[Senate Hearing 116-507]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                      S. Hrg. 116-507

                          COVID	19: GOING BACK
                           TO COLLEGE SAFELY

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                     ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                                   ON

      EXAMINING COVID-19, FOCUSING ON GOING BACK TO COLLEGE SAFELY

                               __________

                              JUNE 4, 2020

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
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                              __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
45-220 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2021                     
          
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          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

  LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee, Chairman
  MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming		PATTY MURRAY, Washington
  RICHARD BURR, North Carolina		BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont
  RAND Paul, Kentucky			ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
  SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine			TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana		CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
  PAT ROBERTS, Kansas		        ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
  LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska			TIM KAINE, Virginia
  TIM SCOTT, South Carolina		MARGARET WOOD HASSAN, New Hampshire
  MITT ROMNEY, Utah		        TINA SMITH, Minnesota
  MIKE BRAUN, Indiana			DOUG JONES, Alabama
  KELLY Loeffler, Georgia			JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
  
                                       
                 David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
           Lindsey Ward Seidman, Republican Deputy Staff Director
                    Evan Schatz, Minority Staff Director
                John Righter, Minority Deputy Staff Director

                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                         THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 2020

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Alexander, Hon. Lamar, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, 
  Labor, and Pensions, Opening statement.........................     1
Murray, Hon. Patty, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of Washington, Opening statement...............................     4

                               Witnesses

Daniels, Mitchell, President, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 
  IN.............................................................     8
    Prepared statement...........................................    10
Paxson, Christina, President, Brown University, Providence, RI...    11
    Prepared statement...........................................    13
    Summary statement............................................    16
Hampton, Logan, President, Lane College, Jackson, TN.............    17
    Prepared statement...........................................    18
    Summary statement............................................    30
Benjamin, Georges, M.D., MACP, FACEP(E), FNAPA, Hon FRSH, Hon 
  FFPH, Executive Director, American Public Health Association, 
  Washington, DC.................................................    31
    Prepared statement...........................................    33

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
    A Plan to Safely Reopen America's Schools and Communities....    62
    Purdue will require all students to be tested for COVID-19 
      before start of the fall semester..........................    76
    Letters......................................................    78

                         QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Response by Georges Benjamin, M.D., to questions of:
    Senator Collins..............................................    90
    Senator Sanders..............................................    91
    Senator Casey................................................    91
    Senator Rosen................................................    92
Response by Dr. Logan Hampton to questions of:
    Senator Collins..............................................    93
    Senator Scott................................................    94
    Senator Warren...............................................    95
    Senator Sanders..............................................    98
    Senator Casey................................................   103
    Senator Murray...............................................   107
    Senator Rosen................................................   107
Response by Dr. Christina H. Paxson, to questions of:
    Senator Collins..............................................   110
    Senator Scott................................................   111
    Senator Warren...............................................   111
    Senator Sanders..............................................   112
    Senator Casey................................................   114
    Senator Murray...............................................   116
    Senator Rosen................................................   117
Response by Mitchell E. Daniels, to questions of:
    Senators.....................................................   118

 
                          COVID-19: GOING BACK
                           TO COLLEGE SAFELY

                              ----------                              


                         Thursday, June 4, 2020

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., in 
room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Lamar 
Alexander, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Alexander [presiding], Collins, Cassidy, 
Murkowski, Scott, Braun, Murray, Baldwin, Murphy, Warren, 
Kaine, Hassan, Jones, and Rosen.

                 OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ALEXANDER

    The Chairman. Good morning. The hearing of the Senate 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will please 
come to order. We want to thank our staff for working through 
some technical difficulties this morning and thank the Senators 
and our witnesses who are joining us from around the country in 
various offices. We are all following the attending physician's 
protocol for safe distancing and those of us who are here are 
wearing masks on our way in and sitting at least six feet apart 
while we are here.
    Senator Murray and I will each have an opening statement. 
Then we will turn to our witnesses for their statements of 
about five minutes each, if they could please summarize them in 
that time. And then Senators will each have five minute rounds 
of questions. We have a vote at 11:40 a.m. so we will need to 
finish this hearing by about noon and hopefully all the 
Senators will have had, by that time, a chance to ask their 
questions. The question for administrators of 6,000 colleges 
and universities is not whether to reopen in August, but how to 
do it safely.
    Most are working overtime to get ready for one of the 
surest signs that American life is regaining its rhythm, 20 
million students going back to college. Our witnesses today are 
here to tell us their strategies for reopening safely. Mitch 
Daniels, President of Purdue in Indiana, Christina Paxson, 
President of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, 
Logan Hampton. President of Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, 
Georges Benjamin, Executive Director of the American Public 
Health Association in Washington. Purdue, University of South 
Carolina, Rice, Creighton, University of Notre Dame, and 
others, will finish their in-person classes before Thanksgiving 
to avoid further spread of COVID-19 during flu season. 
Vanderbilt University will require masks in classrooms. To make 
social distancing easier, colleges are rescheduling classrooms 
that are usually empty in early mornings, the evenings, on 
weekends and summer. Concerts and parties are out. Grab and go 
meals, flu shots and temperature checks will be in. Campuses 
will offer more online courses.
    Recently I was on a phone call with about 90 chief 
executives of Tennessee's 127 higher education institutions. 
They are planning to resume in-person classes, almost all of 
them, in the Fall, but they want Governments to create 
liability protection against being sued if a student becomes 
sick. Bucking the trend, California's State University system 
has announced that it will offer most of its courses only 
online. All roads back to college lead through testing. The 
availability of widespread testing will allow colleges to track 
and isolate students who have the virus or have been exposed to 
it so the rest of the student body doesn't have to be 
quarantined.
    Campuses are exploring using mobile phone apps for tracking 
and creating isolation dormitories to isolate students who have 
the virus or have been exposed as University of Tennessee, 
Knoxville is doing. Widespread testing not only helps contain 
the disease, it builds confidence that the campus is safe. 
Fortunately, U.S. Assistant Secretary Brett Giroir told our 
hearing that there will be 40-50 million tests available per 
month by September. That is 4 to 5 times the number of tests 
available today and more than any other country.
    Dr. Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project, now 
leads a competitive so called Shark Tank, an enterprise at the 
National Institutes of Health to discover new ways to conduct 
tens of millions of additional accurate tests with quick 
results. Should everyone on campus be tested? On a webinar for 
institutes of higher education on Friday, May 29, Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention officials said that they are not 
recommending that at this time you test every student, but they 
are encouraging campuses to work with their state and local 
health officials.
    However, that does not take into account testing for peace 
of mind. Some schools may want to test everyone before they 
come back to campus. At least schools may want to think about 
randomly testing to detect asymptomatic cases and have the 
ability to test everyone in certain categories, health care, 
food service, cleaning workers, older faculty, students with 
medical conditions, students who are arriving from virus hot 
spots, all students in a class or dorm where there is an 
outbreak or a person infected. Administrators ask me, where 
will I find tests? The answer is, consult your local health 
department and your Government--and your Governor. Each state 
submits a monthly plan to the Federal Government outlining 
testing supplies and needs. Admiral Giroir's team then helps 
fill the gaps.
    My recommendation is you want your school's testing needs 
to be in your state plan. A school can also contract directly 
with laboratories who conduct tests, review the Food and Drug 
Administration list of authorized tests, or ask for help from a 
local university or hospital that has created its own test. 
COVID-19 plans should last for at least the full school year.
    The Government is pursuing vaccines at warp speed, but no 
one expects one in August. In the second semester there should 
be more tests, more treatments, better contact tracing and 
vaccines. But amidst the flu season and the return of COVID-19, 
it will be the Fall of 2021 before we begin to approach normal. 
But students returning in the Fall and their families will want 
and need to have peace of mind that they, and their loved ones, 
are heading back to a safe environment. Testing is the key to 
providing that. There are several reasons colleges have an 
advantage in providing a safe environment for students and 
faculty. One, younger people have been hurt less by COVID-19. 
For example in Tennessee, nursing homes account for around 5 
percent of cases but 36 percent of the deaths. Compare that 
with Tennesseans under the age of 30, 30 percent of cases of 
infection, less than 1 percent of deaths. Still, there is much 
we are learning about the virus, and Dr. Anthony Fauci has 
warned us not to be cavalier about assuming that young people 
are not at risk.
    Second, colleges are notorious wasters of space. Former 
George Washington University President Stephen Trachtenberg 
once estimated that a typical college uses its facilities for 
academic purposes a little more than half in the calendar year. 
He said that he could generate--he said that continues to 
generate maintenance, energy, and debt-service expenses that 
contribute to the high cost of running a college. He said that 
he thought he could run two colleges in the space that he has 
one college if he organized efficiently. Well, he was never 
able to do it that way.
    Keeping students six feet apart will be easier if colleges 
embrace a new efficiency and use more of their classrooms and 
spaces throughout the day and throughout the year. And maybe 
that is a lesson that will last beyond the COVID-19 crisis. 
Third, tracking and tracing will be easier to do at colleges. 
We know what classes students attend, and what dorms they live 
in. If colleges take it a step further, assign seats in 
classes, infections will be easier to track. Fourth, a college 
can presumably require students to wear masks. Perhaps campuses 
can make mask-wearing a part of the campus culture. But college 
environments pose a couple of challenges as well. 19 and 20-
year-olds especially don't always choose to do the healthiest 
thing. A national survey on drug use and health found that a 
third of college students admitted to binge drinking in the 
last month, for example.
    Fifth, 86 percent of undergraduate students are not living 
on campus, according to the National Center for Education 
Statistics. That means that many students will leave and 
return, potentially exposing themselves and others to the 
virus, making social distancing and CDC recommended health 
status all the more important. What should the Federal 
Government's role be in helping colleges and universities 
safely reopen? Providing advice from the CDC, funding for 
innovation such as the Shark Tank I mentioned for tests, 
encouraging universities to work with states to get included in 
their testing plans, helping supplies--provide supplies that 
the states don't have, funding such the $14 billion in CARES 
Act to address lost revenues, and the Federal Government could 
provide some liability protection.
    Beyond that, decisions, in my view, ought to be left to the 
individual campuses. From the small technical universities to 
Harvard, from MIT to the four-year Berea College in Kentucky, 
which is tuition free, they are best abled to make their own 
decisions. When I became a university president in 1988, I 
asked the president of the University of California, David 
Gardner, why the University of California was so good. And he 
said, well first autonomy and second, the Government money 
follows the student to a college of their choice.
    The United States is home to 6,000 colleges and 
universities, arguably the best system in the world and it has 
gotten that way because the institution, campuses have had 
maximum autonomy and minimum direction from Washington on 
everything from their curriculum, tuition, admissions, 
policies, health care plans for students, compensation for 
faculty. The campus systems themselves determine what their 
policies will be for student behavior and conduct, housing, 
safety, and a host of other things.
    I would suggest that we follow the same tradition here. 
President Trump and Congress should not be telling the 
California State University system that it has to open in 
person in the fall, nor it should be telling Notre Dame and 
Purdue they cannot in person in the fall, nor should be telling 
Brown University they can't test everyone if Brown wants to, 
and telling the Indiana that it has to, or Purdue that it has 
to even though they don't want to. We know that a single lost 
year of college can lead to a student not graduating and set 
back career goals.
    Already, disruption of university research projects has 
erased much of the funding that Congress has given our research 
universities. Many American colleges will be permanently 
damaged or even closed if they remain, as our witness today, 
Christina Paxson of Brown says, ghost towns. Two thirds of 
college students want to return to campus, according to the 
Axios survey. Mitch Daniels, another witness today, says that 
at Purdue tuition deposits by incoming freshmen broke the last 
year's record.
    Colleges and universities are microcities. College 
presidents and administrators can make them among the safest 
small communities in our country's safest communities in which 
to live and work during this next year. In doing so, they will 
help our country take its surest step toward normalcy.
    Senator Murray.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    Senator Murray [continuing]. So hard to make it possible 
for this hearing to be safe and socially distant. Before we 
begin, I just want to say that as we see people around the 
country, especially young people, protesting for long overdue 
change, we must remember the opportunity institutions of higher 
education have to help address disparities and systemic racism 
and their responsibility to do so.
    That means as we look at the dramatic impact COVID-19 is 
having on institutions of higher education and discuss ways to 
keep students, faculty and staff safe, we absolutely have to 
address the unique impact this virus has on Black communities 
and other communities of color. We have already seen that 
communities of color, tribes, and other vulnerable populations 
face some of the harshest impacts from this pandemic.
    It is our job to ensure that the students who have been, 
and will continue to be, disproportionately impacted by COVID-
19, don't see their education suffer or fall behind. So with 
that in mind, today we must recognize and address the 
disproportionate impact this crisis is having on those who were 
already facing challenges, students of color, first-generation 
college students, students experiencing homelessness, and 
student parents, and we must let public health and science 
drive decisionmaking. The coronavirus crisis has deeply 
affected every single aspect of our higher education system and 
it will have profound impacts on students and colleges for many 
years to come.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has forced institutions of higher 
education to grapple with unprecedented challenges from 
widespread closures, to rapid transitions to online education, 
to unprecedented student financial need and unemployment, and 
sharp revenue losses and looming budget cuts. Many may not be 
able to reopen their doors, including many historic and under-
resourced colleges that serve high populations of students who 
have low incomes and students of color.
    Faculty and staff, from professors and adjunct instructors, 
to administrative and support staff, to custodial workers and 
food servers, and much more, are wondering if they will have a 
job to return to in the fall. And for students across this 
country, from graduating high school seniors, to community 
college students, to students pursing advanced degrees and 
more, this pandemic has completely shattered their notions of a 
normal school year as they are forced to navigate this new 
world.
    Every single student across this country is experiencing 
unprecedented disruption. And many students will need 
additional support, like advising, tutoring, and mental health 
counseling to succeed in the new learning environment. But not 
every student is experiencing equal disruption. The pandemic 
has hit certain communities, particularly communities of color, 
significantly harder than others. And these disparities hold 
true for higher education, where certain student populations 
are bearing a heavier burden of the crisis than others. Before 
the pandemic started, students of color, students who are 
parents, first-generation students, LGBTQIA+ students, students 
with disabilities, and veteran students were already far more 
likely to struggle to meet basic needs like food, housing, 
health care, and child care.
    But with on-campus resources now widely closed, this 
pandemic has exacerbated existing problems for many of these 
students. Millions of students who rely on dorms and college-
managed apartment buildings have been forced home. But for many 
students, like students experiencing homelessness, former 
foster youth, students with unsafe homes, and international 
students are unable to return to their home countries. Going 
home is not an option. For many students without access to a 
computer or the internet, or a safe or quiet place to study, 
online learning is not an option.
    With many on-campus and community child care providers 
closed, the one in five college students who are parents have 
even fewer options for child care. As we move toward solving 
the truly countless challenges facing our colleges and 
students, we absolutely have to keep in mind and address the 
unique needs of the students who have been disproportionately 
impacted by COVID-19 as colleges begin to reopen safely, 
physically or online. We need to ensure that colleges do not 
rush into a decision on how to reopen without thorough 
consultation with public health officials. There is a very real 
possibility, as Dr. Fauci told us the other week, of a 
resurgence of coronavirus. That is why colleges and 
universities need a detailed plan for how to keep the campus 
community safe, regardless of how the pandemic evolves in the 
coming months.
    Our students, our faculty, staff and college communities 
need to know that before colleges reopen their doors, they have 
planned for every potential outcome, every contributing factor, 
and every scenario. But colleges and universities can't do this 
alone. They need in-depth, actionable and detailed guidance 
from the Federal Government on best practices when it comes to 
how to house and feed students safely, how to minimize class 
size and keep students socially distant, how to ensure library 
books and other shared equipment are cleaned properly and 
often.
    When it comes to the broader community, how to keep faculty 
and staff members of the larger community safe, and how to 
minimize risk when students travel to and from campus. These 
are just a few of the questions that need to be answered before 
schools can open safely. Doing so requires a complex planning 
process that we absolutely cannot get wrong. Colleges and 
universities need actual support from Secretary of Education 
Betsy DeVos, who instead of working with the higher education 
community on how to reopen safely, is forcing colleges and 
universities to implement a new harmful, ideological Title IX 
regulation during a pandemic that will ensure one thing, that 
students, already worried about the pandemic, are now going to 
be more unsafe next school year when it comes to sexual assault 
and harassment.
    While I am glad we have the opportunity to hear from the 
witnesses today, this Committee, and the American people, 
deserve to hear directly from Secretary DeVos on how she is 
working with the higher education community, as well as 
Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia on how we can safely protect 
workers from the virus, and Secretary of Health and Human 
Services Alex Azar on how the Administration is responding to 
this health crisis.
    Today, we need to not only address the immediate needs of 
colleges and students, but we need to begin to plan what the 
future of higher education will look like in the wake of the 
coronavirus. These truly unprecedented times require bold, 
responsive leadership but right now colleges and universities 
are not getting what they need from the Federal Government.
    While I am fighting to secure additional funding and 
address the ongoing needs of colleges and students across the 
country, I will continue to push this Administration to not 
only implement the law as intended by Congress but to step up 
and provide leadership and guidance to our faculty, staff and 
students because they desperately need it. Thank you Mr. 
Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Murray. We will 
now move to the witnesses and then to Senators' questions. 
Pleased to welcome all four of our witnesses and will introduce 
all four, but let me ask Senator Braun to introduce our first 
witness and then I will introduce the other three.
    Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Mitch Daniels. The first time I met you 
Mitch was in 2015. I was a freshman legislator and you came 
into the Ways and Means Committee. And I remember it was like 
the third year I think into the tuition freeze and I think you 
had tuition increases for 36 years prior to when you did that. 
And as a, entrepreneur, I asked you the question, what are you 
going to do to actually lower costs? I remember it vividly, you 
said, I am going to look at purchasing across all our 
locations, made sense. You were going to tackle fringe 
benefits, especially healthcare costs.
    I did that back in my own business in 2008 and that is a 
rowdy affair when you do it, but when you make it sustainable, 
it is great for your employees. There is no doubt about that. 
And you said you would turn a four-year degree into a three-
year degree. That impressed me. That was the kind of 
entrepreneurial spirit I think we need across the Federal 
Government for sure and it addresses high education costs, 
post-secondary, and health care costs, the two most 
uncontrollable sectors in our economy. It is noteworthy that 
you did that without shifting from full-time faculty to part-
time. You did not increase your percentage of international and 
out-of-state students, and you signed a book deal with Amazon 
that lowered costs by 30 percent, making it to where now 
tuition is less in nominal terms than it was back in 2012.
    Also borrowing, down 31 percent. You got the back to boiler 
program, which is an income share agreement model. Provides, I 
think, a better alternative to the Parent Plus and private 
loans. All of this is no surprise. As Governor of Indiana, you 
took a chronic deficit situation, $800 million a year, turned 
our credit rating into AAA. Every position you held from the 
time of chief of staff for Senator Dick Lugar who's seat I 
proudly occupying now, to advisor to Ronald Reagan, to the 
Director of the OMB for President Bush, you have demonstrated 
fiscal conservatism, business acumen.
    Once again, Purdue leads, this time as a university, leads 
reopening for institutions of higher education following the 
COVID-19 emergency. In a recent op-ed in the Washington Post, 
Mitch rightly argues that not only is reopening campus in the 
fall possible, but it is the duty of the university to continue 
to provide high value instruction, training, and research for 
which the university is nationally respected.
    I look forward to seeing how Purdue has, approaches this 
unique challenge, how it plans to bring its campus back safely 
into educating. I am proud that an Indiana institution is 
leading the way for others across the country. I am pleased to 
have its leader here today to testify virtually in front of our 
Committee where we can discuss these changes at Purdue more in 
depth.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Braun. I think I will ask 
you to introduce me sometime. That was a good introduction as I 
have heard of anybody. Thank you very much. Our second witness 
is Dr. Christina Paxson. She is President of Brown University 
in Providence, Rhode Island. In April, Brown announced it's 
plan to hold classes in person this fall creating a healthy 
fall 2020 task force to develop a plan to safely reopen campus. 
Dr. Paxson was appointed President of Brown in July, 2012. 
Prior to that, she served as Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School 
of International and Public Affairs and as the Hughes Rogers 
Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton 
University. She has been active in the fields of economics and 
public health, serving as the principal investigator on several 
research projects supported by the National Institutes of 
Health and serving on the Board of Directors of the Federal 
Reserve Bank of Boston.
    Our third witness is Dr. Logan Hampton, President of Lane 
College in Jackson, Tennessee. Lane College has announced it is 
considering bringing students back to campus in the fall. He 
was appointed President of Lane in June, 2014. And prior to 
that he served as Vice Provost for Student Affairs at the 
University of Arkansas at Little Rock among other positions 
serving students. One of Lane college's distinctions is it was 
the place where Alex Haley's father taught, raised four 
distinguished children. Welcome, Dr. Hampton. And I would like 
to turn to Senator Murray to introduce our next witness.
    Senator Murray. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I am 
delighted that we have the opportunity to hear from Dr. 
Benjamin today who is an expert on what we need to be doing in 
terms of making sure that our colleges and universities and our 
public health system is working correctly when it comes to 
having a safe place to return to this fall. So I really want to 
thank----
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murray. Now, we will thank 
our witnesses for joining us virtually. We will ask them to 
summarize their statements in about five minutes, which will 
leave more time for questions by the Senators. And we'll begin 
with President Daniels. Welcome, President Daniels.

 STATEMENT OF MITCHELL DANIELS, PRESIDENT, PURDUE UNIVERSITY, 
                       WEST LAFAYETTE, IN

    Mr. Daniels. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and the Committee for 
this invitation and for the good advice I know we will receive 
during the next couple hours. Purdue--we teach everything at 
Purdue University, but we are the one of the most STEM centric 
schools and therefore proceed from science and data when we 
can. And we certainly did in this case. I will say that if we 
had to make the reopening decision in March or even early 
April, we would have not been able to justify saying so, but it 
was only as data made plain how highly focused the lethality of 
this terrible virus is that we began to make--come to a 
different conclusion. As we now know and nationally deaths in 
nursing homes alone represent over 40 percent of the reported 
fatalities. In our state, 48 percent and a story this morning 
suggest maybe well over half.
    Meanwhile on the other end of the age spectrum, the typical 
college age individual we now know has a 99.99 percent survival 
rate much higher than from many other illnesses that do affect 
people old and young. It doesn't--the COVID fatality data 
suggests it is not even in the top 10 risks facing our students 
every year, outranked by many illnesses as well as accidents of 
different kinds and I am distressed to say suicide. Meanwhile, 
students are telling us very emphatically that they want to be 
on campus, they don't want their education interrupted. We 
believe that we have fashioned ways and other schools have to 
deliver content online very capably but that still deprives the 
student of many other experiences that are only available on 
campus, in encounters of some kind with faculty and with their 
peers.
    The plan we have assembled for our university is based on 
two basic strategies. One is the protection of the vulnerable 
to minimize the risk to those we now know are at serious or 
potential danger from this virus. On the other end to maximize 
choice, we will say to students and the faculty after you have 
surveyed all the precautions that we are putting in place, that 
if you are still uncomfortable, please don't come. We have an 
online option for you as a student. We have a myriad of hybrid 
options available to you as a professor.
    A week from today, our Board of Trustees will examine and I 
hope approve the third of three sets of actions that taken 
together constitute our plan to protect Purdue. Just to give 
you the flavor, at least a third of all our staff will continue 
working remotely indefinitely. We will lower the occupancy of 
classrooms by at least 50 percent.
    There will be a 10-foot minimum between any faculty member 
and any student, and those students will be wearing masks and 
that faculty member will be behind plexiglass. I learned last 
night our purchases of plexiglass now exceed 1 mile. We will 
de-densify our dining. Indoor seating will be will not occur 
indefinitely. A grab-and-go, as the Chairman said, will become 
the rule. In our residence halls we have taken out over 1,000 
beds. Many doubles will now become singles.
    We will rearrange the other so that there is a--we are 
looking at 13 to 14 or 15 feet distance between roommates as 
they sleep. Social distance will be achieved every way we can. 
No convocations, concerts, large gatherings, no parties. We 
will spend the millions already on HVAC and disinfection 
improvements. And of course, testing. We will have a 
comprehensive screening on arrival and extensive testing from 
the first day, of course, testing of those who have been in 
proximity to people testing positive, and probably a lot of 
random testing during the semester. We have over 500 beds 
already set aside for the quarantine of positive testers, and 
we expect to have many more.
    All this will cost, before we are done, tens of millions of 
dollars, but we are just going to try to leave nothing to 
chance. But I want to finish by saying that we all recognize 
the single most important change we must make is in behavior, 
is in culture. We will be--we have already begun saying to our 
students, if you are uneasy about any of this, please don't 
come. We have another option for you. On the other hand if you 
are going to come, please be prepared to pitch in and to comply 
with the protect Purdue pledge, which we have fashioned 
committing each person in our community to all the changes that 
I have mentioned and many more. We make no pretense to having 
all the best answers.
    We made our intentions known early. And not to preach to 
anyone else but because we need every day, we think, to 
implement effectively a program that comprehensive. We are 
encouraged to see now almost all schools coming to a similar 
conclusion. We look forward to learning from them and from this 
morning's Committee meeting. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Daniels follows:]
                 prepared statement of mitchell daniels
    I express my gratitude to Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member 
Murray, and Members of the Senate HELP Committee for the invitation. On 
behalf of Purdue University, I thank you for your interest in 
supporting the ongoing preparations to protect students and employees 
in the coming fall.

    We have learned much in the past few months.

    On Feb. 1, watching the outbreak of a new virus in China, our 
university suspended travel to that country. On Feb. 26, we extended 
that ban to visiting other countries reporting the infection. On March 
10, we decided to close the Purdue University campus for the spring 
semester and move to remote instruction. On March 17, we canceled our 
traditional commencement.

    At the point when the campus was shut down, if we had needed to 
decide on our plans for the fall, we would have felt compelled to 
resume with remote instruction and keep the campus closed. For all we 
knew, COVID-19 posed a danger across all lines of age and health 
status, and a place as densely populated as our campus would be 
defenseless against it--operations couldn't be responsibly restarted.

    We have all learned a lot since then. What would have been a 
reckless and scientifically unjustified decision in late March is now 
plainly the best option from both a scientific and a stewardship 
standpoint, at least for our particular institution. We're not alone: 
Two-thirds of the more than 800 colleges surveyed by the Chronicle of 
Higher Education have now come to the same conclusion and will reopen 
with in-person instruction in the fall. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-a-List-of-Colleges-/
248626.

    The most salient discovery the world has made during these terrible 
two months is that COVID-19 is a very dangerous disease, specifically 
for the elderly and the infirm, particularly those with diabetes, 
hypertension, other cardiovascular illnesses or the obesity that so 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
frequently leads to these disorders.

    The companion discovery is that this bug, so risky in one segment 
of the population, poses a near-zero risk to young people. \2\ Among 
COVID-19 deaths, 99.9 percent have occurred outside the 15-to-24 age 
group; \3\ the survival rate in the 20-to-29 age bracket is 99.99 
percent. \4\ Even assuming the United States eventually reaches 150,000 
total fatalities, COVID-19 as a risk to the young will rank way below 
accidents, cancer, heart disease and suicide. In fact, it won't even 
make the top 10. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ (2020). Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: 
a model-based analysis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. doi.org/
10.1016/s1473-3099(20)30243-7.
    \3\ Data.CDC.gov.
    \4\ (2020). Estimating the burden of SARS-CoV-2 in France. Science. 
DOI: 10.1126/science.abc3517.
    \5\ (2020). Estimating the Risk of Death from COVID-19 vs. 
Influenza or Pneumonia by Age. Roy, Avik. https://freopp.org/
estimating-the-risk-of-death-from-covid-19-vs-influenza-or-pneumonia-
by-age-630aea3ae5a9.

    This is fundamental information for institutions with radically 
skewed demographic compositions. If you're running a nursing home, it 
means one thing. New York unintentionally ended hundreds of lives 
prematurely by ordering COVID-19 patients into such homes, the worst 
possible places for them. \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ 2020. AP count: Over 4,500 virus patients sent to NY nursing 
homes. ABC News. abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ap-count-4300-virus-
patients-ny-nursing-homes-70825470.

    But if you're running a university, the science is telling you 
something diametrically different. Our campus, including its 
surrounding community, has a median age of 20.5. More than 80 percent 
of the total campus population is 35 and under. We may have the 
population density of New York City, but we have the age distribution 
of Uganda. The challenge for Purdue is to devise maximum protection for 
the unusually small minority who could be at genuinely serious risk in 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
order to serve the young people who are our reason for existing at all.

    Here's something else we've learned. Our students (and, one 
suspects, their trapped-at-home parents) overwhelmingly are eager to 
continue their educations, in person and on campus. We know it is not 
the case everywhere, but at Purdue, tuition deposits by incoming 
freshmen have shattered last year's record by double digits and re-
enrollments of upper-class students are at normal levels.

    Forty-five thousand young people--the biggest student population 
we've ever had--are telling us they want to be here this fall. To tell 
them, ``Sorry, we are too incompetent or too fearful to figure out how 
to protect your elders, so you have to disrupt your education,'' would 
be a gross disservice to them and a default of our responsibility.

    Instead, we have spent every waking minute of the past eight weeks 
planning changes to almost everything we do--how we house and feed 
students and preserve the value of the tutelage and mentoring by 
faculty and advisers, while maintaining a safe physical distance 
between the two groups. A panel of scientists and clinicians is guiding 
our choices.

    We will make our campus less dense in multiple ways. At least one-
third of our staff will be required to work remotely. Our technologists 
have applied what they've learned about social distancing to redesign 
700 classrooms and labs, and 9,500 dormitory rooms, all of which will 
be reconfigured with lower occupancy limits. All large-enrollment 
courses will be offered online as well as in person, to accommodate 
those who cannot or choose not to come to campus, and to further reduce 
in-class numbers.

    We will test systematically and trace contacts of anyone testing 
positive for the coronavirus. Large numbers of symptomatic Boilermakers 
will also be tested. Among the options we are considering include 
random testing, tests for those with potential exposure, and tests for 
those living in potential ``hot'' spots as determined by contact 
tracing.

    We will forgo the concerts, convocations and social occasions that 
ordinarily enliven campus life. It will be a quieter fall without 
fraternity parties, but first things first.

    Perhaps most important will be the cultural change on which we have 
to insist because, in another lesson of the coronavirus spring, nothing 
makes a more positive difference than personal behavior and 
responsibility. Wearing masks indoors and in any close-quarters space 
reduces viral transmission dramatically all by itself. Combined with 
rigorous hygiene and prudent social distancing, facial protection can 
probably provide more protection than all the extra disinfecting, 
plexiglass-barrier installation, HVAC improvements and other measures 
we take.

    On arrival in August, each Boilermaker will receive a kit including 
face masks and a thermometer for daily temperature-taking as well as 
the Protect Purdue Pledge asking for a commitment to at least a 
semester of inconvenience, not primarily for the student's own 
protection but for the safety of those who teach and otherwise serve 
them. I will urge students to demonstrate their altruism by complying, 
but also challenge them to refute the cynics who say that today's young 
people are too selfish or self-indulgent to help us make this work.

    A final thought: We recognize that not every school can or should 
view the decision to reopen as we do. Unlike Purdue, many colleges were 
already struggling with low enrollment and precarious finances when the 
pandemic hit. But given what we have learned, with 45,000 students 
waiting and the financial wherewithal to do what's necessary, failure 
to take on the job of reopening would be not only anti-scientific but 
also an unacceptable breach of duty.

    I thank the Committee for this invitation and any guidance you may 
offer us in enabling 45,000 purposeful young people to continue their 
education without interruption.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, President Daniels, and thanks to 
you and our other witnesses for interrupting demanding 
schedules to be a part of our hearing.
    Dr. Paxson, welcome.

  STATEMENT OF CHRISTINA PAXSON, PRESIDENT, BROWN UNIVERSITY, 
                         PROVIDENCE, RI

    Dr. Paxson. Good morning, Chairman Alexander, Ranking 
Member Murray, and Members of the HELP Committee, and thank you 
so much for inviting me to testify in today's hearing. Before I 
begin, I want to acknowledge the pain that our country is 
experiencing over systemic issues of racial injustice. And in 
times like these, our colleges and universities play and 
especially critical role in helping communities build 
collective understanding and make calls for action. So, thank 
you.
    Now, Chairman Alexander, you might appreciate the fact that 
my grandfather was a longtime faculty member at your 
University, the University of Tennessee, where he directed the 
experimental research station. And I grew up hearing about the 
challenges that University experienced during the Great 
Depression. And of course the Great Recession, which I 
experienced, was another time of great stress for colleges and 
universities. But I can say that whether you are a public or 
private institution, large or small, rich or poor, we have 
never seen anything like this. Last spring, when the 
coronavirus started to spread in the United States, colleges 
and universities had no choice but to shutter our campuses.
    Testing was scarce. There was no way to know if the virus 
was silently spreading through dormitories and classrooms. So 
now, as economies are reopening, we are developing plans to 
bring research and students back to campus. And I want to 
underscore that Brown will not open unless we can do so safely 
in compliance with CDC and state guidelines. We will not 
compromise on safety. I am cautiously optimistic that we can 
reopen if we continue to coordinate closely with the State of 
Rhode Island and develop a sound, science based public health 
plan for our campus. And this plan must include all of the 
things we just heard about, very familiar now, for preventing 
the spread of infection, testing and more testing, tracing, 
isolation, quarantine, social distancing, masks, and hygiene 
measures. We are changing how we use lecture and classroom 
spaces. We are adjusting living arrangements in dorms. We are 
developing plans for remote teaching among a multitude of other 
steps.
    This work is complex. It is all-consuming. It is very 
expensive. But if this is what it takes to make a safe opening 
possible, it is well worth it because there is so much at 
stake. First, our students are eager to come back to campus. 
Many say that they may delay getting their degrees if they 
can't return and that would be bad for them and bad for the 
country. Second, a lot of federally funded research is 
languishing on the bench--labs doing COVID-19 related work 
throughout the spring but important work on things like 
Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and new energy technologies, it 
simply isn't getting done. Third, the pandemic has created 
enormous financial pressures with colleges and universities and 
this will get even worse if students can't safely return in the 
fall.
    Brown is fortunate, we can weather this, but colleges and 
universities don't have the resources to do so. And if they 
can't reopen, they will have no choice but to lay off even more 
of their employees and possibly close forever. Colleges and 
universities, as you know, have traditionally been some of the 
most stable employers and consumers of goods and services in 
their regions. And our missions of education and research drive 
upward mobility, reduce disparities, increase innovation, and 
support standards of living.
    I want to thank you for the support you have already 
provided for colleges and universities. Going forward, the 
higher education sector can't reopen without your continued 
support. So we need help implementing public health plans for 
the safety of our students and employees and addressing 
declines in enrollment. Another major need is financial aid. 
Institutions will spend tens of billions of dollars on aid for 
students whose parents have lost their jobs and they may be 
unable to return to school without emergency assistance even if 
colleges open and we can't risk losing a generation of 
students.
    Finally, universities, medical schools, teaching hospitals 
need estimated at least $26 billion dollars in emergency 
support for research that has been adversely affected by the 
pandemic. This includes funding for grant contract extensions, 
facility support, post-doctoral and graduate student 
fellowships. Now, this is a time when partnership between 
higher education and Federal Government and State Government 
more important than ever for the sake of the research and 
innovation that is at the core of America's health care 
industry and economic competitiveness, the cities and states 
that rely heavily on institutions as major economic drivers, 
and especially and most importantly for the sake of our 
students. So thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony 
today, and I look forward to questions.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Paxson follows:]
                 prepared statement of christina paxson
    Good morning, Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray and Members 
of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Thank you for 
inviting me to testify at today's hearing, ``COVID-19: Going Back to 
College Safely.'' I appreciate the opportunity to share my views on one 
of the most important and challenging decisions higher education has 
ever faced--how to return students, faculty, staff and researchers to 
campus as soon as it is safe to do so, while continuing to provide 
excellent educational opportunities to our students.

    I am the president of Brown University, an institution located in 
Providence, Rhode Island. When our country grappled with the onset of 
the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, institutions of higher 
education, including Brown, took swift action and were among the first 
to cease onsite operations. The rapid response that occurred across the 
country stemmed from our concern for the health of our students, 
employees and surrounding communities, and our recognition that college 
campuses pose special challenges for addressing infectious disease.

    Thus, when the time comes for colleges and universities to reopen, 
we must do so safely and in accordance with the advice of public health 
experts. I recognize that there is no one roadmap for reopening a 
campus. Colleges and universities vary widely in terms of their 
financial resources, sizes, access to health care, and the level of 
COVID-19 infection in their locations. However, I firmly believe we 
share common priorities and principles that guide planning for 
reopening our campuses.

    First and foremost, the health and safety of the students and 
employees who make up a college community are the top priority. As I 
argued in a recent op-ed for The New York Times, it should be a 
national priority to support colleges and universities in addressing 
the challenges and barriers they face in their efforts to reopen 
safely. This is a time when partnership between higher education and 
Federal Government and state governments is more important than ever--
for the sake of the educational attainment of students across the 
country; the cities and states that rely heavily on institutions in 
their communities as major employers and economic drivers; and the 
research and innovation that is at the core of America's health care 
industry and economic competitiveness. I'll address all of these points 
in this testimony.

    First, it is important to understand that the mode of how we 
deliver the educational experience next year will very likely look 
different than in past years. It is imperative that colleges large and 
small--urban and rural--have the resources to ground our actions 
supporting teaching and instruction in evidence-based public health 
protocols for safeguarding the health and well-being of our 
communities.

    Institutions need the support of our Federal Government to gain the 
capacity to develop public health plans that build on three basic 
elements of controlling the spread of infection: test, trace and 
separate. At Brown, as at many colleges and universities, we are 
developing plans with the following features:

          Testing of all students and employees upon return to 
        campus, testing for all symptomatic students and employees, and 
        random testing of asymptomatic members of the community to 
        monitor levels of infection over time.

          Traditional and technology-enabled contact tracing 
        capacity, developed in close coordination with the Rhode Island 
        Department of Health, so that the spread of any infection on 
        campus can be quickly stemmed.

          Residence halls that are ``de-densified'' so that 
        students have single rooms and there are fewer students per 
        shared bathroom, plus suitable dormitory space set aside for 
        isolation and quarantine.

          Classrooms, libraries and dining halls that are 
        reconfigured to enable social distancing, and additional 
        investments in cleaning and supplies for appropriate hygiene.

          Large lecture courses that are converted to 
        ``flipped'' mode, so that students watch the lecture online, 
        and gather together in smaller recitation or problem-solving 
        sessions with their instructor.

          The development of a robust public health education 
        campaign, so that students understand what they need to do to 
        keep themselves, their classmates, faculty, staff and community 
        members healthy.

    Additionally, even if most students return to campus, institutions 
will also need to provide remote education for students who are unable 
to return because of travel restrictions or health conditions.

    Putting these elements in place will require an extraordinary 
effort, and will create additional financial pressure on colleges and 
universities. Institutions will be required to innovate as they never 
have before. But in my view, if this is what it takes to safely reopen 
our campuses, and provided that students' privacy is scrupulously 
protected, it is worthwhile. Institutions need to be supported in their 
efforts to safely handle the possibility of infection on campus while 
maintaining the continuity of core academic functions.

    This path to reopening college campuses requires close coordination 
with state and local public health officials, not only to protect 
students and employees, but also the local community members they 
interact with. At Brown, we are planning for a gradual return to campus 
over the summer--starting with the reopening of research laboratories--
that aligns with plans recently announced by Governor Gina Raimondo for 
the reopening of businesses and industries across Rhode Island. Even 
though coordination between the leaders of our Nation's 4,000 degree-
granting postsecondary institutions and state and local governments 
will vary, especially given the differences in approaches to reopening, 
it is imperative that we all work together to maintain the health of 
our communities as we plan for a range of different scenarios for the 
coming year.

    It is important to underscore once again that college campuses 
should only reopen if it is safe to do so and in accordance with the 
advice of public health experts. Should there be a resurgence in 
infection as the U.S. economy reopens, it may not be possible to bring 
students back to campus in the fall. As many institutions move forward 
with resuming mission-critical campus and research operations over the 
summer, we must remain vigilant and be prepared to slow or halt efforts 
to reopen.

    The challenges institutions of higher education face as we develop 
plans to safely reopen colleges and universities this fall are immense. 
This planning is necessary for two reasons: institutions provide 
essential educational and learning opportunities to millions of 
students every year; and they make significant contributions to our 
local communities as well as the national economy.

    Last fall, over 19 million students were enrolled at an American 
college or university to obtain some form of advanced learning or 
training. If students cannot come back to campus, and if schools do not 
take steps to ensure students have access to excellent educational 
opportunities, some students may forgo starting college or delay 
completing their degrees. This would have a damaging effect on our 
country, especially given the role higher education plays in preparing 
young people to become productive and effective members of democratic 
societies.

    As a sector, higher education is a significant component of the 
U.S. economy. Degree-granting postsecondary institutions employ about 3 
million people, and as recently as the 2017-18 school year contributed 
more than $600 billion of spending to the national gross domestic 
product. Colleges and universities have traditionally served as anchor 
institutions and have been some of the most stable employers and 
consumers of goods and services in municipalities and states. Our 
missions of education and research drive innovation, advance technology 
and support economic development. Educational attainment, including 
college and graduate education, enables upward mobility and is an 
essential contributor to the improvement of living standards in the 
United States and around the world.

    If colleges and universities can reopen safely, they will have to 
contend with the costs of implementing the comprehensive public health 
plans described earlier in this testimony. In addition, they can expect 
their students to require significantly more financial aid. This is 
especially true for those campuses that have fewer resources to begin 
with and are more subject to state budget cuts. In a May 29, 2020, 
letter, the American Council on Education and other associations 
estimated that higher education will require $46.6 billion to address 
near-term financial needs, including need-based aid for students and 
costs incurred due to campus closures. This figure does not include 
additional costs for reopening in the fall, such as testing, tracing 
and isolation. Additional assistance should go directly to 
institutions. (For more detailed information please see the attached 
letter on institutional and student financial relief needs from the 
American Council on Education: https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/Letter-
Senate-fifth-supplemental-request-052920.pdf).

    Using my own institution as one example, consider that after the 
2008 financial crisis, Brown had to increase scholarships by 12 percent 
to meet the full financial need of all enrolled undergraduates. Given 
that the unemployment rate in May is expected to be about 20 percent, 
more than double the maximum during the Great Recession, we anticipate 
that our students' financial needs will increase much more than in the 
aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Many schools cannot afford to 
increase scholarships to meet this need. Without additional Federal 
support for financial aid, many of their students may be unable to 
return to college for financial reasons, even if their campuses are 
open.

    Furthermore, it is important to note that international students 
and scholars are integral to our institutions. American colleges and 
universities attract the best and brightest students from around the 
world. To ensure that international students can continue to study 
safely in the United States, it is essential that the resumption of 
visa processing occurs swiftly and international students receive 
expedited visas. Additionally, it is critical that students and 
exchange visitors receive clear guidance as soon as possible on any 
additional requirements they will have to comply with in order to enter 
the country, including testing and quarantine requirements.

    In the event that it is not safe to reopen college campuses, many 
institutions of higher education will need relief and support from the 
Federal Government in order to survive, especially those that were in 
precarious financial positions before the pandemic. Already, the 
financial impact of the pandemic on institutions of higher education is 
staggering and continues to climb. Using Brown as an example once 
again, we expect a negative financial impact next fiscal year from 
COVID-19 on the order of $100 to $200 million or more, depending on 
forecasted losses and increased expenses associated with different 
scenarios for reopening.

    While we have implemented a strict freeze on hiring and salary 
increases for faculty and staff--and senior leaders have taken pay 
cuts--we continue to feel deep budget impacts of important measures 
that include supporting undergraduate students with travel, moving and 
instructional expenses; crediting fees for room and board; waiving the 
summer earning expectations of all undergraduate students and providing 
more scholarship aid; providing support to graduate students; and 
contending with loss of revenue from canceling summer programs.

    Colleges and universities across the country are experiencing 
similar losses. Most are heavily dependent on tuition, and so remaining 
closed in the fall means losing as much as half of an institution's 
annual revenue. If this happens, it is expected that a number of 
institutions will be forced to permanently close. This would be a 
devastating loss for students, lead to a fresh wave of layoffs, and 
harm local economies and our country as a whole.

    Although most of the discussion around the reopening of college 
campuses has focused on students, it is important to acknowledge that 
the COVID-19 pandemic has halted a significant amount of the federally 
funded research that takes place at research institutions. Restarting 
this research must also be a priority.

