Tens of thousands of social media users have viewed the broadcasts.

Other organizations have also been providing online content to Muslims during this Ramadan like no other.

“Ramadan Nights from Jerusalem,” a coalition of Israeli and Palestinian organizations, has created a website featuring daily virtual events about Islam, the fasting month and Arabic culture in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

On the site, thousands have tuned into a wide range of programs like a lesson on how to prepare kibbe, deep-fried balls of ground meat and bulgur; a lecture about the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad; and an oud concert.

“We want to provide Muslims with diverse and rich content to engage during the month,” said Dr. Raquel Ukeles, a co-founder of the project and the curator of the National Library of Israel’s Islam and Middle East collection. “But we also want to create opportunities for non-Muslims to learn about Islam and Ramadan.”

Less than a mile from the Aqsa, the decades-old Jaafar Sweets shop in Jerusalem has witnessed a sharp decline in business during the fasting month, selling about half as much as it did in 2019. The Israeli government has allowed sweets shops in Jerusalem to be open for takeout orders only, and the shop’s large seating section was empty.

“During Ramadan, we usually have people from everywhere enjoying our sweets, but we now only have a fraction of that,” said Adnan Jaafar, the third-generation owner of the shop, sitting near a display of baklava, knafeh — an Arabic dessert made with shredded phyllo dough — and other sugary delights.

Perhaps the most significant change at Jaafar Sweets is that it has removed from its menu of offers qatayef, a sweet and heavy Ramadan dessert, a fried pancake that is ordinarily filled with either walnuts or cheese.

“It’s the first time in 70 years we aren’t selling them,” Mr. Jaafar said. “There aren’t enough customers to justify the effort to make them.”

More than 16,500 people in Israel are known to have been infected by the virus and 264 have died. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 375 cases have been reported with two fatalities.

As the days of Ramadan have progressed, several Palestinians and Arab citizens of Israel have started to object to the decision to close the Aqsa to the public, with some arguing that if Jews can pray in a socially distanced manner at the Western Wall just below it, Muslims can do the same in the compound.

“It makes no sense,” said Ribhi Rajabi, a truck driver from Jerusalem, sitting in the shade under an olive tree by his home in the city. “If the Jews can pray without a problem in a small area, we obviously can in a space several times the size.”

In early May, Israel loosened restrictions on prayer at the Western Wall, allowing as many 300 people to go there.

But Omar Kiswani, the director of the Aqsa, has fiercely defended the decision to keep the compound closed to worshipers, arguing that preserving the faithful’s health is paramount.

“During Ramadan, the Aqsa is not like any other place here,” he said, sitting on a bench in Jerusalem’s Old City while clad in a long black cloak with gold trimmings and a red Ottoman hat wrapped in a white scarf. “People come in the tens of thousands and sometimes the hundreds of thousand. If we allow everyone inside now, we run the risk of infecting our whole society.”

The site hasn’t been closed to the Muslim public throughout Ramadan since the 12th century when the city was in the hands of crusaders, according to experts and Mr. Kiswani.

“It stayed open through invasions, wars and plagues,” said Martin Kramer, the chair of Islamic studies at Shalem College in Jerusalem. “It’s precisely at such times that people sought to pray.”

It is precisely at this time that people of all faiths are seeking to pray.

Tony

Jerusalem under quarantine

Dear Commons Community,

There is a striking contrast in how two presidents have handled their responsibilities during national crises.   When Barack Obama was elected and immediately had to deal with the Great Recession of 2008, he did not spend his time blaming George W. Bush and the Republicans for leaving the country in an economic mess with millions of people unemployed due to the greed of the financiers and bankers.  Instead he worked on a bailout for that industry that over years brought employment and the economy back. 

Donald Trump on the other hand, as the coronavirus death toll in the United States topped 85,000 and the government reported nearly three million more people filing for unemployment, Mr. Trump spent yesterday attacking Mr. Obama.

In addition to diverting attention from the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Trump’s focus on Mr. Obama allows him to try to turn the tables on his accusers by making them out to be the ones who are corrupt while simultaneously putting his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., on the defensive.

