[Senate Hearing 117-191]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-191
COVID-19 RESPONSE AND RECOVERY:
SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS
IN HIGHER EDUCATION & LESSONS ON
SAFELY RETURNING TO CAMPUS
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
EXAMINING COVID-19 RESPONSE AND RECOVERY, FOCUSING ON SUPPORTING THE
NEEDS OF STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND LESSONS ON SAFELY RETURNING
TO CAMPUS
__________
JUNE 17, 2021
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-771 PDF WASHINGTON : 2023
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chair
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont RICHARD BURR, North Carolina,
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado MITT ROMNEY, Utah
TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
JERRY MORAN, Kansas
Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
John Righter, Deputy Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS
THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2021
Page
Committee Members
Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor,
and Pensions, Opening statement................................ 1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State
of North Carolina, Opening statement........................... 3
Cassidy, Hon. Bill, a U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana,
statement...................................................... 6
Witnesses
Copeland-Morgan, Youlanda, Vice Provost of Enrollment Management,
University of California, Los Angeles, CA...................... 7
Prepared statement........................................... 9
Summary statement............................................ 11
Verret, Reynold, President, Xavier University of Louisiana, New
Orleans, LA.................................................... 11
Prepared statement........................................... 13
Summary statement............................................ 21
Harris, Anthony, Student, Baldwin Wallace University, Berea, OH.. 22
Prepared statement........................................... 24
Pumariega, Madeline, President, Miami Dade College, Miami, FL.... 26
Prepared statement........................................... 27
Summary statement............................................ 30
COVID-19 RESPONSE AND RECOVERY:
SUPPORTING THE NEEDS OF STUDENTS
IN HIGHER EDUCATION & LESSONS ON
SAFELY RETURNING TO CAMPUS
----------
Thursday, June 17, 2021
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room
430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, Chair
of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Kaine, Hassan,
Lujan, Hickenlooper, Burr, Cassidy, and Tuberville.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY
The Chair. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee will please come to order. Today, we are
holding a hearing on supporting the needs of students in higher
education during COVID-19 and safely returning to campus.
Ranking Member Burr and I will each have an opening statement
and then we will introduce today's witnesses. After the
witnesses give their testimony, Senators will each have 5
minutes for a round of questions.
While we remain unable to have the hearing fully open to
the public or media for in-person attendance, live video is
available on our Committee website at help.senate.gov. And if
you are in need of accommodations, including closed captioning,
you can reach out to the Committee or the Office of
Congressional Accessibility Services. This pandemic upended our
education in so many different ways.
Colleges and universities have had to close campuses and
services, rapidly transitioned to online education and
implemented critical public health measures, all while facing
budget shortfalls. And overall spring enrollment fell to 16.9
million from 17.5 million, marking a one-year decline of over
600,000 students. Meanwhile, this pandemic has disrupted
students, classrooms, and housing security, challenged their
mental health, upended the economy, and created more
uncertainty for students who are already struggling to pay for
tuition and rent and food and other basic needs.
The pandemic has also shown us how much college students
are hanging on by a thread. The fact that students were food
and housing insecure before the pandemic truly concerns me. And
now these needs have only deepened. But the pandemic has also
shown us the power of supporting communities. As colleges look
to safely reopen this fall, there are many lessons we can draw
on from institutions that are thoughtfully and safely
reopening. The work to safely reopen must continue. Each
college will need to take into the account of needs of
students, faculty, staff and vulnerable populations as they
bring back more people to campus.
Colleges must continue to address students' academic
health, including mental health and basic needs. The Federal
relief funds provided to colleges was a powerful and important
step forward. The University of Washington in my home state
told my office the amount of emergency aid requests they are
receiving is 20 times higher than what it was before the
pandemic. A study from the University of North Carolina Chapel
Hill found first year students reported significantly higher
levels of depression and anxiety in the wake of the pandemic.
What is more, 2 in 5 students report experiencing food
insecurity, almost half report experiencing housing insecurity,
and 1 in 6 report experiencing homelessness.
We know this pain has not been felt equally. It has been
hardest on historically under-resourced institutions like
HBCUs, other minority serving institutions, and community
colleges. It has been the hardest on students of color,
families with low income, students with disabilities, LGBTQ
students, rural students, veterans, and first generation
college students, students who have always experienced
inequities in our education system. That is why it was so
important Congress take action. And while we have more work to
do to see everyone through this crisis, we have been able to
make student loan forgiveness, tax free, full stop and provide
more than $76 billion in higher education emergency relief
funds, including nearly $40 billion we passed as part of the
American Rescue Plan.
I have heard from so many people back in my state what a
lifeline those funds have been for schools and students.
Colleges have been able to use these funds to support
vaccination efforts, secure personal protective equipment,
purchase cleaning supplies, update technology for remote
learning, and cover lost revenue. And perhaps most importantly,
they have been able to provide students desperately needed
direct financial support as they grapple with the fallout of
this pandemic. Because of the pandemic, a student at Western
Washington University is living in a tent with her children.
Now she is receiving a major emergency aid because of that
American Rescue Plan. An international student at Seattle
College couldn't go home due to the pandemic, couldn't pay for
their rent or food. Those funds are now helping them make ends
meet.
A student at Edmonds College was considering skipping
spring quarter so she could afford to cremate and bury her
father. Emergency financial aid meant she could keep her
classes. And these are just a few of the many stories of the
impact this funding is having on students. Whitcombe Community
College has provided emergency funds to nearly 4,500 students.
Clark College to 2,500 students. Washington State University
nearly 10,000. And University of Washington has awarded aid to
over 21,000 students. There are countless stories from Heritage
University, Big Bend Community College, Wenatchee Valley
College and other schools, and those are just the ones in my
state.
Millions more from across the country about what this aid
has meant to students, how to help them afford tuition and
books and food and housing and childcare and technology for
remote learning, whatever it was they needed to continue their
education. And I am pleased we have a student with us today,
Anthony Harris from Baldwin Wallace University in Ohio, to
share his own story. Anthony, thank you so much for being here.
I hope we all take an important lesson away from this about the
difference it makes when someone gets a helping hand during
tough times. Students like Anthony and students like those
whose stories I just shared are in many ways the future. And
the schools they attend are foundational to local economies
nationwide. Their success is critical to the success of our
country and our communities.
But if we truly want to help students succeed, we have to
do more than simply return to normal. Because even before this
pandemic, normal's price tag was far too expensive and out of
reach for too many students. Normal left too many students
hungry and homeless and hanging by a thread. It left them with
historic amounts of student loan debt and with empty promises
from predatory for profit colleges. Normal was systemic racial
and economic inequities in higher education and an epidemic of
sexual assault, harassment, and bullying on campuses. If this
pandemic has taught us anything is that we have to do better
than normal.
That is why I worked with colleagues on both sides of the
aisle to make sure legislation we passed last year restored
Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals, students
who have been defrauded, and students with drug related
offenses. It is why we worked to provide relief for
historically Black colleges and universities, and to better
support working students, working families, students who are
paid low incomes, and student parents. And it is why I am still
pushing to do more. I am working to reverse the Trump
administration's harmful Title IX rule, which made it so much
harder for a student to report an incident of sexual assault or
harassment and much easier for a school to just sweep it under
the rug. Yesterday, I introduced legislation to double the
maximum amount for Pell Grants and further expand Pell
eligibility.
I joined my Democratic colleagues to introduce legislation
to make community college tuition free. Back in my state, the
Seattle Promise Program is showing how supporting students with
tuition free community college can strengthen communities,
which is why the city is using COVID relief funds to expand
this program and help it cover even more student needs because
they understand this is how we help Seattle return from this
pandemic stronger and fairer. We have a lot of work to do to
make sure every single student has the opportunity to achieve a
higher education in a safe environment free from debt.
As we continue that work, I look forward to hearing from
our witnesses today about what the pandemic can teach us about
how we can get this done and working with my colleagues then to
make it happen. With that, I will turn it over to Ranking
Member Burr for his opening remarks.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR
Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me welcome our
witnesses here today. And I would also like to highlight, Mr.
Harris, thank you for being here. You are the only one that is
providing testimony today that had their testimony in on time.
So if your professors are listening, I hope you will get extra
credit for the timeliness of your testimony. The full reopening
of higher education system this fall is important. But I am
very disappointed that we aren't focusing on reopening K
through 12 schools for every student first.
During the pandemic, many higher education institutions
reopened by fall 2020 or converted to online education and
hybrid models with relative ease. And we know the distance
learning in higher education works better because we have seen
it around the country for years. So I am not really sure that
this is the right focus at this time. Congress gave $76 billion
directly to higher education through three laws passed during
the pandemic. So they have plenty of money. Yet as of the first
week of June, $53 billion allocated to institutions remains
unspent. That is 70 percent of the money still sitting, just
waiting to go out the door.
This makes me question if such institutions truly needed
all this money. As former Harvard President Derek Boake noted
almost two decades ago, ``Universities share one characteristic
with compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty.'' ``There is never
enough money to satisfy their desires.'' With all this free
money, I am really concerned about the lack of accountability
that it brings to higher education. The four-year graduation
rate for a four-year degree is just 52 percent, according to
the National Center for Education Statistics. We kid ourselves
and have decided to talk about the six-year graduation rate
instead, but that is just 62 percent completion rate. Show a
lot of moms and dads and potential grads about our expectations
for completion and then we lower those expectations so that 62
percent is somehow comforting.
Where I am from 62 percent is a D. I guess D stands for
diploma. Yet tuitions keep rising. Tuition fees at 4 year
private schools jumped 44 percent over the past decade--55
percent at 4 year public schools. In some, graduation rates are
terrible, tuitions up, and debt is soaring. Democrats have
refused to engage in the serious conversation about steps to
change this trend. Instead, they want to talk about it, how to
throw more money at the same problem as if new Government
programs will somehow solve the problems of the last 30--the
last 30 Government programs created. Make college free, cancel
debt may be good talking points, but back home in North
Carolina, we have already made community college very
affordable.
In West Virginia and Arizona, they have made community
college tuition less than the average Pell Grant. I am not sure
these so-called solutions make a lot of sense, and I don't
think we should reward states like California and Massachusetts
with their sky high community college tuitions and give them a
bunch of new taxpayer money. On top of that, colleges and
universities are themselves becoming more and more isolated
from reality with regular assaults on free speech and returning
to segregated programing such as race specific graduation
ceremonies and woke counseling sessions. Plus, institutions are
harming society with near communist style indoctrination that
any idea that is offered that offends you must be banned from
the classrooms, or at least any idea that offends if you are a
liberal, I should say.
Then there is the threat from China. Too many institutions
of higher education rely on students from China paying full
tuition to pad their books. But then these same institutions
don't understand the concerns about efforts by China's
Government to steal our intellectual property and subvert our
research base. That business model needs to change, and
universities need to take the threat from China much more
seriously. Some are still toying with student debt forgiveness
schemes that is breaking--breathtaking in its embrace of
reckless financial responsibility and has zero regard for the
deep moral hazard that we are creating for borrowers,
institutions, and taxpayers.
The Biden administration still hasn't released any plan for
returning to loan repayments this October, despite the fact
that each year of the loan pause cost taxpayers more than the
annual budget of Pell Grants. All adults have had the chance to
get vaccinated and to get back to work. There is no reason to
extend the nonpayment at this point. I agree that there should
be a discussion about helping people who don't earn enough to
make full payment. There is a bipartisan solution that I have
worked with Angus King called the Repay Act. We are ready to
get the work if only someone from the White House would pick up
the phone and call. You should have my number, but if you
don't, burr.senate.gov will give you my telephone number. But
back to the elephant in the room.
We aren't--why aren't we having a discussion on K through
12 reopening? Are we concerned what the teachers union will say
if we demand that schools fully reopen this fall? Last year,
Republicans were blocked in our efforts to demand school
reopening. Will we be blocked again and when unions say that
they don't want to go back to school this fall? Science tells
us that children are much less likely than adults to experience
severe illnesses as the result of COVID-19. Science tells us
that teachers can be safely vaccinated.
Thanks to Operation Warp Speed, BARDA, FDA, we got safe and
effective vaccines approved in record time, and every adult in
this country, including every teacher, has had plenty of time
to get vaccinated at this point. Science tells us that children
over 12 can be vaccinated, and hopefully this fall and winter
the vaccines will be approved for younger children as well. And
until then, we know the steps to take to keep everyone safe for
in-person learning. So there is no excuse for schools not to
fully reopen this fall.
Today, we will hear about the very troubling mental health
consequences of a pandemic on college students who hadn't--had
more opportunity to get back to the classroom than America's
school children. So what do we know about younger students who
saw massive surges in anxiety, depression because of
unnecessary school closings? As of April, less than half of all
fourth grade Black, Hispanic, Asian, economically
disadvantaged, and English earning students were in fully in-
person learning.
As of April, less than half of all eighth grade students
nationwide were enrolled for fully in-person learning, and less
than a third of all Black, Hispanic and Asian eighth graders
were in fully in-person learning. Emergency department visits
for suspected suicide attempts were up 22 percent in the summer
of 2020, 39 percent in the winter of 1921 for children age 12
to 17. Since the science shows us and schools can open safely,
it is on the adults, the unions, school boards, superintendents
that make decisions to keep them closed. Most of our country's
private schools stayed open. They made plans. They followed the
science. They serve their children far better than the public
system.
I strongly encourage every Member of this Committee to read
a powerful Op-ed in yesterday's New York Times by Ms. Lelac
Almagor about her experience teaching this last year in a
charter school in Washington, DC. She speaks powerfully about
the harm done by school closures to children. She speaks about
the power of education. It is an eloquent essay. It is elegant
an essays as I have ever read, and I hope all of you will take
the time to read it and to reflect on it as well.
