Bates College in southern Maine is preparing to welcome back about 90 percent of its 1,800 students, encouraging them to get tested for Covid-19 before traveling to the Lewiston campus, to avoid parties once back at school, and then to sign what the liberal arts school is calling a public health agreement.
“We are having to make, like any other college and university across this country, fundamental changes to how we operate, which in turn makes fundamental changes in the student experience and how we educate them,” said Bates Dean of Students Joshua McIntosh.
Before students return to campus, McIntosh said he’s telling them it’s critical that they all understand the risks and their shared responsibility to stop the spread of this virus.
“Not just that Bates has to make a set of kind of environmental, administrative, educational changes, but you play a critical role in this as well,” McIntosh said. “Let's move from the ambiguous or evasive to the concrete and specific.”
About one-third of colleges in the US plan to offer courses completely or mostly online, but many more still plan to open their dorms and offer at least some classes in-person.
Every day, though, colleges and universities continue to alter or reverse their plans for fall classes. On Tuesday, Brown University became the latest school to reverse course, pivoting to remote learning and staggering student arrivals after President Christina Paxson emerged this spring as a big advocate for campuses reopening.
Those campuses still planning to reopen require that students sign either letters acknowledging risk, or waivers agreeing not to sue if they contract the virus. These documents could change the relationship between students and colleges.
In Washington, D.C., and at state houses across the country, Bates and hundreds of other colleges are lobbying for immunity from lawsuits related to re-opening. Earlier this month, the American Council on Education signed a letter with more than 70 other associations, advocating for temporary and targeted liability protections. In Massachusetts, state lawmakers proposed a bill to protect colleges for a host of activities on campus related to the pandemic, including the use of campus facilities for hospital overflow.
But McIntosh insists the intent of this agreement is not to discharge Bates from any legal claims, “which is what a waiver would do, but really was more of an educational approach.”
Even before the pandemic, with costs soaring and families demanding a measurable return on their investment, American higher education had grown increasingly transactional. The pay-to-play, so-called Varsity Blues scandal was dominating headlines, then Covid came to campus, and in the spring we saw a wave of lawsuits demanding tuition refunds after colleges abruptly moved their classes online.
Now, with millions of students set to return to campus for the fall semester, most colleges are asking that they sign some kind of compact, agreement or waiver agreeing not to sue if they contract the virus. Although it’s understandable that colleges would want to have some control over potential liability, legal experts warn there’s really no guarantee.
“One should not overstate the usefulness of these things,” said Frederick Lawrence, former president of Brandeis University and a current lecturer at Georgetown. He compares these agreements to those signs you see hanging in restaurant coat check rooms that say, ‘We are not responsible for anything that you leave here.’
“If there's nobody there and you leave an object there and it gets taken, they’re right - they're not responsible,” Lawrence said. “But if there’s somebody there and you hand it to somebody and then that person doesn't do what that person is supposed to do, there's still negligence. So the fact that you sign some kind of a waiver is not necessarily binding.”
And even if it were binding, Lawrence said he thinks the idea is ultimately misguided.
“When you think about a college or university, yes, in part, it's a big organization, just like any other business, but it's different in very substantial ways.”
For example, Lawrence said colleges like to think of themselves as communities that have special relationships with their students.
“When I was a university president and I welcomed the new class, I didn't say, ‘Welcome to the Brandeis class of 2016.’ I said, ‘Welcome to the Brandeis family,’” he said. “We say that because we want them to feel that they are part of a lifelong commitment to an institution.”
And at a time when many Americans are skeptical of institutions, Lawrence said, those special relationships are compromised even by any kind of perceived transactional approach.
At Bates in Maine, some undergraduates told the students newspaper that they interpreted the public health agreement’s language as “ruthless and cold.”
Bates Dean of Students Joshua McIntosh dismisses that notion. He said the college is only trying to educate its students and families about important changes to their education.
“I think, in fact, if students and families showed up at Bates without any of this information and without having to be required to read it, I think we'd be setting them up for a great deal of disappointment and frustration,” McIntosh told WGBH News.
Frustration is growing around this issue on the Boston University campus, which is planning to re-open later this month. The largest private college in New England is asking students like PhD candidate Ian Chandler-Campbell from Dallas to sign an agreement in order to stay on campus this fall.
“It looks OK on the surface, but the most concerning part is it says at the very bottom, ‘I understand, based on public health circumstances, university guidance and protocols may change potentially abruptly. I will keep informed and follow all guidance and protocols,” Chandler-Campbell said, flipping through the document.
During the pandemic, Chandler-Campbell said he and other graduate students who also teach feel unheard and unsafe and they’ve lost trust in the institution.
“The less cynical of us always viewed universities as on a higher moral ground than, say, a business," he said. "But it’s become very clear that it’s all about the money and everything else has been an afterthought."
And with this public health agreement, Chandler-Campbell said BU administrators are shirking their responsibility.
In a statement, BU wrote that decisions have been based on public health and the safety of the campus community.
For now, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts says it’s not providing specific guidance to its members on waivers.
“Colleges and universities are taking a number of measures to safeguard their students, faculty, staff and host communities. Student and campus community agreements, waivers, testing requirements, and other acknowledgments are among those safeguards,” said AICUM President Richard Doherty in a statement. “There’s no one standard and the arrangements vary by institution. Ultimately, safety will require a shared effort. People must not only act responsibly as individuals, but also be responsible to each other by being accountable to the health and safety protocols on their campuses. Only a community-wide effort will reduce the risk of COVID-19.”