 “This was all Obama, this was all Biden,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network that aired yesterday. “These people were corrupt, the whole thing was corrupt, and we caught them. We caught them.”

When the host Maria Bartiromo asked if he believed that Mr. Obama directed American intelligence agencies to spy on him, Mr. Trump agreed, without evidence.

“Yes, he probably directed them,” Mr. Trump said. “But if he didn’t direct them, he knew everything — and you’ll see that,” he went on, adding that documents would be released soon to bolster his charges.

Mr. Obama, whose advisers have dismissed Mr. Trump’s comments as the ludicrous ranting of a president in trouble, issued what amounted to his own one-word rejoinder hours later on Twitter: “Vote,” he wrote.

It is incredible that Trump stoops so low that as tens of thousands of our countrymen are dying and the economy is spinning out of control, he is playing politics and spends his time concocting conspiracy theories against the former president.

Tony

Walter Kimbrough

Dear Commons Community,

Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University in Louisiana, has an op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education today that asks:  How do you reopen an HBCU when your main demographic is the one disproportionately affected by Covid-19?  It is a heart-wrenching decision.  He concludes that he only has questions and not answers.  Below is his entire op-ed.

Tony

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“A Fall Unlike Any I Have Seen”

By Walter Kimbrough

May 13, 2020 

There’s a hip-hop song I like, “The Questions,” by Common, featuring Mos Def. It is a conversation between them (with commentary by Monie Love) as they ponder a range of topics. Mos Def asks my own favorite: “Why do I need I.D. to get I.D.? If I had I.D. I wouldn’t need I.D.”

I can’t think of a better framework than “The Questions” to capture what the world has experienced in 2020. The coronavirus has given us many more questions than answers. We didn’t anticipate it, had never seen it before, and because of it have had to do the unthinkable — shut down practically everything since March.

In the world of higher education, that has meant quickly moving all instruction online. For some institutions, the shift has been more disruptive and financially straining than for others. With the traditional academic year now ending, institutions are calculating losses, mostly from room and board, and trying to answer the crucial question: Will we reopen in the fall — and in what form?

As usual, much of the focus has been on the Ivies and big, brand-name institutions. But the questions about opening this fall are much more complicated for mission-driven colleges — those that are church-related, single-sex, and minority-serving. These colleges, many of which operate on the slimmest of financial margins, face a complicated calculus when determining their plans. For many, not reopening the campus this fall amounts to an institutional death sentence.

So if I, a president of a church-related, historically black university, were joining Common and Mos Def in a discussion, here would be a few of my questions.

Will the actions of wealthy universities and flagships make the decisions for us? If you are a small college located near an institution with financial means that decides to open its physical campus this fall, can you afford not to open and risk losing students who want to be in college?

One of the things we’ve learned about online learning this spring is that many students don’t like it. Traditional students have overwhelmingly made clear that they prefer the brick-and-mortar educational experience, in which schedules are set, they can see professors in person both inside and outside of class, and they have more opportunities to engage with other students. These students want to get out of the family home (and for some moms and dads, I am sure, the feeling is mutual). For many, higher education is still the best halfway house in America.

But how do you open when your main demographic is the one disproportionately impacted by Covid-19? Studies have shown that black and low-income people are at the greatest risk of contracting the virus and of dying as a result. That profile makes up more than two-thirds of HBCU students. And even if young people are less at risk of getting sick themselves from Covid-19, they can still be carriers. HBCUs have to think not just about the safety of their students but also about that of their families and communities.

Black and low-income families also have been hit the hardest economically. So if HBCU families are able to avoid a physical illness, they might not escape financial distress. That, too, could limit enrollments this fall.

Students, though, will have a hunger for college, especially since the recession will mean limited job opportunities for those with only a high-school education or some college. Those students will be ripe for poaching by colleges that do open. Since the federal government gave its blessing to a system in which students can be recruited essentially forever, students enrolled in a college that remains on hiatus will be prime targets. Community colleges and online universities are already aggressively recruiting a wider range of students.

Another question: Is it time for a new era of mergers? Many HBCUs saw mergers in the early 1900s. Dillard University, for example, was formed by the merger of two colleges in 1930. Huston-Tillotson and Bethune-Cookman are merger examples, and Philander Smith received the assets of a small HBCU in Missouri that closed after burning down in 1925. More recently the University System of Georgia merged Darton State College into Albany State University.