Madam Chair, I yield back.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator Burr. And I assure you this--
we agree opening our K through 12 schools is an incredibly
important issue. It is a goal of everyone I know on my side as
well as yours. And I intend to work with you to have a
reopening on K through 12 schools as we get closer to the fall
when schools are actually going to be back in session. So I
look forward to working with that. I know we are seeing a lot
more students in--back in schools, including my granddaughters,
which I am delighted about. And I know we all share that goal.
With that, we will now introduce today's witnesses.
Youlonda Copeland-Morgan is the Vice Provost of Enrollment
Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. She
oversees the university's offices of graduate--of undergraduate
admission, financial aid and scholarships, strategic
partnerships, and community engagement, and the early academic
outreach program.
Vice Provost Copeland Morgan, welcome. Thank you for
joining us today. With that, I am going to turn over to my
colleague, Senator Cassidy, who will introduce President
Reynold Verret.
STATEMENT OF SENATOR CASSIDY
Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Madam Chair. It is my pleasure
to introduce a man I consider as a friend, Dr. Reynold Verret,
the sixth President of Louisiana's Xavier University,
Historically Black College and University in New Orleans. Dr.
Verret is a leader. He has been a leader throughout the
pandemic, pioneering the way to reopen schools and universities
safely, providing students the opportunity to learn in a way
best suited to their needs and circumstances.
Under Dr. Verret's leadership, Xavier continues to be a top
feeder school in the Nation, producing African-American
physicians. He has increased Xavier's freshman enrollment by 21
percent and improve retention rates by 3 percent. He is an
accomplished biochemist and immunologist, participating in
COVID-19 vaccine trials, and has been an advocate for
vaccination of all in my state. From the start of the pandemic
Dr. Verret Xavier worked with local health agencies and
hospitals to host mobile testing centers and to set up a fully
operational COVID-19 testing lab to serve local communities and
to serve Xavier.
Before joining Xavier, Dr. Verret was a Provost at Savannah
State and Welch Universities, as a Dean at the University of
the Sciences in Philadelphia, as faculty and Department Chair
of Chemistry at Tulane and at Clark Atlanta University, and as
an Adjunct Professor of Immunology at the Tulane and Morehouse
School of Medicine. He has also conducted cancer research at
MIT. Dr. Verret's leadership over these past few months in
reopening Xavier and leading his community has been impressive.
With his background, Dr. Verret understands the science
behind the virus and the pandemic. And because of this, he made
the decision to reopen Xavier to allow students to be educated
in person. He knows the benefits for students on the individual
level and on the community level that outweigh the risk
associated with reopening. By the way, he also kind of, if I
may, thought about the social aspect, restarting baseball at
Xavier, which had not been there for 60 years.
Xavier not only reopened and not only gave students and
community a sense of normalcy, they had a great season with 27-
11, made it to the Black College World Series championship. But
universities like Xavier have shown us the path forward as to
how to reopen colleges and universities safely while giving
students the education and learning environment they deserve.
With that, I yield.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator Cassidy. Hi, Dr. Verret. I
appreciate you joining us today as well. Next, I will introduce
Anthony Harris, who you already heard, got his testimony in on
time. We appreciate that. He is a senior at Baldwin Wallace
University. He is pursuing a bachelor's degree in fine arts.
Mr. Harris is also a resident assistant on his campus and a
member of the Black Student Alliance.
Mr. Harris, again, thank you for joining us to share your
personal experience and to speak about some of the challenges
that students have been facing during this pandemic. We are
very glad to have you with us today. Finally, Madeline
Pumariega--Pumariega, did I say it correctly, Pumariega? Is the
first woman to become President of Miami-Dade College, a
position she has held since November 2020.
Before that, she was the Executive Vice President and
Provost of Tallahassee Community College. And in both of those
positions, she has played a key role in seeing students through
this pandemic. We are glad to have you with us. We look forward
to your testimony. And with that, we will begin with Vice
President Copeland-Morgan. You may begin your opening
statement.
STATEMENT OF YOULONDA COPELAND-MORGAN, VICE PROVOST OF
ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES,
CA
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking
Member Burr and Members of the Committee for inviting me to
appear before you today. I appreciate the opportunity to
provide testimony on the significant impact of the
congressionally approved higher education emergency relief
funds known as HEERF. The funds enabled students to continue
their education just when their dreams of a college degree
seemed shattered by COVID-19.
HEERF funds also proved to be a powerful investment in the
recovery and growth of our economy. My testimony will address
why the end of COVID-19 does not mean that the need for
increased Federal financial aid will end. There will not be a
return to normal for students in public universities and
community colleges. The needs of students may change, but they
will not diminish. In fact, the opposite is true. To help meet
these needs, the University of California system has not
increased tuition for the last 8 years.
Also, in 2019, 1920, the State of California awarded $950
million in state grants, and the UC system awarded $800 million
in need based grants to undergraduate students, compared to the
$400 million in Federal Pell Grants. Despite these efforts,
funding from the state and the UC system, along with generous
philanthropy--it is not sufficient to meet needs--students'
basic needs for food, adequate housing, health care, affordable
transportation, and other emergency needs. Federal financial
aid will continue to be critical in providing a college
education to students who are the future engine of the
country's economic growth.
In March 2020, when COVID-19 cases began to rise
dramatically in Los Angeles, UCLA closed. Students, especially
from low income, rural, and underserved communities had
difficulty studying remotely without computers, Internet
service, or other basic technologies. Students from low and
middle income families tried to find work to help their
families pay the bills and to keep food on the table. Anyone
who watched television and saw the long lines of cars with
people waiting to get boxes of food for their family knows how
widespread food insecurity is. The Federal Government helped by
allowing universities flexibility in the Federal work study
program.
We created new jobs that students could do remotely. We
gave students their Federal work study payments in the form of
grants if they were unable to find work. Thank you for this
flexibility. HEERF funds authorized by Congress were indeed a
lifeline. At UCLA from April 2020 to March 2021, CARES, HEERF I
grant of nearly $18 million were awarded to 22,695 students to
cover specific pandemic related expenses. They provided need
based grants to all students with a particular focus on Pell
Grant and middle income families. In early June 2021, UCLA
awarded HEERF II grants of $17.3 million to over 13,000
students. An additional 600,000 will be awarded throughout the
summer. The process of awarding the American Rescue Plan HEERF
III funds, exceeding $46 million, is already underway.
Without HEERF funds, the post pandemic COVID future would
be extremely challenging for higher education institutions.
HEERF funds enabled students to continue their education,
graduate on time, and work toward their dream of a college
degree. HEERF funds have an even greater lasting impact. They
are an investment in the country's economic recovery and
growth. Research shows that as workers' educational attainment
rises, unemployment rates decrease and earnings increase, and
as earnings increase, tax revenues also increase.
Importantly, college graduates provide Governments with a
disproportionate share of tax revenue. Now, at UCLA, we are
eagerly looking to the future. When UCLA opens in September,
two new entering classes will arrive on campus at the same
time, the class of fall 2020 and the class of fall 1921. They
will become a part of UCLA 43,000 student body. With your
ongoing support, UCLA's graduation rate will continue to be
higher than most colleges and universities across the Nation.
We are extremely proud of our most recent undergraduates as
they upheld our extraordinary record of achieving a four-year
graduation rate of 84.2 percent.
After this terrible year, the future finally looks bright
again for our Nation's students. They need and deserve our
support. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Copeland-Morgan follows:]
prepared statement of youlonda copeland-morgan
Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr and Members of the
Committee for inviting me to appear before you today as you review how
colleges and universities have supported students using Federal relief
funds during COVID-19.
My name is Youlonda Copeland-Morgan and I am the Vice Provost for
Enrollment Management at the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA). In this capacity, I oversee the offices of Undergraduate
Admission, Financial Aid and Scholarships, Strategic Partnerships and
Community Engagement, as well as the nearly one-billion dollar
financial aid and scholarship budget for UCLA's undergraduate, graduate
and professional schools. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before
you today and provide testimony on the significant impact of the
congressionally provided Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds, known
as HEERF.
These funds enabled students to continue their education and pursue
their dreams of a college degree just when that dream seemed shattered
by COVID-19. HEERF funds will also prove to be a powerful investment in
the recovery and growth of our economy. Research has proven that higher
education leads to increased earnings, lower unemployment and higher
tax revenues.
My testimony will also address why the end of COVID-19 does not
mean that the need for increased Federal financial aid will end. There
will not be a return to normal for students in public universities and
community colleges. The needs of students may change, but they will not
diminish. In fact, the opposite is true.
Recently, a November 2020 report from the University of California
Regents' Special Committee on Basic Needs acknowledged that ``basic
needs insecurity . . . has pervaded universities nationwide for
decades.''
Over the past several years, colleges and universities have
increased their efforts to meet these needs. For example, the
University of California system (UC) has not increased tuition for the
last 8 years. Also, the UC system and the state of California have
awarded substantial financial aid in the form of institutional and
state aid to qualifying students. In 2019-2020, the state of California
awarded $950 million in state grants, and the UC system awarded $800
million in need-based grants to undergraduate students, compared to
$400 million in Federal Pell Grants. The Regents' Special Committee
also estimated that the UC system's efforts to help meet students'
basic needs supported an estimated minimum number of 40,000 students in
the 2019-2020 academic year.
Despite these efforts, and families' willingness to contribute to
their students' college education, funding from the State of California
and the UC system, along with generous philanthropy, is not sufficient
to meet students' basic needs for food, adequate housing, healthcare,
affordable transportation and other emergency needs. Federal financial
aid will continue to be critical to help colleges and universities
provide a college education to the students who are the future engine
of the country's economic growth.
In March 2020, when Covid-19 cases began to rise substantially in
Los Angeles, UCLA closed. Students, especially from low-income, rural
and other underserved communities, had difficulty studying remotely
without computers, internet service or other basic technology. Students
from low-and middle-income families tried to find work to help their
families pay their bills and put food on the table. Anyone who watched
television and saw long lines of cars with people waiting to get boxes
of food for their family knows how widespread food insecurity was at
the beginning of the pandemic.
The Federal Government helped by allowing the University
flexibility in our work-study programs that are required for some
students to receive additional financial aid. We were encouraged to
create different types of jobs that students could do remotely. We were
also allowed to give students their work-study payments if they tried,
but were unable, to find work. It's important to know that our students
preferred to work, but the pandemic made it extremely difficult for
them to find jobs they could do from home.
I want to thank you for this flexibility. It made a big difference
for many students and helped the University with retention so students
could complete their education.
However, even with this support, many students had to drop out of
college. According to a Los Angeles Times article, dated June 10, 2021,
California had the largest drop in college enrollment numbers in the
Nation from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021. The state's overall community
college and university enrollment dropped by about 123,000 students or
5.3 percent.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-10/california-has-
the-largest-drop-in-spring-college-enrollment-numbers-in-the-nation.
These conditions would have gotten even worse if Congress had not
taken action to help higher education institutions meet their students'
basic and pandemic-driven emergency needs. The HEERF funds authorized
by Congress were indeed a lifeline.
At UCLA, from April 2020 through March 2021, the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) HEERF I grants of nearly $18
million were awarded to 22,695 students. These grants covered specific
pandemic-related expenses and provided need-based grants to
undergraduate, graduate and professional students, with a particular
focus on Pell Grant and middle-income families, and those facing higher
than expected housing and technology costs.
Upon notification of HEERF II funds, UCLA immediately began to
determine eligibility for these grants. In early June, 2021, UCLA
awarded HEERF II student grants of $17.3 million to over 13,000
students to date. An additional $600,000 will be awarded to address
ongoing student financial aid appeals throughout summer enrollments.
The process is already underway for awarding the American Rescue
Plan (ARP) HEERF III funds exceeding $46 million dollars for the Fall
2021-2022 academic year. These funds will be used to address parental
unemployment, changes in student income and other pandemic related
costs.
Without HEERF funds, the post-pandemic future would have been
extremely challenging for higher education institutions, students,
families, communities and our country. HEERF funds were . . . and
continue to be . . . extremely important. They enable students to
continue their education, graduate on time and work toward their dreams
of a college degree.
HEERF funds have an even more lasting impact. They are an
investment in the country's economic recovery and growth. In May 2020,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report that said it well.
The headline was ``Learn more, earn more: Education leads to higher
wages, lower unemployment.'' The report went on to say that ``As
workers' educational attainment rises, their unemployment rates
decrease and earnings increase.''
Other research has demonstrated that as earnings increase, tax
revenues to governments also increase. In 2015 the Association of
Public & Land Grant Universities, including UCLA, published a fact
sheet entitled How Do College Graduates Benefit Society At Large?
https://www.aplu.org/projects-and-initiatives/college-costs-tuition-
and-financial-aid/publicuvalues/publicuvalues-resources/q4/
GradsSociety.pdf.
This publication affirmed that college graduates provide
governments with a disproportionate share of tax revenues. Moreover, it
stated that ``Over a lifetime, bachelor's degree holders contribute
$381,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits.'' This
contribution is likely to have grown even bigger over the last 6 years
since the report was published.
Now, at UCLA, we are eagerly looking to the future.
When UCLA opens in September, two new entering classes will arrive
on campus at the same time, the class of Fall 2020 and the new class of
Fall 2021. They will become part of UCLA's 43,000 undergraduate,
graduate and professional students.
With your ongoing support, along with support from the state of
California and the UC system, UCLA's graduation rate will continue to
be higher than the average graduation rate of similarly situated
colleges and universities across the Nation. We are extremely proud of
our most recent graduating class that entered UCLA in 2016 and
graduated at the end of the 2019-20 academic year. They upheld our
extraordinary record, especially for a public institution, by achieving
a four-year graduation rate of 84.2 percent.
After this terrible year, the future finally looks bright again for
students who dream of graduating from college and creating productive
lives for themselves, their families and their communities.