    Over the past several months, universities have kept open 
laboratories that conduct research related to COVID-19. It is likely 
that one of America's leading research institutions will contribute to 
the discovery of a vaccine for COVID-19. Research universities are also 
working to identify effective treatments and better testing methods. 
This is urgent and necessary work, and it has been gratifying to see 
how university-based scientists across the country have stepped up to 
help end the pandemic.

    In the meantime, however, an extraordinary amount of federally 
funded research is languishing on the bench due to this pandemic. This 
includes research in areas such as combatting Alzheimer's disease and 
cancer, and the development of sustainable energy sources. Putting this 
work on hold not only threatens the future of research and discovery, 
but also the country's position as the world's leader in innovation.

    Our research institutions need urgent relief to preserve research 
and lab infrastructure as well as to protect our research workforce--
both of which are needed to emerge intact from this crisis. The Federal 
Government can provide assistance in a number of ways, including but 
not limited to, additional support for major research agencies; uniform 
guidance and policies from Federal agencies to provide flexibility to 
cover salaries, benefits and tuition support for graduate students and 
researchers; and temporary regulatory and audit flexibility from the 
Office of Management and Budget during the pandemic. (For more detailed 
information, please see the attached May 27, 2020, letter on research 
relief recommendations from the Association of American Universities, 
Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of 
American Medical Colleges, and American Council on Education: https://
www.acenet.edu/Documents/Letter-Senate-Research-Relief-052720.pdf).

    Unlike single-sector businesses and organizations in other 
industries, institutions of higher education engage in every sector of 
the critical infrastructure necessary to our communities. Universities 
operate hospitals and medical centers, full-service utility companies, 
transportation services, and telecommunications and computing networks. 
We provide housing and food services; run daycares, gyms, stadiums, 
libraries, performance venues and museums. In doing so, we employ 
hundreds of thousands of workers in various trades and professions. In 
other words, unlike most single-sector businesses, we must determine 
how to address safety concerns across multiple operational settings.

    Therefore, efforts at providing relief and support should recognize 
the unique role of higher education institutions to serve and support a 
broad and complex population of students, faculty and staff, and do so 
in as safe a manner as possible. I recognize that the needs of students 
and employees are extraordinary, but a full post-pandemic recovery 
requires a response that's equally unprecedented.

    In the coming months, we will learn how health conditions evolve as 
the U.S. economy begins to reopen, and how quickly innovations in 
testing, contact tracing and treatment occur. Institutions will 
evaluate these factors in order to make fully informed decisions on 
reopening that are in the best interests of the health of our 
respective communities and our country. I remain cautiously optimistic 
that campuses can reopen in some capacity in the fall. As I wrote in my 
piece in The New York Times, our duty now is to marshal the resources 
and expertise to make it possible to reopen our campuses safely. We are 
reliant on partnerships with government to make that happen as soon as 
possible.

    Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony for this important 
hearing. I want to express my appreciation to the Chairman, Ranking 
Member and the rest of the HELP Committee for convening this forum to 
discuss an issue that is so important to the future of higher 
education, our students and our country.
                                 ______
                                 
                [summary statement of christina paxson]
    The health and safety of students and employees is the top priority 
in reopening colleges and universities nationwide. Institutions must 
have the resources to support teaching and instruction that is based in 
evidence-based public health protocols for safeguarding the health and 
well-being of our communities.

    The support and partnership of our Federal Government is essential 
for higher education institutions to gain the capacity to develop 
public health plans that build on three basic elements of controlling 
the spread of infection: test, trace and separate. Institutions will 
also need to be able to provide remote education for students who are 
unable to return to campus because of travel restrictions or health 
conditions.

    Many institutions of higher education are developing plans with the 
following features:

          Testing students and employees upon return to campus; 
        testing all symptomatic students and employees; and random 
        testing to monitor levels of infection over time

          Traditional and technology contact tracing capacity 
        to stem the spread of any infection

          Residence halls that are de-densified to minimize 
        contact and preserve space for quarantine

          Campus infrastructures that are reconfigured to 
        enable social distancing, and additional investments in 
        cleaning and supplies for appropriate hygiene

          Large lecture courses where students watch the 
        lecture online, and gather only in smaller sessions with their 
        instructors

          Robust public health education campaigns, so each 
        community member understands what is required of them to keep 
        the community healthy.

    Institutions of higher education that reopen will confront the 
costs of implementing comprehensive public health plans, and students 
will require significantly more financial aid. The unemployment rate in 
May is expected to be about 20 percent, more than double the maximum 
during the Great Recession, when Brown was among schools that had 
double-digit increases in scholarship aid to meet student need. Many 
institutions that cannot reopen will require support to survive deep 
financial losses, and their communities will suffer economically.

    To ensure that international students can continue to study safely 
in the U.S., it is essential that visa processing resumes swiftly, and 
international students receive guidance as soon as possible on any 
additional requirements for re-entering the country.

    An extraordinary amount of federally funded research is 
languishing. Research relief is critical to ensure the future of 
research and discovery--including for treatments and cures for 
disease--but also the country's position as the world's leader in 
innovation.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Paxson, and I am glad to hear 
your grandfather was at the University of Tennessee. My 
daughter graduated from Brown.
    Dr. Paxson. There we go.
    The Chairman. Now our next witness is Dr. Logan Hampton of 
Lane College. Welcome, Dr. Hampton.

 STATEMENT OF LOGAN HAMPTON, PRESIDENT, LANE COLLEGE, JACKSON, 
                               TN

    Dr. Hampton. Thank you, Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member 
Murray, and Members of the Committee. Thank you for the 
opportunity to testify today. My name is Logan Hampton. I serve 
as a 10th President Wayne College in Jackson, Tennessee. Lane 
College is a historically black college founded in 1882 by 
former slave Bishop Isaac Lane of the Colored Methodist Church. 
Lane is an HBCU which consists of 36 buildings across 55 acres, 
truly creating an exceptional academic and living environment. 
I was asked to testify before the Committee about Lane's plans 
to reopen our campus in the fall. Lane college began its moment 
to moment for response to the novel coronavirus disease known 
as COVID-19 on March 7th, 2020.
    Initially, I created and met with a joint leadership team 
consisting of 21 members of my direct reports, academic cabinet 
,and the marketing team to consider three options for the 
remainder of the semester. Option one, vigilance. Continue 
face-to-face instruction with residential students while 
observing local, state, and Federal, practicing CDC, Tennessee 
Department of Health, Madison County Health Department 
recommendations. The second option, remote. Move all 
instruction online and direct non-essential employees to work 
remotely.
    Third option, the nuclear option. End the semester on 
Friday, March 13, 2020. Lane College joint leadership team 
decided to move to remote instruction and service delivery. 
Each of the 819 residential students accounts was accredited 
$713 or total of $584,305, which is slightly less than 10 
percent of the institution's auxiliary budget. 76 percent of 
the student body resided on campus. Unfortunately, due to the 
pandemic, Lane College laid off 21 employees and continued its 
previously imposed spending freeze. Nevertheless, Lane College 
students will not experience an increase in tuition, fees, or 
room and board for the upcoming academic year. As a result of 
the consultation given by UNCL, Lane College was able to 
quickly establish a crisis management team with a strategy team 
to lead it. This team is charged with offering overall 
leadership of the crisis management sector and coordinating the 
weekly Lane College C-19 team meeting. That is comprised of the 
FRSPH team, members of the Lane College joint leadership team, 
and the pandemic proof team.
    A strategy team is set to implement a detailed timeline for 
reopening that is further articulated in my written testimony. 
And due to the fluid developments of COVID-19, the strategy 
team has layered Lane College to prepare for three scenarios. 
Lane College fast-start, face-to-face instruction. Lane College 
VR, all online courses. Lane College Soar, a hybrid of both 
online and face-to-face. I would be remiss if I did not thank 
Congress and this Committee for passing H.R. 748, The CARES 
Act.
    I also thank the President for signing this bill into law. 
Because of the CARES Act, Lane College has access to a total of 
$5,278,608 in direct allocation. While I am thankful for this, 
I would be remiss if I did not share with you that Lane College 
is bracing for revenue losses that will impact our ability to 
operate. And our students are in during tough economic times 
that presents unique challenges, especially for students of 
color. With this being said, I have a number of important 
request to Congress in my written testimony, but my two asks 
would be to ask that Congress provided an additional $1 billion 
in funding for HBCUs, tribal colleges and universities, and 
minority-serving institutions. I would also firmly ask that 
Congress increase student grant aid in Title IV of the Higher 
Education Act of 1965 by doubling the maximum Pell Grant award.
    The majority of my students are Black Americans and Black 
Americans are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and the 
racism that continues to impact our Nation. If the majority of 
my students are disproportionately impacted, then my 
institution is disproportionately impacted and needs the 
investment. For more information and details regarding my 
remarks I ask that you read my written testimony submitted for 
your review. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Hampton follows:]
                prepared statement of dr. logan hampton
                              Introduction
    Chairman Lamar Alexander, Ranking Member Patty Murray, and Members 
of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

    My name is Dr. Logan Hampton, and I serve as the 10th President of 
Lane College. Lane College is a strong historically black college and 
university (HBCU) founded in 1882 by a former slave, Bishop Isaac Lane 
of the Colored Methodist Church. Lane is an HBCU that seeks to enroll 
and educate those who may not otherwise have an opportunity to receive 
a higher education, and we consist of 36 buildings across 55 acres 
creating a truly exceptional academic and living environment. On our 
campus, we offer award-winning and accredited academic programs in 
dozens of majors and minors to include business, entrepreneurship, 
criminal justice, social work, health care, and more. We pride 
ourselves on being an institution that views our students as life-long 
learners and future leaders while viewing our faculty as facilitators 
who utilize technology as an integral part of the teaching and learning 
process.

    Under my leadership, we have been able to establish a more 
conventional student residential community with a robust first-year 
experience program and improve our arts, recreation, and athletic 
facilities.
                      HBCU History and Statistics
    Before I share how Lane College is preparing to reopen in the Fall 
semester and the unique challenges caused by the virus named ``SARS-
CoV-2'' causing a disease named ``coronavirus disease 2019'' (COVID-
19), \1\ I think that it is imperative that we all understand the 
history of HBCUs to better understand how COVID-19 impacts these 
institutions exponentially.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ U.S. Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. (2020). Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19). Retrieved from 
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/
index.html.

    HBCUs were created as early as 1837 to provide African Americans 
access to higher education. Noted for their contributions in educating 
black, low-income, and educationally disadvantaged Americans, the 101 
accredited HBCUs today constitute the class of institutions that 
satisfy the statutory definition of the term ``HBCU'' as defined in the 
Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA). \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ The definition of an HBCU can be found in Section 322(2) of the 
HEA.

    HBCUs disproportionately enroll low-income, first-generation, and 
academically underprepared college students--precisely the students 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
that the country most needs to obtain college degrees. In 2018:

          Nearly 300,000 students attended HBCUs; \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education 
Statistics. (2020). Digest of education statistics 2019 [Table 313.20]. 
Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/
dt19_313.20.asp.

          More than 75 percent of HBCU students were African 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Americans; and

          Over 60 percent of undergraduate students at HBCUs 
        received Federal Pell Grants, and over 60 percent of these 
        students received Federal loans. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ UNCF Public Policy and Government Affairs calculations using 
2018 data from the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for 
Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. 
Data shows that out of 257,451 total undergraduate students at HBCUs, 
159,101 students were receiving Pell Grants and 162,179 students were 
receiving Federal loans.

    HBCUs comprise 3 percent of all two-and four-year non-profit 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
colleges and universities, yet they:

          Enroll 10 percent of African American undergraduates;

          Produce 17 percent of all African American college 
        graduates with bachelor's degrees; and

          Graduate 24 percent of African Americans with 
        bachelor's degrees in STEM fields. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ UNCF Patterson calculations using U.S. Department of Education, 
National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary 
Education Data System.

    A 2015 Gallup survey confirms that HBCUs are providing African 
American students with a better college experience than African 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
American students at other colleges and universities.

          55 percent of African American HBCU graduates say 
        their college prepared them well for post-college life versus 
        29 percent of African American graduates at other institutions. 
        \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ Gallup, Inc. (2015). Gallup-USA funds minority college 
graduates report. Retrieved from UNCF Website: https://www.uncf.org/wp-
content/uploads/PDFs/USA-Funds-Minority-Report-GALLUP-2.pdf.

    HBCUs attained these results at an affordable price for students--
that is, the cost of attendance at HBCUs is about 30 percent lower, on 
average, than other colleges--despite limited operating budgets and 
endowments that are roughly half the typical size of other four-year 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
public and private non-profit colleges and universities.

    Since our founding, HBCUs have been, and continue to be, under-
resourced institutions. An issue brief produced by ACE (American 
Council on Education) and UNCF (United Negro College Fund, Inc.) 
revealed the following:

          Public HBCUs rely more heavily on Federal, state, and 
        local funding in comparison with their non-HBCU counterparts 
        (54 percent of overall revenue vs 38 percent);

          Private HBCUs depend a little bit more on tuition 
        dollars than their non-HBCUs counterparts (45 percent compared 
        with 37 percent);

          Private gifts, grants, and contracts constitute a 
        smaller portion of overall revenue at private HBCUs compared to 
        their non-HBCU counterparts (17 percent vs 25 percent);

          Public and Private HBCUs experienced the largest 
        declines in Federal funding per full-time equivalent student 
        between 2003-2015; and

          In both the public and private sectors, HBCU 
        endowments lag behind those of non-HBCUs by at least 70 
        percent. \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ Williams, K. L. & Davis, B. L. (2019). Public and private 
investments and divestments in historically black colleges and 
universities. Retrieved from American Council on Education Website: 
https://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Public-and-Private-Investments-
and-Divestments-in-HBCUs.aspx.

    Despite being under-resourced institutions, HBCUs have a large 
economic impact that often goes unnoticed by most. In 2017, UNCF 
released a report detailing the economic impact of HBCUs. The report 
revealed that in 2014, the impact of HBCUs on their regional economies 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
included:

          $10.3 billion in initial spending, which includes 
        spending by the institution for personnel services, spending by 
        the institution for operating expenses, and spending by 
        students;

          An employment impact of 134,090 jobs, which 
        approximately 43 percent were on-campus jobs and 57 percent 
        were off-campus jobs;

          $10.1 billion in terms of gross regional product, 
        which is a measure of the value of production of all 
        industries;

          A work-life earnings of $130 billion for the Class of 
        2014, which is 56 percent more than they could expect to earn 
        without their 2014 certificates or degrees; and

          A total economic impact of $14.8 billion. \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ Humphreys, J. M. (2017). HBCUs make America strong: The 
positive economic impact of historically black colleges and 
universities. Retrieved from UNCF Website: https://www.uncf.org/
programs/hbcu-impact.

    In regard to Lane College specifically, my institution had the 
following economic impact on its regional economy according to the UNCF 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
report:

          $29,925,452 in total initial spending;

          $36,428,355 in output impact;

          $23,997,933 in value-added impact;

          $17,827,714 in labor income impact; and

          475 jobs created in employment impact. \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\ (1) Total initial spending accruing to the institution's 
regional economy is the combination of three types of spending: 
spending by the institution for personnel services (wages, salaries, 
and benefits), spending by the institution for operating expenses, and 
spending by that institution's students. (2) The output impact was 
calculated for each category of initial spending, based on the impacts 
of the first round of spending and the re-spending of these amounts--
the multiplier effect. (3) Value-added (gross regional product) impacts 
exclude expenditures related to foreign and domestic trade, thus 
providing a much more accurate measure of the actual economic benefits 
flowing to businesses and households in a region than the more 
inclusive output impacts. (4) The labor income received by residents of 
the cities that host HBCUs represents 72 percent of the value-added 
impact. (5) For the employment impact, on average, for each job created 
on campus there were 1.3 off-campus jobs that existed because of 
spending related to the HBCU. For all HBCUs combined, 13 jobs were 
generated for each million dollars of initial spending in 2014.

    In addition to the positive impact HBCUs make on the overall 
economy, HBCUs also have a strong impact academically when observed at 
the state and local level. An upcoming report to be released by UNCF 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
shows that:

          HBCUs comprised 8.5 percent of the four-year 
        institutions across the 21 states and territories in the 
        analysis;

          Across the 21 states and territories in the analysis, 
        HBCUs enrolled, on average, 24 percent of all black 
        undergraduates pursuing a bachelor's degree in a college or 
        university in 2016;

          Across the 21 states and territories in the analysis, 
        on average, 26 percent of all black bachelor's degree 
        recipients graduated from an HBCU in 2016; and

          In Tennessee, HBCUs are 10 percent of the four-year 
        institutions, but enroll 24 percent of all black undergraduates 
        and award 20 percent of all black bachelor's degrees in the 
        state. \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\ Saunders, K. & Nagle, B. T. (2018). HBCUs punching above their 
weight: A state-level analysis of historically black college and 
university enrollment and graduation. Washington, DC: UNCF Frederick D. 
Patterson Research Institute.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Lane College's Response to COVID-19
    On the morning of Saturday, March 7, 2020, when I returned to Lane 
College from a UNCF meeting, I was reminded that the Lane College 
Concert Choir would depart campus on that upcoming Wednesday, March 
11th, to begin their Spring Resurrection Tour of the western United 
States. Having observed the spread of COVID-19 and the cancellation of 
a few events across the Nation, I began to reconsider the choir tour. 
By midday, I had enough information to determine that it would not be 
in our students, faculty, and staff's best interest to travel on a bus 
for parts of 2 weeks, perform for several churches, and visit historic 
sites all along the way. So, out of an abundance of caution and in 
consultation with Daryll Coleman, Vice President for Academic Affairs, 
and Alexis Rainbow, Choral Director, I canceled the choir tour. Thus, 
Lane College began its moment-to-moment response to COVID-19 that would 
be declared a pandemic the very week the choir was set to depart 
campus. Since that fateful Saturday, not a day has passed when my 
colleagues and I have not discussed by phone, exchanged text messages, 
shared information, participated in a webinar, attended a Zoom meeting, 
or made some type of decision regarding COVID-19.
              Facing the COVID-19 Storm: Initial Responses
    Initially, I created and met with a joint leadership team, 
consisting of 21 members of my direct reports, the academic cabinet, 
and the marketing team to consider the following three options for the 
remainder of the semester:

        1. Vigilant--Continue face-to-face instruction and residential 
        students while observing local, state, and Federal orders and 
        practicing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 
        Tennessee Department of Health, and Madison County (TN) Health 
        Department's recommendations;

        2. Remote--Move all instruction online and direct non-essential 
        employees to work remotely; or

        3. Nuclear--End the semester on Friday, March 13, 2020.

    The Lane College Joint Leadership team decided to move to remote 
instruction and service delivery. We sent emails and hosted the final 
mass meeting of 100-plus students, faculty, staff, and administrators 
to discuss remote instruction on March 13, 2020. The institution 
requested, and was granted, approval by the Southern Association of 
Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to move to remote 
instruction and proceeded to go on spring break.

    Over spring break, the joint leadership team continued to meet and 
decided to extend spring break for an additional week to give faculty 
additional time to convert courses from face-to-face to online. The 
joint leadership team further decided to deep clean and fog all 
facilities with an antimicrobial agent. Finally, while Lane College 
never closed, the institution did meet and exceed all Federal, state, 
and local orders by closing the campus and allowing only essential 
employees and residential students to visit. Initially, approximately 
200 students remained on campus during their spring break. As the 
second week of spring break expired, in response to the extension of 
the Federal social distancing guideline through April 30th, Lane 
College decided to close residence halls on Friday, April 3rd, and 
required all students to vacate the premises, except for forty-two 12-
month contract students, international students, and severely food and 
housing insecure students. Each of the 819 residential students' 
accounts was credited $713.44 for a total of $584,305.31, which is 
slightly less than 10 percent of the institution's budget. Seventy-six 
(76) percent of the student body (1,072 total Spring 2020 enrollment) 
resided on campus. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, Lane College 
laid off 21 employees and continued its previously imposed spending 
freeze. Nevertheless, Lane College students will not experience an 
increase in tuition, fees, or room and board for the upcoming academic 
year.
                Facing the Storm: Strength in the Storm
    I am pleased to report that while facing this health crisis, Lane 
College found it instructive to observe the eagle and lean on the 
sacred texts. It has been said that the eagle faces storm winds, waits 
for the precise moment for strong winds to blow, and then spreads its 
wings with the wind to fly above the storm. The text informs us, ``they 
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up 
with wings as eagles . . .'' (Isaiah 40:31). In these perilous times, 
we have learned anew to wait on the Lord and learned from the eagle to 
face the storm.

    COVID-19 has disrupted learning and life at Lane College, but it 
has not, and will not, defeat us. Like the eagle, Lane College faced 
the storm winds and soared above COVID-19 to complete the Spring 2020 
semester remotely with faculty and students teaching and learning, 
respectively, from their homes. We learned that, yes, we can deliver 
distance education, and, yes, to my staff's great delight, I can even 
complete a full Zoom meeting in 30 minutes. This storm has given us a 
new perspective and language for our employees and while there was 
never any doubt, we affirm anew that the faculty of our institution are 
essential. In addition, the residential staff, security officers, 
chefs, cooks, servers, the Team Clean custodial workers, and the 
controller's staff are essential as well.

    Today, I celebrate Lane College faculty for their flexibility; the 
essential staff who braved the virus to come to campus daily; those who 
worked remotely and learned how to conduct Zoom classes and meetings; 
our precious students; and everyone who faced the storm and soared 
above with vigilance, patience, and prayer. The entire Lane College 
family responded well to the challenge to recruit, retain, and remove 
barriers for students.

    Lane College's administrative staff, directors, chaplains, and 
faculty all joined together to email, text, and communicate with new or 
prospective students. The Lane College Academic Division Chairs and 
Lane Institute employees led a renewed movement to retain and re-
recruit students by reaching out to current and returning students, and 
the staff are re-recruiting any student who attended Lane College 
between 2010--2019 but did not earn a degree. Faculty and staff have 
committed to removing the barriers to graduation and registration, and 
COVID-19 has taught us that some of the things we thought were 
important and necessary are neither important, necessary, or really 
needed.
            Facing the Storm: Soaring Strategies and Tactics
    Situated in the city of Jackson in Madison County, Lane College 
pays close attention to the current developments in the city, county, 
and State of Tennessee. As of May 26, 2020, Jackson-Madison County 
declared a state of emergency; ordered bars to close and restaurants to 
limit capacity; ordered grocery stores and pharmacies to reserve the 
first hour of each day for seniors; and canceled events for the next 30 
days. In Jackson-Madison County with a population of 97,984, \11\ the 
number of COVID-19 cases equal 177; negative tests equal 4,736; 152 
people have recovered; and 2 people have died. \12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ U.S. Census Bureau (2020). Annual Estimates of the Resident 
Population for Counties: April 1, 2010 to July 1, 2019. Retrieved from 
https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2010's-
counties-total.html.
    \12\ Tedford, K. L. (2020). Health department confirms 177 cases of 
COVID-19 in madison county. Retrieved from https://
www.madisoncountytn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/9315/COVID-19-Demographic-
Information-PDF.

    With this being said, Lane College is challenged to soar. To assist 
with strategy formation, scenario planning, and tactical deployment, 
the institution was most fortunate to have UNCF and its partners to 
join us and provide their perspective informed by the 37 UNCF-member 
institutions and high-level strategic and tactical consultation and 
insights. Of special note, UNCF facilitated our partnership with 
sophisticated online partners who have provided training for Lane 
College faculty who are new to online instruction and courses to fill 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
the gap for our students at no additional cost to students.

    My institution continues to rely heavily on the following sources 
to develop our overall strategy, tactics, policies, and practices:

          CDC;

          UNCF;

          American College Health Association Considerations 
        for Reopening Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) in the 
        COVID-19 Era;

          National Association of Independent Colleges and 
        Universities;

          National Collegiate Athletics Association Core 
        Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Sport;

          Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference;

          Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities 
        Association;

          Tennessee Higher Education Commission;

          Tennessee Department of Health;

          Tennessee Economic Recovery Group;

          Madison County Health Department; and

          The city, county, state, and Federal guidance and 
        orders.

    As a result of consultation given by UNCF, Lane College was able to 
quickly establish a Crisis Management Center with a strategy team to 
lead it. The Lane College strategy team is made up of four (4) members: 
(1) Dr. Sandra Ramawy (Liberal Studies and Education, Academic Division 
Chair), response lead; (2) Ms. Tangela Poole (Lane College Controller), 
financial lead; (3) Mr. Terry Blackmon (Lane College Registrar), 
academic/institutional research lead; and (4) myself. This team is 
charged with offering overall leadership of the Crisis Management 
Center and coordinating the weekly Lane College C-19 Team Meeting that 
is comprised of the Fast Start team, members of the Lane College Joint 
Leadership team, and the Pandemic Proof team. My role is to keep the 
entire team focused on the institution's mission to ``develop the whole 
student with academic excellence as its highest priority;'' maintain 
rapid pace; ensure vertical and horizontal communications; and affirm 
that data drive our decisions. The strategy team is set to implement 
the timeline below.
                         Fall Decision Timeline
          Thursday, June 11, 2020 Board of Trustees COVID-19 
        Update Meeting

          Monday, June 22, 2020 Dragon Academy Summer Bridge 
        (online)

          Wednesday, July 1, 2020 Open campus to remote staff 
        with COVID-19 restrictions in place

          Thursday, July 2, 2020 Board of Trustees COVID-19 
        Update Meeting

          Friday, July 3, 2020 Fall 2020 Announcements

          Saturday, July 18, 2020 Spring Commencement, Lane 
        Field, 6 p.m. (or JF Lane at 9 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m.)

          Saturday, July 25, 2020 Student Leaders to return to 
        campus

          Saturday, August 1, 2020 Freshman move-in to 
        residence halls

          Monday, August 3, 2020 First day of freshman class

          Friday, November 20, 2020 Fall 2020 Semester ends

    Due to the fluid developments of COVID-19, the strategy team has 
led Lane College to prepare for three scenarios: Lane College FastStart 
(face-to-face instruction in Fall 2020), Lane College VR (all online 
courses in Fall 2020), and Lane College SOAR (a hybrid of both online 
courses and face-to-face instruction in Fall 2020).
                         Lane College FastStart
    Should Lane College students return to campus for face-to-face 
instruction and subsequently experience a more aggressive COVID-19 
season in late Fall 2020, the institution's response will mirror the 
response of the Spring 2020 semester and consist of the following:

          Protocols established across the campus, particularly 
        the academic and student affairs COVID-19 protections, to keep 
        students safe and healthy on campus prior to their departure;

          Faculty prior experience in delivering and moving 
        instruction from face-to-face to online;

          The practice of COVID-19 safety protocols for 
        students, faculty, staff, and visitors to include washing their 
        hands, wearing their masks, social distancing, and self-
        checking for COVID-19 symptoms;

          COVID-19 restrictions and recommendations by local, 
        state, and Federal entities;

          Frequent and routine virtual recruiting, admissions, 
        financial, orientation, and athletic presentations;

          The re-recruitment of majors by departmental leaders; 
        and

          Preparations to see a decrease in overall enrollment 
        and revenue.
                            Lane College VR
    While small and independent, Lane College is primed to deliver 
responsive and creative programmatic and curricular solutions. The 
institution has sourced digital devices, platforms, texts, course 
material, and office applications to support Lane College VR. We will 
need to pilot micro-credentials and new course offerings to ensure 
successful implementation, but we are cognizant that student success, 
including retention and graduation, may be negatively impacted. We are 
also cognizant that enrollment may decrease resulting in a 27 percent 
to 43 percent decrease in revenue.

    Although Lane College has a plan in place to implement Lane College 
VR, eliminating face-to-face instruction and moving all classes to a 
remote format poses the following unique set of challenges for Lane 
College:

          The quality of instruction may suffer greatly because 
        neither the institution nor the faculty have the resources, 
        human or technical, to fully manage this change;

          Nearly 90 percent of Lane College students receive 
        Pell grants. Thus, the typical student does not have the funds, 
        equipment, or Internet access to receive instruction remotely;

          Many students arrive on campus having endured food 
        and housing insecurities at home. For some, the Lane College is 
        the most safe and secure place; and

          We do not have online resources to support secure 
        virtual testing administration or the delivery of science lab 
        instruction.
                           Lane College SOAR
    Lane College SOAR, the hybrid scenario, offers the greatest 
opportunity and challenge for Lane College. Appropriately executed, 
this strategy could lift Lane College to heights unimagined previously. 
This approach would incorporate aspects of both Lane College FastStart 
and Lane College VR. To implement this successfully, the technology 
will need to be greatly increased including the IT backbone, help desk, 
and on-campus WIFI. A recovering local, state, and national economy may 
cause us to see an increase in enrollment, but we have to also prepare 
for the likelihood of a decrease in enrollment.

    Prior to the UNCF consultation that led to the development of our 
Crisis Management Center, Lane College also established three 
organizational teams to address the future. The first, preceding the 
pandemic, was the Lane College FastStart team, which is made up of 17 
faculty and staff members. This team is charged with assisting new 
students from the point of admission through the first 6 weeks of the 
Fall semester. The team meets twice a week to report on recruiting, new 
student orientation, the Dragon Academy (a summer bridge program), 
housing, Discovery Week, the first week of freshman class, etc.

    As mentioned earlier, in direct response to the pandemic, the Lane 
College Joint Leadership team was formed. The members of the joint 
leadership team continue to meet twice per week to submit, receive, and 
review the most up-to-date information available, make immediate 
decisions regarding the operation of the institution and propose 
protocols, policies, and responses as needed.

    Last, Lane College established the Pandemic Proof team consisting 
of 27 members. This team is charged with developing tactical solutions 
to prepare for the three aforementioned potential future scenarios of 
campus operations in response to COVID-19 (Lane College FastStart, Lane 
College VR, and Lane College SOAR). The Pandemic Proof team is 
developing tactical solutions for each area of the institution's 
operation. \13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ For an example of protocols being considered by the Pandemic 
Proof team, please see attachment #1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Facing the Storm: Requests for Consideration
    I would be remiss if I did not thank Congress, and those of this 
Committee, for passing H. R. 748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 
Economic Security (CARES) Act. Your time, energy, and effort does not 
go unnoticed, and I also want to thank the President for signing this 
bill into law. Because of the CARES Act, Lane College has access to a 
total of $5,278,608 in direct allocations from Section 18004(a)(1) and 
18004(a)(2) of the bill. Of this total, we have received the allocation 
for the emergency grant aid for students and the allocation for the 
institutions in Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act equaling 
$2,430,978. My institution will be using the institutional funds to 
reimburse ourselves for COVID-19 related expenses and have already 
began to disseminate the emergency grant aid to students. To 
disseminate the emergency grant aid, Lane College established two 
dispersal tactics:

          Lane CARES Fund--$592 was distributed to each Spring 
        2020 enrolled student to support their needs caused by the 
        disruption due to COVID-19 to include food, housing, and 
        transportation. To establish this amount, Lane College surveyed 
        students and found that 78 percent of the students asked for 
        funds to support food and 73 percent asked for housing support. 
        \14\ The survey instrument was sent to each students' Lane 
        College email address on April 16, 2020, which was 
        approximately 5 weeks after most students had been away from 
        campus. CARES funds to support student's food, housing, and 
        transportation were distributed to each student (except the 
        international students) on April 30, 2020; and
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\ See attachment #2.

          The Lane Direct Support Fund--These funds are awarded 
        on a case-by case-bases. A student may request these funds to 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        support allowable educational expenses.

    As of May 28, 2020, a total of $659,396.56 has been distributed 
from Lane CARES Fund and Lane Direct Support Fund combined.

    Thanks to you, Lane College, with her 244 full-time equivalent 
employees, applied for, and received, a Small Business Administration 
(SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loan to help the institution pay 
salaries for the current eight weeks, a period of needed financial 
support. We received a total of $2,059,856. We are also currently 
participating in the HBCU Capital Financing program deferment of 
principal and interest payments during this emergency. We received an 
HBCU Capital Financing loan in March 2010 of $29,000,000 with 20-year 
fixed rate and variable rate financing and have been making annual 
payments of around $2,200,000 of principal, interest, and fees. This 
deferment allows us to direct these payments toward sustaining the 
needed and necessary operations of our campus.

    Please know, Lane College reflects the diversity of private, 
nonprofit higher education in the United States. With over 5 million 
students attending 1,700 independent colleges and universities, \15\ 
and more than 1 million employees, the private sector of American 
higher education has a dramatic impact on our Nation's larger public 
interests. On behalf of UNCF-member institutions, HBCUs, and small 
nonprofit colleges, I ask that you do the following:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\ National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. 
(2019). About the college private sector. Retrieved from http://
www.naicu.edu/research-resources/private-college-factfile-2019/about-
private-colleges.

          Invest an additional $1 billion in emergency funding 
        for HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and 
        Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs). The CARES Act provided a 
        total of $1.046 billion dollars for HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs in 
        Section 18004(a)(2). I believe that I can confidently say on 
        the behalf of my peers and myself that we were ecstatic to 
        receive the additional support of funding due to the nature of 
        our institutions and that the amounts received by each 
        institution will be helpful in allowing us to financially 
        navigate these present times. However, due to the ongoing 
        uncertainty around the duration of COVID-19, I believe that it 
        is imperative for Congress to invest an additional $1 billion 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        in our institutions.

           These additional funds will allow us to access the resources 
        necessary to continue to provide quality academic instruction 
        and learning experiences to our students and these funds will 
        help us remain afloat given the loss in revenue that we are 
        braced to receive. More specifically, my institution could use 
        additional funds to increase the technology infrastructure on 
        campus; pay for students to acquire personal technology; pay 
        for WIFI or provide WIFI at no expense; use funds to hire staff 
        to train faculty and students to deliver and receive online 
        instruction; provide funds to enhance the Internet backbone and 
        infrastructure on campus; and provide funding to lessen the 
        threat of food insecurity for students who depart my campus. I 
        am thankful for the passage of H. R. 6800, the Health and 
        Economic Recovery Onmibus Emergency Solutions (HEROES) Act, led 
        by Chairwoman Nita Lowey as this bill provided an additional 
        $1.71 billion for HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs. It is my request that 
        the Senate include this level funding for our institutions in 
        the next stimulus package.

          Increase grant aid for students by doubling the 
        maximum Pell Grant award. Not only am I here to advocate for 
        the needs of my institution, but I am also here to advocate for 
        the needs of my students. As I mentioned earlier in my 
        testimony, 78 percent of the students at my institution asked 
        for funds to support their ability to eat food and 73 percent 
        asked for funding for housing support. Because these were the 
        top two needs of my students, this information further affirmed 
        what we already knew about students who attend HBCUs being, 
        largely, from low-income families. Not only did my 
        institutional student survey affirm this narrative, but the 
        recent information released by the CDC has exacerbated it by 
        sharing that black Americans are being disproportionately 
        impacted by COVID-19. \16\ Because the majority of my students 
        on my campus are black, my institution, as a whole, is 
        disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 as well. This means 
        that my students are experiencing households where their 
        parents, or caretakers, are either not able to go to work or 
        have been laid off like so many other Americans. The 
        unemployment rate increased by 10.3 percentage points to 14.7 
        percent in the month of April and Black Americans hold the 
        second highest unemployment rate out of all races at 16.7 
        percent. \17\ In fact, all Americans of color hold higher 
        unemployment rates than White Americans, and this new reality 
        means decreased revenue in households of color, which equals a 
        decrease in the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) formula used 
        to calculated the amount of student financial aid. If more 
        students would be experiencing a decreased EFC, then more 
        students would need to access the Pell Grant at greater amounts 
        and greater rates.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ The CDC released a report on April 17, 2020 that shared race 
and ethnicity data from 580 patients hospitalized with lab-confirmed 
COVID-19. This report found that 45 percent of individuals for whom 
race or ethnicity data was available were white, compared to 59 percent 
of individuals in the surrounding community. However, the report also 
indicated that 33 percent of hospitalized patients were black compared 
to 18 percent in the community. Information regarding this study can be 
found at https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/
mm6915e3.htm's_cid=mm6915e3_w.
    \17\ U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
(2020). Employment situation summary. Retrieved from https://
www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm.

          Provide funding for the safety of our students, 
        faculty, and staff. The safety and well-being of our students, 
        faculty, and staff cannot be compromised and must be addressed 
        prior to re-opening the campus. Testing, tracing, and treatment 
        are essential tools to re-open. As effective COVID-19 testing 
        becomes available, institutions should be given the testing 
        resources necessary to safely reopen in a manner that will 
        protect students, faculty, and staff. This will require Federal 
        funding to help institutions adequately prepare and effectively 
        execute the return of students to the classroom as we protect 
        our campuses and larger communities. Our students need to heal 
        in a safe and secure living and learning environment. We also 
        need assistance to help fund the enormous costs associated with 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        protecting our new online systems from cybersecurity attacks.

          Provide liability protection. The guidance for 
        Federal, state, and local agencies on COVID-19 is evolving, 
        ever changing, and sometimes conflicting. Lane College and its 
        sister IHEs want to provide a safe and healthy environment for 
        students, faculty, and staff based on the guidance offered. 
        When that guidance is inconsistent, it is difficult for the 
        institutions and constituents. I ask that you make it clear 
        what IHEs should be doing to respond effectively to COVID-19 to 
        allow us to confidently provide a safe and healthy environment, 
        which will also aid us in combating any and all lawsuits that 
        may arise due to the precautionary measures that institutions 
        are planning to take when reopening in the fall.

          Remove the $62,000,000 cap for the HBCU Capital 
        Financing loan program. In light of the nearly certain 
        attrition of student and subsequent decreases in retention and 
        graduation rates, Lane College and other HBCUs would benefit 
        greatly from deferring payments in the HBCU Capital Financing 
        loan program. A loss of 100 students over Summer 2020, Fall 
        2020, and Spring 2021 would cost my institution nearly 
        $2,000,000 in revenue. Lane College pays $181,329.96 per month 
        for approximately $2,200,000 per year. Because we are uncertain 
        of how long COVID-19 will be considered a national emergency, 
        HBCUs are likely to reach the $62,000,000 cap well within 12 
        months. Currently, there are a total of 80 loans outstanding to 
        44 HBCUs under this program with loan amounts ranging from $10 
        million to $152 million, equating to a total of $2.023 billion. 
        \18\ The HEROES Act includes this modification, and I ask that 
        the Senate included this change in any future stimulus package.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\ U.S. Department of Education. (2020). Historically Black 
College and University Capital Financing Program. Retrieved from 
https://www.ed.gov/programs/hbcucapfinance/awards.html.

          Include a technology fund to allow institutions and 
        students to access broadband. Nearly 300,000 students attend 
        HBCUs and over 6 million students attend HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs 
        combined. Our students are largely from low-income households 
        and while the E-rate program exists in the Universal Service 
        Fund, this program is primarily for students in k-12 education 
        and does not include low-income students attending 
        postsecondary education. In the CARES Act, our institutions 
        were given the ability to utilize resources to purchase 
        technological equipment for our students to help them complete 
        their assignments online; participate in virtual counseling; 
        receive mentoring and tutoring services online; and complete 
        other required tasks in relation to their academic program 
        through distance education. While access to equipment is 
        important, so is access to broadband. With this being said, I 
        want to offer my support for S. 3701, the Supporting 
        Connectivity for Higher Education Students in Need Act, 
        introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar, and ask that this bill be 
        included in the next stimulus packaged to be considered by 
        Congress. Representative Anna Eshoo introduced a companion bill 
        in the House of Representatives, H. R. 6814, and this bill has 
        a total of 12 cosponsors and counting. This piece of 
        legislation takes a responsible approach to meeting the needs 
        of our low-income, first-generation college students and the 
        households they come from while prioritizing HBCUs, TCUs, and 
        MSIs. According to an article released by the Pew Research 
        Center, ``roughly three-in-ten adults with household incomes 
        below $30,000 a year (29 percent) don't own a smartphone . . . 
        and [more than four-in-ten [adults] don't have home broadband 
        services (44 percent) or a traditional computer (46 percent).'' 
        \19\ It is imperative that HBCUs and our students have the 
        ability to access broadband to allow the students to continue 
        their academic program and complete their education.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ Anderson, M., & Kumar, M. (2019, May 7). Digital divide 
persists even as lower-income Americans make gains in tech adoption. 
Pew Research Center. Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-
tank/2019/05/07/digital-divide-persists-even-as-lower-income-americans-
make-gains-in-tech-adoption/.

          Remove the 500-employee limitation for all IHEs. The 
        CARES Act allows for IHEs with no more than 500 employees to 
        apply for a loan in the Paycheck Protection Program or apply 
        for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). One of the primary 
        benefits to smaller IHEs is that they will be able to receive 
        additional assistance if needed and even have the opportunity 
        to receive an advance of up to $10,000 in the EIDL program that 
        they would then be able to utilize as a grant. These additional 
        opportunities are great options for our smaller institutions, 
        and I firmly believe that all IHEs should be able to apply for 
        these programs. While I am thankful for the interim final rule 
        issued by the SBA outlining that students participating in the 
        Federal Work Study (FWS) program will not be counted as student 
        workers, institutions still have student workers outside of the 
        FWS program that would still be counted as employees under the 
        current law. I am thankful that the HEROES Act included this 
        change, and I ask the Senate to include this modification in 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        any future stimulus package.

          Allow all IHEs to be eligible to receive loans in the 
        Main Street Lending Program (MSLP). Colleges and universities 
        are braced to experience declining enrollments for the Fall 
        semester that will lead to a loss in revenue. As I have 
        mentioned previously in my testimony, Lane College is no 
        stranger to the loss in revenue projected across the higher 
        education industry, and I strongly believe that my institution 
        should be able to apply for any and all funding available to 
        help us weather this storm. The HEROES Act would require the 
        Federal Reserve to expand MSLP to nonprofits, including 
        nonprofit private and public IHEs, and I strongly urge the 
        Senate to include this in any future stimulus package.
                               Conclusion
    In conclusion, Lane College is an institution that not only has a 
history of contributing to society, but is an institution that also 
provides an invaluable experience for our students, especially our 
students who are low-income and first generation. It is my hope that my 
recommendations for a future stimulus package be incorporated and that 
HBCUs remain a priority not only for the Senate but also for the House 
of Representatives and the Federal Government as a whole.

    It is an honor to be asked to present this testimony, and I commend 
you for your service and for addressing these important issues.

    Thank you.
    Attachment #1
                         Pandemic Proof Campus
    Health Attack Response Protocols

          Protect and Prevent

                Y  Implement the Evaluate, Respond, Intervene, and 
                Communicate (ERIC) protocols

                        `  Evaluate (what happened, who was involved, 
                        where, when and how)

                        `  Respond (assess resources and seek help)

                        `  Intervene (initiate direct action to address 
                        the situation)

                        `  Communicate (who else needs to know, when do 
                        they need to know)

                Y  Restrict, Remove, and Remote

                        `  Restrict access to campus

                        `  Remote instruction

                Y  Operational Response

                        `  Establish Command Center

                        `  Communication Protocols

                        `  Remote and online opportunities

                                  Remote courses

                                  Remote services

                                  Remote programs

                        `  Financial budget adjustments and projections

                Y  Restart and Return to New Normal

                        `  COVID-19 protocols

                        `  COVID-19 restrictions

                        `  Office protocols

                        `  Residence hall protocols

    Attachment #2
    
    
                                 ______
                                 
                  [summary statement of logan hampton]
    Chairman Lamar Alexander, Ranking Member Patty Murray, and Members 
of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

    My name is Dr. Logan Hampton, and I serve as the 10th President of 
Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. Lane College is a proud 
historically black college and university (HBCU) founded in 1882 by a 
former slave, Bishop Isaac Lane of the Colored Methodist Church. Lane 
is an HBCU, which consists of 36 buildings across 55 acres, creating a 
truly exceptional academic and living environment.

    I was asked to testify before the Committee about Lane College's 
plans to reopen our campus in the Fall. Lane College began its moment-
to-moment response to the novel coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19, 
on March 7, 2020. Initially, I created and met with a joint leadership 
team, consisting of 21 members of my direct reports, the academic 
cabinet, and the marketing team to consider the following three options 
for the remainder of the semester:

        1. Vigilant--Continue face-to-face instruction and residential 
        students while observing local, state, and Federal orders and 
        practicing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 
        Tennessee Department of Health, and Madison County (TN) Health 
        Department's recommendations;

        2. Remote--Move all instruction online and direct non-essential 
        employees to work remotely; or

        3. Nuclear--End the semester on Friday, March 13, 2020.

    The Lane College Joint Leadership team decided to move to remote 
instruction and service delivery. Each of the 819 residential students' 
accounts was credited $713.44 for a total of $584,305.31, which is 
slightly less than 10 percent of the institution's budget. Seventy-six 
(76) percent of the student body resided on campus. Unfortunately, due 
to the pandemic, Lane College laid off 21 employees and continued its 
previously imposed spending freeze. Nevertheless, Lane College students 
will not experience an increase in tuition, fees, or room and board for 
the upcoming academic year.