Mergers are easier for fledgling institutions, or for neighboring undergraduate and graduate institutions like Clark College and Atlanta University, which became Clark Atlanta University. But today most alums won’t hear of it, even if it means continuing the college as a shell of itself. Recent discussions to even consider mergers — in Georgia legislation or in an editorial by the president of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund — have been widely rejected.

Maybe the coronavirus has changed that. Maybe not.

Finally, what if none of the decisions about opening are in our hands? Rules, such as stay-at-home restrictions, vary not just from state to state but within states, by county or city. People are tired of staying at home and now are venturing back out, creating consequent risks, with potentially new outbreaks of Covid-19. Colleges in those areas might be under harsher restrictions, preventing them from reopening their campuses. They may be forced to stay online even when that is not what they do best.

Mos Def asks in the song, “How come [people] don’t know but they front and don’t ask?” Most higher-education leaders haven’t had that problem. They’ve swarmed to webinars and email lists to find answers to the coronavirus questions. I find myself thinking over and over about new scenarios, planning for a fall unlike any I have seen in 16 years as a college president. Our controllable unknowns, like yield for freshman classes, have become a crapshoot. A new unknown has upended all the traditional models and the sophisticated analytics, which leaves me only with one thing. The questions.

Teacher Julie Rechtya conducts a lesson during the first day back to school in Geneva, Switzerland, May 11, 2020.

REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

Dear Commons Community,

U.S. schools and colleges are trying to figure out whether and how to open next fall assuming the coronavirus is still with us.   While the U.S. debates when to bring children back into classrooms, phased-in re-openings have begun in a number of countries.  Reuters had a featured article yesterday describing how schools around the world are trying to protect students as they reopen. Below is an excerpt.

Tony

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Reuters

SOCIAL DISTANCING MEASURES

Denmark eased its coronavirus lockdown in mid-April by reopening schools and day care centres, although concerns they might become breeding grounds for a second wave of cases convinced thousands of parents to keep their children at home.

Teaching staff there are under instruction to keep social distancing in place between children and, with many school buildings staying closed, some teachers are taking pupils outside and writing with chalk on the playground instead of a blackboard.

Teacher Julie Rechtya conducts a lesson during the first day back to school in Geneva, Switzerland, May 11, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

In Switzerland, children at Geneva’s La Tour School had to adapt to new rituals, with parents dropping them off at a distance. Classrooms were half full to reduce crowding and desks spaced two metres (6.5 feet) apart.

Under a courtyard shelter in heavy rain, children laughed while others played hopscotch and one girl helped a smaller child put on disposable gloves.

Pupils sit behind Plexiglass partitions at a primary school in Den Bosch, Netherlands, May 8, 2020. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

PLASTIC SHIELDS AND HAND SANITISER

In the Netherlands, the Springplank school in the city of Den Bosch installed plastic shields around students’ desks and disinfectant gel dispensers at the doorways.

“Our teachers are not worried,” said Rascha van der Sluijs, the school’s technical coordinator. “We have flexible screens that we bought so we can protect our teachers if students are coughing.”

The Canadian province of Quebec reopened some of its schools on Monday, as some parents and teachers expressed uncertainty over the move’s safety. The Ecole St-Gerard, in a Montreal suburb, opened with staff wearing visors and using hand sanitizer.

STAGGERED SCHOOL SHIFTS

Schools in Australia’s biggest state, New South Wales, reopened on Monday but only allowing students to attend one day a week on a staggered basis.

Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, will resume face-to-face teaching from May 27, weeks earlier than expected. The state including the city of Melbourne will allow teenagers in classrooms first, followed by younger pupils from June 9, Andrew said.

A girl waves to her father as she enters her elementary school in Sderot as it reopens in Israel May 3, 2020. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Israel reopened some schools this month but the move was boycotted by several municipalities and many parents who cited poor government preparation.

Kitted with masks and hand-cleaners, the first three grades of elementary school and the last two grades of high school were allowed back, redistributed in classes capped at 15 pupils to enforce social distancing.