They need . . . and deserve. . . all the help we can give them to
become the future our country needs. Thank you and now I'll be happy to
answer any questions you may have.
______
[summary statement of youlonda copeland-morgan]
The congressionally provided Higher Education Emergency Relief
Funds (HEERF) have been an extraordinary lifeline for college and
university students facing basic needs for food, housing, healthcare,
transportation and other emergencies during the pandemic. They have
enabled students to continue their education just when their dreams of
a college degree seemed shattered by COVID-19.
Over the past few years, colleges and universities have increased
efforts to meet students' basic needs. For example, the University of
California system (UC) has not increased tuition for the last 8 years.
Also, in 2019-2020, the state of California awarded $950 million in
state grants, and the UC system awarded $800 million in need-based
grants to undergraduate students, compared to $400 million in Federal
Pell Grants.
Despite these efforts, this funding has not been sufficient.
Federal financial will continue to be critical to provide a college
education to students who are the future engine of the country's
economic growth.
In March, 2020, UCLA closed when Covid-19 cases were rising rapidly
in Los Angeles. Students, especially from low-income, rural and other
underserved communities, as well as middle-income families burdened
with debt, had difficulty studying remotely without computers, internet
service, or family income to provide food for their families or pay
bills.
HEERF funds have provided crucial financial aid. At UCLA, from
April 2020 through March 2021, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and
Economic Security Act (CARES) HEERF I grants of nearly $18 million were
awarded to 22,695 students. These grants covered pandemic-related
expenses and provided need-based grants to undergraduate, graduate and
professional students, with a particular focus on Pell Grant and
middle-income families, and those facing higher than expected housing
and technology costs.
Upon notification of HEERF II funds, UCLA immediately began to
determine eligibility for these grants. In early June, 2021, UCLA
awarded HEERF II student grants of $17.3 million to over 13,000
students to date. An additional $600,000 will be awarded to address
financial aid appeals throughout summer enrollments.
The process is already underway for awarding the American Rescue
Plan (ARP) HEERF III funds exceeding $46 million dollars for the Fall
2021-2022 academic year. These funds will be used to address parental
unemployment, changes in student income and other pandemic related
costs.
HEERF funds have provided crucial financial aid to students during
the pandemic. They are also an investment in the country's economic
recovery and growth. Research has demonstrated that as educational
levels rise, earnings increase, unemployment rates decrease, and taxes
revenues increases. Specifically, college graduates provide governments
with a disproportionate share of tax revenues.
When UCLA opens in September, the two entering classes of Fall 2020
and Fall 2021 will become part of UCLA's 43,000 undergraduate, graduate
and professional student body. After this terrible year, the future
finally looks bright for them. They need . . . and deserve . . . all
the help we can give them to meet their basic needs.
______
The Chair. Thank you very much.
President Verret.
STATEMENT OF REYNOLD VERRET, PRESIDENT, XAVIER UNIVERSITY OF
LOUISIANA, NEW ORLEANS, LA
Dr. Verret. Chair Patty Murray, Ranking Member Richard
Burr, Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity
to testify today. I am Reynold Verret, Xavier University's
sixth President. My institution is a historically Black
university, an HBCU. It is also a Catholic institution. The
ultimate purpose of Xavier is to contribute to the promotion of
a more just and humane society by having its students assume
roles of leadership and service in the global society.
This preparation takes place in diverse learning
environments that include research and community service. I was
asked to testify before the Committee today about how Xavier
has employed and utilized Federal funds, relief funds passed by
Congress as a result of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. I will
speak for my institution, but you may infer from any of my
comments it also applies to 100 other HBCUs in this country. I
began discussing the COVID-19 virus with my leadership team in
late January 2020, and soon after my team began planning for
the eventuality that possibly this virus might reach our
shores.
On February 25th, 2020, we had Mardi Gras in New Orleans,
one of our iconic celebrations. On April 2nd, there were 725
cases of COVID-19 in Orleans Parish, population 391,000
roughly. Further, I began to note what the data would later
prove to us, that the health disparities that we have always
known that had ravaged African-American communities throughout
this country had been exacerbated and now were being revealed
to us in special ways. Working class African-Americans,
especially these people who are at the center of the vigor and
the identity of the city of New Orleans, would be bearing the
larger burden of disease.
On campus, I created a task force to consider following
options that we had to consider for the spring 2020 semester.
One option was to actually continue face to face instruction if
we could. The other was remote instructions, vacating the
campus, sending people home. Our administration ultimately
decided to offer instruction remotely, and for the 2020 spring
semester, continue this into the summer. In the fall semester,
return to mixed modalities in person on campus with special
public health considerations. The majority of instruction took
place in person, and we had a hybrid instructor for some
students which allowed them some choices as to their preferred
mode of instructions.
The university redoubled especially efforts for academic
support, attending to the students' physical and also emotional
needs for those students present on campus and also those who
remained at home. All rooms at our residential facilities
became single occupancy. 44 percent of our students normally
live on campus, about 1,390 students. Xavier, nonetheless, is
fortunate not to have had layoffs. However, we did maintain the
hiring freeze, which we just released recently. Xavier will
fully repopulate the campus for fall 2021, with students,
faculty, and staff resuming the forms of instruction and
interactions that were common to us before the pandemic.
Nonetheless, will have modified public health policies and
behavioral policies on campus. We can speak to those at another
point. I would be remiss if I did not thank the Congress,
including Members of this Committee, for passing last year's
Congressional H.R. 1748, the Coronavirus Aid Relief and
Economic Security Act, and also H.R. 133, the Consulting
Appropriations Act of 2020, and also H.R. 1319 passed by this
Congress, the American Recovery Act. Because of the CARES Act,
Xavier has access to a total of $37 million in direct
allocations from Section 18004(a)(1) and Sections (a)(2) of the
bill.
Noting that our students are enduring tough economic times
that present unique challenges, most especially students of
color, many of the economic activities of our students have
changed in the past November 2019 because of family situations.
With that being said, I would like to thank Congress especially
for providing additional allocations of $1.054 billion, $1.7
billion, and $2.98 billion to historically Black colleges and
universities, tribal colleges and universities, and also
minorities serving institutions. Additionally, I would like to
thank the Congress for targeted debt relief to institutions
through the HBCU Capital Finance Program of 2020, through the
Consolidated Appropriations Act.
Many schools benefited, but I would note, I would say that
Xavier along with nine other HBCUs benefited only in a marginal
way because the funds--the relief was predicated upon funding
already obligated at the time of the signing of the bill. I am
also grateful of the funding which benefited our students
population directly that has helped. The majority of our
students are Black Americans. Black Americans are
disproportionately affected by the pandemic. If the majority of
our students are disproportionately affected, so is a
university like ourselves, and many of my sister HBCUs.
Last, I have three recommendations that I would raise to
the Committee, provide permanent relief for the HBCU Capital
Finance Program for the remaining HBCUs which were not eligible
in the December 2020 action. Two, clearly doubling Pell is very
important for those who are struggling with the cost of the
higher education and coming from low income families and
backgrounds.
Third, support school administration plans which include
HBC priorities such as those of the jobs and infrastructure,
family plans in the president's budget, especially the $409
million line item in the Title III strengthening the HBC
programs. I want to thank you. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Verret follows:]
prepared statement of reynold verret
Introduction
Chair Murray, Ranking Member Richard Burr, and Members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
My name is C. Reynold Verret, and I serve as the 6th President of
Xavier University of Louisiana (Xavier). Xavier was founded by Saint
Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. My
institution is Catholic and a historically Black college and university
(HBCU).
The ultimate purpose of Xavier is to contribute to the promotion of
a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume
roles of leadership and service in a global society. This preparation
takes place in diverse learning and teaching environments that
incorporate all relevant educational means, including research and
community service.
I was asked to testify before the Committee today on how Xavier, as
an HBCU, has employed and utilized the Federal relief funds passed by
Congress as a result of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. As you know,
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 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).
Under my leadership, Xavier continues to be the No. 1 feeder school
in the country in producing Black doctors, according to the Association
of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Xavier educates a major portion of
Black students heading to medical school, with Howard University as our
nearest competitor, and dwarfs efforts of the Ivy League and large
state, research intensive universities. From 2013 to 2018, 147 Xavier
African-American graduates completed medical school. In the past 4
years, again under my leadership there has been an almost 21 percent
increase in first-year students and retention grew by 3 percent. Xavier
is indeed exemplary, but it is also an example of what HBCUs can and
have been doing. Structurally, we educate a much larger fraction of
African-American talent. We are producing talent that the Nation needs.
HBCU History and Statistics
Before I share how Xavier 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\ it is imperative that we all understand the history of HBCUs
to better understand how COVID-19 impacts these institutions
exponentially.
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\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\
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\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\
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\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 comprised 3 percent of all two-and four-year non-profit
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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\
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\5\ AUNCF 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 for African American graduates of other
institutions. \6\
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\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
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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 somewhat 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\
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\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\
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\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 Xavier University of Louisiana specifically, my
institution had the following economic impact on its regional economy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
according to the UNCF report:
$200,000,000 in annual economic impact;
1,715 jobs supported annually; and
$1.7 billion in lifetime earnings for one graduating
class.
$95 million in labor income impact. \9\
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\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 North Carolina, HBCUs are 16 percent of the four-
year institutions, but enroll 45 percent of all Black
undergraduates and award 43 percent of all Black bachelor's
degrees in the state. \10\
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\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.
Xavier's Plans for Possible Pandemic
On January 23, 2020, as we received reports of the emergence of
SARS-CoV-2 from China to neighboring countries, I called for the first
meeting of my executive team with associated support staff to prepare
for possible pandemic. The scenario-planning team met for a daylong
tabletop exercise, the team responded to the question: if the virus
arrived on our sure and necessary public health measures were
implemented, including lockdowns and sending home students and non-
essential personnel, how would Xavier sustain high quality education,
continue serving its students, and protect all concerned. Their task
was to assess forthrightly our preparedness, our capabilities and
deficits. In doing so, we identified the immediate need to reinforce in
all faculty an already burgeoning capacity to teach well online. We
considered our ability to address physical and emotional needs of
students and personnel, and to serve those who might become ill.
On the morning of Saturday, March 7, 2020, as I returned to Xavier
from a UNCF meeting, Xavier continued its moment-to-moment response to
the novel coronavirus that would be declared a pandemic in a precious
few short days. On March 13, 2020, Xavier implemented its decision to
move to remote instruction, initially allowing students the option to
shelter in place. One week later, Xavier sent all students and non-
essential employees home. One concern at the time is that travel might
be restricted, and students might lose the possibility of returning
home.
Throughout this long emergency, my fellow college and university
presidents, locally in the New Orleans region and among sister HBCUs,
exchanged ideas and worked collectively for the safety of our students
and personnel and to sustain our educational missions. Many a Zoom
meetings were spent exchanging thoughts and considering best
approaches.
Facing the COVID-19 Storm: Initial Responses
I subsequently established a planning team derived from academic
and student affair, our health personnel, and specialists from our
School of Pharmacy and our Public Health faculty. This group was
charged to plan for the longer term, to plan for the return in whatever
fashion and determine how we could offer instruction while maintaining
the well-being of students, faculty and staff. I joined at times in
their engaged discussions. One operant question that they were asked to
test was how we could assure greater safety on campus, than in our
surroundings or the home localities of our students, if we allowed
students, faculty, and staff to return.
It is because they were able to propose a plan that satisfied this
condition of greater safety that we could ethically embark on a return
in-person for Fall 2020. The taskforce recommended a plan with detailed
timeline and behavioral requirements for repopulating campus, with
mixed modalities of instruction. Due to the uncertainties of the
evolving pandemic, the team offered three scenarios: face-to-face
instruction in Fall 2020, Xavier all online courses in Fall 2020, and a
hybrid of both online courses and face-to-face instruction in Fall
2020.
The plan relied on masking, which the science showed to reliably
and profoundly reduce transmissibility of the virus. It required social
distancing, reducing occupancy of housing facilities to single
occupancy per room. It required surveillance testing and decision
points that might require a return to fully remote instruction. It
called for redoubling efforts for academic and emotional support,
attending to students physically present and those who remained at
home. The team also proposed guidance that students would shelter in
place in the event of a surge. They should not be sent home to spread
illness elsewhere. The plan recognize the urgency of the situation and
the necessity to persevere.
The university contracted space in a nearby hotel at a cost of
several million dollars per semester so as to transition all residences
to single occupancy. Forty-four percent of the student body (1390
students) resided on campus. Masking and distancing would be required
of all persons on campus.
The leadership team also implemented deep cleaning of all
facilities with an antimicrobial agent. Finally, while Xavier never
closed, we met and exceeded all Federal, state, and local orders,
including the closing of the campus and allowing access only to
essential employees and a few remaining residential students.
Initially, approximately 150 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, Xavier decided to close residence halls on Friday, March
26th, and required all students to vacate the premises, except for
international students, and those students deemed food and housing
insecure. Each of the 1390 residential students' accounts was credited
an average of $1800.00 in housing refunds, for a total of $2.4 million.
Forty-four (44) percent of the student body resided on campus prior to
the pandemic closure. Fortunately, Xavier did not have to lay off any
employees due to the pandemic, but hiring and spending freezes were
imposed. Superlative education continued and 571 students graduated on
May 8, 2021. These graduates are our gift to the world.
Facing the Storm: Suppressing Transmission
The measure of success experienced at Xavier in sustaining
education and in suppressing transmission of the virus in our campus
community is due largely the charism of ``service to other'' that
infuses this community of learners. Students know that their learning
will find its meaning when applied to service of others, whether as
teachers, physicians, artists or scientists. As Xavier deployed
behavioral measures, e.g. masking, social distancing, wiping one's desk
when leaving it, the Xavierites responded so as to endanger fellow
students, faculty or staff. The Xavier community followed these
measures, resulting in no greater that 1.6 percent seropositivity on
campus throughout the pandemic. Responding to the teaching of Leviticus
19:34 and Mark 12:31, this community lived its calling to love ones
neighbor at all times. In adhering to care of other, there was care for
all.
