What Hofstra Administrators Said About Reopening at the Fall 2020 Town Hall
BY: LEAH CHIAPPINO
(Oct. 17, 2020) — University administrators sat down with student newsroom leaders for a virtual town hall to discuss reopening, the pandemic and what students and parents need to know.
The hour-long event, which aired Sept. 30, 2020, united Annemarie LePard, Sarah Emily Baum, Jason Siegel and Katerina Belales from The Hofstra Chronicle, The Hofstra Clocktower, WRHU and the HEAT Network respectively.
The university panel included:
Herman Berliner, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs
Jean Peden Christodoulou, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs
Melissa Connolly, Vice President for University Relations
Joseph Barkwill, Vice President for Facilities and Operations
Steve Fabiani, Vice President for Digital Innovation Technology
Kathleen Gallo, Dean of Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies, Executive Vice President and Chief Learning Officer for Northwell Health
You can still watch the full broadcast here — or, read our breakdown of key moments from the event below. Members of administration are expected to host a second town hall later this month, this time joined by President Stuart Rabinowitz.
Q: Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned against schools sending students home. He said that doing so may lead to outbreaks in students’ home communities. How will Hofstra mitigate the risk of students bringing Coronavirus back to their homes during the break?
“There are schools [that closed down] that had infection rates in the double digits,” Gallo said. “When they closed down the University of North Carolina, their infection rate was between 31 and 33 percent. Our university is nowhere near that, so if everyone keeps doing what their doing student’s communities should be very safe.”
As of now, there is no plan to provide students exit testing similar to that which they received upon their arrival on campus, but Gallo says the university has the capacity to do so if needed. “We are waiting to see what the governor and the university require,” she said.
Connolly said that the university purposely designed the Fall semester calendar to minimize travel and will continue to do so “looking forward.” The university will follow state guidelines that instruct schools not to send students home if the university switches to remote learning, so as to not spread the virus to students’ home communities.
Q: If a student or students die from the virus as a direct result of coming back to campus, what are the protocols? Is Hofstra legally liable? Does it automatically warrant a shift to distance learning?
“We don’t have general counsel on, so I can’t speak to the legality of anything. But that’s quite a question,” Gallo said. “We don't anticipate that would be the case and up until this point we haven't had any student that we are aware of that needed to be hospitalized.”
When moderators pressed the matter further, Berliner added said that the university “looks at it through New York State standards.”
Berliner said student deaths from the virus do not necessarily warrant a university shutdown, citing the fact that the university is following state guidelines, which only call for such a move if the university finds 100 positive cases within a two-week timespan. “We are a very safe campus and we worked hard to be that safe of a campus,” he said.
“If the university hits that threshold, they will follow state guidelines and may test more people and/or close buildings where clusters occur, as well as make the shift to remote learning,” Christodoulou added. “We don't have protocols if there is a COVID death per se, but we do have protocols if there is a death on campus which involves all sorts of things from working with authorities, working with families and making sure we care for our campus community.”
Q: Why did the university raise tuition during the Fall 2020 semester? A recent study from New York University classified Hofstra as a financially high-risk institution -- was that an accurate assessment?
Berliner defended the university’s decision to increase tuition for the Fall 2020 semester — despite major shifts to online learning — and pushed back against the notion Hofstra is operating at a loss.
“If you look at the cost structure for the classes that we are offering remotely in comparison to the classes that we are offering in-person, it is exactly the same cost structure,” Berliner said. “It is exactly the same faculty who are getting paid exactly the same salary who are teaching classes that are the same size and smaller.”
Student journalists pointed out have been furloughs and layoffs for administrators and staff. Berliner said the university is working to balance the budget while incurring extra costs. The university has invested millions of dollars in the SafeStart program, including testing, cleaning equipment, and lecture capture software, and has lost revenue from dorms and facility rentals. “It really is not possible when you are incurring greater costs not to raise your tuition,” he said. “We are a private, tuition-dependent institution.”
Q: Why don’t we require mandatory weekly testing for all students like some other schools have done?
New York State requires that schools report the number of students tested, and the number of students that are positive, but they do not require that schools conduct regular mandatory testing for all. Hofstra has gone beyond state and Centers for Disease Control guidelines in their testing protocol, Gallo said. She further explained it is “difficult” to track positive test results that a student gets off-campus, though many students report their positive result to the university, or the university may be notified of students who test positive by the New York State Department of Health.
Q: What happens to residential students if the campus has to transition back to remote learning?
Connolly said that if the university had to shut down, students would not be sent home. However, classes would be shifted online, dining halls would allow for take-out only, clubs would have to move activities entirely online in accordance with state guidelines, she said. Administrators reaffirmed efforts to offer both virtual and in-person instruction so long as the positive incident rate is acceptable as per state guidelines.
Q: Public safety officers have been seen on campus both indoors and outdoors without masks. There have also been complaints that they have not enforced mask-wearing with students. How do you address this?
Joseph Barkwill, Vice President for Facilities and Operations, said that both he and Director of Public Safety Karen O’Callaghan have reinforced the rules within Public Safety which mandate a mask both indoors and outdoors when six feet social distancing cannot be maintained.
Q: What is being done to enforce compliance of safety guidelines with students who are living in off-campus housing? Have there been any complaints made to Public Safety about off-campus students’ behavior?
If it is reported that students are having large gatherings without masks, even if the crowd is under the New York State guidelines for gatherings, the university may enforce policies through Code of Conduct procedures. According to Christodoulou, should they receive a complaint, the university will investigate, and Hofstra maintains communication with local landlords and community leaders. Local Village Police and Nassau County Police also forward relevant reports to the university. Furthermore, Public Safety is patrolling the area, Barkwill said. Administrators did not, however, say if any high-risk, off-campus gatherings of students had been reported and confirmed.