TESTING AND TEMPERATURE CHECKS

In Cyprus, health workers wearing personal protective equipment tested students for COVID-19 at a school in Nicosia after high schoolers were allowed to return beginning May 11.

Students wearing face masks use hand sanitisers at an entrance to a school in Shanghai, China, April 27, 2020. cnsphoto via REUTERS

In Shanghai, students and staff alike were required to enter the school building via a thermal scanner when school reopened last week after three months of lockdown. The walls are papered with posters on measures to tackle the coronavirus and in the spotlessly clean school canteen, glass walls divide the tables, so only two students can eat together.

It may be more like going to a hospital than a school, but the Shanghai students returning to class after three months of lockdown are thrilled to be there.

“I feel so excited coming back to school. Usually we look forward to the holidays but suddenly our holidays became so long, 17-year-old Zhang Jiayi told Reuters. “This time, we longed to go back to school, where we can see our friends and teachers.”

Image: Phil Hill/MindWires

Dear Commons Community,

My colleague, Bob Ubell, from New York University had a piece yesterday in IEEE Spectrum entitled, How Online Learning Kept Higher Ed Open During the Coronavirus Crisis.  His message was clear that without online technology what would our colleges and universities have done when ordered to close down. Higher education was fortunate that not only the technology was available but that a significant portion of the faculty and support staffs had some experience teaching online either fully or in blended formats. Here is an excerpt.

“This spring, under the threat of mass infection and with little or no preparation or planning, millions of professors and instructors around the world shifted their lectures, seminars, discussion sessions, and other in-person classes to online learning platforms. Millions of college students made the shift with them. Steering the giant lifeboat of academia from on-campus to online in just a few weeks has to count as one of the most unimaginable and exceptional feats ever achieved in higher education. Before the pandemic, only a third of U.S. college students were enrolled in online classes. Now, essentially all of them are.  Take a look at the graph above created by edtech trend-spotter Phil Hill, illustrating the magical crossing in which U.S. higher education leaped almost entirely online…

…Even if colleges and universities reopen in a few months, it’s anyone’s guess as to how many students will actually show up. Some will stay away out of fear of the continued threat of the disease or out of a desire to stay close to home. With people now out of work, many students will be unable to pay tuition.

Colleges and universities have also been hit hard. Collectively, they stand to lose billions of dollars, with enrollments expected to plummet, sports events cancelled, and non-pandemic-related research on hold. The University of Michigan, for example, expects a shortfall of $400 million to $1 billion. Some schools that were struggling before COVID-19 may simply close their doors for good.

How will faculty adjust to the new normal? Before the pandemic, more than a third of faculty at U.S. colleges said that online learning isn’t as good as face-to-face instruction. No doubt many of those now teaching online still hold that view. In a recent Nature survey of faculty in the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union who are teaching online during the pandemic, many reported being unprepared, unsupported, and fearful of the forced culture change. They worried that virtual instruction will result in faculty obsolescence and ultimately unemployment.

“It’s the end of the ‘traditional learning space’ as we know it,” one respondent wrote.

And so when colleges and universities around the world eventually reopen, expect the millions of instructors and their students to have conflicting reactions to this great experiment in pandemic pedagogy.

“Some faculty may come out of this experience not at all happy. They’ll be glad to return to face-to-face teaching when they go back to campus,” says Duke’s Miller. “Others may be surprised at how good the technology is. The stigma of online learning will be softened a bit.”

The astonishing lesson is that online education, so long derided by traditional academics, came to the rescue of conventional higher education.”

Bob makes important comments in this article.  It is clear to me that over the next year,  most of higher education will be operating in an online mode.  Not until an effective vaccine for the coronavirus is developed, will colleges and universities reopen their campuses.  And when they do, many more faculty will move part or all of their courses online.

Tony

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan

Dear Commons Community,

NBC News reported yesterday that Emmet G. Sullivan, the federal judge overseeing the case involving retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, will invite briefs from third parties, and he plans to setup a schedule soon to accept those filings. Judge Sullivan said that  he’ll allow individuals outside of the Justice Department and Flynn’s attorneys to submit filings in the case that might be able to provide the court with additional information or perspectives that might help him make a decision on whether to dismiss the charges against Flynn or let him withdraw his guilty plea.

