[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 104 (Thursday, June 4, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2721-S2723]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      GOING BACK TO COLLEGE SAFELY

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to make 
comments on two other subjects. The first is about a subject that is 
concerning about 70, 75 million American families; that is, going back 
to college and going back to school. The question is on the minds of 
many Americans: Will we be going back to college? Will our children be 
going back to school?
  We finished a hearing today--the Presiding Officer was present; the 
Senator from Alaska was present--on going back to college safely. The 
question is not whether we are going back to college in the United 
States of America; the question is how to go back safely. We all 
understand that when 70, 75 million students go back to college and go 
back to school, that is the surest sign that American life is regaining 
its rhythm--not just for the students themselves but, especially with 
the children, for their parents, most of whom work outside the home.
  Today's subject was about college. We had excellent witnesses. We had 
Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University. He was introduced by 
the Senator from Indiana. We had the president of Brown University, 
Christina Paxson. We had Logan Hampton, who was president of a small 
historically Black college in Jackson, TN, Lane College. And we had the 
President of American Public Health Association, Dr. Benjamin. They 
talked with us about the various strategies and concerns that existed.
  I will, in a few minutes, ask consent to put my opening statement in 
the Record, but if I can summarize it, it would be this. Most of our 
6,000 public colleges and universities--some public, some private, some 
church schools--will be open in August for in-person students but not 
all of them. The University of California State system has said so far 
that it expects only to offer online courses. But at Purdue, for 
example--an institution of 55,000 students--President Daniels has 
decided, with the approval of his board, and President Paxson of 
Brown--a different kind of institution in the Northeast, different from 
Purdue--they both decided it is their obligation to open up and to 
create a safe environment for the students to come back.
  There are several reasons for this. There is some health risk in 
coming back. Of course, wise leadership can address that. But I think, 
as all of us have looked at our colleges, wise leadership can make 
colleges among the safest communities to live and work in America over 
the next year because colleges have certain advantages. In the first 
place, most of the campus community is young. While we can't be 
cavalier about the effect of COVID-19 on young people, as Dr. Fauci has 
warned us, the fact is that COVID-19 seems to hurt the young much less.
  The second reason it would be easier to go back to college is that 
there is a lot of space in colleges that isn't used. Colleges are the 
most notorious wasters of space in our society. It is rare that a class 
is taught in the early morning or late evening or on Saturdays or in 
the summers. There is plenty of time and plenty of space to spread out 
on most college campuses.

  As we learn more and more about COVID-19, it looks like there are 
three things we really need to do: Keep 6 feet apart, wash our hands, 
and wear a mask. Do those three things, and we can probably go back to 
school, back to work, out to eat, and do most of the things we would 
like to do.
  At a college, as President Daniels says, he intends to develop a 
culture of masks. Vanderbilt University is going to require a mask to 
be worn in all indoor situations. Then they are taking a number of 
other steps. Concerts and parties and large gatherings are out. Flu 
shots and grab-and-go meals are in.
  There will be systematic testing, and testing will be done in 
different ways. The president of Brown would like to test every 
student, she said in an article in the New York Times a few weeks ago.
  The president of Purdue said: Well, maybe systematic testing. There 
will be different strategies for testing, but the goal of testing is 
two things. One is containing the disease; that is, identifying the 
sick and the exposed so that they can be quarantined so the rest of us 
don't have to be, and the other is to build confidence.
  I know that when I took a test last week after I was exposed to 
COVID-19, I went home for 2 weeks of self-isolation, as the attending 
physician said I should do. That should have been it, but I went to my 
local public health department and took a test, which turned out to be 
negative, for peace of mind. It gave me more confidence to go back home 
and be with my family.
  The anticipation is that there will be plenty of testing. Admiral 
Giroir, the Assistant Secretary of Public Health, has told our 
committee, we are, in the United States, doing about 10 million tests a 
month now. States are submitting to the Federal Government a plan each 
month about their testing needs. The Federal Government is helping fill 
in any gaps. Over the next 2, 3 months, the number of tests will go 
from about 10 million a month to 40 or 50 million tests a month. That 
is a lot of tests. We are already testing more than any country in the 
world.
  My guess is that colleges and universities--even though there are 
6,000 of them, 127 different institutions in Tennessee--if they will be 
in touch with their Governor and be a part of the State testing plan, 
they can have adequate tests, not only to contain the disease and 
isolate those who should be isolated but to give peace of mind to other 
students and faculty and members of the community who come onboard.
  Finally, we talked a little bit about the role of the Federal 
Government. We have a classic discussion about that here. Some want to 
say Washington should do it; some want to say the State should do it. 
Generally, our friends on the Democratic side trust Washington, DC; 
generally, we on the Republican side trust the States. But there is a 
role for both. The Federal Government, through the Centers for Disease 
Control, can provide advice. The Federal Government, as it is doing 
through the Shark Tank, as we call it, at the National Institutes of 
Health, can accelerate the number of rapid tests that are available at 
a low cost for campuses.
  The Federal Government can provide additional funding for campuses, 
as we did in the CARES Act. Those are some of the things we can do from 
here. But the things we ought not to try to do from here are to order 
California to open its campuses if California doesn't want to or to 
tell Purdue and Notre Dame and Brown and the University of Tennessee 
and Vanderbilt that they cannot open their campuses if they do want to 
and think they can do it safely. We should not be trying to tell each 
of those campuses exactly how many tests they have, what kind of tests 
they have, any more than we try to tell them what the faculty ought to 
be paid or what student admissions policies ought to be or what the 
curriculum ought to be.
  While the Federal Government needs to create an umbrella in which 
individual campuses can go back to school safely, we need to be careful 
about telling everybody exactly what to do.
  We had a very big event here 4, 5 years ago when we fixed No Child 
Left Behind. Everybody wanted it fixed--Democrats, Republicans, labor 
unions, Governors, teachers. Why? Because after a while, everybody got 
tired of Washington, DC, telling 100,000 public schools exactly what to 
do, what teachers to hire, what curriculum to have--all of these 
things. The same is true with our colleges.
  Our system of colleges and universities is the best in the world. 
Everyone concedes that. It has not gotten

