[MUSIC PLAYING] So much of the experience of going to college is the educational experience that occurs beyond the strict classroom walls. It includes how you run into people and learn from people in performances, in competitions, in parties, and running into each other in hallways and on the quad. You've got to ask, how is that still going to happen in a world where people have to wear masks and stay six feet apart at all times? I don't think that's a viable long term solution. So I suspect that in-person interaction at closer than six feet is going to have to be part of life on campuses sooner rather than later. Maybe not in August but certainly by some point in the year. And we're going to have to be able to identify who and where that's safe to happen with. We are going to start in-person instruction in the fall. And we're going to do it as safe as we can. And we're going to follow public health guidance. Going back is going to be different than it was. And we have, obviously, residence halls, apartments, and dormitories as well as football stadiums and performance venues, dining halls. So everything is going to be a lot different depending on the public health guidance as of the start of the semester in August. We will do so much differently when they come back in terms of safety precautions, testing. We'll have social distancing in place. Whatever the state of antivirals and vaccines and protective equipment, all that's going to be in place. So it's going to change how we use our spaces, but-- I think it's going to be particularly important for us to be prepared for unknowns. So for example, students have been known to run temperatures even before the virus for various reasons. And yet the uncertainty about whether that temperature is connected to the virus will require us to provide ways for them to continue their education, places for them to live, an ability to segregate them. And that's going to require looking at our housing and how we do our housing. The reason people come to a college campus is because of how many different contacts they have in a day. So we're going to have to be equipped for contact tracing. And our health service is going to have to be ready with the best care possible. [MUSIC PLAYING] KENT SYVERUD: We incurred about $35 million in unbudgeted expenses and revenue losses just in the months of March and April. We've been able to handle that quite well. If however, as some universities have said they might not offer instruction until January or even summer of 2021-- if we went with that scenario it would be a severe financial hit for the university. When we'd figure out how to manage where we're in reasonably good financial shape but one that would have a fairly adverse impact on our people. And I've been trying to protect our people from that so far. The financial impact so far has not been something we couldn't handle, largely because the main revenue sports are fall sports. So the real question for athletics budgets and therefore for the budgets of universities among the top conferences is football. What do we do if there can't be fans in the stadium? What do we do if games can't be played and broadcast? And those financial consequences are significant. And we all have a plan for them. I think we'll be able to weather that for-- certainly for the fall semester. But in the long run we've got to come up with a solution that gets people back in public venues enjoying events. There's going to be a shakeout. I think that it's been coming for a long time. Because of the demographics of the number of people going to college it's been hidden somewhat because of the large number of international students choosing to come to the United States for an education. But that international travel is going to be more difficult. And so the demographics [INAUDIBLE] out. And so I think that there'll be fewer colleges and universities in five years than now. And I think the ones that don't deliver at a high level of quality and deliver what the students need are the ones that are going to have the greatest challenge. 

How to Reopen: Getting back to the ‘college experience’

Features

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud discusses.

How to Reopen: Getting back to the ‘college experience’


Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud talks about the future of life on campus.