Citing a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case, Sullivan wrote that “an amicus brief should normally be allowed when a party is not represented competently or is not represented at all, when the amicus has an interest in some other case that may be affected by the decision in the present case… or when the amicus has unique information or perspective that can help the court beyond the help that the lawyers for the parties are able to provide.”

Attorney General William Barr directed federal prosecutors last week to abandon their prosecution of Michael Flynn, who served briefly as national security adviser in the early days of the Trump administration. Flynn admitted that he had lied to the FBI about his conversations during the transition with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.

The Justice Department’s decision drew intense criticism from nearly 2,000 former Justice Department and FBI officials on Monday, who signed an open letter strongly critical of Barr’s decision to abandon the prosecution of Michael Flynn, calling the action “extraordinarily rare, if not unprecedented.”

If anyone else who is not a friend of the president “were to lie to federal investigators in the course of a properly predicated counterintelligence investigation, and admit we did so under oath, we could be prosecuted,” the letter said.

Judge Sullivan wrote that, “given the current posture of this case,” he anticipates “individuals and organizations” to file legal briefings and letters, which are almost always made public.

A group of former federal prosecutors is planning to file an amicus brief as soon as the end of this week, NBC News has learned.

Tuesday’s order underscore how unusual the step is and notes that in a criminal case there are no D.C. federal court rules governing these submissions. He also cautioned those who wish to file, citing what Judge Amy Berman said in the case of Roger Stone, “while there may be individuals with an interest in this matter, a criminal proceeding is not a free for all.”

Still, Sullivan’s order signals his interest in hearing from those outside Justice Department and Flynn’s attorneys before making a decision in this case.

While Themis smiles, Judge Sullivan’s decision is sure to ruffle feathers at the DOJ and the White House.

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

The Broadway League, the trade organization representing producers and theater owners, said yesterday that Broadway’s 41 theaters would remain closed at least through Labor Day.

The announcement is not a surprise; the coronavirus pandemic is continuing to kill more than 150 people a day in New York state (down from the peak of 800), and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has put arts and entertainment in the last phase of his reopening plan.  As reported by The New York Times.

“It remains unclear when Broadway might reopen. Many industry officials believe it will be considerably later than Labor Day. The practical effect of Tuesday’s announcement is that box offices and authorized ticket sellers should now refund or exchange tickets for shows through Sept. 6. Industry leaders have been extending the shutdown incrementally as a way of managing cash flow, as well as managing expectations.

“As we’ve been put in phase four of the governor’s plan, we felt that Sept. 6 was a reasonable distance of time for refunds and exchanges, while we fully understand that we may not be back at that time,” said Charlotte St. Martin, the Broadway League’s president. “Broadway will be back when the governor tells us it’s safe to be back — we’re working closely with his office and with experts to know when that will be.”

Theaters have been closed since March 12, when Cuomo barred gatherings of more than 500 people. The closing has disappointed legions of fans, cost thousands of people their jobs and prompted the jettisoning of two productions that were in previews but had not yet opened: the new Martin McDonagh play “Hangmen,” and a revival of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Broadway is expected to be among the last sectors of the economy to reopen because its finances depend on assembling large crowds in confined spaces and its workplaces, onstage and backstage, place cast and crew in proximity to one another.

The industry has other challenges, too. In recent years, its audiences have included large numbers of tourists and seniors, two groups that seem likely to return to Times Square more slowly than others. And its ticket prices are high, which could be a deterrent if the economy stays weak and unemployment remains high.

In Britain, the Society of London Theater last week announced that shows in the West End have been canceled until June 28. “This does not mean theaters will reopen on 29 June,” the society’s announcement said. “If further cancellations are necessary they will continue to be announced on a rolling basis.”

Give our regards to Broadway!