    As a result of consultation given by UNCF (United Negro College 
Fund, Inc.), Lane College was able to quickly establish a Crisis 
Management Center with a strategy team to lead it. This team is charged 
with offering overall leadership of the Crisis Management Center and 
coordinating the weekly Lane College C-19 Team Meeting that is 
comprised of the Fast Start team, members of the Lane College Joint 
Leadership team, and the Pandemic Proof team. The strategy team is set 
to implement a detailed timeline for reopening that is further 
articulated in my written testimony and due to the fluid developments 
of COVID-19, the strategy team has led Lane College to prepare for 
three scenarios: Lane College FastStart (face-to-face instruction in 
Fall 2020), Lane College VR (all online courses in Fall 2020), and Lane 
College SOAR (a hybrid of both online courses and face-to-face 
instruction in Fall 2020).

    I would be remiss if I did not thank Congress and those of this 
Committee for passing H. R. 748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 
Economic Security (CARES) Act. Your time, energy, and effort does not 
go unnoticed, and I also want to thank the President for signing this 
bill into law. Because of the CARES Act, Lane College has access to a 
total of $5,278,608 in direct allocations. While I am thankful for 
this, I would be remiss if I did not share with you all that Lane 
College is bracing for revenue losses that will impact our ability to 
operate. Also, our students are enduring tough economic times that 
presents unique challenges, especially for students of color.

    With this being said, I have a number of important requests to 
Congress in my written testimony, but my top two asks would be that 
Congress provide an additional $1 billion in funding for HBCUs, Tribal 
Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions. I 
would also like to firmly ask that Congress increase student grant aid 
in Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 by doubling the maximum 
Pell Grant award. The majority of my students are black Americans and 
black Americans are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. If the 
majority of my students are disproportionately impacted, then my 
institution is disproportionately impacted and needs the investment.

    For more information and details regarding my remarks, I ask that 
you read my written testimony submitted for your review.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Hampton, very much for being 
with us today. And our Final witness is Dr. Georges Benjamin. 
Welcome.

 STATEMENT OF GEORGES BENJAMIN, MD, MACP, FACEP(E), FNAPA, Hon 
  FRSH, Hon FFPH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH 
                  ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, DC

    Dr. Benjamin. Thank you, Chairman Alexander and Ranking 
Member Murray, and Members of the Committee. Let me just thank 
you for letting me be here. Just to remind all of us that 
public health decisions are based on risk reduction and all of 
these decisions ought to be science-based, data-driven, and 
done in close consultation with the state and local public 
health authorities. All the current evidence shows that we will 
continue to have undetected broad community spread of COVID-19 
and we will continue to do so for many months to come. And we 
should therefore assume for planning purposes that there will 
be people on campus with COVID-19 infection regardless of what 
precautions are taken.
    To this end, let me just briefly talk about five 
overarching issues that I think should be emphasized. The first 
one, of course, is maintaining alignment with your policies 
with the standards of the surrounding community without 
utilizing public health protections that are weaker than those 
in place in the community in which the schools sit. The second 
one, of course, is recognizing that commuter schools where the 
student body comes from relatively narrow slices of the 
community, will have a very different risk profile than 
residential schools that attract students nationwide and of 
course often from around the world. Number three, that 
guidelines matter. The CDC guidelines are there.
    I think people should use them, certainly focusing on 
issues around physical distancing, responses to our hygiene, 
which course fundamentally means masks, hand hygiene and 
routine cleaning and sanitation of services and facilities are 
important, and once you think of these as stack protections 
that work together to reduce the risk of infection. I also 
believe there should be enforceable workplace regulations to 
protect all on campus and recommended that Congress require 
OSHA to pose an emergency temporary standard for infectious 
disease that will be able to protect all workers from COVID-19. 
And also the State of California's aerosol transmissible 
disease standard could serve as a model for Congress.
    Number four, to achieve adequate disease control in all 
these situations, you need to have a very, very robust campus 
health program, again, linked to the state and local health 
agency, to enhance rapid availability and support for current 
disease control practices. Again, as you are working on that 
premise that there is going to be a case on campus, we should 
obviously assume that while most students are less likely to 
have severe disease when infected, the risk for serious disease 
is not zero. So rapid PCR testing for COVID-19 and contact 
tracing with the Center for Disease Control and a testing 
strategy and plan in line with public health authorities is 
needed.
    The elements should include clearly defined priorities on 
testing in terms of who should be tested, the role of symptom 
based strategies, as well as testing employees who are high-
risk either because of underlying disease or because of not 
only their own campus, but also their off-campus occupations. 
One of the things we saw with nursing homes was the off campus 
issue and other places where nursing home workers worked, put 
them and their patients at risk. Obviously, everyone needs to 
be adequately staffed and have enough personal protective 
equipment to ensure protection.
    Obviously, in the interest of time, I won't go into all the 
physical distancing things. You have heard a lot of those 
already from the college presidents, and let me endorse that 
those are the right--they are all on the right track on the 
things that they are going to need to do. Also, let me just re-
emphasize this issue of the disproportionate risk for many, 
particularly minorities, in the community. We know very clearly 
that African-Americans and Hispanics in particular are 
disproportionately at risk because they have more chronic 
diseases, so that if they get infected, they are much more 
likely to get severe diseases. And while certainly our young 
people generally are healthy in school, that many of those 
diseases occur in our young people much younger than those of 
us who are baby boomers today.
    I also must remind everyone that the school is going to be 
starting right before the influenza seasons. And so the schools 
need to be prepared to address influenza-like illness, which of 
course is how COVID-19 also presents. There are a lot of really 
unanswered questions about who you screen, the role of 
temperature taking, clearly the role of antibody testing, 
understanding the state of what we know about the antibody test 
today. And clearly, robust communications are very important. 
Every one of these colleges already has experience with a sick 
kid at school and understand the enormous work involved when a 
single case of meningitis hits its campus. This will probably 
be worse with COVID-19.
    Then I want to just point out scenario planning. I 
encourage all the schools to do very active scenario planning 
and in my testimony you have the nine that I just thought up in 
the middle of the night, but let me just point out about four 
of those. Number one, obviously a student who is diagnosed with 
COVID-19 who lives on or off campus, on or off in campus 
housing. The student faculty or staff member who is identified 
through contact tracing but is asymptomatic and exposed your 
students.
    While you may not have had a large scale event on your own 
campus, obviously college campuses are porous and student go 
elsewhere to large events, and obviously, tragically, a student 
death from any cause on campus may be perceived as COVID, and 
obviously managing that from a perspective of the University 
from a risk management perspective is going to be very 
important.
    The last and other considerations, and obviously in the 
interest of time I can't go through all of those, but let me 
just finally close out with the fact that I think none of this 
happens without a robust resource and trained public health 
system in the country. And I just continue to encourage 
Congress to support the public health systems. And I want to 
just thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you 
today.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Benjamin follows:]
                 prepared statement of georges benjamin
    Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray and Members of the 
Committee, thank you for giving me the opportunity to address you today 
on the important aspects of safely returning our Nation's academic 
institutions to their pre-COVID-19 pandemic status.

    I am Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American 
Public Health Association. APHA champions the health of all people and 
all communities. We strengthen the public health profession, promote 
best practices and share the latest public health research and 
information. We are the only organization that combines a nearly 150-
year perspective, a broad-based member community and the ability to 
influence Federal policy to improve the public's health.

    I am a physician executive, and in addition to having served as a 
clinician, I have had the opportunity to serve my community in a 
variety of senior management positions to include: as a military 
physician serving as the Chief of Emergency Medicine at the Walter Reed 
Army Medical Center; as chairman of the Department of Community Health 
and Ambulatory Care at the District of Columbia General Hospital; as 
interim director of the Emergency Ambulance Bureau of the D.C. Fire and 
EMS Department; as Acting Commissioner for Public Health for 
Washington, DC; and, finally, as Secretary for Health of the State of 
Maryland. I have served as the executive director of APHA for the last 
seventeen and a half years.

    I am here today to share my thoughts and professional judgment on 
the role of community mitigation that should be considered by 
institutions of higher education as senior academic and administration 
leaders prepare for the return of students for the fall semester. I 
recognize that these decisions are not decisions of politicians but 
rest in the hands of the leadership of the various institutions who 
must work in close consultation with state and local health officials. 
I am not a lawyer. I speak as a public health scientist and 
professional who has spent a fair amount of time advising senior 
leaders on health policy. These are difficult decisions, and I approach 
my comments today using the current science to inform what measures and 
safeguards I would consider if I were leading a university or college 
at this time.

    Reopening the Nation's colleges and universities will not come with 
a one-size-fits-all solution, and any decisions must be science-based, 
data-driven and done in close consultation with state and local public 
health authorities. All public health decisions are based on risk 
reduction. We should make the assumptions that there will be people on 
campus with COVID-19 infection regardless of what precautions are taken 
at this state of the pandemic and the level of previously infected 
individuals in the community. Current estimates of positive antibody 
prevalence ranges from 3-24 percent depending on when you are in the 
country. Considering we need to get to approximately 70 percent to 
achieve herd immunity as a nation, we still have a long way to go to 
break the chain of infection. A recent report from the U.S. Centers for 
Disease Control and Prevention also found that presymptomatic and 
asymptomatic spread does occur from infected individuals. \1\ This 
means we will continue to have undetected broad community spread of 
COVID-19 as we remingle as a society. It also supports the contention 
that we need to continue to employ robust community and individual 
nonpharmacological mitigation until we reach levels of herd immunity. 
While this is best achieved through a national vaccine effort, a COVID-
19 vaccine will not be available for months and certainly not widely 
before the fall semester.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ Evidence Supporting Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory 
Syndrome Coronavirus 2 While Presymptomatic or Asymptomatic. The 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emerging Infectious 
Diseases. July 2020. Available at: https://www.c.cdc.gov/eid/article/
26/7/20-1595_article.

    We have approached this pandemic with a patchwork of authorities 
from the Federal to the local levels, and because of this, it will be 
important that academic institutions be in alignment, at a minimum, 
with the local government, industries and businesses in the surrounding 
community in which it sits, because the academic institution is an 
integral part of the larger community. Any effort to move forward with 
reopening institutions of higher education by employing public health 
protections that are weaker than those in place in the surrounding 
community would be a critical mistake. While the institutions may seek 
to enforce stricter requirements for students, faculty and the 
institution's other employees, any variance between the institution's 
approach and that of the approach of the community in which it sits 
must be integrated in a way that is does not undermine the health 
protections. For example, if the surrounding community requires the 
wearing of masks, then the institution would have a very difficult time 
establishing a no-mask policy, which might be viewed as a health hazard 
by the broader community. The converse might not be the case if the 
institution is able to articulate a greater health risk to students or 
others on a campus. One example might be the close proximity of 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
students while in certain settings like laboratories or libraries.

    The type of student body that the school is structured to 
accommodate is very important as a component of risk assessment. 
Institutions that are primarily commuter schools, where the student 
body comes from a relatively narrow slice of the community, will have a 
different risk profile than residential schools that attract students 
nationwide and often from around the world. This is because students 
will bring with them the infectious disease risk of the communities in 
which they reside. This disease has not struck all communities equally, 
and, therefore, the student body will represent the disease outbreak 
status of their community at the time of presentation to school on any 
given day.
                Existing Guidance and Needed Regulations
    Academic institutions should first follow the guidelines published 
by CDC. \2\ Nothing I say today is meant to be in variance of that 
guidance. This includes physical distancing, respiratory hygiene to 
include wearing a mask when appropriate and hand hygiene. Sanitization 
guidance for the routine cleaning and sanitization of surfaces and 
facilities should be followed as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coronavirus 
Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Colleges, Universities, and Higher Learning. 
Plan, Prepare, and Respond. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/
coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/colleges-universities/index.html.

    In addition to students and faculty, all workers at an institution 
should be protected in the workplace by enforceable workplace 
regulations. Congress should require the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration to propose an emergency temporary standard (ETS) for 
infectious disease to protect workers from COVID-19. \3\ California's 
Aerosol Transmissible Diseases Standard could serve as a model. \4\ 
Without specific safety mandates, academic institutions are left with 
little enforceable direction, and the result is the increased potential 
for rapid spread of the disease in the workplace and into our 
communities.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ Organization letter urging Congress to pass the COVID-19 Every 
Worker Protection Act of 2020. April 29, 2020. Available at: https://
apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/advocacy/letters/2020/200429-every-worker-
protection-act.ashx.
    \4\ Cal/OSHA Interim General Guidelines on Protecting Workers from 
COVID-19. Available at: https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/
General-Industry.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                     Disease Prevention and Control
    All institutions should ensure they have a robust campus health 
program. That program must be linked to the local or state health 
agency to ensure the rapid availability of support and the most current 
information for disease control activities. All institutions should be 
working from the premise that they will have a case of COVID-19 on 
campus during the academic year. They should also assume that while 
students are less likely to have serious disease when infected, the 
risk for serious disease is not zero. The academic institution must 
have the organizational capacity to rapidly identify such a case or an 
outbreak of disease and undertake effective disease containment and 
control. This includes the ability to ensure adequate rapid PCR testing 
for COVID-19 and contact tracing. A strong partnership with their local 
and state health department is essential for testing, contact tracing 
and ongoing disease surveillance. Together, the academic institution 
and the public health agency should agree on a testing strategy and 
plan. Elements should clearly define priorities of testing, the role of 
symptom-based strategies and how best to test employees who are of high 
risk either because of underlying disease or their on-or off-campus 
occupations. Examples of higher risk occupations for consideration 
might include cafeteria workers, the health clinic nurse or staff 
living or working in residential dorms.

    Campus health systems and clinics must have adequate health center 
staff, testing and personal protective equipment for providers to 
ensure they are fully prepared in the event of positive cases among the 
student population, faculty or employees of the institution. The 
institution will need to review its overall institutional infection 
control policies. This is to ensure the policies form a coherent plan 
to address any potential infectious disease because many disease have 
similar presenting signs and symptoms.

    As academic institutions plan for students' return to school, they 
should implement basic risk reduction strategies including four key 
nontherapeutic measures in everything they do: maximizing physical 
distancing; hand hygiene; controlling respiratory spread (wearing 
masks); and sanitization of facilities. Administrations should think of 
these as stacked protections that work together to reduce the risk of 
infection. Physical distancing can be achieved by maximizing virtual 
classes where feasible. This is of particular interest for large 
lecture halls where the content can easily be delivery virtually. 
Reducing class size through staggered classes and moving to smaller 
classes should be done when feasible. There are indeed classes where 
this is not feasible because of the need for in-class participation, or 
classes that require the use of special equipment--music, physical 
activity, design, theater and laboratory-driven classes are examples. 
These types of classes bring unique levels of risk that will need to be 
managed differently.

    Sports activities and other large gatherings pose additional risks 
not only to those on campus but also to the broader community. The 
ability to physically distance is a major barrier to safely hosting 
these activities, as is the number of people who could be exposed due 
to large crowds. Current guidance from CDC is based on the level of 
community transmission, the size and density of the gathering and the 
health risk profile of the attendees. These will be difficult decisions 
complicated by the participation of large numbers of supporters from 
all over the country for most college and university events. An 
infectious exposure could be a flash point for a significant widespread 
outbreak. One unanswered question is how sports programs will deal with 
screening and the frequency of PCR testing of athletes, the athletic 
staff and support personnel should these activities be allowed.

    Institutions have a variety of controls over shared living and 
study spaces, from school-owned dormitories, to on-or off-campus 
fraternity and sorority houses. Plans on managing outbreaks on these 
facilities will need to be completed. Many students rely on campus-
provided housing. Plans must be put in place to address the needs of 
these students who cannot pick up and go home should the campus lock 
down for a few days during disease control efforts. Additionally, 
disease control efforts should plan for alternative housing situations 
for students who must remain on campus in quarantine or isolation. 
There will be students who are not sick enough to be hospitalized but 
are too sick to go home and risk infecting other students or faculty.

    Institutions should evaluate how to handle the full range of people 
who teach, work or attend school on campus. This will be particularly 
important for individuals with higher underlying health risks. Like the 
rest of society, the academic institution contains a population of 
people of all ages with a wide range on preexisting conditions and some 
of these conditions have been shown to put people at a higher risk of 
severe disease should they get infected with SARS-2, the virus that 
causes COVID-19.

    There remains a great deal of confusion over coverage for screening 
exams and tests despite recent laws that were passed to ensure coverage 
for testing. Some schools have health insurance requirements. These 
should be reviewed in the context of school policies and procedures to 
ensure access to COVID-19 testing and broader health screening and 
treatment to ensure there are no barriers to disease control efforts.

    Because the return to school proceeds the start of influenza 
season, schools should have in place a process to identify and screen 
influenza-like illnesses to differentiate between COVID-19 and 
influenza. In addition, universal influenza vaccination should be 
achieved for all except those who have medical exemptions. Schools must 
be rigorous about ensuring all students have received all other 
required vaccinations to help with identifying other infectious 
diseases of concern that have curative or preventive therapies. I 
recognize there are states and academic institutions that do not share 
this view on immunizations and allow for religious or other exemptions. 
My perspective represents the best science we have today that vaccines 
are safe and effective and will be essential for the institutional 
response to infectious disease outbreaks this fall and winter.

    Unanswered questions include:

          How do we screen students for disease before they 
        come to campus?

          What is the role of temperatures?

          Is there a role for antibodytesting, recognizing CDC 
        currently does not recommend antibody testing as a return-to-
        work tool?

    Resident assistants and other students who provide support in 
student residential settings are a good early warning asset of the 
institution. Having these individuals properly trained to identify sick 
students with COVID-19 symptoms and in the proper procedures for early 
disease control could help identify ill students and enhance rapid 
referral for testing and medical care.

    Institutions will have to develop robust communications plans to 
educate students, parents and employees about the institution's COVID-
19 plans for preventing the spread of the disease, testing, isolation 
and quarantine for individuals who test positive. It is critical that 
all colleges and universities create a centralized resource that 
students and employees can turn to for all COVID-19-related issues. A 
robust educational campaign about these resources and the health and 
safety protections that each institution has put into place is 
recommended. Institutional spokespersons will need to be well trained, 
clear and consistent about risk communication.
            Equity Consideration: Students and Institutions
    COVID-19 has demonstrated a disproportionate impact on some 
populations, in particular African Americans and Hispanics. This 
alarming health disparity is due in part to the greater degree of novel 
coronavirus exposure linked to a higher percentage of African Americans 
and Hispanics having public-facing jobs, a greater prevalence of 
underlying chronic diseases among those populations and longstanding 
inequitable social determinants that impact health. These issues must 
be factored in as a component of any institution's risk reduction 
planning.

    Additional equity factors to consider include the fact that some 
students rely on a range of enabling services provided by their 
colleges and universities, as well as technology support (Wi-Fi and 
online access to other campus-based technology). Any campus-wide move 
to virtual learning or even a short shutdown will need to address the 
ability of these students to thrive and properly participate in virtual 
learning if they do not have adequate access to the needed technology. 
Tuition and scholarships are not likely to cover unforeseen costs 
associated with facility closures or restrictions. Some students also 
rely on campus-based supports and opportunities such as income earned 
through campus-based employment and campus-based child care. Schools 
must have plans in place to ensure low-income students are not 
disproportionately impacted by a potential COVID-19 outbreak on campus.

    There are also significant disparities in available financial 
resources among the country's colleges and universities to address 
COVID-19-related activities. There are challenges to basic capacity of 
many of our institutions of higher learning that have not yet been 
addressed.
                           Scenario Planning
    I cannot over-emphasize the fact that there will be a case of 
COVID-19 on campus and institutions should prepare for and practice 
several predictable scenarios in advance of reopening such as:

          The student with diagnosed COVID-19 who lives in the 
        dormitory.

          The student with diagnosed COVID-19 who lives in a 
        fraternity or sorority house on campus.

          The student with diagnosed COVID-19 who lives in a 
        fraternity or sorority house or other off-campus housing.

          The COVID-19 positive visitor who has left campus.

          The student, faculty or staff member who is 
        identified through contact tracing but is asymptomatic.

          The exposure of students, faculty or employees from a 
        large scale event on campus.

          The exposure of students, faculty or employees from a 
        community event or concert off campus.

          A student death from an non-COVID-19 or unknown 
        infectious disease.

          A non student death from a non-COVID-19 or unknown 
        infectious disease.

    I know there are many more considerations academic institutions 
have to contemplate as they prepare for the fall semester. Let me just 
reemphasize that this is all about risk reduction. While we still have 
a lot to learn about SARS-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, we do know 
enough to reduce the risk of infection substantially if we don't 
underestimate the risks and plan for its mitigation. The ultimate 
solution for our return to normal for all of our society is a safe and 
effective vaccine. I am optimistic that we will have this important 
prevention tool in the next 12-18 months. But until then, we will 
continue to rely on community mitigation as our best option.
       A Strong, Well-Resourced Public Health System is Essential
    None of this is possible without having a robust well-resourced and 
trained local and state public health system in every community to 
support the academic institutions in their mitigation preparedness and 
response. Congress and the Administration must continue to support the 
Nation's public health systems as we continue to respond to the COVID-
19 pandemic and the coming influenza season later this year. By basing 
our response to this pandemic using the best science available and in 
partnership with the community, we can reduce the risk as we receive a 
quality education.

    In addition to ensuring that the Federal Government is providing 
adequate support and assistance for testing and contact tracing and to 
the Nation's colleges and universities and students to ensure a safe 
reopening, APHA strongly urges Congress to support additional measures 
to strengthen the Nation's public health system. Our country's state 
and local health departments will serve as critical partner to our 
colleges and universities, businesses, state and local governments and 
other sectors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 through testing, 
conducting disease investigations and contact tracing to help contain 
further spread of the disease, providing the public with the latest 
science-based information and data about the disease in their 
communities, among many other responsibilities. In order to better 
ensure our state and local health departments are adequately prepared 
for addressing the current pandemic and future public health 
emergencies, we must seriously look at fixing our vastly underfunded 
public health system. APHA is calling on Congress to provide $4.5 
billion in additional long-term annual mandatory funding for CDC and 
state, local, tribal and territorial public health agencies for core 
public health infrastructure activities. \5\, \6\ This funding would 
support essential activities such as: disease surveillance, 
epidemiology, laboratory capacity, all-hazards preparedness and 
response, policy development and support, communications, community 
partnership development and organizational competencies. This funding 
is critical to ensuring our state and local health departments have 
broad core capacity to not only respond to the current pandemic but to 
better respond to the many other public health challenges they face on 
a daily basis. For far too long we have neglected our Nation's public 
health infrastructure, and we must end the cycle of temporary infusions 
of funding during emergencies and provide a sustained and reliable 
funding mechanism to ensure we are better prepared to protect and 
improve the public's health from all threats.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ Organization letter to House and Senate leaders urging a 
significant, long-term investment in public health infrastructure in 
future legislation to speed the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 
April 3, 2020. Available at: https://apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/
advocacy/letters/2020/200403-ph-infrastructure-covid-stimulus.ashx.
    \6\ Public Health Leadership Forum. Developing a financing system 
to support public health infrastructure. Available at: https://
www.resolve.ngo/docs/phlf-
developingafinancingsystemtosupportpublichealth636869439688663025.pdf.

    Congress should also appropriate funding in fiscal years 2020 and 
2021 for the public health workforce loan repayment program authorized 
in the HEROES Act. \7\ Providing funding for this important program 
will help incentivize new and recent graduates to join the governmental 
public health workforce, encourage them to stay in these roles, and 
strengthen the public health workforce as a whole. The public health 
workforce is the backbone of our Nation's governmental public health 
system at the county, city, state and tribal levels. These skilled 
professionals deliver critical public health programs and services. 
They lead efforts to ensure the tracking and surveillance of infectious 
disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19, prepare for and respond to natural 
or man-made disasters, and ensure the safety of the air we breathe, the 
food we eat, and the water we drink. Health departments employ public 
health nurses, behavioral health staff, community health workers, 
environmental health workers, epidemiologists, health educators, 
nutritionists, laboratory workers and other health professionals who 
use their invaluable skills to keep people in communities across the 
Nation healthy and safe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ Organization letter to House and Senate leaders supporting the 
inclusion of the Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program in the 
HEROES Act. May, 14, 2020. Available at: https://apha.org/-/media/
files/pdf/advocacy/letters/2020/200514-ph-workforce-loan-
repayment.ashx.

    Thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you this morning. 
I look forward to answering any of your questions.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Benjamin, and thanks to all 
the witnesses. We will now begin around five minute questions 
from Senators and I would ask the Senators and the witnesses to 
try to keep your answers within five minutes because all the 
Senators would like to participate and we have a vote a little 
bit before noon. President Daniels, let me start with you. Let 
me ask about how much advice you want from Washington in order 
to go back to school safely? For example, do you think 
Washington, DC, the President, or the Congress ought to tell 
you that you cannot open in person or should tell the 
University of California system that it has to open in person?
    Mr. Daniels. I guess they would be within their legal 
rights, but I hope not. As every student is different, we try 
to remind ourselves of that, every school in the country is 
unique in some way. And I thought your admonition at the 
beginning, Mr. Chairman, was on target. I know that others will 
find better answers than we have and I hope they will be free 
to do that so we can copy them.
    The Chairman. Dr. Paxson, in an article you wrote that you 
want to test every student, CDC has not recommended that yet. 
Other universities have said that is not practical. Do you 
think--how much advice do you want from the President or 
Congress about how many students you should test and how you 
should do the testing?
    Dr. Paxson. Well, I think of the CDC guidelines as minimum 
standards. Talking to my people, my members of my medical 
school as well as parents and students and faculty, they want 
testing. They want everybody to be tested. And then we want to 
do surveillance testing on a regular basis throughout the year. 
It is both peace of mind, but also being able to monitor the 
spread of infection. I think it is essential.
    The Chairman. Let me ask President Daniels and the other 
presidents this question, one of the opportunities we have in 
this crisis is to learn from it. We have compressed about 10 
years of experience into three months in terms of at least two 
things, one is telelearning, what have we learned from that, 
and the two is the use of space.
    As I mentioned in my comments, colleges are the most 
notorious wasters of space in America, I would think. Classes 
aren't usually taught in the morning or the evening or on 
Saturday. And is it possible that as a result of the 
requirement of social distancing that a year experience of 
teaching classes at different times and the more efficient use 
of space would have some sort of lasting impact? What about the 
lasting impact too of what you have learned about telelearning? 
Let me start with President Daniels.
    Mr. Daniels. Yes, of course, there will be a lasting 
effects of this and I think it is highly beneficial. Now, space 
utilization has been an issue with us at Purdue for some time 
and I hope we have been using it better. There is nothing 
unusual about Saturday classes or evening classes here, but 
clearly we can do better and we will now.
    Yes, we are going to--when you reduce occupancy of our 
classrooms to 50 percent or less, by definition you have to use 
time and space in ways that you weren't before. I think I made 
mention that we now learned so much about telework that at 
least a third of our employees, our staff will now be asked and 
enabled to work from home on either a constant basis or at 
least on a rotating basis. That takes them out of harm's way 
and that's going to free up a lot of space that maybe we can 
find creative uses for.
    The Chairman. Dr. Paxson.
    Dr. Paxson. Yes, we are all learning a lot and I appreciate 
your question. Just a couple things that we are learning, to 
add to what President Daniels said, one is that the shift to 
remote learning, students learned and there were many valuable 
lessons there. I think in the future we may do more flip 
classrooms where large lectures are not done in person. That is 
a great thing.
    Another related area that is very important is the use of 
telemedicine and we discovered especially for counseling and 
psychological services when students are in states that we can 
work with, and there is some bureaucracy around that, it is 
actually an incredibly efficient and valuable way to support 
our students.
    The Chairman. Dr. Hampton, have you learned anything in 
these three months about the use of space that might be a 
lasting lesson at Lane College?
    Dr. Hampton. Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman. We certainly learned 
that our faculty and our institution that was committed to 
residential instruction could be very agile move to remote 
instruction. We removed every single course to remote 
instruction in the spring and for us, that was that was 
absolutely monumental.
    I do want to go back and just say to your initial question 
that yes, in fact, Lane College will be open in the fall. But 
what we need is we need your investment. We need that $1 
billion. The greater education community has asked for $46 
billion. We need a partnership with the Federal Government to 
help us to ensure that we have the standards, that we have the 
facilities in place to protect our students to educate them 
safely and to deliver on our mission.
    The Chairman. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Hampton.
    Senator Murray.
    Senator Murray. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. If 
we are going to safely reopen, public health has to drive 
decision making, and according to our public health experts, 
that includes making sure students and staff have access to 
testing, the ability to safely quarantine if they are exposed 
to the virus, and support for isolation and access to medical 
care.
    Students and staff need to be able to participate in their 
classes while also following public health advice to social 
distance, wear face masks, and keep themselves and their 
families healthy, but public health experts agree, we are not 
anywhere close right now to meeting adequate levels--alright, 
somebody--is everybody else hearing that?--Dr. Benjamin, let me 
just direct this to you. If our country remains at current 
levels of testing, are colleges going to be able to keep 
students and employees and their communities safe?
    Dr. Benjamin. That was always going to the key to success 
here. We are finally at about 400,000 test today. We are not 
nearly at the 500,000 that we need to be and every state is a 
little different. I just looked at a chart today that shows 
with a variety of states that are not yet there yet. I think it 
will be a real challenge if we can't get to that minimum 
500,000 per day. And you may know that several groups like 
Rockefeller Foundation believe that we should go to two to 
three times that amount per day.
    Senator Murray. Okay. I have heard it said that COVID-19 is 
the, ``great equalizer'' but we actually know in terms of the 
viruses health and economic impacts, nothing could be actually 
further from the truth with black communities and communities 
of color being at much greater risk of getting sick and dying, 
and of falling behind economically because of the pandemic 
itself.
    Colleges determining how to reopen have to consider those 
inequities in selecting the best course of action for both 
students and their staff. So I wanted to ask each of our 
presidents, may be in this order Presidents Daniels, Paxson, 
and Hampton, how specifically are each planning to address the 
alarming health disparities impacting our communities of color 
as you think about reopening. And I will start with President 
Daniels.
    Mr. Daniels. One thing that I am very worried about is that 
the efforts we have made, and as far as I know every college 
and university has made to successfully recruit and then just 
as important see through to successful graduation low-income, 
first-generation, and minority students, we have all been 
making every effort we know how now for some time and I do 
worry that these are about to be set back by the tragic factors 
that you just mentioned. I am tentatively encouraged that as 
our deposits have come in that our URM percentage seems to have 
held up.
    I was really worried, Senator, that it might put back but 
maybe not, but I do worry that our progress will be arrested 
and that we are going to have--we will certainly pay special 
attention, again, to identifying those who might be vulnerable, 
that is mainly faculty and staff but yes, as Dr. Benjamin, 
there are some young people who have these comorbidities that 
will put them very much in our sights for special attention.
    I am sure you're probably right that minorities may well be 
disparate disproportionately represented in that group.
    Senator Murray. They are, yes. President Paxson.
    Dr. Paxson. Thank you for the question. And , I have spent 
my life studying health disparities and economic disparities. 
And when I look at it, issues of inequity are one of the major 
reasons why we should open. Colleges and universities are 
places that create level playing fields for students and we can 
ensure that all students have equal access to education. The 
quality will be the same and health services will be the same 
for all students regardless. So it is one of the major reasons 
why I want to get students back.
    Senator Murray. President Hampton.
    Dr. Hampton. Yes, no doubt. Race, racism and health 
disproportionately impact our institution at Lane College.
    To overcome these barriers, I mean we need the help of the 
Federal Government. Yes, we need your guidelines but we also 
need your investment. Our students need your investment. Our 
students need more money to attend colleges and universities. 
Doubling that Pell would help to ameliorate some of those 
challenges that their families are having right at this very 
moment as they are losing their jobs, as they are being laid 
off as a result of COVID-19, and the other impacts of racism. 
Those students are students. My students need an additional 
investment. Doubling Pell Grant will go a long way to helping 
them to afford institution of higher learning.
    Senator Murray. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up. In 
addition to the disparities I just talked about, there is a 
disparity resources amongst colleges as well, and we need to 
address that. So thank you very much for that answer. Thank 
you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. All right. We will go to Senator Collins.
    Senator Collins. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This hearing is 
incredibly timely because just this morning the University of 
Maine and other college presidents issued a document called 
sustaining higher education and sustaining Maine, so I know 
that they are watching this hearing with great interest. My 
first question is for President Daniels.
    Colleges and universities are economic engines for their 
communities and their states.
    In addition to educating students, they employ thousands of 
people, administrative staff, food service workers, custodians, 
faculty, advisors, student workers. When the campus is closed 
to in-person instruction, this had a great impact in Maine on 
many hourly workers in particular. The University of Maine 
system employs nearly 4,800 employees. My question is this, 
should there be different testing protocols for employees who 
are going back and forth into their communities and then back 
to campus than for students who are living full time on campus? 
And are you looking at that?
    Mr. Daniels. That is an excellent question, Senator. Thank 
you. Yes, we are. It was observed that in many schools, and we 
are one, half of our students also live off campus. Now many of 
them are very close by. We are going to be working very closely 
with their landlords and others try to make certain that they 
are following the same practices that we will in the housing 
that we administer. I will just say that it has been very sad 
to read about so many furloughs, layoffs of some staff and 
faculty at other schools.
    We haven't done that at Purdue and intend not to do that in 
any way possible but it is a significant issue. Our principal 
responsibility is to our students and to our university 
community, but we are very conscious, as you say, that we are 
an economic driver that many other people in the community 
around us do rely. And so our responsibilities to them both 
from a health safety standpoint and from an operational and 
economic standpoint, we try never to lose sight of.
    Senator Collins. Thank you. Dr. Paxson and Dr. Hampton, in 
Maine more than 7,400 students are served by the TRIO programs 
and I have always been a very strong supporter of those 
programs because we have a great number of first-generation 
college students in my state.
    I am very worried that if colleges do not reopen this fall 
that we are going to increase the number of people who have 
some college but no degree and they end up with student debt, 
but no credential to help them pay off that debt. What do you 
think of expanding programs like TRIO to make sure that the 
students supports are there to encourage students to come back 
to school and to complete their degree or earn their credential 
if they are attending a community college?
    Dr. Paxson. Thank you, and the TRIO program is a marvelous 
program and I am fully in support of bringing our lowest income 
students and our first-gen students back to campus, and not 
just at Brown but nationally. It should be a national priority. 
I am also concerned that without increases in financial aid, 
and actually I agree with the other speakers on this call, that 
Government with Pell Grant would be a great thing to do.
    These students, if they don't come back, if they defer, if 
they delay, they never come back and they may not get their 
degrees. Another related issue, which is I think even more 
alarming is that colleges and universities have to close 
permanently. They have a lot of students who are going to be 
halfway through degrees and finding another institution to 
complete their degrees may be very different. So, we need to 
keep a close eye on resistance and education degree completion, 
especially during this time.
    Senator Collins. Thank you.
    Dr. Hampton.
    Dr. Hampton. Senator, I absolutely support the TRIO 
program. Lane College was a strong provider of the Upward Bound 
program. And in the most recent round of competition Lane 
College lost out by one point. We were one point out of the 
funding band. That is 50 to a 100 students. That is six faculty 
staff members who we lost and have not been able to provide 
services for.
    Well, I absolutely support an expansion of the TRIO 
program. Lane College is an East Jackson--it is an economic as 
a donut. Lane College is a $36 million engine in this area. To 
have a strong Lane College means to have a strong Jackson and a 
strong West Tennessee, and so I would very much support 
expanding TRIO program and getting Upward Bound back at Lane 
College.
    Senator Collins. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Collins.
    Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for the 
hearing. I want to thank you and Ranking Member Murray for 
calling this hearing. I want to thank our three college 
presidents and Dr. Benjamin for their appearance as well as 
their testimony. It is very informative for us who have higher 
education institutions in our state to have this hearing. And I 
would just note at the outset that the pleas for help that 
higher education institutions have brought to Capitol Hill, 
including some this morning, should be mindful.
    All Presidents should be mindful that right now as we speak 
at the beginning of June, there is no prospect for legislation 
right now that is related to COVID-19 in the month of June. I 
hope that changes but right now the U.S. Senate is only doing 
nominations. I hope that you would bring some pressure to bear 
on the majority to begin to negotiate a new piece of 
legislation that would address a range of issues including 
support for higher education, especially for students. But let 
me start with the question of how students will respond to the 
change of circumstances on college campuses.
    Student compliance with social distancing or enhanced 
safety protocols or other measures obviously are the key to 
reopening safely. That, you have said that, you are living that 
now. There are going to be substantial enforcement challenges 
as you know, especially when students are not only on campus 
but engaging with or interacting with members of the community 
for various reasons. So one of the concerns obviously, and you 
all understand this, is the risk of spread within a community, 
asymptomatic transmission especially. So I got three questions 
for the presidents and I hope I can get a question into Dr. 
Benjamin.
    Number one is what are the protocols that you are using? 
And I know you have outlined some of those. Some of this will 
be by repetition. Number two is, how do you enforce those 
protocols? And number three is how are you engaging with 
students right now or have you already engaged to review and to 
make certain what those protocols will be in the enforcement? 
So, protocols, enforcement, and then engagement. We can just go 
in alphabetical order to President Daniels.
    Mr. Daniels. Thank you, Senator. Protocols are essentially 
about distance, about masking, about monitoring one's own 
system. The pledge I talked about monitoring one's own 
symptoms, reporting right away for testing if anything 
suspected, all of that. I would say in terms of enforcement, 
yes. I really think the most important thing we can do is 
foster a culture, I am cultural about this, on our campus. We 
are going to appeal to students' altruism. I see it every day 
long before COVID came along.
    Young people in overwhelming numbers want to do good things 
and want to help others more. Well, here is a chance in a huge 
way. We are also--I am frankly going to tell them, there are a 
lot of cynics out there who don't believe you will do this. 
They think you are too selfish and too self-indulgent. So let's 
go show them how much you do care about your fellow human 
beings young and old. Last, I would just say that this is the 
central question. I believe the most important one.
    If we do all the other things we have talked about and 
don't have reasonable compliance, we probably don't make it and 
vice versa. Very interesting study out of Hong Kong showed that 
simply reaching 80 percent compliance with masking stops the 
spread of infection, lowers the RO number below 1. So this 
really is very central. I am hopeful but we are going to do 
everything all summer long and all fall to try to foster it.
    Senator Casey. Thank you.
    Dr. Hampton.
    Dr. Hampton. Yes, sir, Senator Casey. We have some practice 
with this point. When we went to remote instruction and we had 
about 200 students that remained on campus and we began to 
practice the CDC guidelines. And we had a group of students who 
decided to have a party and they took pictures and posted them. 
Well, let me just say they had very good conversations with the 
dean of students following that. And so I have every confidence 
in our student body. After that our student body practice, 
those 200 students, they practiced going to the cafeteria, 
getting their lunch going, back to their rooms. They practice 
social distancing. They did operate in pods though where you 
see a group of students moving around together.
    Senator Casey. Thanks so much.
    Dr. Paxson.
    Dr. Paxson. Thank you. And I can add I think it is very 
important that the protocols that students have to follow are 
one crystal clear, not ambiguous, not overly complicated, but 
grounded in public health goals. That there is an expectation 
that a violation of those protocols is a violation of our 
student code of conduct and so they are enforceable.
    Ideally though you don't do this through enforcement of 
rules, you do it through changing culture and developing a set 
of norms where students understand that they are protecting 
themselves, but they are protecting their fellow students, 
their faculty members, people who they respect and love. If we 
can get that message through them, I am very confident that we 
will do well.
    The Chairman. Thank you.
    Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. I think I will submit a question for the 
record for Dr. Benjamin----
    The Chairman. Wait.
    Senator Casey. I know we got to go. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Sorry, Senator Casey.
    Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Murkowski. Mr. Chairman, thank you. Thank you for 
being here today. Thank you for your leadership in your 
respective schools and the leadership that you are showing as 
you are guiding your students and your faculty through very 
challenging and uncharted times. We worked hard within the 
CARES Act to try to ensure that we were able to get direct 
relief out quickly to small businesses, quickly to our schools, 
quickly to the individuals through direct assistance. And as I 
look back through CARES, it seems to me that one group that 
kind of got missed were the students, those who are over 16 and 
were not dependent on their parents were not able to receive 
direct assistance, parents weren't able to receive it on their 
behalf. Many times not eligible for unemployment insurance.
    When I think about the impact to the students at the time, 
they are literally, in Alaska's specific case, a spring break 
is underway, and they get the word, don't come back after 
spring break. In the University of Alaska's situation, what 
they were able to do was provide financial assistance to many 
students from everything from ensuring that they had 
transportation back to their homes, shipping, their belongings 
back, or emergency funds. And I know that tuition costs in many 
institutions have been refunded but to what extent have we been 
able to make our students whole in terms of the cost that they 
incurred.
    As we know most students don't have a lot of disposable 
income out there where they have got money in savings that they 
can pick this up. Were you able to fully reimburse your 
students for their cost due to whether it is unexpected travel, 
housing, the lost classes? To what extent were you able to 
provide that relief to your students? And we will just start 
with you President Daniels and go down the line.
    Mr. Daniels. I can't say it was fully. I am sure it wasn't 
as probably it wasn't in many other contexts around the 
country. But I hope it was adequate. We did refund very 
substantial percentage certainly of fees, housing costs, and so 
forth, and we had an emergency fund which we augmented and came 
to the specific relief of students who made application and 
were having exactly the kind of troubles that you are having.
    I am very attentive though to watching for this fall.
    We have increased our financial aid to the extent we could 
and we will just have to--we will learn a lot more in the next 
few weeks about whether a student, a pre-existing and, or 
incoming aspiring freshmen are being prevented by financial 
exigency from doing what they are very eager to do.
    Senator Murkowski. President Paxson.
    Dr. Paxson. Thank you. So like other schools, we really 
pulled out all the stops trying to support our students, our 
highest needs students as they transitioned home, travel, 
laptops, Wi-Fi, books, etc, etc. And I think that was fairly 
successful. What we found though is that the needs are 
continuing and in some ways growing.
    As unemployment has increased, students' families are 
losing their jobs. Students' summer jobs have been--they have 
evaporated. There is nothing for students to do this summer. 
And so while we are doing all we can to try to find them 
alternative things and things for pay over the summer, it is 
very, very hard to meet that for me. We have waived the 
expectation that students will save money over the summer to 
meet part of their tuition in the coming year, but we are 
getting requests for help with food. That is where we are.
    Senator Murkowski. Dr. Hampton.
    Dr. Hampton. Yes, we were able to use the student portion 
of the CARES Act and distribute that straight directly to the 
students bank mobile accounts. We were able to do that on April 
30th. 78 of our students communicated to us that they needed 
assistance with food. 73 percent of our students indicated they 
needed assistance with housing. And so we prorated the amount 
for food and housing and we also added in some support for 
transportation and we distributed those funds directly to those 
students. Now we are using the bonds to help students to return 
to college and support their educational needs or any a number 
of things for food, for a housing, for digital supplies, for 
digital resource, for hot spots. We are supporting those 
students on a case-by-case basis.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murkowski. We have seven 
Senators remaining and everybody is doing a good job of staying 
within 5 minutes, which I thank you for.
    Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask a 
couple of questions first to Dr. Benjamin. Dr. Benjamin, you 
stated in your testimony that every school, all schools should 
be prepared to have at least one case of COVID-19 on campus. 
Last week, I learned from the University of Wisconsin-Madison 
that they had run out of the reagent needed to run one of its 
testing platforms.
    Despite continuous calls for support from the 
Administration, the Administration essentially said that 
private labs need to rely on existing supply chains for things 
like reagent. Can you describe why schools need to have all of 
the supplies on hand, not just the testing platforms but 
testing supplies in order to respond to the very high 
likelihood of new cases?
    Dr. Benjamin. The challenge, of course, you have is that 
you have a case, and you are going to have to test someone. If 
you don't have the capacity within your own campus health 
program, you are going to have to have a strong linkage to 
someone else that does. The biggest challenge we have had with 
all of this testing, frankly, fundamentally has been the supply 
line issue.
    It is going to require some partnerships. It is going to 
require on a daily basis making sure that you have adequate 
testing capacity. And just--because it is going to happen and 
the way things work in the world as, a case comes in and the 
test isn't available, and then all the things that occur after 
that which are problems having these as a result of the 
inability to test. So they are going to have to have adequate 
testing otherwise it can't function at all.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you. I have a second question for 
you. I know that in some of the testimony by both Senators and 
our witness panel, there were references to the fact that most 
of the severe health outcomes from the coronavirus are among 
older people. And so, certainly students in the typical student 
undergraduate age range are predicted to be more healthy, but I 
want to just consider several things as we move forward to 
seeing more campuses reopen. According to the American 
Federation of Teachers, 40 percent of adjunct or contingent 
faculty who comprise 75 percent of total instructional staff 
are over the age of 60, and I am also thinking a lot about our 
technical and vocational colleges that will probably during a 
time of excessively high unemployment see a new age demographic 
beyond what they have always already seen as a result of the 
Great Recession.
    I am very concerned about not only the safety and health of 
undergraduate students, but also faculty and the staff that 
work on our campus campuses. I am confident that colleges and 
universities want to do the right thing, but they need very 
clear rules of the road and workers need to know that they are 
protected. It is why I worked with several of my colleagues to 
introduce the Every Worker Protection Act which actually 
requires the occupational safety and health administration to 
issue emergency temporary standards that cover all workers and 
workplaces and require workplaces to implement infectious 
disease exposure control plans to keep their workers safe.
    You stated in your testimony that OSHA needs to promulgate 
such a standard. Do you agree it is important for the safety of 
faculty and staff as well as students they serve that such a 
standard not voluntary guidance, but a standard being placed 
before colleges and universities move to reopen this fall?
    Dr. Benjamin. I have been running big organizations on and 
off for a long time. And unless you have standards that 
everybody can rely on, you are not going to get anywhere. Those 
standards are absolutely important to protect workers because 
they create frankly a floor that everybody can rely on. It does 
not mean you can't do more than that, but I have always argued 
that those kinds of standards are absolutely essential. They 
reduce a whole range of your risks. And so I would also agree 
with your statements, Senator.
    Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Cassidy.
    Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank 
the university presidents for thinking creatively about 
reopening the school. Dr. Benjamin correctly points out that 
even though you are less than 25 and you have less risk, the 
risk is not zero of health effects, but what we do know is that 
if you miss out on critical years of education, it is an 
absolute 100 percent risk that your future economic prospects 
are minimized.
    President Paxson I am struck by would you say, so far CDC 
recommendations seem to be the kind of minimum standard. They 
are not actually kind of what would really like. Dr. Benjamin 
first going to you knowing, that the Federal Government has 
been slow coming out with testing strategies for settings like 
universities and that what they do at Lane is going to be 
different than what they do it, Brown, different than what they 
do at Purdue, Louisiana State University or to Lane just 
because of different sizes of schools, is your organization 
promulgating or suggesting different strategies so that someone 
like President Hampton, God bless him, is able to get his 
university reopened and with kind of a strategy about how to 
use the testing which is available?
    Dr. Benjamin. Well, we are not specifically developing 
standards. We are encouraging schools and others develop 
learning collaboratives so that they can learn from----
    Senator Cassidy. Yes, I apologize because I just have such 
minimal time. I do think it is important to have the strategy. 
I think it is important to the Federal Government. I think it 
is important for others. President Paxson, it appears that you 
have put together a strategy. I just want to explore that a 
little bit because I think you would inform others. We 
understand that if you have an outbreak in a particular 
dormitory and it is not other dormitories, intuitively you and 
devote resources to the folks in that dormitory. Is that the 
beginning of your approach or how would you say that?
    Dr. Paxson. Yes, so, the optimal testing strategy is 
something we are working on really carefully, it would be with 
epidemiologists, and it is going to be data-informed and it is 
going to change over time. It depends on prevalence in the 
local area. But certainly one of the components would be if 
there was a student who tested positive, their dormitory, their 
classmates would be people who doing standard contact tracing 
protocols would be people who would be tested next----
    Senator Cassidy. Let me ask you, one thing we have been 
interested in, because there might be a limitation on the 
number of tests available, is the ability to batch test. To do, 
100 in a dorm but if it tests positive then you do each 
individual. Is that part of your strategy?
    Dr. Paxson. Well, we are exploring that and that is 
something that is still relatively new. Batch testing looks 
promising as does waste water testing where you can test stuff 
coming out of the dorms and figure out if anybody in the dorm 
has it, so we are exploring those options.
    Senator Cassidy. You are very delicate when you say stuff 
coming out of the dorm. President Hampton, as you put together 
your strategy--these folks got medical schools. Again, God 
bless you. You are much more constrained in terms of resources, 
where are you developing your testing strategy from and what 
could be done to help you or those similarly situated, my black 
colleges and universities in Louisiana for example, to 
implement such a strategy knowing that your student body may 
have an increased incidence of those comorbid conditions which 
increase risk?
    Dr. Hampton. Well, I begin with number one, make the 
investment in our institutions. Make that make that $1 billion 
dollar investment in the historical Black College Universities, 
tribal colleges, MSI's and the $46 billion in the greater body. 
Make that investment. We had a little bit of practice with this 
during the past spring.
    We implemented protocols where the student would present--a 
student presented in our health services, then that student was 
tested for flu and others. They were screened. And we had one 
incident on our campus in the spring with students who remain 
on campus where a student was--they had come in contact with 
the person and we were able to isolate that person into an 
apartment complex, allow that person to go through those 14 
days, and then they have that person to not show any symptoms 
at all.
    Senator Cassidy. Let me ask you because I am almost out of 
time the strategy the President Paxson has put together where, 
you may do wastewater or but you certainly have a micro-
community within your campus with upon whom you are focusing 
because they have shown to be positive at least, one person, 
within them. Do you all have a similar set of protocols or 
would it benefit you for those to be promulgated by some 
organizations such as CDC or another public health 
organization?
    Dr. Hampton. It would in fact benefit us to have those 
promulgated but we do in fact have partnerships with our 
Madison County Health Department, with our Christ Community 
Health Department, or Health Center, to be able to do testing 
for any of our students or in our public who believe that they 
have some or someone who may show symptoms, that they will be 
able to go get tested and get their results back in 24 hours.
    Senator Cassidy. Got it. Thank you. I yield back. Thank 
you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Dr. Cassidy.
    Senator Murphy.
    Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank 
you all. This has been incredibly helpful for all of us. Mr. 
Chairman, I want college sports to come back. I want sports in 
general to come back. I miss it. For me it is a release from 
this job, and I can't wait. At the same time, I want it to come 
back for the right reasons and I want it to come back safely. 
And so I wanted to ask a series of questions on this topic 
because I think it is important. Maybe I will start with you, 
Mr. Daniels. I think it is interesting that college sports 
teams are coming back for practices before professional sports 
leagues are feeling that it is safe enough to come back.
    I have read through what your University is doing to try to 
protect students that are returning. These are contact sports. 
There is no way ultimately to have social distancing for a 
football team or a soccer team. And so what happens if you have 
an outbreak over the course of summer training or in the early 
fall on your football team or on your women's soccer team. What 
is your protocol? Do you shut that team down? So they stop 
playing the season? Do you just segment off the players who 
have tested positive? This is a potential for a super spreading 
environment if you are not careful.
    Mr. Daniels. I completely agree with you. I think you would 
shut it down and I think that will--somewhere out there someone 
may very well face this situation. Our teams are resuming 
individual workouts later than some but they are coming back to 
that. Then group workouts. The conference we belong to has 
prescribed some guidelines and we will follow them.
    In some cases exceed them, but I think you are quite right. 
And we love sports too, but first things first and that starts 
with the safety of people, players, coaches, but don't forget 
the people who may be at most risk of a spread here are the 
older folks, coaches, and others. So I hope we get back but if 
it takes longer or if it is subject to interruption then so be 
it.
    Senator Murphy. Let me ask you one specific question if I 
could drill down, what happens if you have got a scholarship 
player who doesn't feel comfortable coming back. Let's say they 
have got a mother at home or a grandfather that has got medical 
complications. If they decide not to play football this year 
because they just don't think it's right for them, do they 
maintain their scholarship?
    Mr. Daniels. Yes, they would. We have honored scholarships 
at Purdue for a long time for people who couldn't play or 
continue to play some reason, could be injury for some a 
personal tragedy. So that would not--that would be consistent 
with our policy. And I think I can speak with authority for our 
athletic department that we would see that as the right thing 
to do and the thing we ought to do.
    Senator Murphy. I appreciate that. I will note that is not 
right now the standard for all NCAA schools and I think it 
would be important for us to make sure it is. And then last and 
maybe most importantly, what are you going to do about 
attendance at sporting events this fall because that is what I 
really worry about. You have the Iowa Athletic Director on the 
record. He is a member of your conference saying that right now 
his plan is to let everybody into the football stadium and 
anybody who wants to come watch can. We had a situation in 
Westport, Connecticut before, this was an epidemic were 50 
people got together for a birthday party.
    One person had coronavirus, one of the first in the 
Northeast to have it. At the end of that party, half of them 
had it and the virus was off and running on the East Coast. So 
it worries me that we are contemplating putting hundreds of 
thousands of adults and students into stadiums, especially when 
the professional sports leagues don't seem to be entertaining 
that idea. What is your understanding today? Are we going to 
have fans in stadiums for events in your conferences fall?
    Mr. Daniels. Can't speak for any others but we are not 
looking at going beyond one-fourth of the capacity of our 
57,000 stadium right now. This has been mapped out just as we 
have mapped out classrooms and dorm rooms to measure distance 
and then exceed the requirements. We would be doing it too. So 
it comes out to about a one-fourth on the work we have done 
now.
    Now we know that outdoors is very different. That it is 
very hard to spread this outdoors, but we are still going to 
take an abundance of caution approach. I cannot tell you about 
indoor sports right now. I don't think I see a way that we can 
proceed on anything like the basis that we have all been 
familiar with.
    Senator Murphy. I appreciate that. That is still, 10,000 to 
20,000 people all together for an event. I think that may be a 
pretty dangerous endeavor. And I think it is interesting 
compared to professional sports who have decided to make a 
different decision. I think it is a topic worth continuing to 
talk about. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murphy.
    Senator Warren.
    Senator Warren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start if 
I can by quickly thanking Ranking Member Murray for the 
comments acknowledging what is happening in our country. We 
can't ignore the racist violence that has killed George Floyd 
and Ahmad Aubrey and Brianna Taylor and so many, many others. 
We must commit ourselves to change to using this Committee as 
well as others to advance anti-racist policies in health, in 
education, and for workers including today's hearing about 
reopening colleges.
    Millions of families moving students across this country 
are wondering when and how colleges are going to safely reopen 
and I know this is a hard question that is going to vary from 
campus to campus but President Daniels you wrote a recent op-ed 
entitled, why failing to reopen Purdue University this fall 
would be an unacceptable breach of duty. So your op-ed makes it 
sound like you have already decided you are going to reopen no 
matter what come this fall. And in that, you discuss how you 
are going to mitigate risks to undergraduate students, but I 
notice there is almost no discussion of addressing lists to 
workers or faculty who tend to be older and more at risk. 
Nothing about the wage workers or hourly workers, workers who 
are often black or brown.
    These workers are responsible for serving the food in the 
dining halls, including the dorms and classrooms and keeping 
your campus running. They are particularly vulnerable and they 
have the least power and they are getting sick at 
disproportionate rates. So President Daniels, Purdue has nearly 
17,000 employees, nearly half are staff who won't be able to 
work.
    Normally this fall they might get sick. They might need to 
care for a loved one, and they might have small children that 
need care, or because of their age or pre-existing health 
conditions, they may not feel safe coming onto a college campus 
during a pandemic. So I just want to know if you laid out 
publicly a plan for these workers.
    Mr. Daniels. Well, thank you Senator----
    Senator Warren. Actually, let me just ask specifically. Can 
you agree to continue paying them if they can't come to work or 
if they decide it is too risky to show up for work?
    Mr. Daniels. Well thank for the--I am so glad you asked the 
question because first of all you could not have better express 
our entire philosophy and strategy. I don't know if you were 
here for the opening presentation, but I enunciated it then. 
And our entire strategy is built around the protection of the 
vulnerable and that starts with faculty and staff. Starting 
next week we will have one to one visits with our faculty to 
try to figure out what their--we have a grid that attempts to 
estimate their degree of vulnerability. There is some we don't 
want near campus at all. So we will make an accommodation for--
--
    Senator Warren. If I could--I am sorry. I am just limited 
on time. Just understand, you haven't put out a plan publicly 
yet and it sounds like you haven't worked one out but you are 
planning to work it out one-on-one with your employees, is that 
right?
    Mr. Daniels. Our plan is entirely based on the protection 
of the vulnerable and that will include trying to make 
individual accommodations for those about whom we have the most 
concern. About a third of our staff----
    Senator Warren. Well, I was asking whether or not you had 
already laid out a plan. And I take the answer on that is no.
    Mr. Daniels. No, the answer to that of course is, yes. It 
is very comprehensive and I will repeat it if you need it.
    Senator Warren [continuing]. Publicly. I just haven't seen 
this plan laid out. Because my question is really about who has 
power and who has voice in these decision. Best practices are 
best practices only if everyone is at the table who is going to 
be affected when those plants are being laid out. So I just 
want to move on for the time being but I will follow-up in 
writing to try to get public commitments that going forward you 
are going to include both faculty and staff at the table and 
you are going to explain about how this is going to intersect 
with their pay and how you safely reopen this campus.
    Dr. Paxson, I want to stay on the topic of power and 
accountability. In addition to being the president of Brown 
University, you are also the vice chair of the Board for the 
Association of American Universities which signed a letter last 
week from the American Council on Education, which is the very 
powerful college law urging Congress to, ``quickly enact 
temporary COVID-19 related liability protections for higher 
education, institutions, and systems.'' Now, Dr. Paxson, as you 
know current law imposes liability only when the college has 
behaved unreasonably under all the circumstances.
    The law does not impose automatic liability when somebody 
gets sick or even when somebody dies. Instead its liability 
only when, for example, in a pandemic a college doesn't take 
reasonable efforts to clean up common spaces or to separate 
desperately sick students. So when colleges lobby to change 
that standard and to walk away from it, even if they are 
extraordinarily careless with the lives of their students, even 
if these colleges take completely unreasonable risks, even if 
someone dies, what message does it send to our families and our 
students. Would it make you more comfortable or less 
comfortable as a parent of an incoming student?
    The Chairman. Dr. Paxson, we are well over time but you 
take whatever time you need to answer that question.
    Dr. Paxson. Thank you very much. I do not want protection 
from being careless. That is not what we are about. And if we 
are careless, if we don't follow guidelines, that is something 
that should not be protected in any way, shape, or form. The 
fact is though we are in a brand-new time. We have never seen 
this before. We are in uncharted territory.
    I think many institutions are very nervous that even if 
they play by the rules scrupulously, that they will still be 
subject to class action lawsuits, lawsuits--they will probably 
prevail if they have done right but the cost of defending those 
lawsuits will take money away from tuition, financial aid--not 
from tuition from financial aid and all of the support that we 
provide for our students. So I am in favor of very carefully 
crafted liability protection that in no way, shape, or form 
permits us to be careless with people's lives.
    Senator Warren. Well, thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Warren.
    Senator Warren [continuing]. Over. If I can, I just want to 
ask unanimous consent, Mr. Chairman, to enter statements for 
the record on this issue from Americans for Financial Reform, 
the Student Borrower Protection Center, Public Citizen, 
American Association for Justice, and Georgetown Law Professor 
David Vladeck. The public should know that a college just like 
any institution--has to behave--that is what the law requires.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator. So ordered.
    [The following information can be found on page 88]
    Senator Warren. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The Chairman. Senator Braun.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to lead 
in with Senator Warren's question and I think it is a valid one 
to ask in the sense that the safety of your employees, staff at 
universities, as well as your customers which would be the 
students, is very important. But underlying the way she phrased 
that question would be that it is not in the extreme interest 
of the university, of businesses across this country to keep 
not only your customers safe, your employees as well. It also 
to me, by the way it was stated, assumes that there is not 
going to be the agility and the ability to do both of them. And 
my question is going to be for President Daniels and you can 
continue a response if you want to but I think rest assured for 
the people that run the real economy, including teaching our 
students, they have in their own best interest to do all of the 
things--this kind of bureaucratic approach has been to where it 
is tamp down economies may be unnecessarily.
    We are able to do two things at once and I think that 
argument that you cannot operate safely and keep the disease at 
bay might have been an underlying strategic error and how we 
have addressed it in the first place. So President Daniels as 
any entrepreneur sometimes your plans don't work out the way 
you might hope they will. I know when building a business over 
37 years, if things were growing great in the moment, I said 
hey, something is going to come along to maybe try to derail 
it.
    Had the data not shown you or if something should change to 
where you bring students back to school and I think everything 
you have laid out makes it sound like a great plan, let's say 
if not, how does your involvement with online education, I 
think you call it Purdue Global, would that have been a back-up 
plan that would have come into play for your students that 
would want to attend on campus? Tell me a little bit about that 
and then more broadly how you think that part of post-secondary 
education might break the cost curve that has been so tough to 
do with traditional education on campus.
    Mr. Daniels. Senator, Purdue Global is a separate branch of 
our University. It serves a very different clientele. The 
typical student there is a 33 year old woman with a job and 
usually family responsibilities. It is really aimed at that 
enormous universe of Americans who started college and didn't 
finish. And helping them get to the finish line and we hope a 
better station in life. Now, we learned a lot. I have learned a 
lot about online education.
    As I mentioned, we will be offering to those students who 
can't get here this fall or choose not to come in person this 
fall, an online option for their undergraduate education. But 
Purdue Global is aimed at basically working Americans. And I 
will say to your question, I think the surface is this, with 
the damage we have done to this economy, it may be that there 
is a much greater need or greater market for very affordable 
Purdue online education of the kind Purdue Global and many 
other fine schools provide.
    Senator Braun. To dig into that a little more deeply, how 
long do you think that cost curve will take from the 
involvement in online undergraduate as well as what you are 
learning from trying to educate older students? Do you think 
that is something that is going to be disruptive enough where 
like healthcare, for instance, it costs us double here in our 
country roughly what it does in most other countries with 
results that aren't any better. Do we have that opportunity 
through disrupting education in a way since it is the next most 
stubborn cost increase each year, through technology, through 
something different that most of us might not see at this point 
in time?
    Mr. Daniels. The exorbitant, even staggering cost of higher 
education has been an issue for quite some time now. Thank you 
for noting--at Purdue we have not changed our tuition in the 
last eight years and have pledged that will last at least 
through a 9th. We are less expensive in nominal terms than we 
were in 2012 and with the result, I think we have been able to 
attract more students and terrific students for whom 
affordability and accessibility is a real issue.
    Now, in the wake of this terrible pandemic, it seems very 
clear. I think that there will be a new pressure on schools, us 
and everyone, to find every way possible to make this vital 
service we sell a more affordable and I can't imagine you have 
any other outcome than that.
    Senator Braun. Keep it up. I think leading the way on 
trying to make something that is along with health care for 
most families--the demand is inelastic. We all want it 
ironically of course, classic economics. That is where cost us 
the most in this country and we need to do much better. Thank 
you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Braun.
    Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for this 
important hearing and to our witnesses, I have been very, very 
critical of the Administration's handling of the public health 
side of this crisis. There is no reason the United States 
should have more than 100,000 deaths. There is no reason that 
our economy should have been hammered by this in the way that 
it has, especially if you look at what has happened in other 
countries. Since I have been critical and I am going to 
continue to be also feel like I got to give credit where credit 
is due. The Administration has done some things that I want to 
thank them for and some are kind of right in this bailiwick, 
helping us work out implementation challenges for the CARES 
Act. You will remember, Mr. Chairman, after the CARES Act 
passed, some thought that the aid was not going to go to 
students, might be taxable income.
    The Administration worked quickly with us to clarify that 
was not the case. Some universities trying to get PPP loans 
were told that their students, work study students would be 
counted as employees putting them over the 500 limit 
disqualifying them for PPP loans. Again, the Administration 
worked very quickly to lay that concern and so I got to give 
credit where credit is due because I am going to turn soon to 
some more criticism. I do want to thank Senator Murphy for 
raising the football question because it is an example of how 
opening is complicated. Folks who play football are amateurs. 
They are not getting paid. Folks who play football are 
disproportionally minority.
    There has been a number of articles in Forbes and Sports 
Illustrated about how football especially in the power five 
conference is a big-money thing. I hope we do not, because big 
conference football is a big-money thing, risk the lives of 
amateurs who are predominantly minority by going back before we 
can especially because the NCAA has figured this out when they 
canceled spring sports, like baseball, they told all the 
athletes if you want another year of eligibility, you can get 
it.
    Many who lost their last year of basketball or baseball 
were sort of heartbroken about it and had to figure out ways to 
go and get a master's degree or stay at a college for an extra 
year so that they can have that extra year of eligibility. We 
can provide that experience for student-athletes if they want 
it without jeopardizing their health because football is a 
money-making proposition and I hope we will all consider that. 
All right, let me get to the critique. Mr. Chairman, you said a 
couple of times, your opening statement lays it out so well, 
the road to reopening is through testing. The road to reopening 
is through testing.
    I deeply believe that there is other issues, obviously, but 
the road to reopening colleges is through testing. The CDC has 
a document that they have put out and continually updated. It 
is online right now. It is called Considerations for 
Institutions of Higher Education. The most recent update was 
May 30. It is a very comprehensive document. I just got in here 
on my iPhone. You go through it. Principles to keep in mind, 
IHG institution of higher education, general settings, IHG on-
campus housing settings, promoting behaviors that reduce 
spread. Sub points under all of these, multiple sub points 
under all of these--maintaining healthy environments.
    Let's see what else do we have here? So many maintaining 
healthy operations room, layout water system supplies, sub-
point, sub-point, sub-point. You go through this endless 
document and not a mention of testing. The CDC guideline, 
right, preparing for when someone gets sick, endless sub 
points. There is not a single mention of testing in the 
document that the CDC currently has to give to our 
universities. Now, I get it that our universities don't need a 
mandate. Test everybody or test one-sixth of students. But 
universities don't all have CDC's, they don't have NIH's. They 
need guidance. If you are going to give a university guidance 
about how to make sure the water system safe or how to limit 
the size of activities or what to do when a student gets sick, 
it would seem like you would give them some guidance, some 
recommendation about testing protocols.
    Mr. Chairman, you laid out sort of a good one. Maybe you 
test everybody who is sick or anybody in vulnerable population, 
and then maybe you would want to do some sentinel testing 
randomly to determine the spread of antibody's--and it strikes 
me you could give that guidance to our universities without, a 
mandate that is too restrictive.
    My suspicion is this because this has been more to do in 
general with the Administration. They don't want to set goals 
for testing because they don't want to be measured against 
those goals because they know that if they are measured against 
the goals they are going to fall short. The only way you get to 
a goal is by stating it. If you don't state it, you are not 
going to get there.
    I think our CDC does a great disservice to colleges, small, 
medium and large if they don't provide some basic guidance 
about what a testing protocol that would be successful would 
look like. And with that, Mr. Chairman, thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Kaine.
    Senator Hassan.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to 
thank you and the Ranking Member for having this hearing and I 
want to thank our witnesses for all that you are doing to help 
your students in our communities. Between the COVID-19 crisis 
and the rightful outrage following the killing of George Floyd, 
this is a deeply challenging time for our country. That is true 
at our institutions of higher education. And as we grapple with 
how to reopen safely during a global pandemic, we must also 
remember that higher education institutions have historically 
served as places of civil discourse.
    As our local communities and our country works together to 
make our systems more equitable and just, I look forward to 
working with all of you. My first question is to our three 
College presidents. Last week, I sent a bipartisan letter to 
Secretary DeVos with Senators Tim Scott, Loeffler, and Booker 
urging the Department of Education to ensure that students 
receive the financial aid that they are now eligible for due to 
the economic impacts of COVID-19. Specifically, we asked the 
Department to issue guidance to colleges to help ensure that 
students' financial aid eligibility can be appropriately 
adjusted and to update the online FAFSA form to capture recent 
changes in income for financial aid applicants.
    To each of the college presidents and I will start with you 
President Daniels, can you speak to how your students have been 
economically impacted by COVID-19. I know you have done it a 
little bit through this hearing but more importantly why 
further action by the Department of Education is needed to help 
ensure that students get the financial aid that they are 
eligible for.
    Mr. Daniels. Well, Senator, I can't say that we know yet. 
We are in the process of finding out now which students who 
have expressed the desire to come to Purdue will finally come 
and can manage it. And I don't doubt that many of them have 
encountered significant economic setbacks since they expressed 
that intention. We will know much more over the next few weeks. 
I am hoping that most of them will be able to do it but I 
applaud the initiative that you led and those who joined you. 
And clearly we all need to do all we can to get a more swiftly 
and directly and flexibly, which is a point I think you just 
drew our attention to, to every young person who needs it.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you.
    President Hampton.
    Dr. Hampton [continuing]. Pell Grant. It is no question 
that our students have been negatively impacted by COVID-19. 
When we did our survey of our students, that survey went to the 
students about five weeks after the majority of our students 
had been home and those students reported back to us while they 
were at home, 78 percent of them said, I need help with food, 
73 percent said I need help with housing. Our students need 
help now.
    They will need to help in the fall. They did their FAFSA 
based on the previous income. Those incomes have now dropped. 
Their families will have less means to help them come back. So 
whether it's online or whether we are face-to-face or whether 
it is a hybrid, our students need the help as a result in 
COVID-19 and the vicious effects of racism on their parents 
income.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you.
    Dr. Paxson.
    Dr. Paxson. After the 2008 recession, financial aid at 
Brown rose by 12 percent. The maximum unemployment rate during 
that recession was 10 percent. We are heading to 20 percent. We 
are also hearing from students who are saying, I know my FAFSA 
was correct, but it is no longer in any way an accurate 
portrayal of my family's economic circumstances. So we are 
going to having to go back and revisit all of those aid awards 
because we are in an extraordinary time for students and their 
parents.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. I want to turn the Dr. 
Benjamin now if I can. And I know Dr. Benjamin we talked a bit 
in your answers about what colleges need to do from a public 
health point of view, including robust testing and contact 
tracing as part of their strategy as they reopen. But you also 
spoken about even with the best public health protocols in 
place to ensure that students, faculty, and staff practice 
social distancing, recommended hand washing, and wear masks, it 
is likely inevitable that there will be spikes in cases on 
college campuses.
    What protocols do believe should be in place to contain a 
detected spike in cases on college campuses? And if colleges 
are forced to close, what can be done to ensure that students 
leaving campus do not spread the virus in their own 
communities?
    Dr. Benjamin. Absolutely. The reason why I recommended that 
the link very close with their state and local health 
departments is so they can very quickly get involved in contact 
tracing and disease containment because in many cases these 
will involve the community as well. And, they should have 
planned for that. They should have pre written guidelines for 
how they are going to handle it. Who is on first, how they are 
going to manage it. Who is the spokesperson for the University. 
How do they link protocols with the state and local health 
department so that there is no debate about who is actually 
managing the disease outbreak.
    I would assume that in most cases the contact tracing 
activity will be done by the state and local health department 
and not the university but it depends on how big the community 
health program is at the University. They may very well want to 
be involved in that but if you don't have plans for that, it 
will be at best, a mess. So it does require a fair amount of 
planning up front and all the various scenarios that they can 
possibly think of would be important for them to do.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you and Mr. Chairman, I have 
lost sight of the clock on my screen.
    The Chairman. I am afraid we are well----
    Senator Hassan. I am going to assume that is about 5 
minutes. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Hassan. I would say to the 
witnesses we only have two Senators remaining.
    Senator Jones.
    Senator Jones. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate 
your leadership on having this hearing and Ranking Member 
Murray, and also thanks to all of our witnesses. Let me first 
associate myself with all of my colleagues comments regarding 
the issues that we are facing in America today and the problems 
that we are facing, but as we see the issues out there, I am 
also seeing some rays of hope. I am seeing folks that are 
peacefully demonstrating. I am seeing people that are getting 
together to raise their voices, but doing it together locked 
arm and arm, black and white, folks of all races, religions, 
and walks of life. And I don't think the media often focuses on 
that as much as they do in some of the more violent protests, 
but we see it happening all the time.
    I do think there is rays of hope out there. Dr. Hampton, 
would like to ask you, I would like to follow-up a little bit 
with you because as you probably know that I have been one of 
the champions I think for HBCUs. We have like 13 in my state. 
Senators Alexander and Murray have helped us get a lot of 
funding for HBCU's recently and I joined with a couple of 
colleagues in sending a letter asking for an additional $1 
billion funding.
    I would like for you to talk just a little bit assuming you 
can get that, how would that be invested? How would that be 
used by the HBCUs around the country? Either makeup shortfalls 
to help with students, infrastructure? How would you use the 
additional funding Congress might, can give you?
    Dr. Hampton. Yes, sir. In my college we have several 
strategies that we are using those funds for. Number one we are 
using it to make our campus more safe for our students as they 
return to our campus. As I look at the look at our numbers and 
our estimates in terms of where we are, I mean, we are going to 
need anywhere from $3 million to $6 million to $13 million to 
fully be able to convert Lane College from a residential campus 
to a hybrid campus that is both, is offering classes online and 
face-to-face.
    For our purposes, we are going to use those funds to 
support the students, to make sure this campus is safe and to 
begin the conversion of this campus to be able to deliver at a 
high level our online courses. We will need those funds for a 
number of different diverse set of--for additional staff, for 
learning management, for services, purchase digital devices, to 
purchase digital resources, data plans for our students. Our 
needs are significant.
    Senator Jones. Yes, thank you. I appreciate that. President 
Daniels, let me follow-up. As you could probably guess a 
Southeastern Conference Senator is going to follow-up on some 
of the sports questions that Senator Murphy and Senator Kaine 
said. And I really have to two. They asked several that I had. 
One would be what steps will you try to take to try to minimize 
the risk to these athletes and the coaches going in? Certainly, 
you may have to shut down a program if you see something but 
what steps will you take to minimize the risk.
    Second, of all, the loss of revenue is going to be 
significant. The loss of revenue for colleges is going to be 
significant. What can Congress do to help make up for that? 
What do you plan on doing to make up for the lost revenue that 
supports not only your football and basketball programs but 
also all of the other sports that you have at Purdue?
    Mr. Daniels. Senator, our athletic department has put 
together a very protective plan. There will be a lot of 
separation, at least initially, between athletes and we would 
do lots of testing, very regular testing to try to spot any 
infection at the first possible moment and do all the smart 
things about that. Again, we believe we could in an outdoor 
setting have at least a fraction of the fans. They have to 
enter in different ways and obviously be spaced in different 
ways.
    But we do think that part is possible and consistent with 
safe practices. But we are all in very new water here and we 
well may change some of these directions as we all learn more. 
With regard to the dollars question, I am not sure that a 
Federal treasury that has already done with it has done, 
borrowed what it has borrowed, wants to be making up athletic 
shortfalls. And we at Purdue, I am proud to say, have always 
operated self-sufficient Athletic program.
    We have never had to impose a fee or on our students who 
are not able to play and may not even be that interested in 
athletics as much as some of us are. So on the list of huge 
problems we have been discussing this morning, I don't want to 
minimize this one, but I for one would not urge that you place 
that high nearly as high as for example helping HBCUs and some 
of these other goals.
    Senator Jones. Thank you. I was hoping that would be your 
answer. I appreciate that very much and thank you, Mr. 
Chairman.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Jones.
    Senator Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Chairman Alexander, Ranking 
Member Murray. I want to thank all the witnesses for being here 
today, for the work and care that you do to help our students 
and those that work at our universities. But I believe we 
really need relief for our dreamers and our student veterans. 
And the COVID pandemic has severely impacted Nevada's colleges 
and universities and the students they are serving. That is why 
I was glad to vote for the CARES Act which provided more than 
$6 billion to our institutes of higher education to provide 
emergency financial aid to students most affected by the 
pandemic. The new law intentionally provides significant 
flexibility to institutions in determining how to distribute 
funding among students, including those who are most in need.
    Unfortunately, the Department of Education has decided that 
only students who are eligible to receive Federal financial aid 
qualify for CARES Act assistance. Since this decision excludes 
student veterans, individuals who haven't completed the FAFSA 
application, and DACA recipients, many of whom have an added 
financial burden of supporting their parents, their siblings, 
their children, being the first in their families to attend 
college, in April I joined a letter along with several members 
of the Committee asking Secretary DeVos to reverse this 
decision to prohibit institutions of higher education from 
providing CARES Act emergency financial aid grants to 
undocumented students, but have not yet received a response.
    Dr. Paxson, like our educational leaders in Nevada, you and 
your university have long supported protections for dreamers, 
given this and the extraordinary situation in which we find 
ourselves, do you agree with the Department of Education's 
guidance excluding undocumented students on the CARES Act?
    Dr. Paxson. No, I don't agree at all. I firmly believe that 
if the point is to protect students who are the future of our 
country, we should be protecting DACA students veterans and 
international students who are here in this country and need 
the support.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. I appreciate that. I am going to 
ask all the panelists this next question that the Department of 
Education in this guidance that was given excluded our student 
veterans, veterans that have served our country, protected our 
Nation, sometimes our older students that have families, really 
important that they continue to get any support they need, 
along with those who don't fill out FAFSA applications for many 
reasons, maybe they come from foster families or are homeless 
youth.
    All kinds of reasons that those students aren't filling 
out, don't know how to do that. We want to know how your 
students are going to help--how you are going to help these 
students and if you agree with that just get decision to 
exclude the student veterans and let's begin with President 
Daniels and we can go on to Dr. Hampton and then return to Dr. 
Paxson.
    Mr. Daniels. No, thank you, Senator. I agree these, these 
don't seem like wise choices. I frankly did not know about the 
impact on veterans so thank you for drawing our attention to 
that. Other than that I can just say and as we did in a to a 
previous question that we are doing all we can to move money to 
scholarships and to financial assistance. We do anticipate that 
whatever shape our applicants were in just two or three months 
ago is very different today we are going to need to do more.
    Dr. Hampton. Senator, my college is a veterans friendly 
institution. I am not aware of any negative impact that this 
ruling had on the veterans at Lane College. However, for those 
several students that needed support who were not eligible for 
the CARES Act, we were able to fund those students through our 
Board of Trustees that made donations to support all of our 
students.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. Appreciate that.
    Dr. Paxson.
    Dr. Paxson. I would just reiterate what I said before, I 
think all students are equally deserving. Students who deserve 
on economic grounds to be supported need to be supported. We 
have not yet received any CARES Act funding. We are awaiting 
some guidance from the Department of Education, but our intent 
would be to support students equally as well as we can.
    Senator Rosen. I just have a few seconds left, but I just 
want to address the digital divide. I am going to go really 
quickly. Of course we do distance learning. The fact remains, 
before coronavirus far too many college graduate students, of 
course, they had--lacked adequate broadband access. That 
happens in my rural communities up and down the state and our 
underserved communities. So what can you do or what are you 
planning to do to address this digital divide? It is 
particularly in broadband. It might apply to your students? And 
I guess you can go--Dr. Paxson, I see you first, so you go 
first this time.
    Dr. Paxson. We have done a lot of work this spring making 
sure all of our students have internet access from home or more 
WIFI, hotspots and have done pretty well with that. Another 
thing we are focusing on is helping the city of Providence make 
sure that all of the high school students in the area have 
digital access because that has been a huge problem for a 
school education.
    Senator Rosen. Fantastic. Thank you. Let's move on to let's 
see who I would like to go next. I guess, Dr. Hampton.
    Dr. Hampton. Lane College is sourcing and providing digital 
devices as well as hotspots for our students and we were able 
to use the funds, the CARES Act funds, for some of that.
    Senator Rosen. Perfect.
    Governor Daniels.
    Mr. Daniels. Yes, very similar answer. We had problems. 
Fortunately they were fairly limited, generally in rural spaces 
as you had suggested, and we were able to come with up 
individual assistance as far as I know in any each case. Also 
we are blessed as a land-grant school with an extension service 
so we do have offices in even very small population counties 
and I think that gave us a little advantage in helping those 
who were struggling.
    Senator Rosen. I appreciate that. I appreciate all you are 
doing. Thank you.
    The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Rosen. I want to thank 
Senator Murray and her staff as well as our staff for their 
cooperation and their technical expertise today in this 
hearing. I want to especially thank the four witnesses who all 
have demanding schedules who made time for us. This is of more 
value than you might think to us and to our staffs and to the 
American people as they listen to President Daniel, Dr. Paxson, 
Dr. Logan, Dr. Benjamin. There is no more sure sign that the 
American life is regaining its rhythm than when 70, 75 million 
students head back to college and back to school, which is 
where we believe they will go and our focus this month is to 
help make sure they go safely.
    Today our discussion has been about colleges. Next week we 
will be talking about kindergarten through the 12th grade, 
going back to school safely. We will be having other hearings 
this month on telelearning, telemedicine, on looking ahead to 
the next pandemic as we continue our oversight responsibility. 
I am going to include in the record a letter from the American 
Council on Education to which one of the Senators referred 
earlier. That organization is an umbrella organization 
representing most of the 6,000 higher education institutions in 
the country. It asks Congress to consider a number of things 
including properly constructed liability protection for 
institutions as a result of COVID-19.
    [The information referred to can be found on page 80]
    I also heard that from virtually every one of the 90 
Tennessee higher education institutions with whom I had a 
discussion by teleconference last week. The issue of testing 
came up and my advice to colleges, for example, Dr. Hampton 
talked about Jackson, Tennessee. In our state, the Governor 
said if in doubt, get a test, and I know that works because I 
went to the public health department in my hometown of 
Maryville and waited about three minutes in line and got my 
negative test which fortunately turned out to be negative a 
couple of weeks ago.
    For colleges and universities who don't have large 
hospitals or their own capacity to create tests, my advice 
would be to be a part of the state's plan because according to 
law every state submits to the Federal Government its testing 
needs for the next month. And then if its needs cannot be met 
by the state, the Federal Government will help with that. For 
example, with swabs or reagents. Admiral Giroir testified 
before our Committee that we should have 10 million tests 
capacity in the country this month, which would be about, if my 
math is right, the 500,000 tests a day that was mentioned by 
Dr. Benjamin.
    He also said that he anticipated that there would be 40 to 
50 million tests available per month by September. In addition 
to that, Dr. Collins is heading up an effort of the National 
Institutes of Health to which we call the Shark Tank which 
would create a highly competitive environment to see if we can 
find one, two, three, four new ways of creating accurate, rapid 
tests, which would be tens of millions of more tests so that 
there would be an ample supply this fall for universities.
    My advice would be, if there is a question for college or 
institution about testing, become a part of your state's plan 
and let the state look ahead and help with that. This has been 
a very helpful--now I have some words I am supposed to repeat. 
The record will remain open for 10 days. Members may submit 
additional information within that time.
    The Chairman. Thank you for being here. Our next meeting 
will be next Wednesday, June the 10th, COVID-19, going back to 
school safely. The Committee will stand adjourned.

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

       A PLAN TO SAFELY REOPEN AMERICA'S SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES
    Guidance for imagining a new normal for public education, public 
health, and our economy in the age of COVID-19
                                SUMMARY
    People across the United States are eager to return to some 
semblance of ``normal.'' To do so, we must meet a Herculean challenge: 
remaking our society and the places in our lives we hold dear--public 
schools and colleges, places of worship, workplaces, restaurants and 
more--in ways that hold paramount our ultimate priorities: the safety 
and well-being of our children, families and communities; the safety of 
our members and every frontline worker; and the health of our economy 
and economic well-being of working families.

    Physical distancing efforts have slowed the rate of COVID-19 
infections, but no expert believes we will eradicate this virus without 
a vaccine. Reopening prematurely by relaxing stay-in-place restrictions 
and resuming large public gatherings runs the risk of undoing the work 
of the last two months. A premature return to full commercial activity 
risks a second surge of infections and second lockdown as is happening 
in Singapore right now. Even once public health officials deem it safe 
to reopen, doing so without the necessary precautions could be deadly.

    This document provides a roadmap for navigating the next steps. It 
provides specific guidance for transitioning from lockdowns to other 
public health tools to limit the transmission of COVID-19. It focuses 
on reopening school buildings in particular, because the safe reopening 
of public school buildings means students can go to school, and 
parents, who work outside the home, can go to work. That is key to the 
reopening of the broader economy. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ School systems have been operating throughout this pandemic. By 
reopening schools, we mean having regularized access to school 
buildings and other physical learning and service delivery locations.

    We expect the plan to evolve and adapt over time. It rests on five 
pillars that draw on the best available science and public health 
guidance, and the expertise of educators and health practitioners. 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gradually, responsibly and safely reopening society requires:

        1. Maintaining physical distancing until the number of new 
        cases declines for at least 14 consecutive days. Reducing the 
        number of new cases is a prerequisite for transitioning to 
        reopening plans on a community-by-community basis.

        2. Putting in place the infrastructure and resources to test, 
        trace and isolate new cases. Transitioning from community-
        focused physical distancing and stay-in-place orders to case-
        specific interventions requires ramping up the capacity to 
        test, trace and isolate each and every new case.

        3. Deploying the public health tools that prevent the virus' 
        spread and aligning them with education strategies that meet 
        the needs of students.

        4. Involving workers, unions, parents and communities in all 
        planning. Each workplace and community faces unique challenges 
        related to COVID-19. To ensure that reopening plans address 
        those challenges, broad worker and community involvement is 
        necessary. They must be engaged, educated and empowered.

        5. Investing in recovery: Do not abandon America's communities 
        or forfeit America's future. These interventions will require 
        more--not less--investments in public health and in our 
        schools, universities, hospitals, and local and state 
        governments. Strengthening communities should be a priority in 
        the recovery.

    The AFT held its first press conference on COVID-19 on Feb. 2. Our 
union has worked to ensure the safety and well-being of our communities 
and our members, and we've been particularly fixated on the frontline 
workers who are risking their lives to combat this pandemic. Early on, 
we worked to alert our members and allies of the risks of an impending 
pandemic; unfortunately, the Trump Administration gave little and often 
conflicting guidance. We have remained steadfast in our efforts to keep 
people safe, while also fighting to keep our public schools and 
universities functioning, and for economic security for workers.

    There are no magic elixirs to simply reopen. Reopening demands 
comprehensive, transparent action and forthright communication by 
Federal and state authorities, and will take the dedication, voice and 
forethought of frontline providers and educators and their unions, 
school districts, hospitals, local governments and communities. The 
alignment in every school and workplace of public health, instruction 
and operations is absolutely imperative.

    COVID-19 has exacerbated the deep inequalities in our society and 
underscored the need for additional public investments to combat this 
inequity. As we face growing recessionary forces, we can't simply limp 
out of this crisis or revert to a status quo. We need a renewed sense 
of national urgency to reimagine a better America and a pathway to a 
better life for all.

    The challenges facing us should not be underestimated. For example, 
even as Governors relax physical distancing requirements (after 
observing a reduction in the number of new cases), some communities may 
not reflect the statewide trend. Moreover, each workplace faces a 
unique set of challenges for preventing the spread of the virus. 
Additionally, we must consider the possibility of a resurgence of the 
virus in the fall. Communities must be engaged, educated and empowered 
to exist under this pre-vaccine new normal.

    No one knows our public schools, universities and hospitals better 
than AFT members, many of whom will face great risks in carrying out 
their jobs. That is why our members and leaders must be at the table in 
envisioning and implementing plans to reopen our society at the local 
level.

    Our commonsense approach requires real partnerships with employers 
and community stakeholders on state and local levels. School districts, 
universities and hospitals should look to unions and the collective 
bargaining process as opportunities to provide genuine participation, 
communication and buy-in from the workers ultimately responsible for 
ensuring the health and safety of our students, patients and those we 
serve. In the absence of collective bargaining, other consultation 
processes must be established. There is no substitute for eyes and ears 
on the ground in the case of public health and safety.
   1. Maintaining physical distancing until the number of new cases 
               declines for at least 14 consecutive days.
    While projections vary, we are likely at least a year away from a 
widely available vaccine. Adherence to physical distancing protocols 
has flattened the curve, showing early signs of reducing the number of 
new cases. Flattening the curve is not a panacea; it does not mean no 
additional cases. Its goal is to reduce the number of new cases, to 
reduce illness and to ensure the healthcare system is not overwhelmed 
by critically ill patients.

    Unless and until we have adequate testing capacity, there is simply 
no way to know whether we have sufficiently reduced the number of new 
cases to consider reopening society. Once we have reduced the number of 
cases for at least 14 days with adequate testing in place, reopening 
plans can go into effect on a community-by-community basis.