Facing the Storm: Faculty and Staff Innovative and Flexible
COVID-19 has disrupted learning and life at Xavier, but it has not,
and will not, defeat us. Like the eagle, Xavier faced the storm winds
and soared above COVID-19 to complete the spring 2020 and 2020--2021
academic years remotely and hybrid, respectively, with faculty and
students teaching and learning 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 Xavier 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 Xavier family
responded well to the challenge to recruit, retain, and remove barriers
for students.
Xavier's administrative staff, directors, chaplains, and faculty
all joined together to email, text, and communicate with new or
prospective students. 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: Our City and Our State
Situated less than one mile from downtown New Orleans, we pay close
attention to developments in our city, surrounding parishes, and the
State of Louisiana. As of March 26, 2020, the state of Louisiana
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 New Orleans, a majority African American city with a
population of 390,849, the number of COVID-19 cases began spiking in
late March 2020. On February 25, 2020, Mardi Gras--a uniquely New
Orleans festivity--took place. On April 2nd, there were 745 new cases
of COVID-19 in our community on that one day alone. Health disparities
which have for centuries afflicted African American communities were
noticeably exacerbated in pandemic, especially in the early months of
the emergency. Frontline workers, disproportionately people of color
experienced greater exposure. Working class African Americans, who make
our city hum with excitement and hope, bore a greater disease burden.
With this being said, Xavier is challenged to serve, sharing
expertise with city and community, with many Xavierites serving on city
and state taskforces and committees. The university was most fortunate
to have UNCF and the 37 member institutions as thought partners.
Webinars and convenings allowed for collective thought and reflection.
The university also owed a debt of gratitude to ThermoFisher and the
Gates Foundation for enabling the establishment of a high thru-put
testing laboratory on campus. This facility afforded surveillance
testing for our campus and other HBCUs in our region.
My institution continues to rely heavily on the following sources
in our evolving response.
CDC,
UNCF,
American College Health Association Considerations
for Reopening Institutions of Higher Education in the COVID-19
Era,
Louisiana Association of Independent Colleges and
Universities (LAICU),
Louisiana Board of Regents,
Louisiana Department of Health,
Louisiana Economic Recovery Group (ERG),
City of Public Health Taskforce
City of New Orleans Health Department, and
The city, parish, state and Federal guidance and
orders.
National Association of Independent Colleges and
Universities (NAICU),
National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Core
Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Sport
Xavier was able to quickly establish a COVID-19 Team with a
strategy team to lead. The Xavier crisis team is made up of the head of
student health, experts from Public Health and Pharmacy, from Student
Affairs, with participation of the President as needed. This team is
charged with offering overall leadership and guidance, including
tracking seropositivity and recommending responses and communication to
the community, and also coordinating the weekly COVID-19 Team Meeting.
As president, my role is to keep the team focused on valid science in
its assessment of the situation and its recommendations to maintain
safety.
Due to the fluid developments of COVID-19 pandemic, Xavier prepared
for three scenarios: face-to-face instruction in Fall 2020, all online
courses in Fall 2020, and hybrid of online courses and face-to-face
instruction in Fall 2020.
When Xavier students returned for face-to-face instruction in Fall
2020, it was during a more aggressive COVID-19 season. The
institution's response mirrored the response of the Spring 2020
semester and consisted 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:
Strict adherence to 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;
Surveillance testing for COVID-19 infection.
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.
While small and independent, Xavier primed itself to deliver
responsive and creative programmatic and curricular solutions. The
institution used Federal support to source digital devices, platforms,
texts, course material, and office applications to support Xavier.
Xavier implemented BrightSpace Virtual Platform, eliminating face-to-
face instruction and moving all classes to a remote format for over a
semester before carefully returning to campus. However, that did pose
its own unique set of challenges for Xavier:
About 55 percent of Xavier students receive Pell
grants. Thus, more than half of our students do 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 University is
the most safe and secure place; and
The College had to rapidly deploy, at cost, online
resources to support secure virtual testing administration or
the delivery of science lab instruction.
Use of Funds
The following outlines how Xavier has used its CARES, CRRSAA, and
ARP allocations to date.
HEERF I & HEERF II Student Aid--The University was
awarded a total of $3.2 million in student aid and to date has
disbursed $2.9 million emergency student aid grants as follows:
` HEERF I--Emergency student aid grants--$1.4 million
` HEERF II--Emergency Aid Grants--$1.5 million
HEERF I Institutional Aid--The University was awarded
$1.6 million and has expended $1.3 million on the following:
` Distance learning training for faculty
` Computers for students, faculty and staff for loaner
program
` IT software purchases necessary due to COVID-19.
HEERF II Institutional Aid--University was awarded
$3.9 million to date we have not expended any of these funds.
CARES Act Title III--The University received an award
of $7.0 million and expended $5.8 million the funds as follows:
` $1.8 million in need based scholarships to students.
` $2.4 million reimbursement of housing refunds paid
to students due to campus closure in March 2020.
` $1.6 million reimbursement for payments made to the
Hilton for offsite housing due to a need for additional
housing to reduce density (single occupancy housing).
CARES Act Title III (Second Allocation)--The total
award is $12.4 million of which the University has expended
$5.1 million reimbursement for payments made to the Hilton for
offsite housing due to a need for additional housing to reduce
density (single occupancy housing). Please note the University
paid a total of $6.7 million to the Hilton.
American Rescue Plan ARP--Total award is $9.6 million
($4.8 million student aid and $4.8 million Institutional aid),
the University has not expended any of these funds to date.
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, Xavier to a total of $3.79
million 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 $2.9
million. My institution used the institutional funds to reimburse
ourselves for COVID-19 related expenses and disseminated the emergency
grant aid to students. Xavier established two dispersal tactics:
HEERF I:
Increased financial aid packages of new and
continuing students ($3 million)
Provided $1.8 million in emergency grants to over
1100 students; an application process was used to address
breadth and depth of individual student needs
HEERF II:
Provided $1.8 million in additional emergency grants
to continuing students, prioritizing students with highest need
(based on Federal financial aid guidelines)
Xavier, with her 756 full-time equivalent employees, was ineligible
for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program
loan because of the university's size. 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 2020 of $100,000,000. This deferment
allows us to direct these payments toward sustaining the needed and
necessary operations of our campus.
Please know, Xavier reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit
higher education in the United States. With over 5 million students
attending 1,700 independent colleges and universities in all 50 states,
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:
On behalf of UNCF-member institutions, HBCUs, and small nonprofit
colleges, I ask that you do the following:
(1) Forgive balance of HBCU Capital Finance Program debt for
remaining HBCUs: The long-term impact of the Federal Government
providing permanent relief the HBCU Capital Finance
institutions in December 2020 will be felt for generations.
Xavier knows this impact having survived the impact Hurricane
Katrina. However, the provisions of the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2020 state that only obligated funds
borrowed from the Department of Education's program were
eligible for relief. When Xavier, undertaking an opportunity to
finally tackle a backlog of deferred maintenance, borrowed
$100,000,000 from the HBCU Capital Finance Program, the
subsequent permanent relief proved to have little to no
institutional impact. As an issue of fairness for similarly
situated institutions, the remaining (and existing) HBCU
Capital Finance Program loans should also undergo permanent
relief. We at Xavier understand that this relief should not be
routine; however, there are numerous measures in the 117th
Congress which include this permanent relief, including the
Institutional Grants for New Infrastructure, Technology, and
Education for (IGNITE) HBCU Excellence Act.
(2) Double Pell Grants: As much as institutions which have been
historically underfunded--such as HBCUs--so have the students
that they serve. As aforementioned, 70 percent of Xavier
students are Pell Grant eligible. That means those students
come from low-to-moderate income backgrounds. Yet, they
persist. Unfortunately, too many of them take out loans which
saddle them with a financial burden so heavy that they struggle
to repay for much of their adult life despite a strong career.
Doubling the maximum Pell Grant, and restoring the purchasing
power of the program, allows for our students who need the most
help to have it at their disposal. To me and my colleagues
everywhere in academia, this is a ``no-brainer.'' I encourage
this Committee, the Committee of jurisdiction, to do all it can
in this very Congress to double the Pell Grant.
(3) Support Biden-Harris plans: Whether it is the budget put
forward by President Biden for Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, the Jobs
and Infrastructure plan, or the American Families plan, HBCUs
are prominently supported. Sure this elevates institutions like
Xavier in the public discourse, but it also proves that my
institution and all of them like it are worthy of investment
not just because they are HBCUs or a historic lack of
investment. Instead, we are worthy of transformative infusions
by the Federal Government because of our product: graduates who
exactly the ones the country needs to pursue its goals and
objectives. Sure Xavier graduates provide diversity, but they
also provide ingenuity, a hard-working spirit, and a level of
intelligence and know-how that proves the old adage that it is
not where you start but instead where you finish.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Xavier is an institution that not only has a history
of contributing to society, but is an institution that also provides
transformative education for our students, especially our students who
are low-income and first generation. In promoting social mobility of
students and their achievement, Xavier not only benefits the
individual, but families, communities, cities and states. Social impact
is indeed great.
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.
______
[summary statement of reynold verret]
Chair Murray, Ranking Member Richard Burr, and Members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
My name is Dr. C. Reynold Verret, and I serve as the 6th President
of Xavier University of Louisiana (Xavier). Xavier was founded by Saint
Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. My
institution is Catholic and considered a historically Black college and
university (HBCU).
The ultimate purpose of Xavier is to contribute to the promotion of
a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume
roles of leadership and service in a global society. This preparation
takes place in a diverse learning and teaching environment that
incorporates all relevant educational means, including research and
community service.
I was asked to testify before the Committee today on how Xavier, as
an HBCU, has employed and utilized the Federal relief funds passed by
Congress as a result of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. As you know,
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 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).
On January 23, 2020, I called together a daylong scenario planning
session consisting of my cabinet and key administrators within academic
and student affairs, facilities, and marketing and communications. This
table-top planning group met on January 29th to respond to this
question: ``if this new airborne virus that had recently migrated from
China to other Southeast Asian countries were to reach our shore such
that major public health measures are required and students sent home,
how could we continue high quality education and protect all
concerned''. Furthermore, the group was to assess what was required to
assure our readiness, identify what was in place and what was lacking.
As a result of this vigilance, Xavier determined to begin remote
instruction on March 16, 2020, allowing students the option to shelter
in place. One week later, Xavier sent all students and non-essential
employees home. Instruction continued by online modalities for the
duration of the Spring semester.
Once the campus was depopulated, I established a planning task
force of academic, student affairs, and health personnel to plan for
the longer term, and determine how we could offer instruction while
maintaining the well-being of students, faculty and staff. If we were
to return in person, how could we assure greater safety on campus, than
in our surroundings or the home localities of our students?
As a result of their deliberation, the taskforce recommended a plan
strategy with detailed timeline for reopening as is further articulated
in my written testimony, and due to the uncertainties of the evolving
pandemic, the team offered three scenarios: face-to-face instruction in
Fall 2020, Xavier all online courses in Fall 2020, and a hybrid of both
online courses and face-to-face instruction in Fall 2020.
The Administration established to move to mixed modality
instruction and service delivery for the Fall 2020 semester. The
majority of instruction took place in person with a significant
component via remote or hybrid means, which allowed students to choose
their preferred mode of instruction. The university redoubled its
effort for academic and emotional support, attending to students
physically present and those who remained at home.
The university contracted hotel space nearby to transition all
residences to single occupancy. Forty-four percent of the student body
(1390 students) resided on campus. Masking and distancing would be
required of all persons on campus. Xavier was fortunate in that the
pandemic did not result in layoffs; however hiring and spending freezes
were imposed.
Situated in Orleans Parish, Xavier pays close attention to the
current developments in the city, surrounding parishes, and the State
of Louisiana. As of March 11, 2020, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards
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 Orleans Parish, with a population of approximately 390,849,
the number of COVID-19 cases began spiking as of late March 2020. On
February 25, 2020, Mardi Gras--a uniquely New Orleans festivity--took
place. On April 2nd, there were 745 new cases of COVID-19 in our
community. Further, I began to note anecdotally what we would belatedly
have empirical evidence to prove: the health disparities which have for
centuries existed and ravished African American communities were not
only being further exposed but rather exacerbated. The working-class
African Americans, which make our city hum with excitement and vigor,
were the most impacted and bore the burden of disease.
I would be remiss if I did not thank Congress, including those of
this Committee, for passing last Congress' H.R. 748, the Coronavirus
Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act; H.R. 133, the
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020; and this Congress' H.R. 1319,
the American Recovery Act. Your time, energy, and effort does not go
unnoticed, and I also want to thank President Trump for signing the
first two into law, and then President Biden whose leadership was the
catalyst for the ARP.
Because of the CARES Act, Xavier has access to a total of $37.9
million in direct allocations from Section 18004(a)(1) and 18004(a)(2)
of the bill. While I am thankful for this, I would be remiss if I did
not share with you all that Xavier has been bracing for revenue losses
that would impact our ability to operate. Also, our students are
enduring difficult economic times that presents unique challenges, most
especially for students of color.