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

Chancellor Timothy White announced yesterday that California State University, the nation’s largest four-year college system, plans to cancel most in-person classes in the fall and instead offer instruction primarily online.  The vast majority of classes across the 23-campus Cal State system will be taught online, White said, with some limited exceptions that allow for in-person activity.   As reported by the Los Angeles Times:

“Our university, when open without restrictions and fully in person … is a place where over 500,000 people come together in close and vibrant proximity,” White said at a meeting of Cal State’s Board of Trustees. “That approach sadly just isn’t in the cards now.”

The decision to continue remotely reflects how schools throughout the country are grappling with reopening challenges inflicted by the coronavirus crisis — and what campuses will look like when they do decide to reopen.

University of California officials are examining the parameters of what it would take to open their campuses and are expected to announce plans in June or July. UC spokeswoman Claire Doan reiterated Tuesday that campuses were exploring a “mixed approach with some instruction delivered in classroom and lab settings, while other classes will be primarily online.”

President Janet Napolitano said campuses will first be required to satisfy systemwide guidelines to ensure public health and safety, and any reopening “will probably be greatly reduced.”

White said his decision resulted from a confluence of issues around COVID-19, including the health and safety of students, faculty and staff, as well as significant financial constraints.

The Cal State system is projecting losses of $337 million for the spring term alone as a result of the pandemic, including loss of revenue from student housing, parking and campus bookstores, as well as unanticipated costs related to cleaning, overtime and the shift to distance education. The figure does not reflect offsets from federal aid or operational savings.

White’s announcement came the same day that infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, told a Senate panel it would be “a bridge too far” to think treatments or vaccines could be available in time to facilitate students’ reentry into schools this fall.

It also follows an earlier move by Cal State Fullerton, which in late April became one of the first universities in the nation to announce it was planning for remote instruction this fall.

White said that for the small number of classes where in-person instruction is “indispensable and can be justified” — such as clinical nursing courses, biology labs or merchant marine training — sufficient resources and protocols will have to be in place to ensure the health and safety of students and teachers.

“The enrollment per section will be less; for instruction and research laboratories, the distance between participants greater; the need for personal protective equipment appropriate to the circumstance prevalent; and the need to sanitize and disinfect spaces and equipment between users essential,” White said.

On some campuses and within some departments, course offerings will be exclusively virtual. At others that rely heavily on hands-on experience, there may be more exceptions.

White said planning for an online fall term was necessary because of the forecast of additional waves of COVID-19 outbreaks later this year, possibly coupled with a difficult flu season. He said it would be “irresponsible” to wait until August to make a decision, only to “scramble and not be prepared to provide a robust learning and support environment.”

He also acknowledged that the university system lacks the resources to provide coronavirus testing for everybody and to trace the contacts of infected people should there be an outbreak on a campus.

CSU students and families, along with faculty and staff, can expect to receive more information this month from their respective campuses about instruction in the fall.

Availability of on-campus housing will be reduced, and student athletes shouldn’t expect to resume regular sports before faculty and students return to campuses, White said.

White reached the decision about the fall term with all 23 campus presidents and also had discussions with representatives of faculty and student groups, a spokesman for the chancellor’s office said.

The statewide academic senate has not adopted any resolution about instruction in the fall and was not formally asked for feedback on the decision to go primarily online, Chair Catherine Nelson said. But, she said, “I am not surprised by the decision, given the incredible complexity of mounting any level of in-person courses in the fall.”

Nelson said the senate has asked campuses to conduct surveys of their faculties’ needs and will request resources to meet them, such as professional development, hardware and software.

While many campuses have extended the deadline for students to submit their “intent to register,” CSU officials told trustees Tuesday that early numbers show generally normal enrollment levels.

White urged incoming and current students to stay the course and persist in their pursuit of higher education.

“This is not the time to pause or decline an opportunity to attend a CSU campus,” he said. “Robust financial aid remains available.”

Trustees did not make any decisions about tuition or fees for the fall term. But several of them, led by ex officio trustee Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, urged the board to avoid considering a tuition hike to plug budget holes.

“There’s going to be a lot of students questioning the value of going into debt for higher education if you’re not physically in the classroom,” Kounalakis said.”

I believe that this is a wise decision on the part of Chancellor White.  For a running tally of what the plans for different colleges and universities in the Fall, The Chronicle of Higher is keeping an on-going tally.

Tony