REALIGNING THE WORKFORCE
The traditional residential public liberal arts campus community context for which Kentucky State University is regarded has been challenged this semester by the need to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The one-week shift from synchronous in-person instruction to asynchronous virtual modules has tested the campus' ability to deliver on our mission and values set. However, the shift also revealed duplications in some job descriptions, the inability of some personnel to work-remotely, and the extent to which some traditions are inconsistent with the new post-COVID-19 business logic. Notwithstanding, Kentucky State University has met this unprecedented context with unusual innovation and determination.
Despite our short-term successes, two challenges remain and must be addressed for the long-term.
A review of telecommuting forms submitted across units confirm that some of the current institutional positions are not necessary for new campus realities in the near future. To this end, it is untenable to expend Commonwealth resources without maximal return.
New workplace expectations no longer require certain traditional positions given the increasingly autonomous nature of campus work-products and deliverables. In the past several weeks there are myriad operational tasks that were completed by adjustable employees without difficulty.
These are stark truths that portend an opportunity for the campus to redefine employee expectations in a manner consistent with the 21st-century post-COVID-19 workplace.
The current manpower staffing level is further complicated by multiple national reports on whether or not students will elect to return to residential college campuses this fall and at what levels. A report by SimpsonScarborough suggests that four-year colleges may face a loss of up to 20 percent in fall enrollment based on recent surveys. The report also asserts:
whether or not students will elect to return to residential college campuses this fall and at what levels. A report by SimpsonScarborough suggests that four-year colleges may face a loss of up to 20 percent in fall enrollment based on recent surveys. The report also asserts:
Ten percent of college-bound seniors who had planned to enroll in college before the COVID-19 outbreak have already made alternative plans;
Twenty-six percent of college students said they were unlikely to return to their current college or university in the fall, or it was “too soon to tell”; and
Although college students do not like the online education they have been receiving, 15 percent want to finish online.
Comparable surveys of minority and low-income students portend even more startling projections. According to one report, 41 percent of minority high school seniors say it's likely they will not go to college this fall.
This data is complicated by national reports of unemployment and organizational furloughs. Even if aspiring or matriculating students wish to pursue higher learning in-person or virtually, those who are IRS-registered dependents may lack parental resources to enroll. In parallel, the tenuous employment status and federal delay in the deadline for income tax submissions will make it impossible for students and parents to complete the FAFSA – the entry application to federal and most institutional financial aid.
It is clear that the pandemic will also produce profound and lasting effects across higher education, and potentially severe and negative effects on Kentucky State University's operations and finances. While it is too soon to determine with precision the magnitude of