    Decisions to phase in less stringent physical distancing 
requirements and to begin expanding allowable activities should be 
based on established criteria such as a sustained decline of infections 
combined with protocols for protecting high-risk populations. This must 
be coupled with a robust public health infrastructure with the capacity 
for effective disease surveillance, tracing, isolation of those 
infected and quarantine.

    While most physical distancing requirements come from state 
authorities, local decision making has a critical role to play. Even if 
a state determines that it can ease or altogether lift physical 
distancing requirements based on the 14-day trigger, the number of new 
cases in a specific community may not reflect the statewide trend. That 
is why it is critical for unions to be in regular contact with their 
employers, and with their local and state authorities, as well the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to assess their particular 
situation. Unions and employers need to determine whether there is (a) 
adequate testing in their community, given the number of confirmed 
cases, and (b) then, once there is adequate testing capacity, a 
reduction in the number of new cases for at least 14 consecutive days 
to make a decision to transition to reopening. This information must be 
transparent and available.

    Active surveillance of new cases that develop once reopening has 
started will identify clusters of disease. Prompt action must be taken 
to prevent the widespread resurgence of COVID-19 in a community. It may 
be necessary to resume sheltering in place for shorter periods of time 
in communities where there is disease resurgence, and plans must be in 
place so schools and other workplaces are prepared if they must close 
again.
2. Putting in place the infrastructure and resources to test, trace and 
                           isolate new cases.
    Transitioning from community intervention to case intervention 
requires the capacity to test, trace and isolate new cases as they 
emerge. As Governors and public health experts have repeatedly said, 
this capacity to test, trace and isolate every new case of COVID-19 
must be built now. People with confirmed infection should quarantine 
for at least 14 days (or based on the latest CDC guidance). Anyone in 
contact with confirmed cases should be traced and tested. Since there 
is ample evidence of both asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic spread, it 
is necessary to test contacts to ensure the virus is contained. In 
addition, anyone who exhibits symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should 
be tested immediately.

    Serological testing--a test that looks at people's blood for trace 
evidence of whether they have come into contact with the virus--also 
provides some hope. With serological testing, we may be able to 
identify people who have developed immunity and may be less vulnerable 
to infection. Concerns about reliability, privacy and government 
oversight warrant close consideration by unions in determining whether 
and how serological testing is appropriate for the workforces we 
represent.

    Public health departments are leading testing and tracing efforts, 
but they have been defunded for years and are stretched thin for 
resources. Estimates suggest that the United States needs to deploy 
somewhere between 100,000 and 250,000 contact tracers to adequately 
move from community intervention to case intervention.

    However, local communities cannot hold their breath for a day that 
may never come or the scale that we need. Unions, in partnership with 
employers and state and local authorities can help public health 
departments in their efforts to test, trace and isolate new cases. And 
to contribute to this effort, unions, working with employers and 
others, should also consider creating and training in-house contact 
tracers and rapid response resource coordinators. These roles would 
serve to help people with confirmed diagnoses, and provide available 
health and financial supports and resources during quarantine, to 
mitigate the isolating and other effects of the experience.

    Again, alignment of strategies, logistics and operations is 
essential. What we are facing is complicated and unprecedented. 
Testing, tracing and isolation must be done in conjunction with other 
public health tools and interventions like physical distancing, proper 
hand-washing, the use of personal protective equipment like masks, and 
other supports and services (for example, food and mental health 
services) that communities need.
3. Deploying the public health tools that prevent the virus' spread and 
    aligning them with education strategies that meet the needs of 
                               students.
    Reopening society and the economy hinges on successfully reopening 
schools. While there is general guidance on how each community should 
respond to mitigate the risk of spreading the virus, public education, 
higher education and our healthcare system each face unique challenges. 
We must take every precaution to ensure that students, teachers and 
support staff are safe at school and not transmitting the virus. This 
requires: adopting evidence-based public health measures at every 
school and workplace; aligning those measures with necessary 
instructional and well-being strategies that meet the needs of students 
and staff; and recognizing that this may be a roller coaster because it 
may be necessary to resume physical distancing at certain times and on 
a rolling basis, to address community-specific outbreaks. Even without 
COVID-19, there are many programmatic considerations for educators as 
they plan for every school year. Elementary schools programs fare 
differently from high schools, so incorporating public health measures 
takes planning and resources. The alignment of logistics, educational 
strategies and public health tools really matter, which is why the eyes 
and ears of frontline workers must be respected.

    The following framework for assessing methods for controlling 
exposure to hazards in the workplace was initially developed by the 
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and later 
modified by Johns Hopkins University in response to the COVID-19 
pandemic. \2\ It is a good starting point.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ Caitlin Rivers et al., ``Public Health Principles for a Phased 
Reopening During COVID-19: Guidance for Governors,'' Johns Hopkins 
Bloomberg School of Public Health, April 17, 2020, https://
www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/publications/public-health-
principles-for-a-phased-reopening-during-covid-19-guidance-for-
Governors.

        `  Physical distancing--Allowing people to work from home and/
        or restructuring work to minimize the number of workers 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        physically present in a workspace.

        `  Screening--Utilizing screening measures at work and school 
        sites. This could include temperature-taking, if still 
        recommended as an effective screening measure by the CDC.

        `  School-based programming and organization--Among many things 
        discussed below, redistributing work responsibilities to reduce 
        contact between people.

        `  Personal protective equipment and sanitization--Providing 
        medical-grade masks for health professionals and nonmedical-
        grade masks for all others, and disinfecting schools on a 
        regular basis, in addition to providing hand-washing and 
        sanitizing stations.
                        A. Reopening Our Schools
    First and foremost, we must do all we can to ensure students, 
teachers and support staff are safe at school and are not unknowingly 
transmitting or contracting the virus. This will require a number of 
steps that anyone who has consumed any news has heard repeatedly: 
screening and testing, contact tracing, and isolation and quarantine 
measures, as well as ongoing prevention measures like frequent hand-
washing and some degree of physical distancing. There won't be a one-
size-fits-all process, or a hard open where every school in every 
district immediately turns the lights on; we may be opening and closing 
for a number of months while we secure these measures and develop ways 
to keep everyone safe. In addition to the immediate public health tools 
and interventions, we must plan for a curriculum-based academic year, 
and for the panoply of appropriate educational and social-emotional 
supports our students need. We must be prepared for the trauma, the 
transition and the many instructional issues--including the effects of 
learning loss and the digital divide.

    Revisiting the community school model is a way to do all of the 
above. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, community schools created a 
community hub where students and families could get access to health 
services, where marginalized communities received support, and where 
necessary services were available in one place. This model is needed 
even more now, given the effects of the pandemic--from the inequalities 
that have been exacerbated, to the need for care before and after 
school so that essential workers can continue to work and other parents 
can return to work.

    If experts deem it safe, summer may be a way to start planning a 
community school model that incorporates the collaborative partnerships 
and community resources families have used, including meals and medical 
care, while schools were closed. \3\ Summer is a way to try things 
other countries are doing, including Denmark, Germany, Israel and 
Norway, which are bringing in small groups of students who need 
instruction first, including students with special needs whose needs 
were hardest to meet during closure.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ John King and Randi Weingarten, ``What Comes Next for Public 
Education?'', The Hill, April 24, 2020, https://thehill.com/opinion/
education/494521-what-comes-next-for-public-schooling.

    A voluntary multiweek summer session could provide enrichment and 
``catch-up'' time. It also would enable trying, on a smaller scale, 
protocols that may work when schools open more broadly, including 
staggered scheduling, increased hand-washing, and nightly school 
cleaning. And summer can be an opportunity to expand grab-and-go 
nutrition programs, as food insecurity remains a pressing issue for far 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
too many students.

    Now is the time for unions and employers to work on all issues for 
returning to school. This includes programming, space, operations, 
logistics, calendar, and aligning all the public health interventions 
with all the schooling interventions: ensuring students' healthy 
social, emotional and academic development; nurturing productive 
relationships; building resilience; supporting diversity and inclusion; 
and rebuilding the school community.

    While COVID-19 has upended much of our lives, it has reinforced the 
value and importance of public schooling. Teachers and school staff 
across this country continue their heroic efforts to make distance 
learning work and support their students--with many parents working 
valiantly to support them as well. This experience has made clear that 
there is no substitute for a safe and welcoming neighborhood school.

    While our public schools have been woefully under-resourced, and we 
must continue the fight to change that, this next two years is an 
opportunity to visualize what schooling looks like in a post-pandemic 
era, to ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive.

    i. School-Based Public Health Interventions

    Even after shelter-in-place orders are lifted, physical 
distancing--including limiting the number of people who can be in a 
school, a hall, an auditorium or a classroom--will play an important 
role in school safety. Physical distancing measures are the most 
effective intervention but also the most disruptive. It is a real 
possibility that even after schools open, targeted building closures 
could happen around the country in response to community outbreaks. 
That is why, even though online education is not a substitute for the 
in-person learning and socialization that happens in schools, schools 
must prepare for hybrid measures: both in-school and remote education.

    Handling emergent cases:

    Districts, in partnership with unions, will need to develop 
protocols for the referral, tracing and isolation of students and staff 
who are exhibiting COVID-19-related symptoms or with confirmed 
diagnoses. Any plan should, at minimum, include:

    Entry process/screening:

        `  Hand-washing on entry to all schools, with soap and water or 
        hand sanitizer;

        `  Screening for symptoms in children and staff, including 
        temperature-taking if recommended by the CDC;

        `  An isolation room;

        `  Clear protocols for communicating with students, parents and 
        staff who have come into close/sustained contact with confirmed 
        cases;

        `  Limiting access to the nurse's office and creating a 
        secondary area for triage for other student illnesses or 
        injuries;

        `  An ability to transfer healthcare staff to sites with more 
        cases, without diminishing support available to students 
        elsewhere in the district; and

        `  Communicating directly and immediately with parents and 
        community regarding cases and how the district responded.

    Protections for at-risk staff and at-risk students: COVID-19 
disproportionately affects people 65 and older and those with 
underlying chronic health conditions. Reopening plans should consider 
providing these workers with the option to deliver instruction remotely 
while students are in the building, with students under the supervision 
of qualified staff. At-risk students should have a similar option to 
learn remotely while their teachers and peers are in school.

    ii. School-Based Public Health Reorganization

    Prolonged physical distancing practices may prove impossible for 
certain populations. Schools serve diverse populations, from very young 
children, to students with severe behavioral issues, to others with 
physical limitations that may make strict adherence to a six-foot 
distancing standard difficult. This will require efforts to reorganize 
the school day and school operations to maintain health and safety 
standards.

    It is critical to recognize that different schools, different 
districts and even different rooms will require tailored solutions.

        `  Smaller class sizes. One of the most important measures 
        districts can take is to reduce class sizes. Class sizes of 25 
        or more students in a small classroom pose obvious risks to 
        student health and safety. Class sizes of 12-15 students will, 
        in most circumstances, make it possible to maintain physical 
        distancing protocols.

        `  Split scheduling. Alternating days of the week or times of 
        the day may offer schools a way of limiting the number of 
        students physically present in the building at any given time. 
        Knowing that split scheduling may cause disruption for parents 
        and guardians, schools should consider putting in place after-
        school care with safety protocols for students and families 
        most in need.

        `  Monitoring access to school facilities. Schools should 
        closely monitor access to school facilities and limit the 
        number of visitors granted access to school facilities.

        `  Transportation. Districts should consider modifying 
        transportation to provide staggered arrival times and multiple 
        arrival locations to limit large gatherings of students.

        `  Staggered lunch and meal times. Meals should be staggered 
        throughout the day, and schools should consider having students 
        eat in classrooms with appropriate protocols to keep the 
        classroom clean.

        `  Special student populations. Additional considerations and 
        planning will be needed for students with disabilities, 
        underlying health conditions, asthma or respiratory illness, 
        and special education requirements.

        `  Training for staff, students and parents. Districts should 
        consider providing up-to-date education and training on COVID-
        19 risk factors and protective behaviors.

        `  Alternative plans for after-school programs, sports, 
        recreation and physical fitness. These activities may need to 
        be adjusted using the above protocols.

        `  Space and time considerations. This includes the need for 
        portable classrooms or additional space if schools are 
        overcrowded.

        `  Additional supports. This includes professional development, 
        small-group instruction, and all the other social-emotional and 
        academic programmatic supports necessary during this 
        transition.

    iii. PPE and Sanitization

        `  Availability of and training on how to effectively use PPE. 
        Educators and support staff need appropriate PPE and training 
        on how to properly put on, use, take off and dispose of it.

        `  Hand-washing stations and protocol. Schools should set up 
        hand-washing stations upon entry to school buildings. Hand-
        washing recesses can be integrated into the schedule throughout 
        the day for all students and staff.

        `  Daily sanitizing. School facilities should be thoroughly 
        sanitized on a daily basis to prevent transmission of the 
        virus, increasing staff as necessary.

    iv. Mental Health Supports for Students

    Our collective response to COVID-19 requires much more than 
limiting the spread of the virus. Prolonged physical distancing, death 
and illness in our families and communities, and economic dislocations, 
will leave many students and faculty with ongoing trauma and mental 
health issues, and it is incumbent on us to meet their needs now more 
than ever. We know from brain science that lack of psychological safety 
and the impact of adverse childhood experiences impede and even prevent 
learning. These impacts will be widespread. This will require 
additional staff with expertise in mental health, to provide trauma and 
sensitivity training for all staff, students and parents. All staff 
should be trained on how to identify students struggling with trauma 
and refer them to mental health professionals for additional support.

    v. High-Quality Instruction

    Teachers and school support staff have responded to the crisis with 
verve and creativity, creating an entirely new educational delivery 
system remotely with no advanced notice and little, if any, training. 
If anything, the pandemic has proven that teachers, when given the 
freedom to teach, will rise to the occasion to deliver high-quality 
instruction to their students.

        `  Blended in-person and distance learning models. When school 
        attendance is not possible or is limited, districts could 
        consider a temporary blended model that distributes educational 
        time between in-person learning and distance learning or fully 
        remote instruction. Recognizing the dangers of excessive time 
        on devices, especially for young students, districts should 
        develop age-appropriate student learning schedules with teacher 
        input.

        `  Expanded access to broadband and technology to close the 
        digital divide. Districts should identify students and 
        educators who lack sufficient access to the internet and the 
        hardware that has become critical to distance learning, and 
        determine solutions for equal access to learning opportunities 
        for those who are unable to connect with the school digitally.

        `  Professional development. Professional development and 
        collaboration time for teachers--before the school year begins, 
        and ongoing--will be more important than ever. This should 
        include not only relevant content, but should address teaching 
        in the new instructional environment, and trauma-informed 
        practices.

        `  Rethinking student assessments. An extensive review of all 
        assessment programs to limit the loss of learning time to 
        excessive testing, and to prioritize assessments that provide 
        teachers critical information. Special effort will be needed 
        for appropriate diagnosis of students' learning levels and 
        needs given the truncated traditional school year. These 
        diagnostics should be teacher-friendly and accompanied by 
        access to relevant instructional resources and supports to fill 
        gaps.

        `  Performance evaluation. Districts should put formal 
        evaluations on hold during the reopening period until they 
        develop new expectations for the possibility of instruction 
        that alternates between in-person learning and distance 
        learning. Informal evaluation focused on helpful feedback 
        should continue.

        `  Role of data. Beyond refocusing schools on the fundamental 
        values of public schooling--a focus that has been lost over the 
        years--it is also time we repurpose the role of information and 
        data in our schools. For too long officials have used school 
        and student data solely for accountability purposes. As we 
        reopen our schools, we need to primarily use these data to 
        guide instruction, identify and share best practices, and help 
        collectively solve mutual problems.

        `  Teaching and learning. The considerations laid out above 
        must be placed in the context of the overall instructional 
        program as well as supplemental services and co-curriculums--
        all of which will require significant adjustment. Consideration 
        of the needs of students--particularly students with 
        disabilities and special needs, economically disadvantaged 
        students, and English language learners--will help ensure that 
        the program works for all.

    As the CDC guidance suggests, schools can be information hubs and 
places to practice key protocols to help stop the spread of the virus. 
We are facing a new normal, and at least in the near future, schools 
will not be the same. In the short term, this new normal requires more, 
not fewer, resources--nurses, mental health professionals, and 
additional instructional and other support. This crisis provides an 
opportunity to reimagine America's public schools as inclusive and 
welcoming places for all children to thrive and learn.

    Perhaps, out of crisis, we will put our children's and their 
educators' well-being first. That means, just as we must listen to the 
healthcare experts to help ensure everyone's safety through this 
outbreak, we must listen to frontline educators, staff and 
administrators to ensure children's new normal is one that meets their 
needs.
               B. Reopening Our Colleges and Universities
    Institutions of higher education have been essential to our defense 
against this pandemic, and they will be essential to economic recovery 
in the new era. American colleges and universities have produced many 
of the people who have helped us through this crisis--physicians, 
nurses and other frontline medical professionals, as well as supply 
chain logisticians, information technology personnel, materials science 
engineers and innovators, and more, who will be urgently needed at 
every step of what is to come.

    College campuses are, historically, exceptionally open physical 
environments, with most spaces, including buildings, accessible to the 
public virtually all day, and with a wide range of students, faculty, 
staff, community members, vendors, outside organizations and other 
people--all of whom are potential COVID-19 vectors--moving in and 
through the work site, and to off-campus locations both near and far. 
The extended duration of daily campus operations--7 a.m. to 10 p.m. 
daily is not at all uncommon--allows minimal or no window for deep-
cleaning procedures.

    All of this means that the dislocations caused by the COVID-19 
crisis pose a unique existential challenge to American higher 
education. Because of decades of disinvestment, many institutions--
public and private--are revenue-dependent, and are currently not 
situated to survive even a 10 percent or 20 percent decline in 
enrollment, or the closure of campus housing for a semester or two. 
While prospective students at elite institutions consider taking ``gap 
years,'' the students who would and should attend public colleges and 
universities are in danger of dropping out of college entirely. And 
college and university workers rightly fear that this confluence of 
factors will combine with an aggressive transition to online modes of 
instruction to result in institutional collapse.

    It is critical to remember that the higher education workforce 
skews older than average, and is, by the CDC's definition, at 
heightened risk from coronavirus. And they are, in the majority, 
struggling financially. Most teachers in higher education are gig 
workers. Seventy-five percent are employed one year or semester at a 
time. One-third of them are making less than $25,000 per year, one-
quarter of them are food-insecure, and 43 percent of them have put off 
seeing a doctor for financial reasons in the past year.

    To keep these institutions afloat, and to grow the educational 
infrastructure we will need in order to come back as a nation from the 
coronavirus, a program of investment similar to the grant program that 
has helped to stabilize small businesses in this time is needed. We 
must invest in our institutions of higher education like never before, 
with the college equivalent of Title I: $50 billion in funding to 
public institutions of higher education and minority-serving 
institutions. This money should flow through states with a formula that 
emphasizes enrollments of low-income individuals, and encourages 
greater support for institutions that derive larger shares of their 
operating budgets from state and local sources.

    Specific recommendations for our colleges and universities include:

    i. Physical Distancing

        `  Faculty must decide whether and how online instruction is 
        possible and, with the guidance of campus and public health 
        officials, how any in-person or hybrid instruction can be 
        conducted safely.

        `  As much as possible, college and university staff--both 
        professional and classified--must be afforded the opportunity 
        to continue telework.

        `  To encourage the greatest extent of physical distancing, 
        institutions must do everything possible to close the digital 
        divide for faculty, staff and students, thereby lessening the 
        need for anyone to be in shared space in order to access the 
        internet.

        `  Residential colleges and universities must implement 
        physical distancing measures for both residents and staff in 
        campus housing, dining facilities and other common areas 
        including libraries, if they remain open. Institutions should 
        consult with, or employ, public health specialists to advise in 
        an ongoing way about how to accomplish this.

        `  To prevent fear pushing faculty or students into physical 
        proximity when physical distancing could and should be 
        maintained, institutional leaders must expeditiously work with 
        institutional accrediting agencies, programmatic accreditors, 
        and union and employer sponsors of workforce training programs, 
        to assure students and faculty that the responsible movement of 
        instruction into remote/online and hybrid space will not be 
        penalized.

        `  Create and utilize campus public health teams to evaluate 
        and recommend action on potential problem areas on campus, and 
        to assess and improve the institution's capacity for testing, 
        tracing and isolation.

    ii. Campus-Based Solutions

        `  Flexible graduation requirements. Be flexible about program 
        and graduation requirements, course timelines and sequences, 
        requirements for professional certification, and other areas of 
        historic stringency that may conflict with the need for 
        physical distancing. Consider adjusting upper-level courses to 
        account for changes in the preparedness of students who have 
        taken lower-level courses online during this interval.

        `  Protections for academic freedom. Attend to academic freedom 
        and student/faculty privacy in a remote learning environment. 
        The safety of open discussion in a contained classroom could be 
        compromised by the possibility of recordings that get widely 
        circulated.

        `  Data security. Establish rules, including contract language, 
        that reassure faculty and students that corporate education 
        vendors will not be using this crisis to enhance their data 
        mining and in turn appropriate that data to expand 
        prefabricated curriculum.

        `  Prepare for ongoing disruption. To the extent an institution 
        is reopening, make and propagate plans for disruptions to in-
        person instruction caused by surges in COVID-19 cases.

        `  Protections for at-risk populations. Create and enforce 
        policy and practices to prevent replicating and worsening the 
        virus's disproportionate impact on older people and people with 
        underlying health conditions that place them at greater risk. 
        Be especially attuned to the needs of older faculty and staff, 
        or those with underlying health conditions or with household 
        members who have underlying health conditions, to be able to 
        work out of proximity to others.

        `  Adjust compensation for additional instructional time. To 
        maximize educational value and ensure compliance with physical 
        distancing, plan to pay teachers, particularly adjunct teachers 
        and graduate assistants, for the time they are asked to spend 
        meeting either in person or virtually with smaller groups of 
        students than had met in the past.

    iii. PPE and Sanitization

        `  Identify and provide appropriate PPE for employees and 
        students.

        `  Establish cleaning regimens; properly protect and train the 
        custodial staff who conduct the cleaning.

        `  Appropriately and regularly sanitize public buildings, 
        especially campus residential and dining facilities.

    iv. Physical and Mental Health Considerations

        `  Community health liaisons. Add trained nurses and counselors 
        to oversee the handling of identified cases of illness in the 
        college or university community, and to direct those in need of 
        resources.

        `  Protocol for new cases. Expand campus health resources, 
        including isolation rooms for students identified with COVID-19 
        symptoms. Establish criteria for when residential students with 
        COVID-19 symptoms, or who are diagnosed as COVID-19 positive, 
        will be excluded from regular campus activities, and identify 
        the procedure that will be followed to relocate the student 
        either on or off campus.

        `  Resources for degree completion. Strengthen and expand 
        existing programs to help students maintain continuous 
        enrollment and progress toward degrees--e.g., small-dollar 
        grant programs, transportation and child care assistance.
              C. Readying Our Hospitals and Health Systems
    The lessons of this pandemic demonstrate the dangerous consequences 
of being ill-prepared. The inability of our decimated public health 
infrastructure to handle a pandemic puts the problems with our 
corporatized healthcare system on full display. In the absence of 
widespread immunity to COVID-19, new infections could surge once 
shelter-in-place orders are lifted and society begins to reopen. 
Experts additionally talk about a possible second wave of outbreaks in 
the fall. Without a robust public health infrastructure, and absent 
enforcement of strong protective guidelines and a supportive response 
plan by the Federal Government, union leaders in the health sector must 
engage in meaningful ways of holding employers accountable.

    The gap between our public health system and private healthcare 
corporations must be addressed. A lack of transparency and a funding 
model that has starved resources from the public health system not only 
reward pharmaceutical and large healthcare corporations. They also 
establish a power imbalance that minimizes the voices of patients and 
workers in setting standards of care and in helping shape how care 
should be delivered. Notwithstanding the challenges with our current 
system, evidence-based practices, enactment and enforcement of 
protective regulatory standards, and collectively bargained terms are 
necessary to ensure healthcare workers can care for patients without 
fear of harm to themselves and their family, should a resurgence of the 
virus occur.

    Worker safety is patient safety. Our healthcare workforce has borne 
the brunt of workplace infections and deaths related to COVID-19, owing 
in large part to the crisis rationing of PPE and the diminution of 
Federal standards and guidelines that conform with the highest 
standards of patient safety. It is imperative that nurses and other 
health professionals are at the table during employer debriefs and when 
preparedness plans are evaluated and modified, to ensure our healthcare 
workforce is not working in hazardous conditions. Health and safety 
issues must be addressed before another surge in infections occurs. PPE 
supplies must be adequate in number and quality, and all staff should 
be fit-tested and fully trained for use of PPE.

    State reopening plans phasing in the return of elective medical 
procedures and routine care require a hard look at where we have failed 
to keep our patients and healthcare workforce safe. With COVID-19, 
nurses and healthcare professionals are working in conditions where 
protective measures of infection control have failed and their 
expertise and training have been overlooked. Infection control measures 
in patient care environments have necessarily been adjusted during the 
pandemic and will require ongoing adjustment as reopening occurs. 
Factors like patient flow, room setup, and visitor policies will 
influence the ability to limit transmission in clinical settings. And 
union leaders will need to press healthcare employers to ensure they 
are ready to quickly implement preparedness plans in the event of a 
resurgence.

    There is a need to stabilize the healthcare workforce, as areas 
hard-hit by the virus have seen an increased need for critical care 
nurses, but a decrease in need for other nurse specialties. Resulting 
layoffs and substantial job loss in healthcare contribute to the 
overall unemployment rates, prompting the need for effective deployment 
of our healthcare workforce; this is a key component of reopening and 
preparation for a second surge in infections. Nurses on medical floors 
with low patient counts, for example, could be trained to augment 
staffing in critical care areas where staffing numbers are low due to 
infection rates among clinicians. Rather than tactics like recruitment 
from abroad, we should first implement retraining to redeploy existing 
staff based on patient needs.

    Mending well-being and emotional resilience among the healthcare 
workforce will also be a necessity. Stressors abound for healthcare 
workers caring for acutely ill COVID-19 patients in isolation in 
hospitals and other healthcare settings. Whether related to stressors 
like employment of strict biosecurity measures, the isolation from 
family and friends, the heightened workload demands, or even the risk 
of disease, our healthcare workforce will require a period of 
reintegration--even though most of their facilities have remained open. 
The systematic failure of employers and the Federal Government to 
prepare for a pandemic resulted in an extraordinary level of 
unnecessary trauma across the healthcare workforce, and those things 
must be addressed.
 4. Involving workers, unions, parents and communities in all planning.
    There is no one-size-fits-all solution to this crisis. Rebuilding 
community after a complex public health and economic crisis necessarily 
involves thousands of people navigating recovery who are as new to the 
experience as the average person; thus, the effectiveness of our 
collective response depends on the collective action of each community. 
Communities and workers must be educated, engaged and empowered. This 
is an unprecedented situation; the eyes and ears of practitioners are 
essential to ensure that the public health, instruction and logistics 
of reopening are operationalized as seamlessly as possible.

    Schools, colleges, hospitals, and local and state governments will 
need to engage workers and community stakeholders at every level of the 
decision making process to ensure that the mitigation strategies 
embedded in reopening plans are responsive to the specific 
vulnerabilities of each workplace and that there is regular and open 
communication regarding the policies and procedures to keep everyone 
safe. Without transparency and joint decision making, there is a real 
risk of distrust, the spread of misinformation, and a lack of 
compliance with reopening plans.

    Collective bargaining is the best way to ensure that workers are 
represented in decision making and that health and safety standards are 
enforced to the benefit of workers and the communities they serve. In 
the absence of collective bargaining, workers and employers can use 
meet-and-confer arrangements to formalize reopening plans and ensure 
accountability.

    Protections for Workers and Community

    Strong, clear and enforceable workplace health and safety standards 
must be in place to protect workers' voices during the reopening 
process. Employers and joint bodies administering the phased reopening 
plans need to know where there are faults in the plan and noncompliance 
issues. In addition to OSHA protections available in some states, 
workplaces and other authorities should develop policies to protect 
workers who speak up about health and safety issues, as healthcare 
professionals are frequently subject to gag orders, and many have lost 
their jobs for speaking up about safety concerns. \4\
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    \4\ Theresa Brown, ''The Reason Hospitals Won't Let Doctors and 
Nurses Speak Out,'' New York Times, April 21, 2020, https://
www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/opinion/coronavirus-doctors-nurses-hos-
pitals.html.

    To ensure that health and safety measures are implemented, workers 
who voice concerns publicly should be protected from employer 
retaliation that could result in their discipline or dismissal. Workers 
must have the right to refuse work if they fear exposure to the virus 
because they have not been provided proper protections or training to 
do their jobs safely. The surest way to protect workers in these 
instances is to put these protections into collective bargaining 
agreements. Workers have and will face great risks in transitioning to 
reopening, and their voices should be treated as a public health 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
resource, not a liability.

    In general, unions and employers, consulting with diverse community 
stakeholders, should treat the collective bargaining process as an 
opportunity to solve problems facing school districts, universities and 
hospitals as they plan for and manage reopening. Consultation 
provisions can be built into the agreement to ensure that all parties 
are regularly discussing and solving problems as they arise.

    Collective bargaining can also be used to fight for the resources 
workers and communities need. AFT affiliates from across the country 
have been fighting for smaller class sizes, more nurses and counselors, 
safe patient staffing, resources for community schools, and other 
supports for students. Public schools should continue to be reimagined 
as community hubs--places where students and families can get access to 
community health services, be regularly educated about how to stay 
healthy, and learn where to go to receive testing and treatment. Strong 
community and family engagement has been a cornerstone of transforming 
struggling schools to support students. When practitioners and school 
administrators work together to support these efforts the results are 
even stronger and more sustainable.

    This kind of investment around a whole-community approach is what 
will not only mitigate the disproportionate harm this crisis has caused 
the most vulnerable communities, but help reverse the inequality that 
existed long before this pandemic.

    A Seat at the Table

    All community members are struggling with the fear and anxiety of 
reopening before a vaccine is widely available. In order for 
communities to trust reopening plans, they need a seat at the table to 
make decisions, and to feel engaged and empowered to help their 
community implement them.

    Reopening plans need to address specific challenges in each 
community. Some schools have a network of healthcare providers that 
deliver services to students and the school community, and others 
don't. Some universities have student populations with no home to 
return to in the event campus is closed. African Americans face higher 
rates of infection and death. Older workers and those with chronic or 
underlying conditions are at higher risk of having life-threatening 
cases of COVID-19.

    To address these issues, state and local unions should start 
planning committees now, for the next school year, and use a needs 
assessment tool to map out the risks of reopening. These committees can 
also help align the resources available across sectors--education, 
public health and public safety--to mitigate those risks. The guidance 
on the available public health tools and strategies for preserving 
high-quality instruction discussed in section three is a good starting 
point, as is any overture to invite parents and community groups to 
join you.

    The plans that come out of needs assessments not only should 
provide guidance to employers, but also should become official policy 
upon adoption by school boards and other governing bodies and/or 
included in collective bargaining agreements to ensure compliance and 
accountability. Workers and community stakeholders need the power and 
voice to enforce these reopening plans, and to make sure they work to 
fulfill health, safety and educational goals.

    Effective communication depends on a high degree of trust. Without 
the trust of workers and community stakeholders, workplaces will be 
challenged to ensure compliance with reopening plans. Communication 
before and during phased reopening must be transparent about the 
stakeholders involved in the decision making process, the factors used 
to make decisions, and the nature of the decision making process 
itself. We must remember that our communities are eager to return to a 
sense of normalcy, as they are feeling the grief of lost loved ones, 
economic insecurity due to lost jobs and incomes, and prolonged 
isolation.

    Perhaps most importantly, communication needs to be clear about the 
actions people can and must take to protect themselves and others from 
COVID-19. Employers may simply not have the ability to effectively 
communicate those actions to workers and the community at large, and 
they will need to call on the help of union and community stakeholders 
to deliver the message into the community. A ``whole school-whole 
community'' approach has been the most effective at limiting the spread 
of the virus and keeping panic at bay. The AFT has worked tirelessly to 
ensure our members and communities are properly informed.
5. Invest in recovery. Do not abandon America's communities or forfeit 
                           America's future.
    The paired crises of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting 
economic devastation make reopening the public square especially 
complex. We know we must reignite the economy, and a safe reopening of 
schools and other workplaces is a necessary step toward recovery. While 
we are eager to put people back to work, send children back to school, 
and repair the damage done to the economy and our families' well-being, 
to rush this process or fail to put in place the safeguards advised by 
public health experts will risk both a second surge of infection and an 
even deeper economic downturn.

    The toll this has taken on America's working families and our 
communities is incalculable, and the hole gets deeper with each passing 
day. This particular moment requires our Federal Government, in 
particular, to respond appropriately. In addition to what has already 
been done, a substantial and immediate Federal investment in our 
states, cities and towns is critical to ensure that we are continuing 
to respond to the pandemic, clearing the way for a safe reopening, and 
supporting our families and communities.

    A Plan to Support State and Local Governments and Other Critical 
Services: Public Schools, Public Safety, Public Health, the U.S. Postal 
Service and More

    Businesses large and small have shut down operations, and more than 
26 million workers have filed for unemployment in recent weeks, 
threatening to crater tax revenue for state and local governments. Even 
with the $2 trillion CARES Act rescue package passed in March, the 
White House predicts 20 percent of Americans will be unemployed by 
June. Governors from all 50 states have issued emergency declarations 
and taken steps to reallocate their budgets. Now, these Governors, 
Democrats and Republicans alike, are calling for the next COVID-19 
relief bill to include another $500 billion to stabilize their states 
and prevent another wave of layoffs, because they're desperate to avoid 
the cuts to public services like schools, healthcare centers and public 
safety. More will be necessary to provide for a safe reopening and 
address new needs created by this crisis.

    But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell suggested that Congress 
should let state and local governments go bankrupt, putting teachers, 
nurses, bus drivers, firefighters, EMTs and other public employees out 
of work, plundering pensions and retirement security, and plunging even 
more families and seniors into poverty. His plan would gut public 
education, Medicaid, public health services and mental health 
treatment--the essential public services that never recovered fully 
from the austerity measures imposed after the Great Recession of 2008.

    We cannot forfeit our future or abandon our communities. To survive 
as a Nation, we must help our public schools, universities, hospitals, 
state and local government, and the Postal Service provide services 
that will be more needed than ever; this will require an immediate, 
massive reinvestment in public services. The CARES Act and related 
legislation provided an important first step in a Federal response, but 
more is needed. Congress should, in the next iteration of its response, 
do at least the following:

        `  Support the National Governors Association's call for $500 
        billion in additional funds to meet the states' budgetary 
        shortfalls that have resulted from this unprecedented public 
        health crisis.

        `  Provide at least $175 billion for the Education 
        Stabilization Fund distributed directly to local education 
        agencies and institutions of higher education, with minimal 
        state set-asides, in an equitable and targeted fashion. Also 
        provide $50 billion in direct funding for public colleges and 
        universities and minority-serving institutions. Given 
        anticipated loss of tax revenues, they will need substantially 
        more Federal support to deliver crucial public services, such 
        as educating our Nation's public school students, sustaining 
        public higher education and maintaining a public service 
        workforce.

        `  Invest in voluntary summer school, after-school programs and 
        community schools that will make up for the instructional time 
        lost during the 2019-20 school year, by providing significant 
        additional funding for Title I and the Individuals with 
        Disabilities Education Act as well as additional funding for 
        high-quality, voluntary summer school and extended learning 
        time. While the full extent of the current crisis continues to 
        evolve, we already know that, despite their best efforts to 
        support students and families, our schools will be faced with 
        students who have experienced extended months of learning loss, 
        significant poverty, trauma and unmet social-emotional needs.

        `  Increase investment to close the digital divide. High-speed 
        broadband, reliable mobile service, modern technology and 
        hardware are no longer optional. They are now core 
        infrastructure needs of businesses, schools and homes. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\ Congressional Budget Office, ``CBO's Current Projection of 
Output, Employment, and Interest Rates and a Preliminary Look at 
Federal Deficits for 2020 and 2021,'' April 24, 2020, https://
www.cbo.gov/publication/56335.

        `  Substantially increase Medicaid funding, provide free COVID-
        19 testing and treatment for all regardless of immigration or 
        insurance status, and increase support for providers assisting 
        underserved populations. \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ American Federation of Teachers, ``A Decade of Neglect: Public 
Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession,'' https://
www.aft.org/sites/default/files/decade-of-neglect-2018.pdf; Trust for 
America's Health, ``Pain in the Nation Update: Deaths from Alcohol, 
Drugs and Suicide Reach the Highest Levels Ever Recorded,'' February 
2018, https://www.tfah.org/article/new-report-funding-for-public-
health-has-declined-significantly-since-the-great-recession/.

        `  Provide for the personal protective equipment, cleaning 
        supplies and other materials necessary to help our public 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
        institutions reopen safely.

        `  Cover 100 percent of COBRA health insurance premiums for 
        those workers now unemployed through no fault of their own, or 
        who lost health insurance due to the death of the carrier. 
        Ensure resources are available, and that proper testing and 
        safety provisions can be in place, before schools reopen.

        `  Permanently expand eligibility for unemployment benefits to 
        many previously uncovered workers (including the self-employed, 
        independent contractors and gig workers), and extend 
        unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks.

        `  Boost SNAP maximum benefits by 15 percent and increase the 
        SNAP minimum payment from $16 to $30. This will help provide 
        adequate nutrition assistance to meet the overall need and spur 
        economic recovery. Every day there is new evidence of the depth 
        of food hardship and economic dislocation. Each $1 of Federal 
        SNAP benefits during a downturn generates between $1.50 and 
        $1.80 in economic activity.

        `  Increase by a minimum of 15-percentage points the Federal 
        Medical Assistance Percentages, which determines Medicaid 
        spending. This increase should be added to the 6.2 percentage-
        point increase adopted in the Families First Coronavirus 
        Response Act, and increases should be retroactive to Jan. 1, 
        2020, and should last until at least Dec. 31, 2021.
        `  Cancel student debt. As a Nation, we are now paying the 
        price for our decades of neglect of the systems through which 
        collective effort once enabled us to take on herculean 
        challenges. This includes our neglect of our system of higher 
        education, which has produced fewer essential professionals 
        than we need and has, in shifting the burden of its costs to 
        individual students and families, effectively demanded lifetime 
        personal indenture of those who undertake college, graduate and 
        professional education. In the economic catastrophe we now 
        face, for its stimulative effect alone, it is time to free 
        people who have attended college of the burden of student loan 
        debt.

    Given these needs, Congress should make at least a $750 billion 
investment in state and local government to stabilize public services, 
which will help put us on a path to reopen safely and allow for a real 
recovery for all our communities. This administration spent trillions 
on a corporate tax cut in 2017; it must be prepared to invest a 
comparable amount on the anchoring institutions that have been key to 
fighting the virus and are central to any recovery plan: Public 
schools, universities, hospitals, state and local governments and the 
U.S. Postal Service provide services that will be more needed than 
ever, and we need a massive investment in them right now.

    In partnership with the AFL-CIO and partner unions, we developed 
five economic essentials to address the stark realities now faced by 
workers across all sectors:

        `  Keep America healthy--protect and expand health insurance 
        for all workers;

        `  Keep frontline workers safe and secure;

        `  Keep workers employed, and protect earned pension checks;

        `  Keep state and local governments, our public schools and the 
        U.S. Postal Service solvent and working; and

        `  Keep America competitive--hire people to build 
        infrastructure and make long-overdue investments in this key 
        pillar of the economy.

    We have all watched harrowing reports of abusive and unsafe 
conditions for essential workers in meatpacking plants \7\ and 
warehouses \8\ across the country. On April 28, AFT-affiliated nurses 
and healthcare professionals in 10 states filed 24 separate OSHA 
complaints \9\ for lack of necessary personal protective equipment 
despite their ongoing exposure to COVID-19 patients as part of their 
jobs. The president must use the power of the office to protect workers 
with the aggressive enforcement of Defense Production Act and OSHA 
standards. He must cease using the power of the presidency, his public 
press conferences and his Twitter account to endanger the lives of 
working people.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ Ken Anderson, ``Trump Orders Meatpacking Plans to Remain 
Open,'' Brownfield AG News, April 28, 2020, https://
brownfieldagnews.com/news/trump-orders-meatpacking-plants-to-remain-
open/.
    \8\ Alina Selyukh, ``Amazon Warehouse Safety `Inadequate,' N.Y. 
Attorney General Office Says,'' NPR, April 27, 2020, https://
www.npr.org/2020/04/27/846438983/amazon-warehouse-safety-inade-quate-n-
y-attorney-general-s-office-says.
    \9\ Olivia Messer, ``OSHA Complaints Flood in from COVID-19 
Frontline Health Workers,'' Daily Beast, April 28, 2020, https://
www.thedailybeast.com/osha-complaints-flood-in-from-covid-19-frontline-
health-workers.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A Progressive Economic Agenda

    With interest rates and inflation at historic lows, the Federal 
Government should continue to borrow to fulfill its role and to support 
state and local government services. It is not the time to be concerned 
about deficits. And the Federal Government should be prepared to raise 
taxes. We are trying to both save lives and ensure the quality and 
dignity of those lives. It is completely appropriate to ask our future 
selves to help pay for that. We must fund our future if we want our 
children to inherit the potential to fulfill the promise of the 
American dream.

    States also will have an important role. In Illinois and 
California, there are initiatives on the ballot this fall to raise 
revenues by asking those who have more to pay more. These are the right 
policies to pursue at the moment, and more states should look to 
emulate these efforts in the coming days. While there is an argument 
that raising taxes in a recession has an economic cost, the economic 
and social costs of cutting services and creating further suffering are 
far greater. We can afford to make these investments, we cannot afford 
to fail.
                     CONCLUSION: A LIVING DOCUMENT
    This plan to reopen our society is a living document, guided by 
constantly evolving expert advice about how best to keep our children, 
our workers and our communities safe from the continued spread of 
COVID-19 and what resources are needed to put communities back on the 
road to recovery.

    It rests on the fundamental belief that without a vaccine, we must 
take specific steps to map out our new normal, which must include: some 
elements of physical distancing; infrastructure for testing, tracing 
and isolation; deploying public health interventions in our schools and 
workplaces and aligning them with the necessary educational supports; 
involvement of workers and community in the development of reopening 
plans; and significant investments in states, localities, schools, 
healthcare and the Postal Service--the essential systems that have 
carried us through this crisis and will need continued support.

    Together, as the people on the frontlines of carrying our country 
through this crisis, we will work to carry our communities through the 
recovery that follows.
                                 ______
                                 
Purdue will require all students to be tested for COVID-19 before start 
                          of the fall semester
    WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind--As the next step to protect the health and 
safety of everyone on campus and the community, Purdue University 
announced today (July 8) that it is formulating plans to require and 
pay for all West Lafayette-bound students to be tested for COVID-19 
before moving into residence halls and attending classes this August.

    The program will be led by Dr. Esteban Ramirez, chief medical 
officer at the Protect Purdue Health Center (PPHC), and was developed 
in consultation with the Protect Purdue Medical Advisory Team. Dr. 
Ramirez is an experienced internist and clinical assistant professor at 
the Indiana University School of Medicine-West Lafayette. Under Dr. 
Ramirez' direction, the PPHC is the University's virtual health center 
launched last week to coordinate the overall workflow of COVID-related 
case management on campus.

    Through its Protect Purdue initiative, undergraduate, graduate and 
professional program students will soon be provided instructions and 
assistance on how and when to get tested for COVID-19, beginning in 
early August before traveling to campus.

    Student test results will be sent to the Protect Purdue Health 
Center, and those testing positive should not travel to West Lafayette 
or come to campus for any reason until they isolate for 14 days and are 
medically cleared to return by the PPHC.

    Failure to complete a COVID-19 test and have those results filed 
with the Protect Purdue Health Center prior to arrival will affect a 
student's ability to move into a residence hall or begin in-person 
classes when they resume on August 24. Academic support will be 
available through virtual consultations with staff specializing in 
student success to help undergraduate students navigate their continued 
academic progress if they must isolate because of COVID-19.

    For students already on campus or arriving for various early start 
programs throughout July, the University and the Protect Purdue Health 
Center are developing plans to rapidly sample and test individuals 
through a combination of resources provided by on-campus, local and 
outside partners.

    The University will cover costs of all student testing. Purdue is 
expecting a potentially record number of freshmen this fall, with a 
student body of more than 40,000 total.

    ``Our comprehensive Protect Purdue Plan affords us the unique 
flexibility and adaptability to respond to rising COVID-19 cases across 
parts of the country and help protect our Purdue community in real 
time,'' Ramirez said.