With this said, I would like to firmly thank Congress,
specifically, for providing an additional allocations of $1.054
billion, $1.7 billion, and $2.98 billion in funding for HBCUs, Tribal
Colleges and Universities (TCUs) and Minority-Serving Institutions
(MSIs). Additionally, I would like to thank Congress for targeted debt
relief for institutions in the HBCU Capital Finance Program in the 2020
Consolidated Appropriations Act. Many HBCUs benefited, and I must say
that Xavier benefited from that relief to a minimal effect, because the
relief was predicated on funding that was already obligated at the time
the bill was signed into law. I am also grateful for funding which
benefited our student population directly. 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 as
compared with other colleges and universities. All of us at Xavier,
including faculty, staff, and students, needed additional resources to
survive this pandemic and ensure that we are able to successfully
survive this pandemic.
For more information and details regarding my remarks, I ask that
you read my written testimony submitted for your review.
______
The Chair. Thank you. We will turn to Mr. Harris.
STATEMENT OF ANTHONY HARRIS, STUDENT, BALDWIN WALLACE
UNIVERSITY, BEREA, OH
Mr. Harris. Good morning.
[Technical problems.]--but good morning, Chair Murray,
Ranking Member Burr, and Members of this Committee. It is an
honor to be testifying before you today. I am a senior at
Baldwin Wallace University and also a proud mentee at College
Now Greater Cleveland, an organization who without I would not
be sitting before you today as a college student. To begin, I
would like to thank you all for the opportunity to speak on
behalf of higher education students from all over the country
who benefit from Federal funding and who have also been
impacted in many ways by this devastating pandemic.
I would also like to think I speak on behalf of students
who could benefit from Federal funding and support, but for
whatever reason don't have access to the necessary means in
order to reap in their benefits. Like many students across the
country, I have had an unorthodox college experience, to say
the least. It began by being accepted at High Tech Academy, an
Ohio College Credit Plus Program that offers high school
students the opportunity to take college level courses at
Cuyahoga Community College in order to get a head start in
their collegiate endeavors.
It was through High Tech Academy that I gained not only
college credit, but the imperative knowledge about higher
education that I would use for the rest of my college career. I
was also motivated by peers and introduced into leadership
programs like the Rotsky Foundation, Key Club, and Circle K
that encouraged students and prepared them for college
readiness. With all of that in mind though, the harsh reality
is individuals can't go to college if they can't afford it.
That is where College Now came into play for me. This unique
organization provides students with personalized scholarship
opportunities and a wealth of additional support services
designed to aid students in their transition to higher
education.
Through College Now, I was offered assistance in filling
out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as
FAFSA, an application form that I knew nothing about. After
learning about this form and getting access to the support that
I needed, I discovered that I was eligible to receive Pell
Grant funding that offered students just like me thousands of
dollars toward their education. This Federal funding was life
changing, but once aspirations of attending college became more
attainable for students who are at a financial disadvantage,
this funding in particular also made it available for me to
transfer universities, to offer me a peace of mind to both my
family and myself, because we knew that this Federal funding
would follow me to whatever university I went to.
It was in part because of this funding that I was able to
transfer to Baldwin Wallace with such ease and financial
comfort. These programs and funding became even more imperative
when the news of the COVID-19 pandemic became public during
spring break of all times, all the while the students that had
left campus to go home were asked to stay and the trajectory of
our semester changed dramatically. Professors and instructors
were either given one week, just one week, to redesign their
entire syllabus--their entire syllabi to meet the needs of
distance learning. Where this change was hard for faculty and
staff, it was also very difficult for students as well.
I had no access to a personal computer or a laptop. It was
College Now that pulled together resources and provided
students like me with the computers they needed to transition
to this new distance learning. As a resident assistant, I was
tasked to keep in contact with all of my residents from home,
and it was then that I realized how this pandemic had affected
all of them. From our correspondents, I found that many
students struggled with a wide variety of problems. Some
students didn't have access to computers like myself. Others
had no access to the Internet at all.
Some didn't feel that they had a safe place to study, get
work done, or even call home. I also interacted with some
students who lived off campus and out of the country who were
stuck on campus and could not make it home to see their
families. Things seemed very bleak until students got word of
the CARES Act funding that they were being offered. This
funding was very well received and used for a wide variety of
things. Personally, I use the funding to get books and for
Internet access. Other campus wide uses include transportation,
food, tuition and savings. Even as the next disbursement of the
CARES Act funding was released, students were continuing to
find creative ways to continue attending school at all costs.
When students returned to campus in the fall though, things
were still not back to normal.
Baldwin Wallace had adopted a newer and more complex
blended learning platform. So now students were being asked to
attend classes both online and in person based on classroom
size and their professor's discretion. I applaud still the way
Baldwin Wallace has handled this new way of education. All
students were given a COVID test before returning to campus and
masks for the entire semester. Furthermore, the university also
conducted random testing and told students at random to be
tested for the coronavirus and also offered vaccines.
All of these measures turned out to work because we were
able to remain on campus for the entire academic year without a
surplus number of positive cases on campus. The thing I find
most important now is that the access to Federal funding
continue to go out to organizations like College Now that are
helping students, and they continue to students and
universities alike as the world continues to evolve. I believe
the world of higher education would benefit from a doubling of
the Pell Grant and also from the continued support of COVID
relief funds.
I thank you all for your time and attention and also for
listening to my long stories. And it has been an absolute
honor. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Harris follows:]
prepared statement of anthony harris, jr.
Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr and Members of this
Committee, it is an honor to be testifying before you all today. My
name is Anthony Harris, JR., and I am a graduating senior at Baldwin
Wallace University with a BFA in Acting and a proud mentee of College
Now Greater Cleveland, an organization who without I would not be
sitting before you as a college student today.
To begin, I would like to thank you all for the opportunity to
speak on behalf of higher education students from all over the country
who benefit from Federal funding and who also have been impacted in
many ways by this devastating pandemic. I also like to think that I
speak on behalf of students who could benefit from Federal funding and
support but, for whatever reason, don't have access to the necessary
means in order to reap in the benefits.
Like many students across the country, I have had an unorthodox
college experience to say the least. It began with being accepted into
High Tech Academy, an Ohio College Credit Plus program that offers High
School students the opportunity to take college level courses at
Cuyahoga Community College in order to get a head start in their
collegiate endeavors. It was through High Tech that I gained not only
college credit, but the imperative knowledge about higher education
that I would use during the rest of my college career. I was also
motivated by peers and introduced to leadership programs like the
Rotsky Foundation, Key Club, and Circle K that encouraged students and
prepared them for college readiness.
With all of that in mind though, the harsh reality is individuals
can't go to college if they can't afford it. That's where College Now
came into play for me. This unique organization provides students with
personalized scholarship opportunities and a wealth of additional
support services designed to aid students in their transition to higher
education. Through College Now, I was offered assistance in filling out
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)--an application
form that I had never heard of before. After learning about this form
and being given access to the support I needed, I discovered that I was
eligible to receive Pell Grant funding that offers students just like
me thousands of dollars toward their education. This Federal funding
was life changing. The once aspirations of attending college become
more attainable for those students who are at a financial disadvantage.
This funding in particular was also needed when I was forced to
transfer universities. It offered a peace of mind to both me and my
family to know that I had Federal financial support that would follow
me to whatever university I attended. It was, in part, because of this
funding that I was able to transfer to Baldwin Wallace with such ease
and financial comfort.
These programs and fundings became more imperative than ever when
news of the COVID-19 Pandemic became public during spring break .
Baldwin Wallace students that had left campus for the break were asked
to stay home and the trajectory of the semester changed dramatically.
Professors and instructors were given a week to redesign their syllabi
to meet the needs of distance learning.
Where this change was hard for faculty, it was also very difficult
for students. I had no access to a personal computer or laptop. It was
College Now that pulled resources together and provided students like
myself with the computers they needed to transition to this new
distanced learning . As a Resident Assistant (RA), I was tasked to keep
in contact with all of my residents from home and it was then I
realized the impact the pandemic had on all of them. From our
correspondence, I found that many students struggled with a wide
variety of problems. Some students did not own laptops, others had no
access to the internet, and some didn't feel they had a safe place to
get work done or even call home. I also interacted with some students
who lived out of the state (or country) who were stuck on campus and
couldn't get home to their families.
Things seemed very bleak until students got word of the CARES act
funding that was being offered to them. This funding was well received
and was used for a wide variety of things. Personally, I used the
funding for books and internet. Other campus wide uses included
transportation, food, tuition and savings. Even as the next
disbursements of the CARES Act funding was released, students were
continuing to find creative ways to continue attending school at all
cost.
When students returned to campus in the Fall though, things were
still not back to normal. Baldwin Wallace had adopted a newer and more
complex blended learning platform. Now, students were attending classes
both online and in person based on classroom size and the professor's
discretion. I applaud the way BW handled this new way of education. All
students were asked to get tested before returning to campus and all on
campus students were given a set of masks to use during the semester.
Furthermore, the university also conducted randomized student testing
where students were chosen at random during the semester to be tested
for COVID-19. In addition to this, the University did not release
students for Spring Break. Instead, we were all given selected days off
in order to reduce students' interaction with members of the community
at large who may have been exposed to the virus. All of these measures
turned out to work and we were all able to remain on campus for the
entire academic year without a surplus number of positive cases on
campus.
The thing I find most important now, is that the access to Federal
funding continues to go out to organizations such as College Now,
students and universities alike as the world continues to evolve. I
believe the world of higher education would benefit from a doubling of
Pell Grant Funds and the continued support from COVID relief funds.
I thank you all for time and attention and also for allowing me to
speak before you all today. I would be happy to answer any questions
you might have. My name is Anthony Harris JR and this has been an
honor. Thank you.
______
The Chair. Thank you very much, Mr. Harris. We really
appreciate your personal perspective today. Thank you.
President Pumariega.
STATEMENT OF MADELINE PUMARIEGA, PRESIDENT, MIAMI DADE COLLEGE,
MIAMI, FL
Ms. Pumariega. Good morning, Madam Chair, Ranking Member
Burr, and Members of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Committee. Thank you for inviting me here today to testify
regarding CARES and HEERF funding for community colleges. My
name is Madeline Pumariega. I am the President at Miami Dade
College. I must say that since the first day that I arrived on
campus, my priority has been to ensure not only the physical
safety of our students, but also the physical safety of our
organization.
I must say that on behalf of the over 1,100 community
colleges across America, I know that we serve as the economic
and workforce engines for our community. Miami-Dade College,
known as democracy's college, is the Nation's most diverse
institution of higher education, with a student body
representing 167 nations and one of the largest, if not the
largest community college and university across the country,
serving 120,000 students. Very few institutions have had a
greater impact on regions they serve like we do here in Miami-
Dade County, which has more than 2 million of our students
alumni, we probably touch every household in our community.
Offering more than 300 distinct career pathways, Miami-Dade
College is at the cutting edge of technology and innovation,
with hundreds of strategic workforce partnerships--with
partnerships that include both global companies and right here,
our local workforce. In Miami-Dade County, 85 percent of our
businesses employ less than 50 employees, so we serve as that
conduit for workforce training. Since the beginning of the
pandemic, Miami-Dade College's aim has been to remain open. For
a brief two week period our faculty and staff went to work on
redesigning courses that we can put up in virtual platforms for
our students.
We did that and we turned. We have remained open. We have
provided support for our students, whether it is mental health
counseling in person or virtually, academic advising virtually
or in-person. By last summer, all of our courses were being
taught in multiple platforms, not only in person but also
hybrid, telepresence, and this past January, we launched MDC
Live, learning interactively in a virtual environment so
students like just in this format can interact with each other
and interact with their faculty.
The Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security, the first
round of CARES was signed March 28, 2020 and provided almost
$14 billion that went directly to higher education institutions
to support the cost of shifting classes online and for
emergency financial aid grants for food, housing, technology,
and any other component related to the students' cost of
attendance, and for emergency costs that arose due to the
virus.
With additional funding announced earlier this year, Miami
Dade College has received more than $50 million during the
first round, which went to students. We provided aid to
thousands of students, not only in scholarships, but also in
emergency grant funding, housing insecurity dollars, as well as
opportunities for retraining. Of an important note MDC role,
MDC played a very important role in the greater Miami area in
terms of recovering from the pandemic by not only offering many
free and low cost courses and programs in emerging industries
and helping those who had been displaced retool and get back
into the workforce, but also serving as a Federal vaccination
site.
Today we administered over 350,000, vaccines leading the
Southeast United States. Miami-Dade College took a proactive
approach to prepare and respond to the pandemic. In early
January, the college already had a robust emergency management
program that supports the continuity of operations. Quite
frankly, today we have seen our enrollment bounce back,
aligning our mission, people centric mission to the workforce
programs that we know our community needs and that our
workforce partners need as well.
Just like the Hope Center research shows, many of our
students are food insecure, housing insecure, and the dollars
have helped support our students. We have also aligned the
dollars to ensure that we have provided PPE, the right security
and safety measures for all of our campuses, and have returned
everyone back to work, and offering in-person, online, and
virtual courses.
Thank you for this time and for allowing me to share the
way that Miami-Dade College has supported our community, our
students, the way that our colleges are working together so
that we secure a promise toward the future that helps students
find a path to prosperity through the power of education, and
by aligning our programs to those areas that our workforce
partners need, and to support university transfer pathways as
well. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Pumariega follows:]
prepared statement of madeline pumariega
Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking Member, and Members of the
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Thank you for
inviting me to testify at today's hearing.
My name is Madeline Pumariega and I am the President of Miami Dade
College. I was elected the 5th President of Miami Dade College during
the pandemic. My first day as President was January 4th and my No. 1
priority was and still is to ensure the safety of everyone in our
college community and ensure a strong economic recovery.
