Ah, fall: a crisp breeze off the lake, a blush of crimson and gold in the trees, and the invigorating return of students to one of the largest college towns in the country—books, computers, masks, and hand sanitizer in tow.
But, after a summer of vacillation, hybrid plans that combine online instruction with in-person classes are what most schools settled on.
We should not just be saying we’re going to follow what the government says, Schaffer argued. “The government has decided that the economy is worth lives. We should question that.”
Has Baker, who retired as a vice president at IIT in 2016, ever seen anything like this? “The 2008 recession caused a dramatic paper decline in endowments,” he said. Then, for the public institutions, there was “the lack of a budget during the Rauner years. They had to lay off staff to stay afloat. But nothing like this. Everything that is the justification for higher education—bringing students together to learn from faculty and from each other—all of that is going to be scrutinized going forward.”