    ``We are committed to facilitating the testing of our students who 
span the Nation and the globe before they return to the residence 
halls, classrooms and West Lafayette community this August by way of 
our Protect Purdue Health Center,'' Ramirez added. ``Through these 
preventative and proactive measures, we take another important step to 
protect the student body, our faculty, staff, overall campus and 
members of the local community--particularly the most vulnerable--amid 
concerning national trends.''

    Undergraduate, graduate and professional program students: All 
students living on campus this fall will be required to be tested for 
COVID-19 and have a negative test result on file with the Protect 
Purdue Health Center prior to moving into their residence hall in 
August.

    Those students living off campus also will be required to be tested 
for COVID-19 and have negative test results on file with the PPHC prior 
to participating in an on-campus program in August or attending their 
first in-person class.

    Specific instructions will soon be provided on how and when to get 
tested for COVID-19 in August before traveling to campus, while 
allowing adequate time for processing and reporting test results before 
arrival.

    For students participating in Early Start, Summer Start and other 
programs throughout July, as well as students already at Purdue for 
work, research or classes this summer, special arrangements have been 
made to test them on campus or in collaboration with local testing 
partners.

    Faculty and staff: Faculty and staff are not required to be COVID-
19 tested at this time provided they are not sick, experiencing any 
symptoms of COVID-19, and have not been exposed to someone who has 
tested positive for COVID-19.

    All faculty and staff, particularly those working on campus this 
summer and fall, are encouraged to adhere to the components of the 
Protect Purdue Pledge, particularly monitoring and reporting any signs 
or symptoms of COVID-19 to the Protect Purdue Health Center by calling 
765-496-INFO (4636) or toll-free at 833-571-1043. The caller will be 
connected to a registered nurse case manager, who will help determine 
the appropriate course of care, which could include self-quarantine and 
a COVID-19 test.

    Integrated Monitoring and Surveillance Plan: The Protect Purdue 
Health Center, the single-point health center for all things COVID-19-
related for the Purdue community, is staffed with a dedicated team of 
physicians, registered nurses, case managers, contact tracers and 
support staff. Ramirez said the PPHC is working closely with the 
Protect Purdue Health Monitoring and Surveillance Team as well as the 
Medical Advisory Team to ensure the safety, health and well-being of 
individuals and the community.

    As the semester progresses, the Protect Purdue Health Center will 
provide ongoing case management, which will include monitoring and 
testing of both symptomatic individuals and close contacts who might 
have been exposed to positive individuals. The protocols for testing 
and contact tracing have been developed in accordance with the 
guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and 
the Indiana State Department of Health.

    When the comprehensive Protect Purdue Plan was announced on June 12 
for reopening the campus this fall, the University began the 
capabilities to rapidly assess, sample and test any student, faculty or 
staff member reporting COVID-19 symptoms and those identified through 
clinically relevant contact tracing.
                        About Purdue University:
    Purdue University is a top public research institution developing 
practical solutions to today's toughest challenges. Ranked the No. 6 
Most Innovative University in the United States by U.S. News & World 
Report, Purdue delivers world-changing research and out-of-this-world 
discovery. Committed to hands-on and online, real-world learning, 
Purdue offers a transformative education to all. Committed to 
affordability and accessibility, Purdue has frozen tuition and most 
fees at 2012-13 levels, enabling more students than ever to graduate 
debt-free. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the 
next giant leap at purdue.edu.

    Media contact: Tim Doty.
                                 ______
                                 
                           Letters of Support
                      (AAU), (APLU), (AAMC), (ACE),
                                                   November 6, 2019
Hon. Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader,
U.S. Senate,
S-226, United States Capitol,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Charles Schumer, Minority Leader,
U.S. Senate,
322 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Richard Shelby, Chairman,
U.S. Senate,
304 Russell Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Patrick Leahy, Vice Chairman,
U.S. Senate,
437 Russell Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
    Dear Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, Chairman Shelby and Vice 
Chairman Leahy:

    We represent the leading national voices for the research 
universities, medical schools, and teaching hospitals at the forefront 
of our Nation's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We thank you for 
your continuing efforts to mitigate the pandemic's harmful health, 
economic, and societal consequences. In April, we wrote to Congress 
identifying $26 billion in research relief funding needs due to 
disruptions caused by COVID-19. Today, we reiterate the urgency of that 
request and ask that the Senate provide supplemental appropriations for 
Federal research agencies of at least $26 billion in its next pandemic 
relief bill.

    COVID-19 has caused enormous disruptions to federally supported 
research and inflicted serious and detrimental impacts on our Nation's 
research enterprise. The relief that we are requesting would make 
significant strides in avoiding long-term and devastating impacts to 
Federal research which underpins the ability of our Nation's patients, 
doctors, innovation and energy industries, and farmers, ranchers, and 
fishers to have access to globally competitive, American innovations.

    Federally supported research at academic institutions and core 
research facilities utilized by agency-funded researchers has been 
disrupted, delayed, and, in some cases, indefinitely shut down. The 
research workforce is experiencing extraordinary strains during this 
crisis. It threatens to erode our Nation's scientific and technical 
expertise and talent base, which would put our competitiveness and 
security at risk. Addressing these serious threats has generated 
bipartisan support in both the Senate and the House. In the past month, 
214 Members of Congress have signed letters asking congressional 
leadership to support emergency funding to preserve the research 
workforce. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ April 29, 2020 bipartisan letter from 181 Members of the House 
to leadership requesting $26 billion in research relief for Federal 
research agencies; May 4, 2020 bipartisan letter from 33 Senators to 
leadership requesting $26 billion in research relief for Federal 
research agencies.

    This emergency relief funding is especially critical to maintaining 
and advancing U.S. competitiveness during this crisis through 
innovations supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the 
Departments of Agriculture (USDA), Defense (DOD), and Energy (DOE), the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National 
Institutes of Health (NIH), and other Federal research agencies. There 
has been an extraordinary response from academic scientists who, where 
possible, have pivoted to coronavirus research during this emergency, 
but much other onsite research has necessarily stalled due to 
widespread stay-at-home orders. Scientists have been doing what they 
can to move projects forward remotely, but with many researchers unable 
to work in their labs and fields during the pandemic, emergency relief 
funds are urgently needed at the Federal research agencies to extend 
the duration of research projects and ensure the objectives of these 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Federal research investments that have already been made are met.

    We cannot afford to lose the Nation's scientific research workforce 
at this critical juncture. At a time in which we are in a global race 
for talent, this agency funding will directly support graduate 
students, post-doctoral researchers, and early career faculty in 
completing their studies and ensure career stability for America's 
future researchers.

    We urge that at least $26 billion in emergency research relief 
funding be appropriated to Federal research agencies to support the 
research workforce, mitigate the disruptions to research and core 
research facilities, and ramp up research that has been halted or 
slowed. These funds do not expand the Nation's investment in research, 
but are desperately needed just to preserve the current investment. 
This recommendation is based on the best available information at this 
time from the Federal research agencies, the duration of the public 
health emergency and its impacts on research activities, and our 
understanding of the complexities of restarting research at research 
institutions in every state nationwide. We recommend this funding be 
apportioned to Federal research agencies, at minimum, as follows:

          Department of Defense (DOD)--$3 billion
          Department of Energy (DOE)--$5 billion
          National Institutes of Health (NIH)--$10 billion \2\
          National Science Foundation (NSF)--$3 billion
          National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
        (NASA)--$2 billion
          U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)--$380 million
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\ At a May 7, 2020 hearing of the Senate Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee, NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins NIH 
Director testified that ``The estimates are something like $10 billion 
of NIH funded-research that is going to disappear because of the way in 
which this virus has affected everybody requiring this kind of 
distancing and sending people home.'' He also indicated, ``I worry 
particularly about trainees who have lost time, who are really quite 
concerned about what this does to their professional career.'' https://
www.help.senate.gov/hearings/shark-tank-new-tests-for-covid-19.

    As part of the at least $26 billion for Federal agencies, we 
request supplemental appropriations for other Federal agencies with a 
research budget greater than $100 million, including NOAA, NIST, EPA, 
the Institute for Education Sciences, and others. Like the 
aforementioned major Federal agencies, significant research disruptions 
necessitate additional funding to these agencies to protect the 
research workforce and complete taxpayer-funded research projects. 
These estimates are based on currently available information, which 
includes an estimated duration of laboratory closures that began in 
March, continued into May, and will persist to varying degrees as 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
institutions begin ramping up research.

    Without these funds, the consequences for our Nation's university 
research and scientific enterprise are dire. Agencies will be forced to 
choose between abandoning new research opportunities of national 
importance or discontinuing existing research projects that are not yet 
completed. This would undermine the public's investment in research and 
slow discovery and innovation, while at the same time jeopardizing a 
generation of scientists and engineers critical to America's innovation 
capacity and economic competitiveness for years to come.

    Thank you for your consideration and leadership during this 
extraordinary time of crisis.

            Sincerely,
                                          Mary Sue Coleman,
                                                         President,
                              Association of American Universities.
                                           Peter McPherson,
                                                         President,
                 Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.
                                      David J. Skorton, MD,
                                                 President and CEO,
                          Association of American Medical Colleges.
                                              Ted Mitchell,
                                                         President,
                                     American Council on Education.
                                 ______
                                 
                     American Council on Education,
                                            Washington, DC,
                                                       May 29, 2020
Hon. Mitch McConnell, Majority Leader,
U.S. Senate,
317 Russell Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Hon. Charles Schumer, Minority Leader,
U.S. Senate,
322 Hart Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.

    Dear Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Schumer:

    On behalf of the organizations listed below, we express our 
appreciation for the financial support provided to postsecondary 
students and institutions in the several enacted supplemental 
appropriations acts. As you consider next steps to help America recover 
from the novel coronavirus pandemic, we write to reiterate our request 
for the additional support outlined in our April 9 letter. \1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The letter can be found at: https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/
Letter-House-Higher-Ed-Supplemental-Request-040920.pdf. Underlying 
assumptions and data used in the letter can be found here: https://
www.acenet.edu/Documents/Higher-Education-Recommendations-4th-
Supplemental-Assumptions-040920.pdf.

    As you are well aware, institutions of higher education, their 
students, and faculty and staff continue to face unprecedented 
challenges as a result of the pandemic, including dealing with 
shuttered campuses and the rapid transition to online learning, as well 
as an unwavering commitment to ensuring the health and safety of their 
entire communities. During the second half of the current school year, 
our institutions lost billions of dollars beyond the $14 billion 
appropriation for students and institutions in the CARES Act. Still, we 
are deeply grateful that Congress provided those emergency resources. 
This lifeline enabled colleges and universities to assist their most 
vulnerable students and address immediate needs related to the effects 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
of the pandemic on our campuses.

    In the April 9 letter we detailed our request for $46.6 billion to 
help address near-term campus financial needs, including increased 
need-based aid for students due to declining family incomes, and 
revenue losses stemming from enrollment declines and closures of campus 
facilities that provide auxiliary services.

    As we look to summer and the 2020-21 school year, we expect even 
greater losses. Recent surveys conducted by several higher education 
associations indicate that the $46.6 billion estimate is far lower than 
the actual impact will be. For example, in one such survey three-
quarters of institutions reported total current-year revenue losses of 
up to 20 percent, while a smaller percentage, roughly 5 percent, 
reported even higher losses. The outlook is worse for the upcoming 
year. Many more institutions believe their losses next year will exceed 
20 percent.

    As referenced in our April 9 letter, we firmly believe that direct 
distribution to institutions is the best way to ensure that Federal 
funds actually reach the students and schools they were intended to 
help. While we share many of Congress's concerns regarding the 
implementation of the CARES Act, it is equally clear that using the 
existing Federal system for providing aid to institutions is the 
fastest way to get support to where it is needed. By pairing this rapid 
disbursal of funds with statutory language that gives campuses broad 
flexibility and authority to use funds in ways that best match the 
unique needs of students and their institutions, Congress can bypass 
the kinds of bureaucratic limitations that hampered the effectiveness 
of some CARES aid. The language included in the HEROES Act effectively 
addressed this issue, and we recommend its inclusion in any future 
supplemental legislation.

    Unfortunately, Federal support for higher education has 
historically been used by states to supplement other areas of state 
budgets, leaving higher education vulnerable to massive cuts in state 
support and students vulnerable to tuition increases. In order to 
guarantee that states do not simply reduce their funding to 
institutions of higher education in proportion to new Federal 
assistance, Congress must include a maintenance of effort (MOE) 
provision as a condition of receiving funding. No state should be 
allowed to cut higher education disproportionately to cuts in its 
overall budget. Furthermore, it's critical to include an expansive 
definition of ``higher education'' that includes direct support to 
institutions and state student financial aid programs.

    Colleges and universities employ nearly 4 million people 
nationwide, and are already struggling to maintain their faculty and 
staff. Some campuses have closed, others have declared financial 
exigency, and many have furloughed employees and cut budgets further. 
In addition to massive increases in expenses and precipitous declines 
in revenues, institutions are now experiencing the effects of cuts to 
state higher education budgets, which will only get much worse. 
Additional emergency aid is critical to stabilize institutions 
financially and support students who will come to campus this fall with 
substantial unmet need. Losses of the magnitude we expect to see in the 
fall would necessarily weaken not just colleges and universities, but 
the economic health of their surrounding communities and regions.

    We appreciate your understanding of the substantial needs our 
institutions have and thank you for the support Congress has already 
provided to higher education through the CARES Act and other 
legislation. we are requesting our members understand the Federal 
Government cannot fully address all of their existing needs, and we are 
not asking you to do so. Rather, the $46.6 billion we are requesting 
will serve as a lifeline for students and campuses into the fall. We 
are proud of the innovative measures already underway as campuses 
strive to serve their students under these unparalleled circumstances 
and with limited resources, but there is only so much that can be done 
without additional Federal support, given the scope of the crisis 
institutions are facing.

    For these reasons, we look forward to working with you to ensure 
that this critical funding is included in the legislation you will be 
considering.

            Sincerely,
                                              Ted Mitchell,
                                                         President.

    On behalf of:

    Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges
    Achieving the Dream
    American Association of Colleges Nursing
    American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education
    American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions 
Officers
    American Association of Community Colleges
    American Association of State Colleges and Universities
    American Association of University Professors
    American Council on Education
    American Dental Education Association
    American Indian Higher Education Consortium
    APPA, Leadership in Educational Facilities
    Associated Colleges of the Midwest
    Association for Biblical Higher Education
    Association of American Colleges and Universities
    Association of American Universities
    Association of California Colleges and Universities
    Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities
    Association of Chiropractic Colleges
    Association of Community College Trustees
    Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges
    Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities
    Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in 
Massachusetts
    Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in New Jersey
    Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of 
Pennsylvania
    Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Rhode 
Island
    Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design
    Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
    Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities
    Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
    Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities
    College and University Professional Association for Human Resources
    Common App
    Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges
    Council for Advancement and Support of Education
    Council for Christian Colleges & Universities
    Council for Higher Education Accreditation
    Council of Graduate Schools
    Council of Independent Colleges
    Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia
    Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions
    Council on Social Work Education
    Council of Independent Nebraska Colleges Foundation
    EDUCAUSE
    ETS
    Georgia Independent College Association
    Great Lakes Colleges Association
    Higher Learning Commission
    Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
    Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida
    Independent Colleges and Universities of Missouri
    Independent Colleges of Washington
    Independent Colleges of Indiana
    Kansas Independent College Association
    Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
    Maryland Independent College and University Association
    Michigan Independent Colleges & Universities
    Minnesota Private College Council
    NAFSA: Association of International Educators
    NASPA--Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education
    National Association for College Admission Counseling
    National Association of College and University Business Officers
    National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
    National Association of Schools and Colleges of the United 
Methodist Church
    National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators
    National Association of System Heads
    National Collegiate Athletic Association
    National Council for Community and Education Partnerships
    Network of Colleges and Universities, Evangelical Lutheran Church 
in America
    New England Commission of Higher Education
    North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities
    Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
    Online Learning Consortium
    Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges & Universities
    Phi Beta Kappa Society
    Quality Matters
    Rebuilding America's Middle Class
    Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Assoc.
    UNCF (United Negro College Fund, Inc.)
    UPCEA
    WASC Senior College & University Commission
    Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
    Yes We Must Coalition
                                 ______
                                 
                    National Education Association,
                                                       June 9, 2020
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman,
Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
    Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

    On behalf of our 3 million members and the 50 million students they 
serve, we would like to submit for the record the following comments in 
connection with the June 10 hearing, ``Going Back to School Safely.''

    Physically opening schools at the beginning of the 2020-21 school 
year is the goal of most districts and states, but the decision to 
reopen must be rooted in health and safety--not driven by an arbitrary 
start date. To reopen schools safely, we will need to provide personal 
protective equipment (PPE) for students and educators; modify 
classrooms, cafeterias, and school buses to permit social distancing; 
intensify instruction and support for students traumatized by the 
impact of the coronavirus on their families and communities; and more. 
Doing so will require significant investments at a time when schools 
are facing budget cuts that are expected to far exceed those during the 
Great Recession.
                    Looming State Budget Shortfalls
    America officially entered a recession in February, according to 
the National Bureau of Economic Research. More than 40 million 
Americans are jobless. The unemployment rate is nearly 14 percent, the 
highest since the Great Depression. States and localities are 
struggling to fund public education in the face of dramatically rising 
costs and sharply declining tax revenues as consumers dial back 
spending on virtually everything except groceries and Netflix 
subscriptions.

    According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 500,000 public 
education jobs have already been lost. If the economic damage wrought 
by the coronavirus pandemic goes unchecked, nearly 2 million 
educators--one-fifth of the workforce--could lose their jobs over the 
next three years, according to a new analysis by the National Education 
Association.

    These job losses would profoundly impact the 50 million students 
who attend public schools, their families, and communities--especially 
low-income students whose schools rely on Title I funding to lower 
class sizes, hire specialists, and offer a rich curriculum. By 
comparison, 300,000 education jobs were lost during the Great 
Recession. In other words, the COVID-19 recession could be more than 
six times as bad for education as the 2008 financial crisis.
                      Students Need More--not Less
    The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on a hard truth that 
our members across the country already knew: Not all students have 
access to the educators, resources, and tools they need. It has also 
fully revealed the long-standing digital divide and exacerbated 
inequities like the homework gap--the inability to do schoolwork at 
home due to lack of internet access. Nationwide, as many as 12 million 
students are affected--roughly 1 in 5--and a disproportionate share are 
African American, Hispanic, live in rural areas, or come from low-
income families.

    To help contain the spread of COVID-19, public schools in nearly 
every state shut down and abruptly switched to online instruction, 
putting students without access to the internet at even greater risk of 
falling behind their peers. Taking into account all these factors, 
McKinsey & Company estimates that African American students could lose 
the equivalent of 10 months of learning, Hispanic students 9 months of 
learning, and low-income students more than a full year of learning due 
the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Instead of addressing these issues, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos 
has used resources provided by the CARES Act to push her failed 
privatization agenda, which has been repeatedly rejected by Congress. 
``Microgrants,'' her latest scheme, are just another name for vouchers 
that divert taxpayer dollars from public to private and religious 
schools.
                               Next Steps
    Decisions about reopening America's schools should be grounded in 
health experts' findings and recommendations, input from educators, 
access to protection, and equity--treating racial and social justice as 
an imperative, not an expendable aspiration.

    The HEROES Act recognizes this is the right approach. It includes 
$915 billion in direct relief for state and local governments that can 
be used to pay vital workers such as educators and $90 billion in 
additional education funding that could save more than 800,000 
education jobs at all levels from kindergarten to postsecondary. The 
HEROES Act would also ensure that taxpayer dollars go where Congress 
intended: to the public schools that educate 9 out of 10 students.

    To help reopen schools safely, NEA urges Congress to provide at 
least $175 billion more for the Education Stabilization Fund, at least 
$56 million in directed funding for protective equipment, and at least 
$4 billion to create a special fund, administered by the successful E-
Rate program, to equip students with hot spots and devices to help 
narrow the digital divide and close the homework gap.

    We thank you for the opportunity to submit these comments and stand 
ready to work with Congress to reopen America's schools safely.

            Sincerely,
                                                  Marc Egan
                                  Director of Government Relations,
                                     National Education Association
                                 ______
                                 
                               The Education Trust,
                                                      June 24, 2020
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman,
Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
    Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray, and Members of 
the Committee:

    Thank you for the opportunity to testify earlier this month during 
the ``COVID-19: Going Back to School Safely'' hearing. As mentioned in 
my testimony, the challenges that face us right now in terms of the 
impact that COVID-19 has had on our educational system, as well as 
students and their families, are significant, but they are not 
insurmountable. As states and education leaders consider the safest, 
most equitable way to reopen our Nation's schools this fall, it is 
clear that additional investments are needed at the Federal level to 
both stabilize budgets in the face of significant revenue loss and to 
cover the costs associated with reopening (including, but not limited 
to personal protective equipment, cleaning and sanitation materials, 
and expenses related to additional staff and services). In response to 
the Chairman's request for more information on the costs associated 
with reopening K-12 schools, as well as additional considerations that 
Congress should address as they continue to provide relief and support 
to our Nation's education system, and to state and local governments, 
The Education Trust would like to provide the Committee with the 
following thoughts and recommendations:
      Additional Federal Interventions and Investments Are Needed
    The recession induced by COVID-19 has already and will continue to 
decimate state and district revenues. On top of that, states, 
districts, and schools will face additional costs to provide the 
academic, health, and emotional support that students will need when 
they return to school. Estimates of these added costs range from $2 
million per district (which could add up to at least $30 billion) to 
$116.5 billion. The Learning Policy Institute estimates that between 
decreases in state and local revenue, and increases in expenses, K-12 
systems might need $230 billion to stabilize budgets for this fiscal 
year and next.

    In recognition of both increases in cost and reductions in revenue, 
we, along with 70 other organizations, urge Congress to provide at 
least $500 billion total in additional state stabilization funds, the 
K-12 share of which should be at least $175 billion.
  Cuts to State Budgets Threaten to Hurt Students in Schools with the 
                             Greatest Need
    The 2008 recession taught us that high-poverty districts are more 
likely to be impacted by state and local losses in education revenue. 
Therefore, it is critical that additional stabilization funding from 
Congress be distributed in a way that provides more funding for the 
highest need districts--those that serve more students from low-income 
backgrounds, have lower property tax bases from which to raise 
additional revenue, and have been more impacted by the pandemic. 
Funding should be allocated based on the share of aid received through 
the ESSA Title I formula, because that is the Federal Government's most 
efficient and equitable existing mechanism to distribute those dollars.

    States need help, and the Federal Government should step in to 
provide that support. But that doesn't diminish states' 
responsibilities to continue to invest in their public education 
systems, and to provide the resources that districts and schools need 
to provide a high-quality education for all students, particularly 
Black, Latino, and Native students, and students with higher needs--
including students from low-income backgrounds, students with 
disabilities, English learners, students experiencing homelessness or 
foster care, or students involved in the juvenile justice system. 
Therefore, additional funding to states should be coupled with stronger 
maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements than were prescribed for CARES 
Act funding, and those requirements should at the very least maintain, 
if not enhance, equity in school funding.

    Specifically, we recommend three resource equity conditions for 
states to receive additional stabilization funding:

          State Maintenance of Effort requirement to ensure 
        states are still investing in education. States must continue 
        to prioritize education, regardless of how much total state 
        budgets are impacted. Therefore, to get these additional 
        dollars, the state must show that state education spending 
        remains at least the same percentage of the state's spending.

          State Maintenance of Equity requirement to protect 
        our highest need districts from disproportionate cuts. Even 
        with additional Federal investment, it's likely that many 
        states will have to make cuts to education support for 
        districts. Our highest need districts--those serving the 
        highest concentrations of students from low-income backgrounds 
        and those with the least local wealth to make up for the cuts--
        must be spared from these cuts. Therefore, to get these 
        dollars, states must show that any necessary cuts are smaller 
        per student in the highest need districts than the rest of the 
        state.

          District Maintenance of Equity requirement to protect 
        our most vulnerable schools from disproportionate cuts. Even 
        with Federal investment, it's likely that many districts will 
        have to make cuts to their budgets. And we saw in the aftermath 
        of the Great Recession, nearly 300,000 teachers and other staff 
        lost their jobs, and the layoffs disproportionately affected 
        students of color and students from low-income backgrounds. 
        Therefore, to get these dollars, districts must show that any 
        necessary cuts--including cuts to personnel--are smaller in the 
        highest poverty schools.
 Congress Must Continue to Prioritize the Needs of Students, Schools, 
                        and States Going Forward
    As Congress continues to juggle many competing legislative 
priorities prior to the end of this session, we urge lawmakers to 
realize that the impact of this virus will be felt well beyond this 
academic year. This was the core of my message before your Committee: 
The vast majority of education equity issues that plagued our Nation 
prior to the pandemic have only been exacerbated by COVID-19. If 
policymakers do not continue to address the most pressing equity issues 
beyond this moment, with the intent to close achievement and 
opportunity gaps for students from low-income backgrounds and students 
of color, then we risk failing a generation of students. We urge this 
Committee and your Senate colleagues to also support the needed 
investments to ensure that all students can access distance learning, 
provide the essential nutritional supports so students do not go hungry 
as schools remain closed, and allocate dedicated funds to assess and 
address learning loss as students return to brick and mortar 
classrooms.

    Thank you for the opportunity to comment further on this important 
topic. The Education Trust stands ready to support your Committee and 
the Senate at large as the need to provide for our Nation's students 
during this uncertain time persists.

            Sincerely,
                                           John B. King Jr.
                                                 President and CEO,
                                                The Education Trust
                                 ______
                                 
                                 Perdue University,
                                               July 9, 2020
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman,
Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
    Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

    Thank you for the opportunity to testify on June 4, 2020 at the 
hearing ``COVID-19 Going Back to College Safely.''

    In response to the follow-up questions from members of the 
Committee related to the important topic of the hearing, I submit for 
the record the ``Protect Purdue Plan,'' released after the hearing on 
June 12, 2020. The plan outlines in great detail how Purdue is 
preparing to welcome students this fall, while protecting those most 
vulnerable in our campus community. And, just this week we added to our 
plan a means to require and pay for all West Lafayette-bound students 
to be tested for COVID-19 before moving into residence halls and 
attending classes.

    While I wouldn't presume that Purdue's approach will be a perfect 
fit for every college and university, the principles of our strategy 
should have broad appeal. In summary, those principles are:

        1. Expect each Boilermaker to assume personal responsibility to 
        ``Protect Purdue--myself, others, our Purdue community.''

        2. Implement personal health safety practices and protocols.

        3. Enact health safety changes in physical spaces.

        4. Offer a range of instructional options for students and 
        faculty.

        5. Identify and protect the most vulnerable members of the 
        Purdue community.

        6. Engage our stakeholders with consistent, compelling and 
        timely communication and clear guidance.
        7. Advance our research mission in a safe and responsible way.
        8. Anticipate and plan for contingencies.

    With critical research operations ramping up on our campus, 
preparation for our annual freshman orientation, Boiler Gold Rush, just 
40 days away and classes beginning shortly after, the entire campus is 
working overtime to ensure a safe return for students and staff. Our 
Protect Purdue Plan is a comprehensive review that should answer every 
question relevant to the hearing topic while allowing our team to stay 
focused on the important mission ahead of us. Again, thank you for 
allowing me the opportunity to share our perspective and for your 
service to our great nation.

            Best,
                                   Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
                                                          President
                                 ______
                                 
                     American Council of the Blind,
                                              June 17, 2020
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
    Dear Chairman Alexander:

    I am writing on behalf of the three undersigned blindness advocacy 
organizations: the American Council of the Blind, the Association for 
Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, and 
the American Foundation for the Blind. The following are comments based 
on the June 10, 2020, U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions 
Committee hearing entitled ``Going Back to School Safely.'' These 
comments briefly discuss issues significant to the blind community that 
must be considered when reopening schools in the fall of 2020.

    When reopening schools this fall, several considerations for blind 
and visually impaired students must be taken into account. Although the 
blind community accounts for only a small population of students, 
without considering the accommodations they may need, it is likely they 
may fall through the cracks.

    First, social distancing is an important consideration for all 
students in public schools; steps need to be taken to prevent the 
spread of the virus. However, special considerations for blind and 
visually impaired students must be thought out. When working with young 
blind and visually impaired students, social distancing can present 
extra challenges. For instance, if a teacher of the visually impaired 
(TVI) is teaching a student how to read and write braille, situations 
exist where actual hand-on-hand instruction is necessary. Thus, unique 
policies and procedures should be considered for these specific 
situations. In such settings, an extra emphasis on the procurement and 
use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for both the student and 
teacher is essential. Blind students also touch more surfaces; they use 
their hands to find things like doors or stair handrails. Thus, 
cleaning policies must be implemented and practiced religiously.

    Funding is another critical need as states begin to determine how 
to reopen school in the fall of 2020. The presenters during the hearing 
effectively communicated the various problems that have impacted school 
districts' funding, making additional funding essential to reopen 
schools. In addition, more funding is needed for the specific 
educational needs of blind and visually impaired students. Technology 
has been, and will continue to be, a significant need during the 
pandemic. If students receive any level of remote learning, whether 
full-or part-time, laptops and other platforms are necessary to carry 
out remote teaching. Such technology costs money. School districts 
often have to provide students with laptops or other kinds of devices. 
But when supplying a blind or visually impaired student with the same 
technology, additional software is often necessary. For instance, if 
students are supplied with a basic PC, additional software that costs 
about $1,000 is needed to enable the blind student to use the computer 
independently. While discussing the distribution of electronic devices, 
it must also be known that many devices are inaccessible for blind or 
visually impaired users. Some tablets, for instance, are not designed 
with accessibility functions. This prevents blind students from using 
them independently. Sometimes, an alternative device can be provided. 
However, this causes the student to use a completely different product 
and makes working alongside their classmates difficult. Senator Murray 
emphasized the necessity of an equitable education for all students. 
The digital divide is a barrier to such equity.

    Another example of inaccessibility can come via the use of 
alternative methods of teaching. Penny Schwinn was cited as promoting 
the use of television programming, such as PBS, as an alternative 
teaching method. However, to be fully equitable for blind and visually 
impaired students, audio description must be provided for all programs 
used for educational purposes. Without such description, the child will 
not fully participate in the educational process; without description 
of the scenes on TV, the students miss out on ideas and concepts.

    Several of the panelists touched upon the need for extra in-person 
time for students with disabilities. This is an important topic to 
consider. Again, students who are blind often require hands-on 
instruction. Although TVI's have been known to be extremely creative 
when working with students remotely, education will be more effective 
if provided in-person. However, such practices should not override 
health and safety. Thus, states must get creative to find ways to work 
with students with disabilities on a more regular basis without 
exposing them to the coronavirus.

    It must also be stressed that waivers to the Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) should never be considered when 
planning how to return to school in the fall. Accommodations for 
students under IDEA are essential for disabled students to receive a 
free and appropriate public education (FAPE). It may be easy to think 
that finding ways to lessen the responsibilities of school districts 
will help schools get back on their feet more quickly. But in doing so, 
a whole community of students will be negatively impacted. The 
presenters acknowledge that almost all students will be behind in some 
way because of the changes presented by COVID-19. Waivers to IDEA will 
only exacerbate the level at which students will fall behind.

    Finally, presenters proposed diagnostic testing for students in the 
fall to examine where students stand after the multitude of changes 
this spring and summer. Testing does appear to be an important tool in 
getting students back on track. However, the process of testing blind 
and visually impaired students comes with its own set of challenges. 
For instance, the process of getting the tests in braille or large 
print can often be difficult for school districts, causing the students 
to lag behind. Thus, when diagnostic tests are being put into place, 
the challenges that accompany the implementation of such tests must be 
thought out far in advance.

    Thank you for the opportunity to offer our comments. If you have 
any additional questions, please contact Claire Stanley.

            Sincerely,
                                             Claire Stanley
                                  Advocacy and Outreach Specialist,
                                     American Council of the Blind.
                                             Stacy Cervenka
                                           Director, Public Policy,
                                 American Foundation for the Blind.
                                               Mark Richert
                                        Interim Executive Director,
     Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and 
                                                 Visually Impaired.
                                 ______
                                 
                    Americans for Financial Reform,
                                               June 3, 2020
Hon. Lamar Alexander, Chairman,
Hon. Patty Murray, Ranking Member,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
    Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

    As our Nation struggles to emerge from the first phase of the 
COVID-19 pandemic and attempts to safely resume a broad array of 
economic activity, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has aggressively 
lobbied Congress to immunize businesses from legal liability if they 
carelessly risk coronavirus infection for employees or customers and it 
results in harm. \1\ Lobbyists representing higher education, led by 
the American Council on Education, are also now asking for immunity 
from liability. \2\ The undersigned organizations representing 
students, consumers, and workers strongly oppose proposals to immunize 
colleges because it would remove accountability for those that engage 
in careless actions that make their students or workers sick. If 
students or workers contract COVID-19 due to bad practices by a college 
or university, those harmed deserve the right to seek justice.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Implementing a National Return to 
Work Plan: Resolution of Regulatory and Legal Liability Issues 
(Accessed on June 3, 2020); https://www.uschamber.com/coronavirus/
implementing-national-return-to-work-plan#liability; https://
www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/05/06/851262646/as-
businesses-reopen-a-fight-is-brewing-over-worker-safety-lawsuits.
    \2\ American Council on Education, Letter to Congress Requesting 
Immunity from Liability (2020); https://www.acenet.edu/Documents/
Letter-Congress-pandemic-liability-052820.pdf.

    Each year, students and families will pay or finance hundreds of 
billions of dollars in higher education expenses. \3\ The decision to 
pursue higher education is often one of the largest financial decisions 
an individual or family will make in a lifetime. Amid unprecedented 
uncertainty about when and how colleges will safely resume educating 
tens of millions of people, current and prospective students and their 
families need to be able to trust that their college will act 
reasonably to keep them safe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ National Center on Education Statistics, Fast Facts: 
Expenditures (Accessed on June 3, 2020); https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/
display.asp?id=75.

    Immunity from legal liability could empower the worst actors in the 
higher education sector to gamble with students' lives. For example, 
Liberty University, a member of the higher education lobbying group 
that has been a leading proponent of creating this immunity, \4\ has 
already ignored recommendations by public health officials and reopened 
its campus, placing thousands of students at risk. \5\ As could have 
been predicted, Liberty's students quickly fell ill. \6\ If lawmakers 
bestow legal immunity on the higher education sector, it would validate 
such reckless decisions and encourage others to similarly ignore basic 
steps that would help keep students and workers safe.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\ American Council on Education, Membership Directory (Accessed 
on June 2, 2020); https://www2.acenet.edu/crm/members-directory/.
    \5\ Noor, P., `It is ungodly': students react to Liberty University 
reopening, THE GUARDIAN (March 31, 2020);https://www.theguardian.com/
us-news/2020/mar/31/liberty-university-reopening-coronavirus-jerry-
falwell-jr.
    \6\ Arciga, J., Nearly a Dozen Liberty University Students Sick 
With Coronavirus Symptoms After Falwell Reopened Campus, THE DAILY 
BEAST (March 29, 2020); https://www.thedailybeast.com/nearly-a-dozen-
liberty-university-students-sick-with-coronavirus-symptoms-after-
falwell-reopened-campus.

    As Congress considers lobbyists' demands for immunity, lawmakers 
should also evaluate any potential action in the context of past abuses 
by many of the worst actors in higher education. In the wake of the 
last recession, for-profit colleges aggressively marketed themselves as 
a refuge from a weak labor market. \7\ Instead of delivering on 
promises of financial success for students and alumni, many of the 
largest schools pursued brazen schemes to defraud students by peddling 
bogus job placement statistics and false claims about the economic 
value of these degrees. \8\ Years later, after saddling borrowers with 
billions of dollars in debt and driving money back to executives and 
investors, some of these schools collapsed under the weight of their 
own lies and abuses. \9\ Others that survived converted to private, 
nonprofit status, blending into the ranks of the schools now lobbying 
for this unprecedented legal protection. \10\ Common across the most 
predatory schools during the prior era: a relentless drive to exploit 
economic anxiety and upheaval in pursuit of revenue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\ U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, 
For Profit Higher Education: The Failure to Safeguard the Federal 
Investment and Ensure Student Success (2012);https://
www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/for-profit-report/PartI.pdf.
    \8\ Kamenetz, A., Corinthian Colleges Misled Students On Job 
Placement, Investigation Finds (November 17, 2015); https://
www.npr.org/sections/ed/2015/11/17/456367152/corinthian-misled-
students-on-job-placement-investigation-finds.
    \9\ Douglas-Gabriel, D., Feds found widespread fraud at Corinthian 
Colleges. Why are students still paying the price?, THE WASHINGTON 
POST; https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/09/29/
feds-found-widespread-fraud-at-corinthian-colleges-why-are-students-
still-paying-the-price/.
    \10\ Shireman, R. These Colleges Say They're Nonprofit--But Are 
They? THE CENTURY FOUNDATION (August 24, 2018); https://tcf.org/
content/commentary/colleges-say-theyre-nonprofit/.

    The recent bipartisan Congressional Review Act vote rejecting the 
Trump Administration's ``Borrower Defense'' rulemaking was, in part, a 
rebuke of an effort by the Department of Education to restore schools' 
authority to use forced arbitration to block access to the courts. This 
regulatory maneuver was similarly intended to shield predatory schools 
from liability for their abuses. If granted immunity now, lawmakers 
would be inviting bad actor schools to exploit students and employees 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
in the midst of this pandemic, putting their lives in jeopardy.

    Our concerns extend beyond the health and safety of the millions of 
students. Colleges and universities are some of the largest employers 
in their communities, employing more than four million people 
nationwide. \11\ These workers include not only faculty and 
administrative staff, but also healthcare providers, food service 
workers, and the cleaning and maintenance workers responsible for 
reopening campuses across the country. Last month, a wide array of 140 
organizations representing workers, consumers, and seniors wrote the 
Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose immunity proposals, explaining 
that the Federal Government ``has substantially stepped back from its 
role to protect the health and safety of workers during this pandemic, 
and is dangerously relying on employers to self-police. Under these 
circumstances, the specter of unsafe workplaces is a significant 
concern . . . . Immunity would only exacerbate these problems.'' \12\ 
These very same concerns apply no less to colleges.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ National Center for Education Statistics, Enrollment and 
Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2017 and Financial 
Statistics and Academic Libraries, Fiscal Year 2017 (January 2019); 
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019021REV.pdf.
    \12\ Public Citizen et al., Letter to U.S. Senate Judiciary 
Committee Opposing COVID Immunity for Businesses (May 12, 2020); 
https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/Covid-Coalition-Letter-to-
Senate-Judiciary-final-5-12-2020.pdf.

    For more than a decade, schools have increasingly outsourced 
essential functions to independent contractors that employ 
predominantly low-income workers. These workers are also among the 
communities hardest hit by the public health effects, communities of 
color. For example, in a 2018 survey of food service workers at the 
City University of New York, 96 percent identified as a person of 
color. \13\ Almost 50 percent were living below the Federal poverty 
line for a family of two. \14\ Limiting corporate liability and 
enacting widespread immunity will subject these workers, who are 
already most at risk, to being forced to either return to potentially 
unsafe environments or face longer term unemployment consequences. Over 
the past few months, too many struggling workers have had to make the 
impossible trade-off between their health and their financial security. 
We should not add to an already devastating crisis by allowing more 
companies and schools to make these decisions with impunity then 
removing the only recourse of those who are harmed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\ Retail Action Project, Struggling to Feed Their Own Families: 
A Survey of CUNY's Food Service Workers (2018); https://
d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/rwdsu/pages/390/attachments/original/
1522074292/CUNY-report.pdf?1522074292.
    \14\ Id.

    Students depend on schools to make responsible decisions that 
protect the health and safety of their campuses and communities. 
Students lack the power to dictate the terms on which colleges will 
demand a return to academic life, potentially forcing students to 
choose between pursuing a higher education and staying safe. Students' 
and workers' access to justice offers a critical counterweight to the 
economic pressure that may drive colleges to reopen too quickly and 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
hastily, without proper attention to health and safety.

    For these reasons, we urge you to reject higher education 
lobbyists' demands to grant immunity from legal liability to colleges 
and universities. To discuss the concerns outlined in this letter, 
please contact Alexis Goldstein at Americans for Financial Reform or 
Mike Pierce at the Student Borrower Protection Center.

    Americans for Financial Reform
    Autistic Self Advocacy Network
    Center for Responsible Lending
    Clearinghouse on Women's Issues
    Consumer Action
    Consumer Federation of America
    Consumer Federation of California
    Consumer Reports
    Consumer Watchdog
    Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety
    Demos
    Education Reform Now Advocacy
    Hildreth Institute
    Housing & Economic Rights Advocates
    Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc.
    National Consumer Law Center (on behalf of its low-income clients)
    National Indian Education Association
    PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts)
    Project on Predatory Student Lending
    Public Justice Center
    Public Law Center
    Robert Shireman, Director of Higher Education Excellence, The 
Century Foundation
    SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center
    Service Employees International Union
    The Collaborative
    The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS)
    THE ONE LESS FOUNDATION
    U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG)
    UNITE HERE
    VOICE-OKC
    Women's Rights and Empowerment Network
    Student Borrower Protection Center
                                 ______
                                 

                         QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Responses by Georges Benjamin, to Questions of Senator Collins, Senator 
               Sanders, Senator Casey, and Senator Rosen.
                            senator collins
    Question 1.

    Three quarters of the programs offered at Maine's community 
colleges are the only ones of their kind in the state, and the vast 
majority (71 percent) of Maine's community college students, are 
enrolled in career and occupational programs, many of them hands-on in 
nature. By definition, these skills-based programs--such as for auto 
mechanics, CNAs, machinists, radiological technicians, the culinary 
arts--have a necessary face-to-face component where physical distancing 
is very challenging, or may not be possible. This type of coursework 
has been critical to ``up-skilling'' our workforce. How should 
community colleges respond both to safety concerns as well as the 
overwhelming need for the workforce training they offer?

    Answer 1. These are indeed classes that do not lend themselves 
easily to a fully virtual environment because of the hands-on component 
and would rank in the highest risk category as defined by the U.S. 
Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (e.g. Highest Risk: Full-sized 
in-person classes, activities, and events. Students are not spaced 
apart, share classroom materials or supplies, and mix between classes 
and activities). The goal should be to reduce the risk by creating 
hybrid training whenever possible and by implementing additional risk-
reduction strategies when students must be together in class because of 
the hands-on component of their education. I would suggest moving the 
lecture component of the training, and any demonstrations that can be 
done virtually, to a virtual environment whenever possible. In many of 
these classes there is an observational component that can be moved to 
a remote or larger classroom environment to accommodate substantial 
physical distancing. Also, there is the opportunity to adopt virtual 
reality experiences for some of these classes. Schools could partner 
with engineering or computer divisions of schools to conduct these 
classes. For example, some medical schools have gone to virtual reality 
experiences for some traditional classes such as physical examination, 
procedural skills and anatomy. There is no substitute for the real-life 
experience, but this will provide students the opportunity for a 
repetitive emersion experience with no risk of infection. When the 
students do have to get together for the hands-on component, I 
recommend three key risk reduction tools: smaller class sizes with as 
much physical distancing as possible; mask wearing; and offering 
frequent hand hygiene opportunities. These recommendations are in line 
with the spirit of the CDC guidelines.

                            senator sanders
    Question 1.

    As a public health scientist and professional, you stated that 
colleges and universities have a role in ``community mitigation'' and 
``risk reduction'' when opening campuses during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
You also said to assume there will be people on campus infected with 
COVID-19 and that the academic institution and the public health agency 
should agree on a testing strategy and plan. In addition, you said that 
COVID-19 has demonstrated a disproportionate impact on some 
populations, in particular African Americans and Hispanics, and that 
institutions should assure equity in education whether on campus or by 
distance learning. What is the American Public Health Association 
(APHA) doing to develop standards and best practices, especially 
addressing the unique needs of at risk populations that could be useful 
to institutions as they prepare to open campuses? How can Congress help 
APHA develop those standards into Federal guidance, and would Federal 
funding be needed to ensure that institutions understand the guidance 
and can promptly implement it to ensure the health and safety of 
students, faculty, staff and guests on campus?

    Answer 1. There are an amazing number of expert groups that are 
creating standards to supplement the CDC guidance. Many of these expert 
groups include APHA members. We have been curating these tools and 
resources and have shared them on our website for many of them that we 
believe are of the best quality. It includes the CDC guidance but also 
several more. The page can be found at https://www.apha.org/topics-and-
issues/communicable-disease/coronavirus/guidance.

    Question 2.