Known as ``democracy's college,'' Miami Dade College is the
Nation's most diverse institution of higher education with a student
body representing 167 nations and one of the largest with more than
120,000 students. Changing lives through accessible, high-quality
teaching and learning experiences, MDC embraces its responsibility to
serve as an economic, cultural, and civic leader for the advancement of
its diverse, global population. Very few institutions have had a
greater impact on regions they serve than MDC, which has more than 2
million alumni. Its employees, students, alumni, programs and events
contribute more than $3.3 billion annually to Miami-Dade County's
economy. Offering more than 300 distinct career pathways, MDC is at the
cutting-edge of technology and innovation with hundreds of strategic
workforce partnerships with global companies and organizations. We put
community at the center of everything we do, and this was evident
during our COVID 19 response and reopening.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Miami Dade College's aim has
been to reopen as soon as possible while keeping the safety, health,
and security of our students and employees as our top priority. In
keeping with national, state, and local guidelines, we pivoted to
virtual learning at the onset of the pandemic in under 2 weeks and
immediately established a taskforce to review issues and adjust
operations on a day-to-day basis. Following CDC recommendations and
social distancing guidelines, we brought back select face-to-face
classes last summer that could not be replicated in a virtual
environment. Following a detailed 3 phase plan, we brought back
additional classes in the Fall 2020 term, with more in-person classes
added in Spring 2021. We also introduced new learning modalities such
as MDC LIVE to better serve students and their evolving needs. As we
work through our phased approach in a deliberate and strategic way, we
hope to return to normalcy and a full class resumption in Fall 2021.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
signed into law March 28, 2020, provided almost $14 billion that went
directly to higher education institutions to support the costs of
shifting classes online, and for emergency financial aid grants for
food, housing, technology, and any component of the student's cost of
attendance or emergency costs that arise due to coronavirus. With
additional funding announced earlier this year. MDC received more than
$50 million during the first round of awards, which went almost
entirely to students through student aid to ensure they enrolled and
remained enrolled. The funding recognized the unprecedented financial
burden that colleges, universities, and their students faced from the
impacts of the pandemic. CARES dollars additionally provided regulatory
relief and flexibility to ensure institutions had the necessary
resources to keep everyone safe and continue to deliver high quality
instruction.
Of important note is the role MDC has played in helping Greater
Miami recover from the pandemic by not only offering many free and low-
cost courses and programs in emerging industries since the outset of
the pandemic but also serving as the largest and most successful COVID-
19 vaccination sites in the southeast U.S., administering more than
350,000 shots to date.
How MDC responded
Miami Dade College took a proactive approach to prepare for and
respond to the coronavirus pandemic as early as January. The College
already had a robust emergency management program that supports the
continuity of operations by incorporating a comprehensive emergency
management plan that ensures we leverage all our resources in an
interconnected way that treats the College as a whole.
We stayed focused on our people-centered mission as it was
important for us at Miami Dade College to cultivate a true sense of
safety and preparedness in all our key decisions as they would impact
thousands of students and employees.
MDC is a large and complex organization. That is a fundamental
consideration as to how we respond to emergencies. We activated our
collegewide crisis management team, which included key institutional
leadership, and activated the district emergency operation center. This
core team streamlines the decision-making process and coordinates all
efforts across our 8 campuses and centers. It was important for Miami
Dade College to cultivate a true sense of safety and preparedness in
all our key decisions as they would impact thousands of students and
employees.
To that end, we implemented an enhanced cleaning protocol at the
very beginning of the pandemic and trained hundreds of our
environmental staff to promote a healthy and safe campus by cleaning
frequently touched surfaces and encouraged the entire MDC community to
practice good hygiene practices such as proper hand washing and
sanitation of work areas.
A crucial part of this transition was our faculty. Miami Dade
College faculty rose to the COVID-19 challenge that required a
transition of thousands of classes to remote instruction. In a period
of 2 weeks we transitioned 4,000 in-person courses to various remote
learning platforms while training our faculty to transition to new
deliveries of learning in a remote environment to support our students
and finish. The immediacy of the situation necessitated a level of
flexibility and agility not known before in higher education. With a
speedy activation of faculty professional development on remote and
online delivery, we were able to provide just-intime-training to
hundreds of full-time and adjunct faculty. Considering MDC had just
over 2000 faculty, managing change at this scale sparked mobilization
of the entire academic enterprise and I believe has accelerated
positive change.
Expanding our online offerings became a long-term strategy by
increasing the use of blended or hybrid modalities with the goal of
leveraging them to meet future College, faculty, and student needs. It
was felt that to maintain efficacy as the educational landscape
changes, an academic support system prioritizing instructional
technology and faculty development was necessary.
Student Support
With tens of thousands of certificate and degree seeking students,
the transition to remote learning was a massive undertaking,
particularly considering the student population MDC serves. Students at
Miami Dade College are traditionally underserved; nearly 60 percent
low-income and almost 50 percent were non-native English speakers.
Knowing that our students had challenges beyond academic ones, we
quickly mobilized to address financial and technology needs. As well
documented in the research by the Hope Center regarding students
enrolled in community college identifying as food and housing insecure,
MDC students also face those same challenges. The college provided
thousands of students emergency grant funding and expanded our food
pantries. We partnered with community agencies to host food
distribution events on each campus that served our students and
community. In addition, we partnered with Single Stop to connect
students with additional Federal resources.
After deploying a student survey to assess needs, we acquired 5000
laptops and set up a distribution protocol to distribute laptops. We
also forged a partnership with Comcast to offer free internet access on
the Xfinity WiFi Hotspot Network across the community and encouraged
eligible low-income students to sign up for 60 days of free ``Internet
Essentials'' home internet service at increased speeds. Additionally,
our IT infrastructure was fortified to accommodate exponentially more
students in a remote environment, including technical and real-time
assistance capacities.
Financial Support
Financial assistance was also a major component of our student
support efforts. We waived and paid fees, expanded our emergency aid,
and provided stipends, tuition waivers, and books to ensure all our
students had continuity of instruction. We also were committed to
ensuring their basic needs were met, knowing that our population was
disproportionally impacted by the panic. We also hosted various food
distribution events at many of our campuses and encouraged students to
seek mental health counseling though various resources available
through MDC.
Like most institutions, MDC continued to realize increased expenses
due to the pandemic as online instructional delivery had many costs
associated with it with the adoption of many new software platforms and
technology. The CARES Act funding provides us the relief necessary to
ensure were able to provide high quality instruction. The College
bought thousands of laptops for students so that they could continue to
remain engaged via remote learning.
Beyond education, we also had the physical requirements that the
``new normal'' compelled us to adapt to--which also brought on costs.
To keep our employees and students safe and comply with CDC, Federal,
and State guidelines, the College invested in significant resources
into plant, property, and equipment, as well as updated operational
processes. This included physical barriers such as the glass shields
and other barriers and changes that were needed to ensure the safety
and health of our students and employees and the increased and enhanced
cleaning protocols that remain with us until today. Additionally we had
screening protocols and temperature checks to ensure the safety of
everyone in our community.
Even with all the financial help we provided, students still had a
difficult time staying enrolled and engaged. During this unprecedented
time, education was no longer the priority as students switched into
survival mode. Instead of learning, focus was on keeping a roof over
their head and serving as caregivers for their families. Many of our
students come from households that are multigenerational. As family
needs shifted and the possibility of COVID infections became a reality,
many students stayed away to protect their families.
The Future
As we look to the Fall, we are putting measures in place to ensure
we are fully operational in a better, more resilient normal. What the
last year has shown us is the need to be adaptable and agile. It has
taught us that our student population and the community count on us to
keep them safe and lead in moments of uncertainty. They are also
counting on us to support them in the economic recovery. We continue to
see the impact of the pandemic during our recovery, like so many
minority and low-income individuals across the country. Many did not
have the ability to transition to remote work and lost jobs and wages.
We are committed to leading the post-pandemic economic recovery of our
community to ensure everyone has the skills, credentials and degrees to
meet the changing needs of work. The pandemic accelerated the way we
must teach but it also accelerated the future of work. As one of the
largest colleges in the country and one of the largest employers in
Miami-Dade County, it is vital that we take the lessons learned from
the pandemic and build for the future.
My optimism for the future is possible because of the support
provided by the state and Federal Government. The support our students
and institution received to ensure we remained operational with the
proper tools and resources through the CARES Act played a large part. I
also remain optimistic because our students count on us.
______
[summary statement of madeline pumariega]
Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking Member, and Members of the
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. Thank you for
inviting me to testify at today's hearing.
My name is Madeline Pumariega and I am the President of Miami Dade
College. I was elected the 5th President of Miami Dade College during
the pandemic. My first day as President was January 4th and my No. 1
priority was and still is to ensure the safety of everyone in our
college community and ensure we have a strong economic recovery.
Known as ``democracy's college,'' Miami Dade College is the
Nation's most diverse institution of higher education with a student
body representing 167 nations and one of the largest with more than
120,000 students. Changing lives through accessible, high-quality
teaching and learning experiences, MDC embraces its responsibility to
serve as an economic, cultural, and civic leader for the advancement of
its diverse, global population. Very few institutions have had a
greater impact on regions they serve than MDC, which has more than 2
million alumni. Its employees, students, alumni, programs and events
contribute more than $3.3 billion annually to Miami-Dade County's
economy. Offering more than 300 distinct career pathways, MDC is at the
cutting-edge of technology and innovation with hundreds of strategic
workforce partnerships with global companies and organizations. We put
community at the center of everything we do, and this was evident
during our COVID-19 response and reopening.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Miami Dade College's aim has
been to reopen as soon as possible while keeping the safety, health,
and security of our students and employees as our top priority. In
keeping with national, state, and local guidelines, we pivoted to
virtual learning at the onset of the pandemic in under 2 weeks and
immediately established a taskforce to review issues and adjust
operations on a day-to-day basis. Following CDC recommendations and
social distancing guidelines, we brought back select face-to-face
classes last summer that could not be replicated in a virtual
environment. Following a detailed 3-phase plan, we brought back
additional classes in the Fall 2020 term, with more in-person classes
added in Spring 2021. We also introduced new learning modalities such
as MDC LIVE to better serve students and their evolving needs. As we
work through our phased approach in a deliberate and strategic way, we
hope to return to normalcy and a full class resumption in Fall 2021.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
signed into law March 28, 2020, provided almost $14 billion that went
directly to higher education institutions to support the costs of
shifting classes online, and for emergency financial aid grants for
food, housing, technology, and any component of the student's cost of
attendance or emergency costs that arise due to coronavirus. With
additional funding announced earlier this year. MDC received more than
$50 million during the first round of awards, which went almost
entirely to students through student aid to ensure they enrolled and
remained enrolled. The funding recognized the unprecedented financial
burden that colleges, universities, and their students faced from the
impacts of the pandemic. CARES dollars additionally provided regulatory
relief and flexibility to ensure institutions had the necessary
resources to keep everyone safe and continue to deliver high quality
instruction.
Of important note is the role MDC has played in helping Greater
Miami recover from the pandemic by not only offering many free and low-
cost courses and programs in emerging industries since the outset of
the pandemic but also serving as the largest and most successful COVID-
19 vaccination site in the southeast U.S., administering more than
350,000 shots to date.
As we look to the Fall, we are putting measures in place to ensure
we are fully operational in a better, more resilient normal. What the
last year has shown us is the need to be adaptable and agile. It has
taught us that our student population and the community count on us to
keep them safe and lead in moments of uncertainty. They are also
counting on us to support them in the economic recovery. We continue to
see the impact of the pandemic during our recovery, like so many
minority and low-income individuals across the country. Many did not
have the ability to transition to remote work and lost jobs and wages.
We are committed to leading the post-pandemic economic recovery of our
community to ensure everyone has the skills, credentials and degrees to
meet the changing needs of work. The pandemic accelerated the way we
must teach but it also accelerated the future of work. As one of the
largest colleges in the country and one of the largest employers in
Miami-Dade County, it is vital that we take the lessons learned from
the pandemic and build for the future.
______
The Chair. Thank you very much. Thank you to all of our
witnesses today for your important testimony. We will now begin
a round of 5 minute questions. And I again ask our colleagues
to keep track of the clock and stay within those 5 minutes. We
do have votes beginning at 11:30 a.m.
Ms. Copeland-Morgan, I want to start with you. Students
have faced unprecedented challenges over the past year, as you
know, in a year and a half actually from the pandemic and the
economic recession. With a lot of our students experiencing
significant financial harm, according to Hope Center study
released this March, 60 percent of college students did not
have what is called basic needs security during the pandemic
because of lack of access to nutrition, insufficient food,
safe, secure, inadequate housing, health care to promote
sustained mental and physical well-being, technology, and
transportation resources for personal hygiene, childcare, and
other related needs.
That study also showed these challenges are more severe for
Black students. In fact, the gap between Black students and
their peers in basic needs insecurity was 16 percentage points,
further confirming disparities we have long known to be true.
Additionally, a May 2021 survey released by the National
Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators showed
students continued to make increased requests for professional
judgment. Professional judgment allows financial aid
administrators to make changes to a student's FAFSA during
unusual circumstances on a case by case basis. So, Ms.
Copeland, I want to ask you, can you share how UCLA used its
Federal funding to make sure students' financial and basic
needs were addressed?
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. Thank you for the question. First of
all, I should mention that it as a public institution, our
responsibility and our mission is to make sure that we are
serving all students across the State of California. That means
we have a disproportionate number of students who were first
generation college students who are outstanding and are
graduating from the university in rates that are not seen
enough across our country.
The first appeals that we got was all about technology. We
said that students were safer at home, and you can study from
home, but that was not true for so many of our students. And so
we spent a lot of money paying for computers and Internet
service, giving WiFi and other kind of technologies,
particularly for graduate students, for example, who were at
the end of their graduate work, whose studies required that
they be in laboratories and conduct complicated scientific
research.
We reached out broadly across our graduates and
undergraduate and professional students to ensure that they had
what they needed. Food insecurity, as I have stated, is a huge
problem in our Nation, in our cities, and certainly in the city
of Los Angeles. These students were struggling prior to COVID-
19. And the funds that we received could not have been more
timely across the University of California system. My
colleagues who oversee financial aid, we all got together and
got those funds out quickly so that students would not drop out
of college because that presents another problem should they
drop out and stay out.
