COVID-19 has placed American higher education at a crossroads. This
book is the roadmap.
COVID-19 triggered an existential crisis for American higher education.
Faced with few safe choices, most colleges and universities switched to
remote learning during the 2020 spring semester. The future, however,
provides more choices about how institutions can fulfill their mission
of teaching and research. But how do we begin to make decisions in an
uncertain and shifting environment? In this concise guide, authors
Edward J. Maloney and Joshua Kim lay out clear ways colleges and
universities can move forward in safe and effective ways.
The Low-Density University presents fifteen scenarios for how colleges
and universities can address the current crisis from a fully online
semester to others with students in residence and in the classroom. How
can changing the calendar or shifting to hybrid models of blended
classrooms impact teaching, learning, and the college experience? Could
we emerge from this crisis with new models that are better and more
adapted to today's world?
The Low-Density University focuses primarily on teaching and learning,
but student life (housing, athletics, health, etc.) are core to the
college experience. Can we devise safe and effective ways to preserve
the best of that experience? The lessons here extend beyond the
classroom. Just as the pandemic will change American higher education,
the choices we make now will change what college looks like for
generations to come.