    According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state 
revenues are declining precipitously, and costs are rising sharply, 
with many businesses closed and tens of millions of people newly 
unemployed. In addition, states will worsen the recession if they 
respond to this fiscal crisis by laying off employees, scaling back 
government contracts for businesses, and cutting public services and 
other forms of spending. Based on your discussions with state public 
health officials, do you expect that the loss of state revenues will 
negatively impact the ability of states to help colleges and 
universities prepare to open their campuses during the COVID-19 
pandemic, placing the burden on students, faculty and staff to ensure 
their own health and safety on campus? What is APHA doing to work with 
state public health officials to ensure that states will commit the 
financial resources necessary to ensure the health and safety of 
college campuses?

    Answer 2. We believe that, just as in past recessions, state and 
local public health agencies will lose operating capacity through 
hiring freezes and local job losses. Emerging fiscal shortfalls at the 
state and local levels run the risk of this happening right in the 
middle of this pandemic further complicating the Nation's ability to 
respond. We are already experiencing layoffs in the private healthcare 
sector. This is a critical problem as states and local public health 
agencies need to ramp up their testing and contact tracing capabilities 
in order to respond to the recent surge of infections as we reopen 
society. APHA has been advocating for Federal funding for public health 
and raising awareness for further support at the state and local level. 
Specifically, We have advocated for increased funding for public health 
infrastructure as well as the creation of and funding for the public 
health workforce loan repayment proposal currently under debate in 
Congress.
                             senator casey
    Question 1.

    Student behavior on campus and compliance with social distancing 
guidelines and enhanced safety protocols will be key to reopening and 
maintaining safe operations. What we have learned over the last several 
months is that safety is not only about our own risk, but about the 
risk to the broader community, especially as evidence mounts that there 
is a significant amount of asymptomatic transmission occurring. What 
are the precautions and considerations necessary to ensure the safety 
of not only students, faculty and staff, but the broader communities in 
which they engage?

    Answer 1. It is essential that colleges and universities conduct 
their planning in concert with the local communities in which they 
reside. By aligning policies and procedures with the broader community, 
and closely consulting with the local and state health authorities, 
higher learning institutions can be sure that an infected individual 
anywhere (on-or off-campus; student or not) is identified and offered 
sound medical advice and care for both themselves and their contacts. 
This would include appropriate isolation and quarantine guidance.

    Question 2.

    Affordable and readily accessible personal protective equipment, as 
well as testing and contact tracing mechanisms are key to making a safe 
return on campuses. Dr. Benjamin, in your estimation, will these 
components be readily available by the fall to ensure that campuses, 
representing nearly 20 million students, can safely reopen? What are 
some of the additional metrics colleges should consider as they make 
these determinations?

    Answer 2. The nation is still on the edge of having adequate 
supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) today. While I 
anticipate supplies will increase, the entire nation will be competing 
for these supplies as we ramp up our return to near normal activities. 
That means the availability of gloves, masks and PPE relevant to the 
work environment will be an urgent issue for both the health sector and 
schools at all levels (daycare, elementary and secondary). I am unsure 
whether we have adequately thought through the supply chain issues 
involved to ensure an adequate supply of PPE. Congress should ask the 
administration for a plan that estimates the need for PPE at full 
reopening of our society and to identify any gaps. Then we need to 
ensure all colleges and universities are fully resourced for their PPE 
needs. The last thing we need as a nation is for our students to get 
sick because we don't have the PPE to protect them in school. Schools 
should evaluate and secure their supply lines for PPE for both their 
campus health systems and for other campus workers whose daily jobs 
require specific PPE.

                             senator rosen
    Question 1.

    The Nevada System of Higher Education has three separate groups 
focused on preparing to safely re-open campuses this fall. One of 
these--the COVID Reopening Task Force--includes students, medical 
personnel, education leaders, and public safety staff, who are all 
reviewing various plans and providing recommendations to the 
Chancellor. At this point, our schools are planning to re-open in the 
fall, but with various modifications, including: no large lectures; a 
mix of remote and in-person instruction; single-occupancy dorm rooms; 
and increased cleaning, testing, and tracing. Each of the schools are 
also consulting with health and education experts in order to follow 
best practices.

      What education and health experts do you consult with on 
best practices when determining whether and how to reopen?

    Answer 1. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 
remains the best and most informed agency in the county on these 
issues. We will also be reviewing the findings from the National 
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which has an expert 
committee looking at school guidance for K-12. This study is expected 
to be completed by the end of July. Some of their findings may be 
useful for higher education as well.

    Question 2.

    It is absolutely critical that we ensure the health of our students 
and faculty is protected as colleges and universities navigate how to 
move forward with their important role in fostering new ideas, 
educating our future workforce, and conducting critical research. We 
also need our institutions of higher education to continue to be strong 
partners with our health care system as we work to fight COVID-19, and 
also look for new ways to engage. In Nevada, we have seen our colleges, 
universities, and researchers go above and beyond. Just a few examples: 
the UNLV School of Medicine in Las Vegas jumped in to provide curbside 
testing early on; UNR in Reno has been researching new ways to address 
COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment; and the Desert Research Institute is 
leading public health research to map spread of the virus, risk, and 
exposure. We've heard of engineering departments using 3D printing to 
make masks and swabs, and students creating new programs to bring 
groceries to homebound seniors. The list goes on.

      I'd like to hear about how else our institutions of 
higher education can adjust their focus to help meet the future public 
health, medical, and related workforce needs to address both the 
current pandemic and the disparities in our health care system that 
have been laid so bare through this crisis.

      This crisis has really highlighted how critical 
investment in our public health system is. What other resources, tools, 
or guidelines are needed to ensure the safety of students and faculty 
in the unique environment of a college campus, while also leveraging 
the knowledge and creative problem-solving that comes from these 
critical institutions?

    Answer 2. The public health system in America is a Federal, state 
and local partnership. This issue has been studied many times and has 
had numerous reports written on what the solutions are. Accompanying 
this has been the lack of national leadership at the Federal level with 
the mandate to build it [a robust public health system] and the 
commitment of policymakers at all levels to sustain it. The nation must 
invest in a state-of-the-art public health system now if we are going 
to avoid a repeat of the COVID-19 experience and its economic 
consequences. As I stated in my testimony, In addition to urging 
Congress to adequately fund CDC through the annual appropriations 
process, we are urging Congress to provide $4.5 billion in additional 
long-term annual mandatory funding for CDC and state, local, tribal and 
territorial public health agencies for core public health 
infrastructure activities. We are also calling on Congress to 
appropriate funding in fiscal years 2020 and 2021 for the public health 
workforce loan repayment program authorized in the HEROES Act. 
Providing funding for this important program will help incentivize new 
and recent graduates to join the governmental public health workforce, 
encourage them to stay in these roles, and strengthen the public health 
workforce as a whole.

    Question 3.

    According to the latest data provided by the National Center for 
Education Statistics, close to 20 percent of students attending 
institutes of higher education have at least one disability that 
impacts the way they learn. While colleges and universities have done 
much to ensure student learning continues in the wake of the pandemic 
by transitioning to online learning platforms, students with 
disabilities may encounter increased barriers in their pursuit of 
academic success at no fault to the institutes themselves. Students 
with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder may struggle with 
prolonged online sessions. Students who are hearing impaired or have 
auditory processing deficits may have difficulty communicating with 
other students when closed captioning is not available in video 
conferences or in streaming lessons, especially when they rely on an 
American Sign Language interpreter or reading lips. Furthermore, 
students with physical disabilities may not have access to the 
assistive technologies needed to successfully complete their 
coursework. Institutes of higher education have worked hard to support 
this sudden transition to virtual learning for all students, but this 
pandemic has had unintended hardships, particularly for those students 
with disabilities.

          How can we ensure that all students can continue to 
        be supported in their educational endeavors, whether physically 
        in the classroom or virtually through distance learning, even 
        beyond the pandemic?

    Answer 3. Ensuring that all students have equitable access to a 
quality education should be a top priority of the U.S. Department of 
Education as well as the colleges and universities themselves. We 
really need to better understand how to meet the needs of individual 
students to enable them to fully participate in our educational systems 
in this evolving educational environment. We should anticipate that we 
will need to craft new and more innovative technologies as well as 
educational funding streams (Federal, state and local) to support them.
                                 ______
                                 
 Responses by Logan Hampton, to Questions of Senator Collins, Senator 
Scott, Senator Warren, Senator Baldwin, Senator Sanders, Senator Casey, 
                   Senator Murray, and Senator Rosen.
                            senator collins
    Question 1.

    Three quarters of the programs offered at Maine's community 
colleges are the only ones of their kind in the state, and the vast 
majority (71 percent) of Maine's community college students are 
enrolled in career and occupational programs, many of them hands-on in 
nature. By definition, these skills-based programs--such as for auto 
mechanics, CNAs, machinists, radiological technicians, the culinary 
arts--have a necessary face-to-face component where physical distancing 
is very challenging, or may not be possible. This type of coursework 
has been critical to ``up-skilling'' our workforce. How should 
community colleges respond both to safety concerns as well as the 
overwhelming need for the workforce training they offer?

    Answer 1. As President of Lane College, a Historically Black 
College and University, I do not believe that I am the expert on the 
needs and challenges of community colleges. However, if I look at this 
question in the lens of my own institution, I believe that the safety 
of the students, faculty, and staff are the utmost concern. On my 
campus, we are putting processes in place to ensure that programs that 
rely more on hands-on learning are able to be offered in the Fall with 
the proper safety measures in place. For instance, preparing for our 
FastStart model (face-to-face), Lane College has designed each 
classroom such that the instructor will be 10 feet from the students 
and students will be 6 feet from one another. While yet exploring how 
we will deliver choral instruction, faculty propose that the director 
will stand behind a barrier and the students will wear masks and 
shields during rehearsal.
                             senator scott
    Question 1.

    In the past few years, we have seen an unprecedented show of 
support from Congress and the Administration for HBCUs. Last year, the 
Senate unanimously approved the HBCU PARTNERS Act, which promotes 
partnerships between HBCUs and Federal agencies. Congress also passed 
the FUTURE Act, securing permanent funding for HBCUs and other Minority 
Serving Institutions (MSIs). As a response to the devastating impacts 
of COVID-19 pandemic, we directed more than $1 billion in CARES Act 
relief funding to HBCUs and other MSIs. From my conversations with Dr. 
Artis, president of Benedict College, broadband access remains a major 
hurdle for far too many students and schools, particularly in rural 
areas. I, along with several of my Republican colleagues, have drafted 
a letter requesting support and consideration for broadband access to 
bolster the technological infrastructure that could ensure a successful 
reopening this fall. The letter also highlights the unique opportunity 
that HBCU's have to combat the COVID-19 pandemic's devastation on 
communities of color.

    (A) Mr. Hampton, how can the Administration and Congress help your 
school, as well as other HBCUs and MSIs, strengthen the technological 
infrastructure that allows these institutions a continuous opportunity 
to contribute to American innovation?

    Answer A. As I indicated in my testimony, the next stimulus bill to 
be passed by the House and Senate should include a technology fund to 
allow institutions and students to access broadband. Technological 
infrastructure is very important to ensure a successful start to the 
Fall semester and my institution, along with other HBCUs, are in need 
of additional resources to make this possible.

    The CARES Act gave our institutions the ability to utilize 
resources to purchase technological equipment for our students to help 
them complete their assignments online; participate in virtual 
counseling; receive mentoring and tutoring services online; and 
complete other required tasks in relation to their academic program 
through distance education. Lane College has been proactive by forming 
a strategy team to come up with three scenarios to prepare for the Fall 
with two scenarios incorporating online classes and services: Lane 
College VR and Lane College SOAR (please refer to my testimony for more 
details regarding these scenarios). While we are preparing for a 
successful return for our students with the resources provided, we 
still have the following concerns:

          The quality of instruction because the institution as 
        a whole faculty remain in need of additional resources, human 
        or technical, to fully manage the change to all online courses 
        and support secure virtual testing administration or the 
        delivery of science lab instruction; and

          The ability of our students to access broadband 
        because nearly 90 percent of Lane College students receive Pell 
        Grants who tend to not have the funds, equipment, or Internet 
        access to receive instruction remotely;

    As I mentioned in my testimony, I want to offer my support for S. 
3701, the Supporting Connectivity for Higher Education Students in Need 
Act, introduced by Senator Amy Klobuchar, and ask that this bill be 
included in the next stimulus package to be considered by Congress. 
This piece of legislation takes a responsible approach to meeting the 
needs of our low-income, first-generation college students and the 
households they come from by helping them access the technological 
equipment and broadband services. This bill also prioritizes HBCUs, 
TCUs, and MSIs when disseminating broadband equipment and incentivizing 
partnerships to deliver broadband services.

    (B) I understand that many HBCU's are tuition dependent and count 
on steady enrollment. The HBCU's Partners Act helps these institutions 
identify alternative revenue sources to build the academic and cultural 
infrastructure to attract a diverse pool of students. What do you 
project the enrollment rate will be in the fall in light of COVID-19?

    Answer B. Due to the fluid developments of COVID-19, the strategy 
team developed at Lane College has begun the preparations for three 
scenarios: Lane College FastStart (face-to-face instruction in Fall 
2020), Lane College VR (all online courses in Fall 2020), and Lane 
College SOAR (a hybrid of both online courses and face-to-face 
instruction in Fall 2020). If we officially decide on Lane College 
FastStart, then we are preparing for a decline in enrollment resulting 
in a 27 percent to 43 percent decrease in revenue. If we proceed with 
the other two scenarios, we may see a steady enrollment or potential 
uptick. As of now, we are officially projecting an enrollment of 910 
total students (23 percent decrease in headcount) with 531 residential 
students (47 percent decrease in housing).

    (C) Many colleges currently have tools at their disposal to 
recalculate financial aid eligibility resulting from a loss of income, 
but what are some ways you think we can make students and families more 
aware of these options? How important are financial aid options to the 
matriculation of students to schools?

    Answer C. Because Lane College serves a student population that 
consists of 90 percent of Pell Grant students, I believe that financial 
aid options are extremely important to the matriculation of students to 
schools. Many of our students come from humble means and need 
additional support to access postsecondary education. For this very 
reason, I strongly believe that Congress should double the maximum Pell 
Grant to help offset the cost of college for these students. Our 
students need help with the overall cost of attendance and should not 
have to take out a Parent PLUS loan to do so.

    To better inform students of their ability to have their financial 
aid packages altered due to a change in their income or dependency 
status, I believe that it is important to enhance all financial aid 
counseling provided to students. It is vitally important that Master 
Promissory Notes are easy to read and understand for all students and 
families, and it is important that financial aid counseling take place 
before students or parents sign the dotted line for a loan. Annually, 
students should be contacted about their financial aid status so that 
they know how to continue to make informed decisions moving forward.
                             senator warren
    Question 1.

    How, specifically, will you ensure that faculty (including adjunct 
faculty) and staff (including hourly workers) are at the table for all 
decisions regarding when and how to repopulate your campus this fall? 
How will you engage and solicit their viewpoints, and how will you 
ensure that those viewpoints are taken into consideration for all 
decisions?

    Answer 1. Lane College has already started a process where we have 
a joint leadership team, consisting of 21 members of my direct reports, 
the academic cabinet, and the marketing team to take part in 
considering how Lane College will reopen this Fall. In addition to 
this, we have a FastStart team and a Pandemic Proof team.

    The joint leadership team was created in direct response to the 
coronavirus (COVID-19) and this team made the determination to move all 
classes online in the Spring of 2020. We hosted the final mass meeting 
of 100-plus students, faculty, staff, and administrators to discuss 
remote instruction on March 13, 2020, and the members of the joint 
leadership team continue to meet twice per week to submit, receive, and 
review the most up-to-date information available; make immediate 
decisions regarding the operation of the institution; and propose 
protocols, policies, and responses as needed.

    The Lane College FastStart team is made up of 20 or so faculty and 
staff planning for the Fall. This team works with new students from the 
point of admission through the first six weeks of the semester. At 
present, we are projecting 311 new students (23 percent decrease).

    The Pandemic Proof team consists of 27 members including faculty, 
staff, and administration. This team is charged with developing 
tactical solutions to prepare for three potential future scenarios of 
campus operations in response to COVID-19 (Lane College FastStart, Lane 
College VR, and Lane College SOAR). The Pandemic Proof team is 
developing tactical solutions for each area of the institution's 
operation.

    Question 2.

    How, specifically, will you ensure that students are at the table 
for all decisions regarding when and how to repopulate your campus this 
fall? How will you engage and solicit their viewpoints, and how will 
you ensure that those viewpoints are taken into consideration for all 
decisions?

    Answer 2. Lane College is in constant contact with, and receiving 
feedback from, several groups of student leaders including the new 
student orientation leaders, Power of Potential scholar leaders, Dragon 
Academy peer leaders, and residential assistants. Further, Lane College 
has done two surveys: CARES funding and pulse enrollment surveys. Last, 
we will conduct a student town hall.

    Question 3.

    Given what we know about coronavirus now, and understanding this 
could change, under what conditions would you consider abandoning plans 
to repopulate your campus, again moving everyone to remote instruction, 
and shutting down the majority of outreach and research activities? 
What process would you follow to undertake this decision?

    Answer 3. As I indicated in my testimony, Lane College is preparing 
for three scenarios when considering reopening this Fall: Lane College 
FastStart, Lane College VR, and Lane College SOAR. All three of these 
scenarios are still being developed by a strategy team created at Lane 
College to manage our Crisis Management Center and each scenario is 
described in more detail below.

          Lane College FastStart--Should Lane College students 
        return to campus for face-to-face instruction and subsequently 
        experience a more aggressive COVID-19 season in late Fall 2020, 
        the institution's response will mirror the response of the 
        Spring 2020 semester and consist of the following:

            Y  Protocols established across the campus, particularly 
            the academic and student affairs COVID-19 protections, to 
            keep students safe and healthy on campus prior to their 
            departure;

            Y  Faculty prior experience in delivering and moving 
            instruction from face-to-face to online;

            Y  The practice of COVID-19 safety protocols for students, 
            faculty, staff, and visitors to include WWSS: washing their 
            hands, wearing their masks, social distancing, and self-
            checking for COVID-19 symptoms;

            Y  COVID-19 restrictions and recommendations by local, 
            state, and Federal entities;

            Y  Frequent and routine virtual recruiting, admissions, 
            financial, orientation, and athletic presentations;

            Y  The re-recruitment of majors by departmental leaders; 
            and

            Y  Preparations to see a decrease in overall enrollment and 
            revenue.

          Lane College VR--While small and independent, Lane 
        College is primed to deliver responsive and creative 
        programmatic and curricular solutions. The institution has 
        sourced digital devices, platforms, texts, course material, and 
        office applications to support Lane College VR. We will need to 
        pilot micro-credentials and new course offerings to ensure 
        successful implementation, but we are cognizant that student 
        success, including retention and graduation, may be negatively 
        impacted. We are also cognizant that enrollment may decrease 
        resulting in a 27 percent to 43 percent decrease in revenue.

          Lane College SOAR--Lane College SOAR, the hybrid 
        scenario, offers the greatest opportunity and challenge for 
        Lane College. Appropriately executed, this strategy could lift 
        Lane College to heights unimagined previously. This approach 
        would incorporate aspects of both Lane College FastStart and 
        Lane College VR. To implement this successfully, the technology 
        will need to be greatly increased including the IT backbone, 
        help desk, and on-campus WIFI. A recovering local, state, and 
        national economy may cause us to see an increase in enrollment, 
        but we have to also prepare for the likelihood of a decrease in 
        enrollment.

    How we actually proceed will be based on our belief of our ability 
to truly keep our students, faculty, and staff safe. We moved to 
complete online instruction in Spring 2020, and are preparing to 
continue in this manner in the Fall if we believe that we are unable to 
be completely sure that we can use proper testing materials to ensure 
the safety of everyone involved.

    Question 4.

    Do you intend to require students, faculty, or staff to sign 
waivers before repopulating campus this fall?

    Answer 4. Yes, Lane College will require students, faculty and 
staff to sign the waiver below:

                                 NOTICE
  COVID-19 ENTERING CAMPUS, COLLEGE FACILITY OR COLLEGE-RELATED EVENT/
                           ACTIVITY PROTOCOLS
    Lane College is committed to protect the health, safety and well-
being of our community during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) 
pandemic. We want to communicate the procedures as we do our part 
pursuant to Federal and state guidelines to prevent exposure to and 
spread of COVID-19.

    PRIOR TO ENTERING CAMPUS, ANY COLLEGE FACILITY AND/OR COLLEGE-
RELATED EVENT/ACTIVITY (you must complete the self-check below each and 
every time that you enter campus and/or leave your residence hall room 
during the health emergency). Each employee, student, vendor, 
contractor, or visitor must affirm the information below:

    SELF-CHECK: I affirm that I am free of COVID-19 symptoms for 72 
hours including:

          FREE OF FEVER greater than 100 degrees, without fever 
        reducing medication

          RUNNY NOSE

          COUGHING

          SNEEZING

          SORE THROAT

          DIFFICULTY BREATHING

          FEELING ILL

          UPSET STOMACH or DIARRHEA

          CHILLS

          REPEATED SHAKING WITH CHILLS

          MUSCLE PAIN

          HEADACHE

          NEW LOSS OF TASTE OR SMELL

    Furthermore, I affirm:

          I HAVE NOT TRAVELED TO A COVID-19 HOTSPOT in the past 
        14 days.

          If I have TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, I will 
        provide documentation that I am free of the disease.

          If I have BEEN IN CONTACT WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS TESTED 
        POSITIVE, I will contact my supervisor, advisor, faculty member 
        or College official prior to coming to Campus, leaving my 
        residence hall, and/or entering a College facility and self-
        quarantine for 14 days.

          If I TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, I will contact my 
        supervisor, advisor, faculty member or College official prior 
        to coming to Campus and/or leaving my residence hall.

          The self-checker is not a substitute for professional 
        medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

    WHILE AT THE COLLEGE OR COLLEGE-RELATED EVENT/ACTIVITY, further, 
each employee, student, vendor, contractor, or visitor is aware that 
Lane College is an open campus and welcomes visitors, vendors and 
contractors. With the on-campus protocols in place,

          I assume and accept all risks and responsibilities 
        related to contracting the COVID-19 virus.

          I further acknowledge that COVID-19 is extremely 
        contagious and believed to spread mainly from person-to-person 
        contact. As a result, Federal, state, and local governments and 
        Federal and state health agencies recommend social distancing. 
        Lane College has put in place preventative measures pursuant to 
        Federal and state guidelines to reduce the spread of COVID-19; 
        however, the College cannot guarantee that you will not become 
        infected with COVID-19. By visiting the campus, residing in on-
        campus housing or participating in any Lane College event or 
        activity, on-or off-campus, you acknowledge the contagious 
        nature of COVID-19, voluntarily assume the risk that you may be 
        exposed to or infected by COVID-19 and voluntarily agree to 
        accept sole responsibility whether a COVID-19 infection occurs 
        before, during, or after visiting campus, while residing in on-
        campus housing, or participating in an event or activity.

          I will practice the Centers for Disease Control and 
        Prevention (CDC), Tennessee Department of Health and Madison 
        County Department of Health recommendations that include, but 
        are not limited, to the following WWSS:

                            Wash your hands
                             Wear your mask
               Social distance (maintain 6 feet distance)
                           Self-check (WWSS).

    If YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, please visit the CDC for 
further information https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/
return-to-work.html#practices-restrictions.

    THIS NOTICE IS BASED ON CURRENT RECOMMENDATIONS AND MAY BE UPDATED.
                            senator sanders
    Question 1.

    Postsecondary education in the United States has traditionally been 
funded through a mixture of Federal and state government 
appropriations, institutional endowments, and student payments of 
tuitions and fees. However, recently, there has been a massive 
reduction in Federal and state investment in institutions of higher 
education, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
(HBCUs), that has left students bearing a larger proportion of the 
price of college. What has been the impact of the loss of investment in 
colleges on the ability of your students to pay for costs related to 
the COVID-19 pandemic? What has been the impact of the loss of 
investment in colleges on the ability of your school to prepare for and 
respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? With the loss of income and budget 
cuts, how will your institution prioritize safety and provide adequate 
staffing as campuses reopen? How will your institution ensure that 
every student, regardless of financial status, students with 
disabilities, LGBQT+ students, students with unsafe homes, students of 
color and students from low-income families will have free access to 
testing and a vaccine, when available?

    Answer 1. The cost of college remains a barrier to many students, 
especially low-income, first-generation college students, and I am 
proud to say that Lane College has no plans to increase its tuition, 
fees, or room and board for the upcoming academic year. HBCUs continue 
to provide lower tuition and fees to students compared to other 
institutions, and Lane College is no exception. As it relates to the 
loss of state investment in HBCUs, Lane College is a private 
institution and does not rely on state funding; however, investment in 
my institution and all HBCUs is vitally important, which is why I asked 
for another $1 billion dollar investment in HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and 
Universities (TCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) in the 
next stimulus package. Also, HBCUs have yet to receive the full 
authorized amount of $375 million in Title III of the Higher Education 
Act of 1965, and our institutions need to no longer be short-changed. 
Because HBCUs have been playing catch-up since our individual foundings 
due to systemic racism, we all have resource issues. We experience 
greater challenges accessing private gifts, contracts, and grants. We 
also have endowments that lag behind those of non-HBCUs by at least 70 
percent, and public and private HBCUs experienced the largest declines 
in Federal funding per full-time equivalent student between 2003-2015. 
Due to these realities depicting the lack of investment in HBCUs, we 
are in dire need of equitable funding.

    In addition to our funding issues, our Pell-grant-majority student 
population is the most vulnerable of all students and have been 
impacted at large degrees due to COVID-19, since the majority of 
students attending HBCUs are black. As I mentioned in my testimony, we 
have learned that Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by 
COVID-19 at much higher rates and this means job losses and strained 
finances in the households of Black American families as well. Due to 
these additional outside factors, along with the fact that Black 
Americans simply get hired at lower rates than White Americans and make 
less money on average than White Americans, our student populations are 
struggling even more now. Because of this, I have asked Congress to 
double the maximum Pell Grant to help these very students afford a 
postsecondary education. Now is the time to truly help. While I am 
thankful for the emergency funding provided to students through H. R. 
748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, 
our students need a more reliable stream of funding that they can 
utilize for the duration of their undergraduate academic career.

    Last, the safety of all of our students, faculty, and staff is of 
utmost concern to us at Lane College. We have sent several notices out 
to our students on how to remain safe during this time, and it is a 
priority for Lane College. It is our desire to provide free testing to 
our students and we are working to ensure that this is a reality. We 
have partnered with Christ Community Health Center to provide free 
testing to students, faculty, and staff. Christ Community will test and 
produce the results in 24 hours.

    In regard to safety, below is an example of the correspondence we 
have had with our students and our plan for safety.
                      COVID-19 CAMPUS EXPECTATIONS
    If you are well and free of symptoms from the novel coronavirus 
(COVID-19), Lane College expects the following of you on campus:

        a. Practice social distancing by conducting business remotely 
        by email, telephone, Zoom, Skype, Google Hangout, etc.; and

        b. Continue to practice the recommendations of the Centers for 
        Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

            Y  Wash your hands;

            Y  Avoid touching your face;

            Y  Avoid close contact with people;

            Y  Sneeze or cough into a tissue or the inside of your 
            elbow; and

            Y  Clean and disinfect frequently used items and surfaces.

    COVID-19 is extremely contagious and is believed to spread mainly 
from person-to-person contact. As a result, Federal, state, and local 
governments and Federal and state health agencies recommend social 
distancing. Lane College has put in place preventative measures to 
reduce the spread of COVID-19; however, the College cannot guarantee 
that you will not become infected with COVID-19. By visiting campus or 
participating in any Lane College event or activity, on or off campus, 
you acknowledge the contagious nature of COVID-19 and voluntarily 
assume the risk that you may be exposed to or infected by COVID-19 and 
voluntarily agree to assume all of risks and accept sole responsibility 
whether a COVID-19 infection occurs before, during, or after visiting 
campus or participating in an event or activity.

    If you are sick or have symptoms, do not return to campus. Please 
remain where you are, quarantine, and isolate yourself. In particular--
--

          If you have a FEVER (temperature above 100), do not 
        return to campus

          If you have a RUNNY NOSE, do not return to campus

          If you have a COUGH, do not return to campus

          If you are SNEEZING, do not return to campus

          If you have a SORE THROAT, do not return to campus

          If you have DIFFICULTY BREATHING, do not return to 
        campus quickly consult a medical provider or emergency room

          If you are FEELING ILL, do not return to campus

          If you have an UPSET STOMACH or DIARRHEA, do not 
        return to campus

          If you have CHILLS, do not return to campus

          If you have REPEATED SHAKING WITH CHILLS, do not 
        return to campus

          If you have MUSCLE PAIN, do not return to campus

          If you have HEADACHE, do not return to campus

          If you have NEW LOSS OF TASTE OR SMELL, do not return 
        to campus

          If you have BEEN IN CONTACT WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS 
        COVID-19, do not return to campus

          If you have traveled out of the country or traveled 
        to a COVID-19 hotspot in the past 14 days, do not return to 
        campus . . . (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/
        symptoms-testing/symptoms.html).

    Please remember, if you TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19 IN THE NEXT 14 
DAYS, YOU MUST REPORT YOUR POSITIVE TEST TO HEALTH SERVICES OR HUMAN 
RESOURCES.
                   COVID-19 STUDENT AFFAIRS PROTOCOL
    Health Services

          Health Services will offer the latest CDC 
        recommendations and treatment options as indicated.

          If you have a fever or cough, remain isolated and 
        contact Health Services at [redacted] for evaluation.

          Health Services' evaluation process will consist of 
        the following:

            Y  Triage (ask a series of questions) and test for Flu, 
            Strep Throat, and UTI

                          If positive for Flu--treat

                          If positive for Strep Throat--treat

                          If positive for UTI--treat

          If the above tests are negative, this will indicate 
        ``fever of unknown origin.''

            Y  Student will be isolated in designated area for 14 days

            Y  Face mask(s) must be worn around others

    Housing and Residence Life

          Students who remain on campus must agree to report 
        any COVID-19 symptoms to Health Services for diagnosis (see 
        Health Services COVID19 protocol).

          To maintain CDC-recommended social distancing 
        practices, students who remain on campus are not permitted to 
        have guest visits for any amount of time. (NO VISITATION)

          Team Clean custodial staff is completing regular 
        cleaning of the public areas in the residence halls.

          Hand sanitizers, hand wipes, and/or hand spray 
        sanitizer will be available at the front desk of each residence 
        hall.

          Students who fail to comply with the COVID-19 
        protocols may be disciplined and removed from campus housing.

          As a reminder, Lane College will NOT be responsible 
        for any items left in a student's room.

    Dining Services

          Campus dining is open to Lane College students, 
        faculty, and staff.

            Y  Brunch (10 a.m.--2 p.m.) and dinner (4 p.m.--7 p.m.) 
            meals will only be served.

          No reusable service ware (plates, cups, utensils) and 
        limited self-service options to reduce the opportunity for 
        cross-contamination.

            Y  Meals and food will be served in to-go containers.

            Y  Beverage containers and plastic ware will be provided.

            Y  Diners should maintain CDC recommended social distancing 
            (keep 6 feet apart).

            Y  Sneeze guards were added to serving lines

    Campus Safety and Security

          To assure the safety of the Lane College community, a 
        10 p.m. curfew has been implemented. Please remain within your 
        residence hall during the curfew.

          Non-emergency incident reports can be made 24 hours a 
        day by utilizing the LiveSafe app or calling [redacted].

    Counseling and Disability Services

          Please call [redacted] or [redacted] to schedule an 
        appointment to talk with a Lane College Counselor.

          If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, 
        please call the 24-Hour Crisis Line at [redacted] or the State 
        Crisis Line at [redacted].

    Religious Services/Chaplain

          Please call [redacted] to schedule an appointment to 
        talk with a Lane College Chaplain.

          If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, 
        please call the 24-Hour Crisis Line at [redacted] or the State 
        Crisis Line at [redacted].

    First Year Experience (FYE)

          Interview/Selection of the 2020 Dragon Academy peer 
        advisors will be held via Zoom/FaceTime/Phone the week of March 
        30.

          Lane College Dragon Academy 2020 begins June 6th 
        (Move-In). Applications will be available via the Lane College 
        website and official social media platforms.

          The FYE office is available between the hours 2 
        p.m.--5 p.m. for a small number of students (5 or less) who 
        need computer access.

          Please call Rev. McKindra at [redacted] to schedule 
        your visit to the office.

    Intramural and Recreational Services

          At present, nonessential facilities including 
        recreational facilities are closed in response to the State of 
        Emergency issued by the city of Jackson.

          If and when the State of Emergency is lifted, please 
        follow these protocols while utilizing the recreation/weight 
        room in the Stone Amenities:

            Y  Recreation/Weight Room will only be open Monday--Friday, 
            9 am--11 a.m.; and 2 p.m.--4 p.m.

            Y  Only seven (7) individuals will be allowed into the 
            weight room at one time.

            Y  Upon entering Stone Amenities, all individuals must 
            sanitize their hands.

            Y  Please wipe down/sanitize each recreational machine 
            BEFORE and AFTER each use.

            Y  Attempt to avoid using recreational machines directly 
            beside another machine that is being used by someone else.

            Y  Do not partner with other persons when working out.

          Avoid making mouth contact with the water fountain.

          Avoid spitting in the water fountain.

          Practice social distancing by avoiding direct contact 
        with others.

          If sweating, keep as dry as possible by using cloth 
        towels, paper towels, or anything that can minimize 
        perspiration.

            Y  DO NOT share towels, water bottles, or anything that can 
            spread germs.

            Y  Avoid horseplay at all times.

          Before exiting the building

            Y  Please wipe all sweat from your body.

            Y  Wash/sanitize your hands with soap and water.

            Y  Make sure that you are properly clothed.

    Campus Life

          No events will be scheduled.

          Limited programming options, usually through virtual 
        channels, will be available for students remaining on campus.

          Student organizations can only meet via virtual 
        meetings.

          Student Government Association and Royal Court 
        nominations and elections will be conducted remotely (on-line 
        format).

          The New Greek Members Presentation Show has been 
        canceled.

    HBCU Wellness

          Student Projects will be completed through video 
        conference formats.

    Student Leadership and Engagement

          The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership 
        continues to research creative ways to keep our students 
        engaged while practicing social distancing during the COVID-19 
        pandemic.

            Y  All face-to-face programs and activities have been 
            canceled.

          To ensure that students still have the opportunity to 
        develop as leaders, the following adjustments have been made:

            Y  Cheerleading Tryouts: The Lane College Cheerleading 
            Program has postponed onsite tryouts until June 12-14, 
            2020. Students have the option to submit video footage. For 
            more information about video submissions, please contact 
            Mr. Quentin Giles or call/text [redacted].

      The Campus Activities Board will transition their weekly 
meetings to video conference meetings through Zoom.

      Orientation Leadership (OL) Institute will use Blackboard 
to complete Orientation Leadership training.

      National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) will 
continue membership training through the NSLS members' portal. All 
face-to-face programs will move to online programming.

    Lane College Book Store

          At the conclusion of the spring semester, please 
        return your textbooks before returning your room key to 
        Housing.

            Y  Textbook Returns for Spring 2020:

                        `  April 20-April 24, 2020

                        `  8:30 AM-5 PM

                        `  Graduating seniors must return textbooks 
                        before picking up Regalia.

    Question 2.

    According to a report from the American Federation of Teachers, 
``Army of Temps,'' 75 percent of all instructional workers in American 
higher education are contingent or adjunct--effectively, temporary 
workers. Of those workers, almost 40 percent are over 60; 65 percent 
are over 50. We know from other industries in which workers have no 
meaningful job security--Uber and Lyft drivers, seasonal farm workers, 
and the like--that workers in such industries often feel pressured to 
come to work even when they are sick, and even when conditions where 
they work are not conductive to their health. What do you plan to do to 
make sure that these workers, the majority of teaching staff in higher 
education in the United States, are safe from COVID-19 on your 
campuses, and what do you recommend others do? How do you plan to 
reasonably accommodate those who the CDC has designated at being at 
heightened risk of COVID-19 complications, particularly those who may 
not feel that they have the job security to raise their concerns about 
their own health at work?

    Answer 2. By in large, the safety protocols that I outlined in the 
previous questions that were directed toward students are also 
practiced by the faculty and staff at my institution. More 
specifically, Lane College has ensured the safety of our faculty and 
staff by allowing faculty and staff to work remotely. Any faculty or 
staff whose job function allowed was given the opportunity to work 
remotely. Essential employees, of course, were required to come to 
campus including security, dining services, academic support, IT, 
residential, financial aid, controller's and custodial staff. 
Currently, access to the campus is, and will be, restricted to 
students, essential staff, and faculty. The campus will reopen on July 
6, 2020.

    Question 3.

    As the president of Lane College, a Historically Black College and 
University (HBCU), you mentioned the unique challenges faced by your 
students--and your institution--due to revenue losses that will impact 
the ability of Lane College to operate, even with funding provided by 
the CARES Act. In addition to your request that Congress provide an 
additional $1 billion in funding for HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and 
Universities (TCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions, you also ask 
that Congress increase student grant aid by doubling the maximum Pell 
Grant award. Would the additional $1 billion in funding and the 
additional student aid be sufficient to help your students pay for 
additional expenses related to the COVID-19 pandemic? Since Lane 
College provides a high quality college education to students seeking 
to improve their lives and that of their families, what else can 
Congress do to address the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on 
African American students to ensure that your school and other HBCUs 
continue to not just operate but thrive?

    Answer 3. As you mentioned, I did articulate in my testimony that 
Congress should provide funding of an additional $1 billion to HBCUs, 
TCUs, and MSIs along with asking for Congress to double the maximum 
Pell Grant for students. However, the assumption is that those two 
aforementioned asks would suffice in the short-term depending on how 
long the national emergency will last and how long it will take for 
jobs and health to be restored. If it takes 18 months for a vaccine to 
be created, then it will also take time for the vaccine to be 
disseminated to everyone in the country. In addition, there will likely 
be a cost to institutions to provide the vaccine to students, much like 
the costs associated with providing COVID-19 testing, and this is yet 
another cost to my institution. I am still unsure at the present moment 
of what my enrollment will look like in the Fall and beyond, so I am 
almost certain that even the $1 billion ask that I have in my testimony 
will likely not be enough overall to successfully recover from the 
impacts of COVID-19. Also, when I ask for a doubling of the maximum 
Pell Grant award, it is not to be taken as a temporary measure but as a 
permanent measure. Our low-income students deserve a fair chance at 
completing their postsecondary education free from the worry of not 
being able to afford their education or not being able to successfully 
pay back their loans.
                             senator casey
    Question 1.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has provided unprecedented disruptions across 
our education system. Students may have changed financial 
circumstances, increased family obligations or other challenges that 
necessitate additional support or flexibility. In particular, students 
whose personal circumstances require it, may need additional 
flexibility to switch institutions. Have you considered developing more 
robust transfer policies to accommodate these students? If so, what 
changes are you proposing?

    Answer 1. Yes, we have considered transfer protocols, in so much as 
I have directed faculty and staff to remove all possible barriers to 
students enrolling. We are working with consultants to help identify 
opportunities to improve our processes and protocols.

    Question 2.

    According to a survey by Active Minds, 80 percent of college 
students indicate COVID-19 has negatively impacted their mental health. 
Students returning to campus may face increased anxiety about their own 
health, the health of their parents and loved ones at home. Students 
who are immunocompromised or otherwise medically vulnerable may also 
face increased anxiety and isolation from their peers. As you consider 
reopening in the fall, how are you preparing to support the increased 
mental health needs of your students and faculty?

    Answer 2. When Lane College decided to move all classes online, we 
sent emails and hosted the final mass meeting of 100-plus students, 
faculty, staff, and administrators to discuss remote instruction on 
March 13, 2020. As students moved out of the residence halls at the end 
of the semester Counseling Services sent staff to engage students. In 
our communications, we shared a wealth of information to include 
information regarding mental health services. Further, it bears noting, 
that in virtually every meeting of the Pandemic Proof and Fast Start 
teams, one of my colleagues mentions the trauma that our students have 
endured and are enduring. The faculty and staff are most sensitive to 
the traumatic impact of COVID-19 on our students. Please see our COVID-
19 Student Affairs Protocol below.
                   COVID-19 STUDENT AFFAIRS PROTOCOL
    Health Services

          Health Services will offer the latest CDC 
        recommendations and treatment options as indicated.

          If you have a fever or cough, remain isolated and 
        contact Health Services at [redacted] for evaluation.

          Health Services' evaluation process will consist of 
        the following:

            Y  Triage (ask a series of questions) and test for Flu, 
            Strep Throat, and UTI

                          If positive for Flu--treat

                          If positive for Strep Throat--treat

                          If positive for UTI--treat

          If the above tests are negative, this will indicate 
        ``fever of unknown origin.''

            Y  Student will be isolated in designated area for 14 days

            Y  Face mask(s) must be worn around others

    Housing and Residence Life

          Students who remain on campus must agree to report 
        any COVID-19 symptoms to Health Services for diagnosis (see 
        Health Services COVID19 protocol).

          To maintain CDC-recommended social distancing 
        practices, students who remain on campus are not permitted to 
        have guest visits for any amount of time. (NO VISITATION)

          Team Clean custodial staff is completing regular 
        cleaning of the public areas in the residence halls.

          Hand sanitizers, hand wipes, and/or hand spray 
        sanitizer will be available at the front desk of each residence 
        hall.

          Students who fail to comply with the COVID-19 
        protocols may be disciplined and removed from campus housing.

          As a reminder, Lane College will NOT be responsible 
        for any items left in a student's room.

    Dining Services

          Campus dining is open to Lane College students, 
        faculty, and staff.

            Y  Brunch (10 a.m.--2 p.m.) and dinner (4 p.m.--7 p.m.) 
            meals will only be served.

          No reusable service ware (plates, cups, utensils) and 
        limited self-service options to reduce the opportunity for 
        cross-contamination.

            Y  Meals and food will be served in to-go containers.

            Y  Beverage containers and plastic ware will be provided.

            Y  Diners should maintain CDC recommended social distancing 
            (keep 6 feet apart).

            Y  Sneeze guards were added to serving lines.

    Campus Safety and Security

          To assure the safety of the Lane College community, a 
        10 p.m. curfew has been implemented. Please remain within your 
        residence hall during the curfew.

          Non-emergency incident reports can be made 24 hours a 
        day by utilizing the LiveSafe app or calling [redacted].

    Counseling and Disability Services

          Please call [redacted] or [redacted] to schedule an 
        appointment to talk with a Lane College Counselor.

          If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, 
        please call the 24-Hour Crisis Line at [redacted] or the State 
        Crisis Line at [redacted].

    Religious Services/Chaplain

          Please call [redacted] to schedule an appointment to 
        talk with a Lane College Chaplain.

          If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, 
        please call the 24-Hour Crisis Line at [redacted] or the State 
        Crisis Line at [redacted].

    First Year Experience (FYE)

          Interview/Selection of the 2020 Dragon Academy peer 
        advisors will be held via Zoom/FaceTime/Phone the week of March 
        30.

          Lane College Dragon Academy 2020 begins June 6th 
        (Move-In). Applications will be available via the Lane College 
        website and official social media platforms.

          The FYE office is available between the hours 2 
        p.m.--5 p.m. for a small number of students (5 or less) who 
        need computer access.

          Please call Rev. McKindra at [redacted] to schedule 
        your visit to the office.

    Intramural and Recreational Services

          At present, nonessential facilities including 
        recreational facilities are closed in response to the State of 
        Emergency issued by the city of Jackson.

          If and when the State of Emergency is lifted, please 
        follow these protocols while utilizing the recreation/weight 
        room in the Stone Amenities:

            Y  Recreation/Weight Room will only be open Monday--Friday, 
            9 am--11 a.m.; and 2 p.m.--4 p.m.

            Y  Only seven (7) individuals will be allowed into the 
            weight room at one time.

            Y  Upon entering Stone Amenities, all individuals must 
            sanitize their hands.

            Y  Please wipe down/sanitize each recreational machine 
            BEFORE and AFTER each use.

            Y  Attempt to avoid using recreational machines directly 
            beside another machine that is being used by someone else.

            Y  Do not partner with other persons when working out.

          Avoid making mouth contact with the water fountain.

          Avoid spitting in the water fountain.

          Practice social distancing by avoiding direct contact 
        with others.

          If sweating, keep as dry as possible by using cloth 
        towels, paper towels, or anything that can minimize 
        perspiration.

            Y  DO NOT share towels, water bottles, or anything that can 
            spread germs.

            Y  Avoid horseplay at all times.