Again, I just want to emphasize how important these funds
are. And if I may take a moment to share with you. In the 70's,
I was one of those first generation college students. I got
into this profession because of Federal work study job that I
had for 3 years. I know the plight that our students face and
the investment in students now will relieve the obligation of
us investing in them in the future.
The Chair. Thank you very much. Mr. Harris, thank you again
for your testimony. In addition to the financial challenges, I
am concerned about the mental health challenges that students
have faced throughout this pandemic. A recent study found that
first year students reported significantly higher levels of
depression and anxiety in the wake of the pandemic, and Black
students were more likely to report concerns related to
isolation. You served as a resident assistant, spent a lot of
time with first year students. Can you speak to us about some
of the challenges you have seen students experience as they
return now to campus?
Mr. Harris. Yes. Thank you for the question. Students on
Baldwin Wallace's campus in particular found themselves at a
disadvantage because they were disattached from the people who
they are typically able to interact with, like their fellow
peers. And then also because we weren't able to interact with
one another during the pandemic, they couldn't speak to their
advisers and teachers more actively and in person. And I think
part of that affected them in a very negative way.
As a resident assistant, I had to work with a lot of
students over the past year who had suicidal ideation because
they felt alone and felt disattached from the university and
from their peers. So I think that we could benefit from more
access to one another and the resources. I think our students
need more access to the resources that are provided on campus
so that they can overcome these challenges on campus. Thank
you.
The Chair. Thank you very much for that response. I
appreciate it.
Senator Burr.
Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Harris, when do you graduate?
Mr. Harris. Actually I should have graduated this past
spring, but because of that disattachment that I spoke about
just a moment ago, I was postponed and now I have to graduate
this spring.
The Chair. What is your major?
Mr. Harris. I am an actor.
The Chair. Well, let me tell you, you are going to be
successful at whatever you choose to do. I can tell it. Keep it
up.
Mr. Harris. Thank you.
Senator Burr. President Verret, as I understand it, Xavier
will require students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated
before you return this fall. What led you to implement this
requirement? Turn on your mic, if you will.
Dr. Verret. We have learned many things through the
pandemic. We have really optimized what we were able to do
remotely when we had to be fully remote. We also learned that
also our students benefit from the collegial interaction, not
only with the faculty and with their peers that need to be in
the laboratories, and the in-person interactions were very
important for our students. We have an opportunity with the
vaccines, that now we know that vaccine protect individuals
significantly who are vaccinated, that we can return--if we
have maximally vaccinated our campus, we can return to full in-
person activity.
Xavier produces more African-Americans who go on to
doctoral programs in the life sciences and physical sciences
and have been doing that for decades. To be able to do that,
they have to be in laboratories. They have to play and practice
at being scientists. The same with historian practices, being a
historian in the archives, or musician in the conservatory. So
being in person is very important for the success of our
students. Vaccination will allow us to do that, so that we are
asking that all students be vaccinated and also all employees
be vaccinated. We are also allowing for the exceptions that the
law requires.
But in doing so, we also have to make sure that we also do
not allow those who are not vaccinated to be a danger to those
because of whatever medical reasons cannot be protected by the
vaccines. There are some--there is a small percentage of people
who will not be immune. Protection means that we do not expose
them to others who can contact infect them. Therefore we would
have to have special conditions for those who cannot be
vaccinated on campus, because of safety reasons.
Senator Burr. You have a unique background because you are
an immunologist, I guess by practicing.
Dr. Verret. By experience, training and research, yes.
Senator Burr. You are a university president. Help us
understand how you explained this policy to your faculty, to
your students, to their parents?
Dr. Verret. Well, I can tell you that we have had
conversations because many people have questions. You have to
respond to their questions. For example, even at the early days
when I and my colleague at Dillard University, we were both in
one of the clinical trials. There was somebody that asked, how
could you actually give the example of encouraging people to be
in clinical trials? And we explained to them we had to have
meetings, explain to them why it was important that some
people, 0.1 percent of the population, has to be in the trials
that others can benefit, and therefore old men like me have to
roll up their sleeves. So we explained that.
Senator Burr. What advice would you give other colleges and
universities as they plan for the fall when they are faced with
the decisions that you have been faced with and you have made?
What would be your advice to them?
Dr. Verret. Tell the truth. Have venues to answer people's
questions. Let them know what they--what we are facing. For
example, one of the simple facts is that--and Washington State
is a clear example. Washington State publish the data for the
death rates of unvaccinated versus vaccinated people. It allows
you to make a simple calculation. It was quite simple. That
allows you to see that basically the risk of death for
unvaccinated people is about 17 to 20 times higher than for
vaccinated people. Anything like that to explain to people that
this is very serious.
We will begin to see, especially with a new variant like
the Delta variant coming ashore, much more transmissible, the
unvaccinated people will suffer a great toll. So we have to
tell people the truth that we are here to protect you. The
other piece that we have at Xavier because of our carriers, and
what I say is that were founded by Katherine Drexel with a
mission to serve not just the Nation, but also each other. So
the conversation is that we do not want to be a risk to each
other.
In other words, you are doing this so as not to endanger
your neighbor. That mentality reverses the notion that is
purely what is in it for me.
Senator Burr. It has shocked me through this pandemic and
through the transition that higher ed has gone through, that it
seems that the faculty members that thought pre-pandemic online
education as a new avenue are the ones today that only want to
teach online. What a transformation we have gone through. But I
commend you and the other institutions that have looked at the
challenge in front of us and designed a structure to go
forward. And I think it truly is, because you are focused on
your customer which is the student out there, and the value of
what they get from Xavier or from any other school. I thank all
of our witnesses. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The Chair. Thank you.
Senator Kaine.
Senator Kaine. Thank you, Chair Murray and Ranking Member
Burr. This is a very important hearing and the testimony of all
the witnesses is appreciated. Chair Murray, you asked the
question of our wonderful student about mental health, and I
want to direct that to the educators and administrators as
well. The Department of Education, in the updated guidance
about the higher education relief fund that they issued on May
11, clarified that HEERF funding can be used for additional
mental health support systems for college students.
I would like to hear you talk about how you are grappling
with providing appropriate mental health services to deal with
the isolation, financial pressures that kids are facing, their
worries about their own health, the health of the parents, and
of their parents and people that they care about. If you could
each address that, that would be great. Thank you.
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. Thank you for your question, Senator.
As you all know, mental health has been a growing concern in
higher education for the last 20 years. And we are seeing more
and more of our students coming to us needing services. That
said, with the pandemic, everyone has--if we are honest,
everyone has suffered during this pandemic. And so our
institution used a portion of the CARES and HEERF I and HEERF
II funds to put moneys into mental health services for our
students.
We encouraged students to reach out, even in a normal year
when they are suffering anxiety or feeling depressed or feeling
isolated, because we know that students cannot focus on their
studies if they are dealing with those issues. So these funds,
again, were critical in both our ability to say to all
students, we have the resources to serve you, call us. Our
mental health folks across the system made telephone
appointments so students could have easy access to these
services and not have to come on campus, of course.
We would not have been able to do that. Higher education
has suffered immensely financially. And so these funds are
making a huge difference. And the thing that I really
appreciate about students reaching out and getting these
services is they become peer advocates for others to do that,
because when one student steps out and says, I am having
difficulties managing home and work, I am having difficulties
as a parent and a student, our former foster youth who make up
a large portion of our students in the UC system, they didn't
have anyone to go to help them understand and navigate the
challenges of COVID-19.
We use those funds not only for mental health services, but
for other services, for our returning vets, for our parenting
students, and for those students from rural communities, who,
again, I think has from our experience, the greatest impact on
them because of the lack of technologies.
Senator Kaine. Thank you. Dr. Verret and then President
Pumariega.
Dr. Verret. If I may, I have to agree with my colleague
that mental health needs have increased from COVID. But even
before COVID, we also already had been dealing with the
increasing need. We had--we were establishing already--we had
established what I call students at risk committees to begin to
see not only that students would come when needs arise, but to
be able to have many eyes on campus to see exactly when the
need comes in.
For example, for students' behavior performance in class is
creating flags, that student is discussed in committee because
many eyes, the residential counselors can bring in to make sure
that we are proactive in meeting that. In the COVID period,
that need has increased. We clearly increase our reliance upon
telehealth services, contracting and expanding our capacity to
have these outside providers available to students so that we
can provide services that were much more diverse and much
wider. And that is something I can say much that we have
learned during the pandemic. Some of this we will keep to be
able to make that accessible.
There is also training not only in the student affairs side
of the campus, but also in the academic staff, in giving the
fundamental tools to faculty to be able to recognize and be
able to call fouls and get information to the right people.
Those resources are clearly needed. I think we also have issues
were using our academic support, because many of the, what I
call anxieties of being a student may not be clinically
considered, but also having the academic support staff to give
students the wherewithal to understand that this can pass and
here is a pathway to resolve this academic need, which is
creating a burden, is important as well.
Senator Kaine. Great. My time has expired. But possibly one
of my colleagues might ask President Pumariega a similar
question and let her offer----
The Chair. We will let her have a minute to respond.
Senator Kaine. Okay, thank you, Madam Chair.
President Pumariega.
Ms. Pumariega. Thank you, Senator. That is a wonderful
question. We at Miami-Dade College augmented mental health
counseling services by adding more mental health specialists on
the ground, helping students, faculty, and staff. The second
thing that we did is we partnered with our county 211 helpline
so that we could ensure that we had 24/7. And the third is we
added telehealth services so that students could get to a
counselor, both virtually and in person.
Then last, we have added an early alert system where our
faculty members, who are the first really to sometimes see the
change and pattern in a student or that withdrawal, be able to
give our mental health counselors an early alert so we can
provide those interventions. Thank you for the question and the
opportunity to answer it.
Senator Kaine. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Murray.
The Chair. Thank you.
Senator Cassidy.
Senator Cassidy. I thank you all. Again, Mr. Harris, I echo
what Senator Burr said. Man, good job. And what a great story.
So just to say that. And I think what Mr. Harris also said is
that some of his peers, because of the pandemic, are facing
mental health challenges. I would argue that one way to treat
this is to recreate the community, which is not created over
zoom, but rather is created by people actually sitting next to
each other, going to baseball games, and otherwise
participating in life. Zoom atomizes. Schools bring people
together. Now, Dr. Pumariega, are you all requiring
immunization for your students and faculties, as is UCLA and
the gold rush at Xavier?
Ms. Pumariega. No, sir.
Senator Cassidy. Now, first, why not, and then I have a
follow-up. So first, why not?
Ms. Pumariega. We want to make sure that we provide access
to vaccinations, but that we don't put any barriers to
individuals being able to come back to college, to retool, get
the skills that they----
Senator Cassidy. Now, let me ask you--let me ask you. I
have limited time. I am sorry to interrupt. Would you--I gather
a little bit from Dr. Verret's testimony that if you are
vaccinated, you have greater freedom, and if not, perhaps you
are going to be required to wear a mask. He didn't say that,
but he implied that there is going to be something. With your
school knowing that people coming back reconnects community,
improves educational experience, will those who are vaccinated
have extra freedom as opposed to those who are not?
Ms. Pumariega. That is what we have implemented right now.
If you are fully vaccinated on campus, you do not have to wear
face coverings. We are asking you if you are not fully
vaccinated, that you continue to wear face covering on campus
today.
Senator Cassidy. Now, you have also been very successful,
350,000 people vaccinated through your programs. And it appears
that you have a fair amount of those who would be thought of as
vaccine skeptics, think anybody less than 25, particularly men,
since they tend to think themselves invulnerable. So how did
you--how were you so successful at implementing this vaccine
program?
Ms. Pumariega. I think with the support. It was several
sites that came out, ran the vaccination center, along with the
state emergency management. But because Miami-Dade College is
so trusted in the community, I believe that we had that type of
success. Because of the trust that we garnered, we have
probably impacted every household in Miami-Dade County, and
then we have continued pop up vaccine sites on every campus as
well.
Senator Cassidy. I am hearing something similar to what Dr.
Verret said, which is that you have trust, you built
communication, but you also have a long track record of being
involved in the community and so the trust is already there.
Mr. Harris, I am a doctor. I am very sensitive to personal
health information. You can plead the fifth if you want, but
have you been vaccinated?
Mr. Harris. Yes, I would first like to tell you, I do not
take offense to the invulnerability comments. We can take all
of the world. But yes, I have been vaccinated.
Senator Cassidy. What about your peers? Are your peers open
to immunization or not?
Mr. Harris. Many of my peers are open to immunization. And
that is because a lot of these top----
Senator Cassidy. Let me stop you. Many is an elastic word.
You see what I am saying? And so would you say--give me a
percent? You say 10 percent or 90 percent?
Mr. Harris. I would say 80 percent.
Senator Cassidy. What is the message that gets them
vaccinated? Because I do find that those below a certain age
tend to be, a little bit less concerned about getting things
such as immunizations.
Mr. Harris. Well, let me just say one, hearing from your
peers and being almost pressured by your peers to do things is
one thing. So me being like a member of their community, they
want to get a vaccine because they see me get a vaccine. And
two, because of people who are young, want to live their lives
believe it or not. So with restrictions and people not being
able to do as much or to have more restrictions, people want to
get the vaccine----
Senator Cassidy. What I think I am hearing from you, Mr.
Harris, that requirements such as Xavier or UCLA are placing
actually is a positive and it is not coercive, but it is a kind
of signal that you can live life more freely if you are
completely immunized?
Mr. Harris. It is an encouragement, and really would
encourage people to get vaccinated.