          Before exiting the building

            Y  Please wipe all sweat from your body.

            Y  Wash/sanitize your hands with soap and water.

            Y  Make sure that you are properly clothed.

    Campus Life

          No events will be scheduled.

          Limited programming options, usually through virtual 
        channels, will be available for students remaining on campus.

          Student organizations can only meet via virtual 
        meetings.

          Student Government Association and Royal Court 
        nominations and elections will be conducted remotely (on-line 
        format).

          The New Greek Members Presentation Show has been 
        canceled.

    HBCU Wellness

          Student Projects will be completed through video 
        conference formats.

    Student Leadership and Engagement

          The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership 
        continues to research creative ways to keep our students 
        engaged while practicing social distancing during the COVID-19 
        pandemic.

            Y  All face-to-face programs and activities have been 
            canceled.

          To ensure that students still have the opportunity to 
        develop as leaders, the following adjustments have been made:

            Y  Cheerleading Tryouts: The Lane College Cheerleading 
            Program has postponed onsite tryouts until June 12-14, 
            2020. Students have the option to submit video footage. For 
            more information about video submissions, please contact 
            Mr. Quentin Giles or call/text [redacted].

      The Campus Activities Board will transition their weekly 
meetings to video conference meetings through Zoom.

      Orientation Leadership (OL) Institute will use Blackboard 
to complete Orientation Leadership training.

      National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS) will 
continue membership training through the NSLS members' portal. All 
face-to-face programs will move to online programming.

    Lane College Book Store

          At the conclusion of the spring semester, please 
        return your textbooks before returning your room key to 
        Housing.

            Y  Textbook Returns for Spring 2020:

                        `  April 20-April 24, 2020

                        `  8:30 AM-5 PM

                        `  Graduating seniors must return textbooks 
                        before picking up Regalia.

    Question 3.

    For our colleges and universities that serve a diverse population 
of students and their families, there will be significantly different 
abilities to get to campus and to safely participate in instruction and 
activities or even get back to campus. For students with disabilities 
that have secondary health conditions, such as diabetes or asthma, 
there will be greater risks. Wherever health services are provided, 
they need to be equitably provided for students with all types of 
disabilities.

        I'm concerned as well for students of lesser economic means. 
        The expense of returning to campus will be greater for them. 
        The precautions they will need to take will be more expensive 
        for them. The risks for them will be greater. If there are 
        added expenses for single rooms, health care services, 
        increased tuition--all of those costs will be more difficult to 
        bear for them.

        Low-income students may also face additional challenges. The 
        expense of returning to campus will be greater for them. The 
        precautions they will need to take will be more expensive for 
        them. The risks for them will be greater. If there are added 
        expenses for single rooms, health care services, increased 
        tuition--all of those costs will be more difficult to bear for 
        them.

        For these groups of students, reopening campuses may mean they 
        cannot or will not attend. They may not have the money or wish 
        to risk their health. How will you ensure that we do not see an 
        expansion of the gap in access and completion of postsecondary 
        education for poor and disabled students, thus reinforcing 
        decades of discrimination and lack of access to a college or 
        graduate education that can lead a person out of poverty or 
        prevent them from falling into poverty?

    Answer 3. At Lane College, we value all of our students and have 
put processes in place to help them during this challenging time. In my 
testimony, I mentioned that we have received the allocation for the 
emergency grant aid for students and the allocation for institutions in 
Section 18004(a)(1) of H. R. 748, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 
Economic Security (CARES) Act equaling $2,430,978. My institution will 
be using the institutional funds to reimburse ourselves for COVID-19 
related expenses and have already began to disseminate the emergency 
grant aid to students. To disseminate the emergency grant aid, Lane 
College established two dispersal tactics:

            Y  Lane CARES Fund--$592 was distributed to each Spring 
            2020 enrolled student to support their needs caused by the 
            disruption due to COVID-19 to include food, housing, and 
            transportation. To establish this amount, Lane College 
            surveyed students and found that 78 percent of the students 
            asked for funds to support food and 73 percent asked for 
            housing support. The survey instrument was sent to each 
            students' Lane College email address on April 16, 2020, 
            which was approximately 5 weeks after most students had 
            been away from campus. CARES funds to support student's 
            food, housing, and transportation were distributed to each 
            student (except the international students) on April 30, 
            2020; and

            Y  The Lane Direct Support Fund--These funds are awarded on 
            a case-by case-bases. A student may request these funds to 
            support allowable educational expenses.

    As of May 28, 2020, a total of $659,396.56 has been distributed 
from Lane CARES Fund and Lane Direct Support Fund combined. My goal is 
to use these funds to support our students needs and to ensure that our 
students who may have disabilities are also provided with financial 
assistance. In addition, I have called for Congress to double the 
maximum Pell Grant to help low-income students better afford their 
postsecondary education. With the negative side effects of COVID-19, 
our low-income students need all of the financial assistance they can 
receive to continue their education.
                             senator murray
    Question 1.

    President Hampton, what is your opinion on Secretary DeVos' 
decision to exclude non-Title IV eligible students from being eligible 
for emergency financial aid under the CARES Act, contrary to 
congressional intent?

    Answer 1. I believe that all students should be able to receive 
financial assistance under the CARES Act regardless of whether or not 
they are eligible for Title IV aid. Title IV aid is not the same as 
emergency grant aid and all of my students, and their families, have 
been impacted. At Lane College, we have already began to disseminate 
our emergency grant aid; however, with the new interim final rule, we 
now have to go back to double check that we are abiding by the rules of 
the Department of Education. To ensure that all Lane Students were 
treated similarly, we used funds raised from our Board of Trustees to 
support non-Title IV eligible students (approximately 5 students).

    Question 2.

    President Hampton, what is your opinion on Secretary DeVos' 
decision to block institutions of higher education from using 
institutional stabilization funds provided by Section 18004(a)(1) of 
the CARES Act to defray lost revenues, contrary to congressional 
intent?

    Answer 2. As I mentioned in my testimony, a loss of just 100 
students over Summer 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021 would cost my 
institution nearly $2,000,000 in revenue. We need all the help we can 
get and having the ability to use the resources available to us to 
defray lost revenues is the goal. I am thankful that Lane College 
received $2,847,630 is Section 18004(a)(2) of the CARES Act, allowing 
us to use these funds to defray lost revenues.
                             senator rosen
    Question 1.

    The Nevada System of Higher Education has three separate groups 
focused on preparing to safely re-open campuses this fall. One of 
these--the COVID Reopening Task Force--includes students, medical 
personnel, education leaders, and public safety staff, who are all 
reviewing various plans and providing recommendations to the 
Chancellor. At this point, our schools are planning to re-open in the 
fall, but with various modifications, including: no large lectures; a 
mix of remote and in-person instruction; single-occupancy dorm rooms; 
and increased cleaning, testing, and tracing. Each of the schools are 
also consulting with health and education experts in order to follow 
best practices.

          How flexible are your plans to re-open campuses this 
        fall? Do you envision adapting your plans as the semester 
        progresses?

          What education and health experts do you consult with 
        on best practices when determining whether and how to reopen?

    Answer 1. In my testimony, I mentioned that Lane College is 
considering three scenarios: Lane College FastStart (face-to-face 
instruction in Fall 2020), Lane College VR (all online courses in Fall 
2020), and Lane College SOAR (a hybrid of both online courses and face-
to-face instruction in Fall 2020). We are definitely flexible and plan 
to adapt as necessary, just like we did for Spring of 2020 when moving 
to complete remote instruction. As a result of consultation given by 
UNCF, Lane College was able to quickly establish a Crisis Management 
Center with a strategy team to lead it. The Lane College strategy team 
is made up of four (4) members: (1) Dr. Sandra Ramawy (Liberal Studies 
and Education, Academic Division Chair), response lead; (2) Ms. Tangela 
Poole (Lane College Controller), financial lead; (3) Mr. Terry Blackmon 
(Lane College Registrar), academic/institutional research lead; and (4) 
myself. This team is charged with offering overall leadership of the 
Crisis Management Center and coordinating the weekly Lane College C-19 
Team Meeting that is comprised of the Fast Start team, members of the 
Lane College Joint Leadership team, and the Pandemic Proof team. the 
Pandemic Proof team consisting of 27 members. This team is charged with 
developing tactical solutions to prepare for the three aforementioned 
potential future scenarios of campus operations in response to COVID-19 
(Lane College FastStart, Lane College VR, and Lane College SOAR). The 
Pandemic Proof team is developing tactical solutions for each area of 
the institution's operation. For more details on what this team is 
working on, please see attachment #1 in my testimony.

    The campus will reopen on Monday, July 6, 2020 for the remote 
employees to return. In response to the Lane College Board of Trustees, 
the commencement celebration will be held virtually on July 18, 2020.

    Student success will be achieved on our healthy, safe, and 
supportive campus with healthy scholars practicing personal 
responsibility. Our mission continues, even facing COVID-19, to develop 
the whole student with academic excellence as our highest priority. 
Please see below to learn more about our plans to ensure safety on our 
campus.

        1. Healthy: Clean and treat facilities to ensure a healthy 
        environment

            a. All facilities are cleaned two times per day this fall.

             b. Team Clean, the facility staff, has expanded personnel 
            to clean high touch areas.

            c. Team Clean has added cleaning agents designed to clean 
            COVID-19.

            d. We are yet exploring means to treat facilities.

                        i. I have organized a pandemic proof biodefense 
                        team.

                        ii. The team members are made up of biology and 
                        chemistry faculty and facility and medical 
                        personnel.

        2. Safe:

             a. In our hybrid model, students, faculty and staff will 
            have the option to teach, learn, work and/or study remotely 
            or face-to-face.

             b. The Pandemic Proof Team, made up of 27 faculty and 
            staff, has worked and is working to address the many 
            challenges presented by the coronavirus and COVID-19.

             c. The chief of campus security has been working since 
            spring break to improve campus access.

                        i. Campus traffic and access will be 
                        restricted.

                        ii. Campus access is limited to Lane College 
                        students, faculty, staff, and the guests who 
                        have checked in through the security office.

             d. The faculty have set-up the classrooms to ensure the 
            instructor is 10 feet from students and the students are 6 
            feet from one another.

        3. Supportive: We have all experienced significant trauma. Our 
        students, faculty, and staff have been negatively impacted by 
        COVID-19 and the evolving, conflicting, and nuanced responses 
        and reactions. I encourage my community to continue to be 
        vigilant, patient, prayerful, flexible and to listen 
        empathetically to one another. ``We all need someone to lean 
        on'' in these times (Bill Withers).

             a. Our information technology have sourced and secured 
            hardware, software, and tools to support online learning. 
            More needed and more to come.

             b. Health Services and the Office of Administration have 
            secured PPE and sanitizers including 13,000 masks.

    Healthy Scholars Practicing Personal Responsibility

        1. I ask community member to take personal responsibility for 
        WWSS: Wear your mask, wash your hands, social distance and 
        self-check.

        2. SELF-CHECK: Each and every time that a member returns to 
        campus or a student leaves their residence hall room, each of 
        us will be required to affirm that we are free of COVID-19 
        symptoms for 72 hours including:

             a. FREE OF FEVER greater than 100 degrees, without fever 
            reducing medication

            b. RUNNY NOSE

            c. COUGHING

            d. SNEEZING

            e. SORE THROAT

            f. DIFFICULTY BREATHING

            g. FEELING ILL

            h. UPSET STOMACH or DIARRHEA

            i. CHILLS

            j. REPEATED SHAKING WITH CHILLS

            k. MUSCLE PAIN

            l. HEADACHE

            m. NEW LOSS OF TASTE OR SMELL

             n. Furthermore, each will affirm: I HAVE NOT TRAVELED TO A 
            COVID-19 HOTSPOT in the past 14 days.

             o. If I have TESTED POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, I will provide 
            documentation that I am free of the disease.

             p. If I have BEEN IN CONTACT WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS TESTED 
            POSITIVE, I will contact my supervisor, advisor, faculty 
            member or College official prior to coming to the Campus, 
            leaving my residence hall, and/or entering a College 
            facility and self-quarantine for 14 days.

             q. If I TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, I will contact my 
            supervisor, advisor, faculty member or College official 
            prior to coming to Campus and/or leave my residence hall/

             r. Though the self-checker is not a substitute for 
            professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, in 
            combination with the other interventions, wear your mask, 
            wash your hands and social distance, it has proven to slow 
            the spread of COVID-19.

    The College has partnered with the Madison County Health Department 
and Christ Community Health Center to develop protocols and testing for 
our community. The staff participated in webinars including those 
hosted by the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities 
Associations with the Tennessee Department of Health.

    Question 2.

    It is absolutely critical that we ensure our students' and 
faculty's health is protected as colleges and universities navigate how 
to move forward with their important role in fostering new ideas, 
educating our future workforce, and conducting critical research. We 
also need our institutions of higher education to continue to be strong 
partners with our health care system as we work to fight COVID-19, and 
also look for new ways to engage. In Nevada, we have seen our colleges, 
universities, and researchers go above and beyond. Just a few 
examples--the UNLV School of Medicine in Las Vegas jumped in to provide 
curbside testing early on; UNR in Reno has been researching new ways to 
address COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment; and the Desert Research 
Institute is leading public health research to map spread of the virus, 
risk, and exposure. We've heard of engineering departments using 3D 
printing to make masks and swabs, and students creating new programs to 
bring groceries to homebound seniors. The list goes on.

      I'd like to hear about how else our institutions of 
higher education can adjust their focus to help meet the future public 
health, medical, and related workforce needs to address both the 
current pandemic and the disparities in our health care system that 
have been laid so bare through this crisis.

    Answer 2. Institutions of higher education exist to educate our 
Nation's students so that they can become doctors, nurses, lawyers, 
engineers, etc. As it relates to COVID-19, institutions of higher 
education are able to become leaders in research to learn more about 
this virus and are able to teach courses on how to successfully respond 
to a pandemic. Institutions of higher education can also partner up 
with companies in the workforce to learn what their needs are and offer 
necessary and needed training and programs to ensure that those needs 
are met. There are a number of collaborations that could exist between 
an institution of higher education and the workforce, especially 
programs that would provide a passageway for our HBCU students to 
obtain a job after graduation.

    Question 3.

    According to the latest data provided by the National Center for 
Education Statistics, close to 20 percent of students attending 
institutes of higher education have at least one disability that 
impacts the way they learn. While colleges and universities have done 
much to ensure student learning continues in the wake of the pandemic 
by transitioning to online learning platforms, students with 
disabilities may encounter increased barriers in their pursuit of 
academic success at no fault to the institutes themselves. Students 
with Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder may struggle with 
prolonged online sessions. Students who are hearing impaired or suffer 
from auditory processing deficits may have difficulty communicating 
with other students when closed captioning is not available in video 
conferences or in streaming lessons, especially when they rely on an 
American Sign Language interpreter or reading lips. Furthermore, 
students with physical disabilities may not have access to the 
assistive technologies needed to successfully complete their 
coursework. Institutes of higher education have worked hard to support 
this sudden transition to virtual learning for all students, but this 
pandemic has had unintended hardships, particularly for those students 
with disabilities.

          How can we ensure that all students can continue to 
        be supported in their educational endeavors, whether physically 
        in the classroom or virtually through distance learning, even 
        beyond the pandemic?

    Answer 3. The Lane College Counseling and Disability Services 
provides accommodation services to student with disabilities. 
Counseling Services is currently conducting workshops with faculty and 
staff to make us aware of the breadth of services that the Center 
provides to assist students. Further, the Center has several tools 
(i.e. Kurzweil assistive technologies) available to assist students 
with disabilities.

    Last, though Lane College has limited resources, we are committed 
to providing access to all of our students and removing barriers. 
Currently, our student body has a number of students who present a 
diversity of disabilities. I am pleased that our campus accommodates, 
assists, and graduates these students without regard to their 
disability.
                                 ______
                                 
Responses by Dr. Christina H. Paxson, to Questions of Senator Collins, 
Senator Scott, Senator Warren, Senator Sanders, Senator Casey, Senator 
                       Murray, and Senator Rosen.
                            senator collins
    Question 1.

    Three quarters of the programs offered at Maine's community 
colleges are the only ones of their kind in the state, and the vast 
majority (71 percent) of Maine's community college students are 
enrolled in career and occupational programs, many of them hands-on in 
nature. By definition, these skills-based programs--such as for auto 
mechanics, CNAs, machinists, radiological technicians, the culinary 
arts--have a necessary face-to-face component where physical distancing 
is very challenging, or may not be possible. This type of coursework 
has been critical to ``up-skilling'' our workforce. How should 
community colleges respond both to safety concerns as well as the 
overwhelming need for the workforce training they offer?

    Answer 1. Brown is a residential, four-year university with 
challenges and operations that likely are very distinct from a 
community college. Every institution necessarily will develop plans 
that align with their specific circumstances, geography, populations 
and curricula--whether they are rural or urban, have residential 
students or commuter populations, offer courses traditionally in 
smaller or large classes, or offer courses in person or online. My 
testimony is not intended as a roadmap for colleges and universities. 
Rather, my hope is to help build understanding among the honorable 
Members of the Committee of the complicated decisions all higher 
education institutions are confronting, and the important role of state 
and Federal Governments in supporting schools to ensure we can open our 
campuses safely.
                             senator scott
    Question 1.

    Ms. Paxson, in your op-ed in the New York Times, you brought 
attention to how university closures particularly affect low-income 
students. I appreciate your sentiment and concern for our most 
vulnerable students. Many students and families have recently become 
unemployed or suffered a significant drop in income due to COVID-19. In 
a letter to the U.S. Department of Education, Senators Hassan, 
Loeffler, Booker, and I asked the Department to ensure financial aid 
administrators have the support, guidance, and flexibility of the 
Department to fairly and efficiently execute ``Professional Judgment''. 
This tool allows financial aid administrators a mode to recalculate 
financial aid eligibility when a student's expected family contribution 
has abruptly changed.

          (A) Many colleges currently have tools at their disposal to 
        recalculate financial aid eligibility resulting from a loss of 
        income, but what are some ways you think we can make students 
        and families more aware of these options? How important are 
        financial aid options to the matriculation of students to 
        schools?

    Answer 1. Brown University is committed to meet the full 
demonstrated financial need of our students who are eligible for 
Federal and institutional funding throughout the academic year and 
their time at Brown. Therefore, students and families are required to 
apply for financial aid each year, but also encouraged to update the 
Office of Financial Aid if there are any changes to the family's 
financial situation. The situations include, but are not limited to, a 
loss of a job, a material reduction in hours and wages, a fire 
destroying a business or home, and large medical expenses. Due to the 
COVID-19 pandemic, Brown's Office of Financial Aid created a process to 
continually check in with families throughout the year to determine if 
they have experienced a significant change in their family's financial 
situation. The process involves special coding in our financial aid 
system for these families, so we do not lose track of them throughout 
the year. Brown also created a funding opportunity through the College 
for students to request funding for unexpected expenses.

    More broadly, the Department of Education could provide information 
on the website studentaid.gov encouraging students and families to stay 
in contact with their financial aid offices regarding any changes to 
their family circumstances. There are processes available to all 
colleges and universities to request additional Federal aid for 
students based on these types of changes. The funding may not always be 
grants or scholarship and may include loans, however, making students 
and families aware of the options can be critical to a student's 
decision to continue their education.
                             senator warren
    Question 1.

    How, specifically, will you ensure that faculty (including adjunct 
faculty) and staff (including hourly workers) are at the table for all 
decisions regarding when and how to repopulate your campus this fall? 
How will you engage and solicit their viewpoints, and how will you 
ensure that those viewpoints are taken into consideration for all 
decisions?

    Answer 1. Several ad hoc administrative committees were created to 
provide high-level oversight of ongoing issues arising from the global 
novel coronavirus pandemic. Membership on the committees include 
students, faculty and staff. While the work of the committees is 
specific to the unique circumstances of the pandemic and does not fall 
within the University's established governance committees, offices and 
structures, these ad hoc groups are working with relevant faculty and 
staff colleagues from across the University and engaging the existing 
governance structures throughout the process.

    Question 2.

    How, specifically, will you ensure that students are at the table 
for all decisions regarding when and how to repopulate your campus this 
fall? How will you engage and solicit their viewpoints, and how will 
you ensure that those viewpoints are taken into consideration for all 
decisions?

    Answer 2. Last spring, the University developed a survey of first-
year and returning undergraduate students to collect information about 
the choices they would most likely make under each of three planning 
scenarios for the fall that were under consideration. The intent was to 
gather information to guide and refine Brown's plans for the fall in 
conjunction with a wide variety of additional factors, data points and 
considerations--ranging from input from graduate students (who were 
surveyed independently) and faculty, to the evolution of the pandemic 
itself, to the availability of COVID-19 diagnostic tests.

    Student preferences served as one factor in the complex effort to 
develop solutions that protect the health and safety of students, 
faculty, staff and the extended community, while maximizing teaching, 
learning and research operations to the greatest extent possible. I'll 
also reiterate that students are members of some of the ad hoc 
committees created to provide high-level guidance and oversight 
surrounding the pandemic. Students are playing a critical role on 
Brown's Healthy Fall 2020 Task Force, which is taking the lead on 
developing training and a public education campaign around health 
protocols.

    Question 3.

    Given what we know about coronavirus now, and understanding this 
could change, under what conditions would you consider abandoning plans 
to repopulate your campus, again moving everyone to remote instruction, 
and shutting down the majority of outreach and research activities? 
What process would you follow to undertake this decision?

    Answer 3. I don't expect that we ever will experience again or in 
the same way the situation confronting colleges and universities when 
COVID-19 first arrived on campuses in spring 2020. In March, it was 
necessary to move everyone to remote operations completely and 
immediately to establish the public health protocols, digital and 
online operations, and modified approaches to facilities and space use 
that later allowed a transition to resuming the most essential 
operations onsite. Today, we are equipped with safety measures, 
equipment and knowledge that might lead to a new process of decision 
making in the event of a major surge in COVID-19 cases in the region, 
across the country and around the world, but with outcomes I would 
hesitate to try to predict.

    At Brown, we are basing all decisions regarding public health on 
the best available science. At all times, we are aligning with the 
guidance of the Rhode Island Department of Public Health (RIDOH) and 
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Our plans, 
policies and guidance to Brown community members will adapt and be 
updated as guidance from those agencies evolves with our understanding 
of COVID-19. If at any time we felt that the status of the pandemic 
would not allow us to safely manage an outbreak of coronavirus on our 
campus, or its impact on the Providence community, we would develop 
plans to allow the most essential functions to continue while 
prioritizing keeping our community safe. We learned, even at the height 
of the pandemic, that with proper safety measures and safeguard for 
personal health, essential operations can continue.

    Question 4.

    Do you intend to require students, faculty, or staff to sign 
waivers before repopulating campus this fall?

    Answer 4. Brown University does not intend to require students, 
faculty, or staff to sign waivers before returning to campus this fall.
                            senator sanders
    Question 1.

    Postsecondary education in the United States has traditionally been 
funded through a mixture of Federal and state government 
appropriations, institutional endowments, and student payments of 
tuitions and fees. However, recently, there has been a massive 
reduction in Federal and state investment in institutions of higher 
education that has left students bearing a larger proportion of the 
price of college. What has been the impact of the loss of investment in 
colleges on the ability of your students to pay for costs related to 
the COVID-19 pandemic? What has been the impact of the loss of 
investment in colleges on the ability of your school to prepare for and 
respond to the COVID-19 pandemic? With the loss of income and budget 
cuts, how will your institution prioritize safety and provide adequate 
staffing as campuses reopen? How will your institution ensure that 
every student, regardless of financial status, students with 
disabilities, LGBQT+ students, students with unsafe homes, students of 
color and students from low-income families will have free access to 
testing and a vaccine, when available?

    Answer 1. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown 
University has been guided by a clear set of principles: protect the 
health and safety of Brown students and employees; protect the 
financial well-being of vulnerable members of our student and employee 
populations; protect Brown's mission of education and research, 
including focusing resources on Brown's highest academic priorities; 
and protect the long-run financial health of the University.

    Guided by these principles and our core values, in responding to 
the pandemic, we have supported undergraduate students with travel, 
moving and instructional expenses; credited fees for room and board; 
and are waiving the summer earning expectations of all current and 
admitted students, covering this with scholarship aid. We are providing 
support to address the distinct needs of graduate students during this 
period of uncertainty, and we have remained committed to sustaining our 
current workforce and to taking steps to avoid layoffs. We have also 
offered the option to tenure-track faculty to extend the tenure clock 
by one year. Throughout this period, we have partnered with Providence 
and Rhode Island to assist with increasing local community needs, 
described in this letter.

    The University's actions in support of our community have been the 
right things to do, and through increased expenditures and declining 
revenue, have increased our fiscal year 2020 budget deficit by nearly 
$40 million. We expect this negative financial impact to grow by an 
additional $100-200 Million over the course of next year depending on 
how prevalent the coronavirus remains. That being said, we will 
continue to meet the full demonstrated need of all admitted students, 
and all COVID-19 testing will be free of charge to students, faculty 
and staff.

    Question 2.

    According to a report from the American Federation of Teachers, 
``Army of Temps,'' 75 percent of all instructional workers in American 
higher education are contingent or adjunct--effectively, temporary 
workers. Of those workers, almost 40 percent are over 60; 65 percent 
are over 50. We know from other industries in which workers have no 
meaningful job security--Uber and Lyft drivers, seasonal farm workers, 
and the like--that workers in such industries often feel pressured to 
come to work even when they are sick, and even when conditions where 
they work are not conductive to their health. What do you plan to do to 
make sure that these workers, the majority of teaching staff in higher 
education in the United States, are safe from COVID-19 on your 
campuses, and what do you recommend others do? How do you plan to 
reasonably accommodate those who the CDC has designated at being at 
heightened risk of COVID-19 complications, particularly those who may 
not feel that they have the job security to raise their concerns about 
their own health at work?

    Answer 2. For the past several months, multiple working groups at 
Brown have been exploring a range of options for safe operations for 
the 2020-21 academic year amid the global pandemic. This planning has 
been guided by advice from medical and public health professionals, and 
informed by guidelines coming from the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH). The focus 
at all times has been how we can best protect the health of our 
students, staff, faculty and Providence residents while delivering 
Brown's world-class education, continuing critical research, and 
remaining a valued neighbor in our city, state and region.

    Currently, cases of COVID-19 are trending down in Rhode Island, and 
the state has moved into Phase 3 of its reopening plan. In light of 
these trends, we are planning for the return of students to campus this 
fall, based on a three-semester academic calendar and other policies 
and practices that will reduce the density of students, faculty and 
staff on campus, and give all students the opportunity to spend two 
semesters on campus.

    All students will be given the option to enroll in their courses 
remotely, whether they are on campus or not, and all faculty will be 
given the option of teaching in person or remotely. As noted above, 
limiting in-person class sizes to 20 students will enable safe 
distancing of students and instructors within classrooms. In addition, 
every classroom space will have a six-foot or greater separation 
between individuals. Faculty with health or other concerns have the 
option to teach, mentor and advise online in the fall. Should the 
public health situation not improve, this option will be extended 
throughout the spring and summer semesters as well.

    Brown established a COVID-19 Workplace Safety Policy, which sets 
out the requirements for work that is authorized to take place on 
campus in a safe and orderly manner. This policy applies to every 
member of the University community.

    Testing and contact tracing for all Brown employees and students 
are essential for campus safety. Over the summer, we are piloting a 
testing program that will be implemented for all employees and 
students. We have also established a contact tracing team for all 
employees at Brown as well as a separate contact tracing team for all 
of our students.

    We have also continued to provide regular education on and support 
for workplace safety for all Brown faculty and staff. Symptomatic 
employees receive immediate support for paid time off by the University 
for ten business days if they must be in quarantine as a result of 
being exposed to COVID-19 or in isolation if they have been positively 
diagnosed for COVID-19. If employees need additional time off for more 
than 10 days due to exposure or a positive diagnosis, there are 
additional leave programs that employees can request. Paid time off for 
ten business days is also available to our employees who are not sick 
but must provide care to dependent(s) or to care for a household member 
who has been exposed to COVID-19 or positively diagnosed with COVID-19. 
In addition to paid time off for ten business days and leave options, 
employees may also qualify for alternative work arrangements to address 
care for a dependent or for a household member who may need additional 
time to recover from COVID-19.

    Any employee at high risk who feels unsafe to report to work can 
request a variety of leave options, alternative work arrangements or a 
reasonable accommodation. All supervisory employees have received 
specific training on the available options to provide immediate support 
to an employee who is at high risk and cannot perform their work on 
campus.
                             senator casey
    Question 1.

    The COVID-19 pandemic has provided unprecedented disruptions across 
our education system. Students may have changed financial 
circumstances, increased family obligations or other challenges that 
necessitate additional support or flexibility. In particular, students 
whose personal circumstances require it, may need additional 
flexibility to switch institutions. Have you considered developing more 
robust transfer policies to accommodate these students? If so, what 
changes are you proposing?

    Answer 1. To support our students who plan to start or resume their 
studies at Brown in the fall, the University will continue to meet the 
full demonstrated financial need of our students who are eligible for 
Federal and institutional funding throughout the academic year and 
their time at Brown. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Brown eliminated the 
summer earnings requirement for students and replaced the amount with 
University scholarship. This resulted in an increase between $2,700--
$2,900 for all students receiving aid. In addition, the Office of 
Financial Aid created a process to continually check in with families 
throughout the year to determine if they have experienced a significant 
change in their family's financial situation. Brown also created a 
funding opportunity through The College for students to request funding 
for unexpected expenses.

    If students transfer to other institutions, coordination between 
institutions of higher education will play a critical role to ensure 
that transfer students receive robust orientation, academic and 
financial support.

    Question 2.

    According to a survey by Active Minds, 80 percent of college 
students indicate COVID-19 has negatively impacted their mental health. 
Students returning to campus may face increased anxiety about their own 
health, the health of their parents and loved ones at home. Students 
who are immunocompromised or otherwise medically vulnerable may also 
face increased anxiety and isolation from their peers. As you consider 
reopening in the fall, how are you preparing to support the increased 
mental health needs of your students and faculty?

    Answer 2. Brown University has the good fortune of having an 
integrated model of care, represented by a combination of mental health 
and physical health care clinicians. Together they share in the 
holistic support and care of all Brown students. The Counseling and 
Psychological Services (CAPS) department is staffed by dedicated and 
committed mental health professionals who remain prepared to continue 
their support of students and whatever mental health challenges they 
may be experiencing, wherever they are located. When students 
transitioned to a virtual learning environment, CAPS staff continued to 
support and care for students by transitioning to telehealth. In our 
preparation for a fall reopening, we are preparing for CAPS to offer a 
blend of on-campus services for those who return to campus and 
telehealth services to serve students who may be in remote locations. 
This will continue to make mental health care maximally accessible. The 
services provided by CAPS include same day availability, urgent care 
access, ongoing longitudinal therapy and support offered in groups and 
workshops. We have also learned the value of transitioning groups and 
workshops to virtual platforms and will continue to build on those 
models. We have also long understood the power of embedding mental 
health services in programs such as our medical school and will 
continue to expand upon that model. In addition, we have a robust 
student health service that is staffed by primary care clinicians who 
are comfortable providing care to the ``whole student.'' Our integrated 
model of health and wellness care is structured such that Brown 
University Student Health Services clinicians collaborate with CAPS 
clinicians in the mental health care of students on a daily basis. As 
we prepare to move into a new, state-of-the-art Health and Wellness 
Center in the Spring-Summer of 2021, these services will become co-
located. We expect that students will experience the benefits of this 
model of collaborative care in even more profound ways.

    Question 3.

    For our colleges and universities that serve a diverse population 
of students and their families, there will be significantly different 
abilities to get to campus and to safely participate in instruction and 
activities or even get back to campus. For students with disabilities 
that have secondary health conditions, such as diabetes or asthma, 
there will be greater risks. Wherever health services are provided, 
they need to be equitably provided for students with all types of 
disabilities.

          I'm concerned as well for students of lesser economic means. 
        The expense of returning to campus will be greater for them. 
        The precautions they will need to take will be more expensive 
        for them. The risks for them will be greater. If there are 
        added expenses for single rooms, health care services, 
        increased tuition--all of those costs will be more difficult to 
        bear for them.

          Low-income students may also face additional challenges. The 
        expense of returning to campus will be greater for them. The 
        precautions they will need to take will be more expensive for 
        them. The risks for them will be greater. If there are added 
        expenses for single rooms, health care services, increased 
        tuition--all of those costs will be more difficult to bear for 
        them.

          For these groups of students, reopening campuses may mean 
        they cannot or will not attend. They may not have the money or 
        wish to risk their health. How will you ensure that we do not 
        see an expansion of the gap in access and completion of 
        postsecondary education for poor and disabled students, thus 
        reinforcing decades of discrimination and lack of access to a 
        college or graduate education that can lead a person out of 
        poverty or prevent them from falling into poverty?

    Answer 3. Maintaining the financial well-being of students and 
employees, especially those who experience the greatest impact, is one 
of the principles guiding the University's planning and decision 
making. We have demonstrated this in a multitude of ways since COVID-19 
affected our community.

    Guided by the priority to ensure the health and safety of our 
students, faculty and staff, the University moved quickly to relocate 
students and transition to remote learning. We supported students in 
numerous ways to ensure that they could transition safely and have the 
resources needed to engage in their courses and continue their 
education progress. We supported:

          Moving and travel expenses for undergraduate 
        financial aid recipients

          Students working remotely or those whose research has 
        been put on hold

          Students facing food insecurity while they are away 
        from campus

          Technology needs to support remote learning, 
        including internet connectivity, computers, and course-specific 
        software and materials

          In addition, recognizing that employment 
        opportunities would be limited in this economy, we eliminated 
        the summer earnings expectation.

    Brown University has a team of professionals in the Student 
Accessibility Services Office to support the specific needs of students 
including undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral 
trainees. University Human Resources supports faculty or staff members 
who may need accommodations or services due to a disability or medical 
condition. Specific attention is being devoted to the needs of 
individuals with specific accommodations in their housing, dining and 
learning during the University's response to the pandemic.

    Brown University remains committed to attracting and supporting 
students from families of all income levels, and to meeting the full 
demonstrated financial need of admitted undergraduate students. The 
University also has processes in place to support those students with 
the highest financial need through The College's E-Gap fund. This 
includes support for travel or other requirements to support student 
success.

    In the year ahead, students also have the option of taking courses 
fully remotely should they choose given their health conditions or 
other circumstances.
                             senator murray
    Question 1.

    I am concerned about Secretary DeVos requiring schools, including 
colleges and universities, to implement a sweeping new Title IX 
regulation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a uniquely 
challenging time to be enacting such a policy.

    President Paxson, do you agree that implementing a safe and 
equitable re-opening is a priority right now and that achieving 
compliance with this far-reaching regulation during a nationwide 
pandemic and time of racial unrest stretches the capacity of 
institutions?

    Answer 1. As your question notes, institutions must focus on 
planning for a safe and healthy campus-based operation. Thus, limiting 
our adoption of these regulations to 100 days is challenging and does 
not reflect the dynamic conditions in which these rules will operate. 
The August 14 deadline does not allow institutions to devote adequate 
time to fully assess the best way to adopt these changes within their 
Title IX policies and to contemplate the effects on other codes of 
conduct, policies, and practices.

    The August 14 compliance deadline also places undue burden on our 
faculty, staff and students. People are stressed and anxious from the 
demands of COVID-19 and the sudden transition to remote learning. Our 
community is shouldering the effects of self-isolation, care for sick 
family members, financial instability and graphic reminders of racial 
inequity and chronic disparities in our health care and criminal 
justice system. Accordingly, we will be offering a higher degree of 
care for our constituents as we begin the fall semester regardless of 
the format in which we operate.

    Institutions must have the time needed to consider due care and 
effectiveness for their unique campus cultures in handling sexual 
harassment and gender-based violence.

    I am in full agreement that sexual violence and gender-based 
discrimination occurs at alarming rates and is unacceptable. Campuses 
must continue to do what is necessary to prevent and address this 
behavior when it learns of its occurrence, and any conduct that 
interferes with someone from fully realizing their educational goals. 
My concerns rests predominately with the lack of time given to comply 
with the regulations.

    Question 2.

    President Paxson, what is your opinion on Secretary DeVos' decision 
to exclude non-Title IV eligible students from being eligible for 
emergency financial aid under the CARES Act, contrary to congressional 
intent?

    Answer 2. I believe that colleges and universities need 
governmental support for student financial aid. Brown and other schools 
collectively will spend tens of billions of dollars on aid for students 
whose parents have lost their jobs during the pandemic and who may be 
unable to return to school without emergency assistance from their 
college or university. It is my personal conviction that DACA and 
undocumented students, as well as veterans, should be eligible for the 
much-needed Federal financial support in this time of a global pandemic 
and the resulting economic downturn.

    Question 3.

    President Paxson, what is your opinion on Secretary DeVos' decision 
to block institutions of higher education from using institutional 
stabilization funds provided by Section 18004(a)(1) of the CARES Act to 
defray lost revenues, contrary to congressional intent?

    Answer 3. If colleges and universities can resume campus operations 
safely this fall, they will have to contend with the costs of 
implementing comprehensive public health plans, including expenses for 
testing, contact tracing and isolation/quarantine of students. In 
addition, during the course of the pandemic, colleges and universities 
have incurred significant unbudgeted and unanticipated expenses for 
support for undergraduate students with travel, moving and 
instructional expenses; crediting fees for room and board; waiving the 
summer earning expectations of all undergraduate students and providing 
more scholarship aid; providing financial support to graduate students; 
and contending with loss of revenue from canceling summer programs. 
Additional assistance from the Federal Government is needed and should 
go directly to institutions to cover these costs.
                             senator rosen
    Question 1.

    The Nevada System of Higher Education has three separate groups 
focused on preparing to safely re-open campuses this fall. One of 
these--the COVID Reopening Task Force--includes students, medical 
personnel, education leaders, and public safety staff, who are all 
reviewing various plans and providing recommendations to the 
Chancellor. At this point, our schools are planning to re-open in the 
fall, but with various modifications, including: no large lectures; a 
mix of remote and in-person instruction; single-occupancy dorm rooms; 
and increased cleaning, testing, and tracing. Each of the schools are 
also consulting with health and education experts in order to follow 
best practices.

          How flexible are your plans to re-open campuses this 
        fall? Do you envision adapting your plans as the semester 
        progresses?

    Answer 1a. Brown's plans are based on the best current available 
data and public health recommendations. However, we recognize there is 
still great uncertainty about how the pandemic will evolve across 
regions of the country and the world, and the pace at which treatments 
and vaccines will be developed. I have informed all students, faculty, 
staff and alumni that everyone in our community will have to approach 
this year understanding that we may need to make mid-course changes or 
adjustments to how instruction is offered, housing is configured, and 
public health protocols are implemented on campus. As always, we will 
approach any changes based on community principles that place a premium 
on the health and well-being of our students and employees.

          What education and health experts do you consult with 
        on best practices when determining whether and how to reopen?

    Answer 1b. Our planning has been guided by expert advice from 
medical and public health professionals and informed by guidelines 
coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 
Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH). The focus at all times has 
been how we can best protect the health of our students, employees and 
Providence residents.

    Question 2.

    It is absolutely critical that we ensure our students' and 
faculty's health is protected as colleges and universities navigate how 
to move forward with their important role in fostering new ideas, 
educating our future workforce, and conducting critical research. We 
also need our institutions of higher education to continue to be strong 
partners with our health care system as we work to fight COVID-19, and 
also look for new ways to engage. In Nevada, we have seen our colleges, 
universities, and researchers go above and beyond. Just a few 
examples--the UNLV School of Medicine in Las Vegas jumped in to provide 
curbside testing early on; UNR in Reno has been researching new ways to 
address COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment; and the Desert Research 
Institute is leading public health research to map spread of the virus, 
risk, and exposure. We've heard of engineering departments using 3D 
printing to make masks and swabs, and students creating new programs to 
bring groceries to homebound seniors. The list goes on.

          I'd like to hear about how else our institutions of 
        higher education can adjust their focus to help meet the future 
        public health, medical, and related workforce needs to address 
        both the current pandemic and the disparities in our health 
        care system that have been laid so bare through this crisis.

    Answer 2. The pandemic has magnified the deep disparities that 
exist in the United States. Institutions of higher education have a 
critical role to play through teaching, research and service to address 
these persistent issues.

    The University has created a seed fund to support research in this 
area--both COVID-19 related research aimed at finding treatments--and a 
fund aimed specifically at addressing the origin and implications of 
bias and racism in the US. Academic centers, departments, and 
institutes have developed substantial programming to raise awareness 
and understanding of the range of issues, bringing experts from across 
the disciplines to share and advance knowledge.

    In addition, Brown has a long and valued partnership with Tougaloo 
College, a historically Black college in Mississippi. As part of 
efforts to respond to the current national climate and fortify the 
partnership, Brown's School of Public Health and Tougaloo College 
recently announced the Health Equity Scholars program. With the goal of 
expanding voices and perspectives in public health by changing the 
makeup of public health leadership, the scholars program will begin by 
admitting up to five Tougaloo graduates into Brown's Master of Public 
Health program this fall and in subsequent years. Scholars will receive 
a full-tuition scholarship, enhanced mentorship and internships focused 
on training the next generation of public health leaders. We will work 
over the coming academic year to identify additional avenues for 
expanding upon the Brown/Tougaloo partnership in response to current 
times.

    Question 3.

    According to the latest data provided by the National Center for 
Education Statistics, close to 20 percent of students attending 
institutes of higher education have at least one disability that 
impacts the way they learn. While colleges and universities have done 
much to ensure student learning continues in the wake of the pandemic 
by transitioning to online learning platforms, students with 
disabilities may encounter increased barriers in their pursuit of 
academic success at no fault to the institutes themselves. Students 
with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder may struggle with 
prolonged online sessions. Students who are hearing impaired or suffer 
from auditory processing deficits may have difficulty communicating 
with other students when closed captioning is not available in video 
conferences or in streaming lessons, especially when they rely on an 
American Sign Language interpreter or reading lips. Furthermore, 
students with physical disabilities may not have access to the 
assistive technologies needed to successfully complete their 
coursework. Institutes of higher education have worked hard to support 
this sudden transition to virtual learning for all students, but this 
pandemic has had unintended hardships, particularly for those students 
with disabilities.

          How can we ensure that all students can continue to 
        be supported in their educational endeavors, whether physically 
        in the classroom or virtually through distance learning, even 
        beyond the pandemic?

    Answer 3. Accessibility Services at Brown University works with 
students with disabilities on a case-by-case basis to determine 
appropriate accommodations in accordance with the Americans with 
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation 
Act of 1973. The University is also working with instructors to create 
accessible online and in-person learning. Students registered with 
Accessibility Services may be eligible for assistive technology to 
provide additional access to information or learning platforms. 
Captioning is available on request for accessibility purposes through 
Media Services.
                                 ______
                                 
       Responses by Mitchell E. Daniels, to Questions of Senators
    In response to the follow-up questions from Members of the 
Committee related to the important topic of the hearing, I submit for 
the record the ``Protect Purdue Plan,'' released after the hearing on 
June 12, 2020. The plan outlines in great detail how Purdue is 
preparing to welcome students this fall, while protecting those most 
vulnerable in our campus community. And, just this week we added to our 
plan a means to require and pay for all West Lafayette-bound students 
to be tested for COVID-19 before moving into residence halls and 
attending classes.

    While I wouldn't presume that Purdue's approach will be a perfect 
fit for every college and university, the principles of our strategy 
should have broad appeal. In summary, those principles are:

        1. Expect each Boilermaker to assume personal responsibility to 
        ``Protect Purdue--myself, others, our Purdue community.''

        2. Implement personal health safety practices and protocols.

        3. Enact health safety changes in physical spaces.

        4. Offer a range of instructional options for students and 
        faculty.

        5. Identify and protect the most vulnerable members of the 
        Purdue community.

        6. Engage our stakeholders with consistent, compelling and 
        timely communication and clear guidance.

        7. Advance our research mission in a safe and responsible way.

        8. Anticipate and plan for contingencies.

    With critical research operations ramping up on our campus, 
preparation for our annual freshman orientation, Boiler Gold Rush, just 
40 days away and classes beginning shortly after, the entire campus is 
working overtime to ensure a safe return for students and staff. Our 
Protect Purdue Plan is a comprehensive review that should answer every 
question relevant to the hearing topic while allowing our team to stay 
focused on the important mission ahead of us. Again, thank you for 
allowing me the opportunity to share our perspective and for your 
service to our great nation.
                                 ______
                                 
    [Whereupon, at 12:20 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

                                   [all]