Senator Cassidy. It is one thing to speak about these kind
of small schools, Ms. Copeland-Morgan. But UCLA is huge. I
can't imagine how many students UCLA has. So if you are putting
in this mandatory vaccine policy, how is that being received by
the tens of thousands of people who attend?
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. I will say, Senator, that it is being
received well. There are a couple of things. One is we try to
be honest, open, and transparent to all of our constituents. We
have great partners in the community. And the University of
California system has the benefit of a world class health
system. And so we have called upon those professionals in our
health area to help us to get the right messages out to our
students, to communicate with parents. And I should say that we
have a history of requiring students to be immunized against
certain----
Senator Cassidy. That is an important point. You can't
enroll in higher education without being immunized against
hepatitis B, meningococcal and other things, right?
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. Exactly.
Senator Cassidy. It is kind of a paradigm we have already
adopted.
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. Exactly. And our student body, our
student leaders have endorsed this. They are part of everything
that we do, including the distribution of our HEERF funds.
Senator Cassidy. Can I ask you one more thing? Now,
typically, hepatitis B is included in the, what is called
vaccine immunization system. So someone is vaccinated at birth,
they enroll in college, and then they can log on that school
and say, oh, yes, you have been vaccinated for hepatitis B, you
don't need to be vaccinated. Are you all putting that
information regarding a student's immunization history into
your California vaccine immunization system?
Ms. Copeland-Morgan. We are indeed. Again, we spent about
three to four years educating students on this requirement,
gave students an opportunity to self-sort of comply with those,
and then made it mandatory the year after that. And it is a
culture. Students want to be safe. They want to hang out with
their peers. They want to have the freedoms that come with
that. And parents as well. And so we found that a very
thoughtful communication plan across the University of
California system that has over 200,000 students, that
students--and as Mr. Harris said, that along with that campaign
and their peers, students have been quite willing to get
vaccinated. And of course, we do respect the rights of others
who choose not to be vaccinated.
Senator Cassidy. I am going to stop you there because the
Chair is about to shoot me for going so long over.
The Chair. I always learn from you, Senator Cassidy.
Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The Chair. Alright. Thank you.
Senator Lujan.
Senator Lujan. Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member,
for holding this important hearing to discuss how COVID has
impacted higher education and students, and how the $40 billion
provided in the American Rescue Plan has helped colleges to
reopen safely. And I want to thank each and every one of the
witnesses for being here today as well. President Pumariega, as
the President of Miami Dade College, you know full well the
needs of your campuses, including those that are Hispanic
serving institutions.
The three rounds of higher education emergency relief funds
have totaled $77 billion, much less than the $183 billion in
estimated cost incurred by colleges during the pandemic. I
understand that your institution received more than $50 million
during the first round of awards, which went almost entirely to
student aid. Yes or no, has the funding from the COVID-19
recovery packages covered all of the costs incurred by your
Hispanic serving institution campuses?
Ms. Pumariega. Yes, sir. What we have done is, as you said,
put the aid out to students and help students be able to come
back, stay in college, finish their degree or earn that
credential to be able to go to work.
Senator Lujan. President Pumariega, the question I asked
was, did the recovery package cover all the costs incurred by
your Hispanic serving institution campuses? You pointed to
student aid.
Ms. Pumariega. Correct, and so I think there is three
buckets of the Federal aid dollars that come in. One, the
student aid that goes directly to students are intended to help
them with emergency funds. And the second aspect of it is the
institutional aid in which Miami-Dade College, we used much of
that institutional aid to help students, to support students
with their educational costs. And then the other aspect of it,
utilizing it for technology infrastructure, utilizing it for
revenue replacement, utilizing it for PPE and the safety
protocols.
Senator Lujan. Were there class that exceeded the money you
received from the Federal Government?
Ms. Pumariega. Sir, I would have to--right now, what we
have done, that would say we would be operating at a deficit
and the college and our position with our board is not to
operate in a deficit. We, in turn, have not only had a freeze
in positions at the college, but also taken many steps to
reduce our budget and our cost to balance our budget.
Senator Lujan. You have got to make decisions to reduce
services because of the increased costs, that way you can meet
your mandate of not operating in a deficit?
Ms. Pumariega. Yes, sir.
Senator Lujan. Would you agree that Hispanic serving
institutions need more funding to counter the effects of the
pandemic and the years of chronic underfunding?
Ms. Pumariega. Absolutely. When you think about Miami-Dade
College, 74 percent of our students are Hispanics. When you
think about just in Miami-Dade County, the percentage of
students that hold the postsecondary credential, which we know
is a path to prosperity to compete for that life sustaining
job, we see where there is a lag among our Hispanic community
and especially in areas in Miami-Dade County, South Homestead
area, more rural than, maybe in the heart of urban downtown.
Senator Lujan. There are currently 569 Hispanic serving
institutions nationwide, 24 in New Mexico. Loan agencies
continue to face financial burdens, and these burdens have been
exacerbated by COVID-19. While HSIs are experiencing a
declining enrollment revenue, they are working hard to bring
the students safely back to campus in the aftermath of the
pandemic.
For example, Northern New Mexico College, an HSI in my
state, had to transform its approach to student services
offering financial food, hygiene, and broadband assistance over
the past year. How can the Federal Government and our support
further assist Hispanic serving institutions to ensure that
they are adequately and safely serving the 5.4 million
undergraduate and graduate students who are returning to their
campuses?
Ms. Pumariega. Senator, that is an excellent question. I
think it is a multi-pronged approach. In terms of looking at
financial support, expanding Pell Grant and Pell Grant
eligibility, I think that looking at short term Pell is also an
important aspect. Some of our students want to come back and
level up, if you will, retool with a rapid response credential
or stack that up against maybe an associate of arts that they
may have. Strengthening seamless transfer pathways is another
important aspect.
80 percent--a Georgetown study demonstrates that 80 percent
of Latinos across the country enroll in open access
institutions like our community colleges and then require to
transfer to a university to finish that baccalaureate degree.
So anywhere we can strengthen those transfer pathways I think
is very important for us to accelerate student success outcomes
among Hispanic students across the country, and also looking at
aligning pathways to work and making sure that our promise
programs also have an element of aligning our degree programs
to those workforce into the jobs that are there.
Those are just a couple of areas that I think our policies
would help enhance and accelerate student outcomes and success.
Senator Lujan. Mr. Harris, I had a question for you. I
apologize. I could not get to it. I will file it into the
record. I want to thank you for lifting up your voice here and
especially with your leadership with the Black Student Alliance
as well. So thanks for being here today, sir. And look forward
hearing back from you. And with that, I yield back.
The Chair. Senator Hickenlooper.
Senator Hickenlooper. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair and
Ranking Member Burr. I want to thank all of you for being here.
I always find these panels so illuminating. We have seen in
this pandemic a number of innovative breakthroughs in
technology to try and track the COVID-19 outbreaks, the
variants, the vaccination rates. In the Western Slope area of
Colorado, Colorado Mesa University entered into a very
successful partnership with the Road Institute at MIT and
Harvard to develop an app called Skout to track symptoms and
possible outbreaks on campuses as they are happening in real
time.
I thought Dr. Verret, I would ask you and maybe President
Pumariega, is this type of partnership between a research
institution and a university system something that you guys
have considered on your campuses? And I mean, how are you going
to go about monitoring any possible flare ups when you reopen
this fall?
Dr. Verret. We have had a number of collaboration with lab
research institutions, not only in our cities, but also through
our Center for Health Disparities are monitoring disease in our
city and region. What I would say is that the key that we have
had on our campus is to have surveillance testing, meaning we
are testing routinely monthly anywhere from 6 to 10 percent of
our campus population of students and faculty members to see
what the prevalence of infection on campus was.
The major collaboration for us was funded through
initiatives with Thermo Fisher, one of the large testing on
device manufacturers in Massachusetts, and so with funding from
the Gates Foundation to establish a laboratory where we had
three high throughput machines. Those machines provided testing
not only for Xavier campus, but for several institutions in our
region, including several HBCUs in both Southern--in both Texas
and in our region as well. So samples were being shipped to us
and the results were being returned for those samples sets,
several hundreds, within 48 hours.
They allowed us to actually track the illness and be able
to make decisions. For example, one of the decision points we
would have is that if prevalence rose above a certain levels,
are we returning to remote instruction? One of the other
reasons why we had students in single occupancy dormitories is
that we were not sending them home because we know we would not
send them home to infect their communities. So they would
remain unfilled until the surge had passed.
We were tracking to make sure that we were not becoming a
danger not only to our community in New Orleans, but also to
large communities as well. But ongoing surveillance testing was
very important. Our data was being shared with the state and
also with other organizations as well.
Senator Hickenlooper. Alright. Got it. And President
Pumariega, similar?
Ms. Pumariega. Senator, that is a great question. We, in
partnership with Florida International University, they--many
of our universities in Florida launched COVID apps. So it was
much better to leverage those partnerships. But I do think that
one of the things that we did is really add COVID testing on
our campuses. That really does help in terms of what the doctor
just said, monitoring the, the positivity rate alongside with
the county.
Work closely with the county and with our sister
institutions. Because our colleges are commuter campus, average
age is 26. Our students are working while they study, not
living on campus. We have to really rely on the partnership
with the county positivity rate and work in concert with them.
Senator Hickenlooper. Got it. Well, I appreciate that. And
actually, I don't think I have to ask Ms. Copeland-Morgan, just
because you already are a major research institution. I guess
all of you are in your own ways. I do think that the scout
application that came out of the Road Institute--I mean, it
does help follow who they have talked to and allows you in real
time if someone does come out with symptoms and then turn out
to be COVID positive, that you can track very quickly the
impact and I think really tamp down, a flare up. Real quickly,
in terms of serving adverse students, another thing in Colorado
Mesa University that they tried with, I think, great success to
keep students on campus. And this is a school with a majority
of kids of color, all low income, and that any missed campus
experience would be an impediment.
Again, Dr. Verret and President Pumariega, your
institutions have so many of these students as well, how have
you prioritized the campus experience while still making sure
that you ensure their safety? Certainly there is more at the
Federal level--there is more at the Federal level we could be
doing or what could we be doing to make sure that we are not
letting kids fall through the cracks?
Dr. Verret. It was--the campus experience is crucial. It is
a great value to our students, so it was important to bring
them back. Making sure that everyone was masking was an
important way of keeping transmission from occurring. But they
benefited from working with each other and also working with
our faculty. It is important to do that. But keeping the campus
safe so that the campus quality was safer than where they were
come from was important. So we have to make sure that we are
not creating a problem.
Once we are in compliance with masking and now with
vaccination, we were actually able to carry on in campus. And
as I mentioned, the prevalence of the virus on campus never
exceed 1.6 percent. So we kept--we kept by not being able to
transmit the virus on campus.
Senator Hickenlooper. Yes, President Pumariega.
Ms. Pumariega. Thank you, Senator. What we have done is,
one, follow the guidelines in terms of the physical distancing,
the mask, and also have, temperature checks and other
preventive measures so that we can, maybe if someone is coming
on and has a temperature, doesn't come into our learning
support labs. But what we did do, once we implemented those
preventive measures, we have and have remained open all of our
learning support, our student life centers. We launched an
early college summer program where our high school students
just graduated this past week.
On Monday, we will be offering where they can begin college
early on campus, take six credits toward their associates of
arts program. And so, again, alongside with the preventive
measures, the CDC guidelines, the mask requirement, we have to
continue to bring our students on campus and provide those in-
person support services that we know are critical to the
majority of our students at Miami Dade College, which are first
in their families to attend college.
Senator Hickenlooper. Great. Well, thank you so much. I
appreciate all your work. And Mr. Harris, good luck to you. I
didn't have a question for you. Ms. Copeland-Morgan, thank you
so much for your service as well. I yield back.
The Chair. Thank you very much.
Senator Burr, your final comment.
Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Let me once again say
thank you to all the witnesses who have come before us today. I
would be remiss if I didn't say that I think as we plow through
the summer, every institution is going to be faced with this
decision of how do we go into the fall and what are going to be
the requirements? Should we do what Xavier has done, require
vaccinations of students, faculty, staff? Let me just note at
this time that all three buckets that we talked about, they are
already vaccinated.
If they entered an education system in the United States in
kindergarten, they were required to be vaccinated. The current
vaccination requirements in L.A. County, a child can't enter
the system without diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio,
measles, mumps, rubella. A student can't enter Miami-Dade
without diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps,
rubella, hepatitis B, and chickenpox. For some reason, the
older we get, we think that is not important.
If we all had to go back to the beginning of COVID in its
first 90 days, if a vaccine had been available, we all would
have taken it. And as time goes on, our memories become, to use
Dr. Cassidy's elastic. We sort of forget some of the things.
So, I say this for the record, I already said it to the folks,
but I saved it for the record, because I want other presidents
and chancellors and faculty to realize we are not asking
something that is unreasonable. We ask you in education right
at the beginning of the process for things that we have known
for years.
We don't want those things to come back or we don't want it
to infect a population of students. It is not unreasonable for
us to consider whether we require it in higher education,
whether we find a modification from that, but for goodness
sakes, don't look at this and say this isn't something we
shouldn't consider. We have already done that as a Nation. And
we do it today and the requirements are much greater than what
we are applying with vaccination of COVID. Thank you.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator Burr. That will end our
hearing today. And I really want to thank all of our colleagues
and our witnesses. All of you gave great testimony. It was a
very thoughtful discussion. I really appreciate everybody's
input.
For any Senators who wish to ask additional questions,
questions for the record will be due in 10 business days at 5
p.m. The hearing record will remain open until then for Members
who wish to submit additional material for the record.
This Committee will meet next on Tuesday, June 22nd, at 10
a.m. in Dirksen 430 for a hearing on how we can help people get
the information they need to get vaccinated so we can end this
pandemic. With that, the Committee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:23 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]