[[Page S2722]]

there by Washington ordering what it should do, and Washington 
shouldn't order what it should do about this disease. It should advise; 
it should help; it can help send money. But the autonomy of each campus 
ought to be respected.
  One other thing about the colleges and universities have asked for 
from us is liability protection.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record following my 
remarks a letter from the American Council on Education, with a number 
of things in it they ask of Congress. This is the umbrella organization 
for hiring education, and it includes liability protection.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                American Council on Education,

                                                     June 3, 2020.
     Hon. Lamar Alexander,
     Chairman, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, 
         U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
     Hon. Patty Murray,
     Ranking Member, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and 
         Pensions, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
       Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray: On 
     behalf of the American Council on Education and the 
     undersigned higher education associations, I am writing to 
     thank you for holding today's hearing examining the important 
     issue of how U.S. colleges and universities can reopen their 
     physical campuses in the fall as the nation seeks to recover 
     from the COVID-19 pandemic and begin returning to normal.
       The issues involved with safely welcoming students, 
     faculty, and staff back to campuses are complicated; there is 
     no one-size-fits-all solution. Every institution is 
     developing plans appropriate for their own circumstances and 
     the needs of their campus community, based on the guidance 
     and resources available from federal, state, and local public 
     health officials. For example, while residential campuses 
     need to carefully consider protocols to minimize the risks 
     for students living in close proximity to one another, 
     commuter campuses must be cognizant of students who move 
     between campus, home, and work on a daily basis--and some 
     campuses must address both sets of issues. Every campus wants 
     to offer as full a range as possible of academic, housing, 
     social, athletic, and other programs and services, and to do 
     so in a way that ensures as best as possible the safety and 
     health of students and all other members of the campus and 
     surrounding community. In addition to these challenges, we 
     know that students will be coming back to campus with 
     significant financial challenges as they and their families 
     are not immune from the broader economic conditions facing 
     our nation. Colleges and universities, while under financial 
     strain themselves, will redouble their efforts to support 
     students who are most in need.
       Effectively and safely reopening campuses is constrained by 
     the large revenue losses and significant new expenses that 
     colleges and universities have already experienced and will 
     continue to face. These expenses include the costs associated 
     with moving instruction online, serving students remotely, 
     and implementing new health protections and safety 
     precautions. Estimates by ACE and other organizations have 
     repeatedly concluded that institutions of higher education 
     have already lost tens of billions of dollars via diminished 
     revenues and increased costs in the current academic year. 
     Surveys and data indicate that the next academic year will be 
     far worse. In addition, some states have already 
     substantially cut funding to public universities and to 
     student grant programs at all institutions, while for others, 
     the cuts are looming.
       Understandably, implementing widespread testing, contact 
     tracing, and quarantine and treatment facilities will impose 
     substantial ongoing expenses, beyond the already sizable 
     challenges in procuring and providing the extensive amounts 
     of physical protective equipment and making the physical 
     modifications to campus buildings that will be necessary to 
     ensure the health and safety of our students, staff, and 
     visitors. We are happy to share with the committee a list 
     examples of individual institutional losses, based on public 
     reports, demonstrating the enormous range and variations in 
     circumstances that will dramatically complicate the ability 
     of many campuses to reopen. Institutions are not asking for 
     the federal government to make them whole, but they need 
     support if they are to have any chance at returning to 
     something resembling normal operations.
       While institutions will be taking extensive measures such 
     as those noted above in combination with campus-specific 
     public health education programs and outreach--encouraging 
     safety measures such as the wearing of masks, hand washing, 
     and social distancing and expecting shared responsibility for 
     behavior--it will be impossible to completely eliminate the 
     transmission of this highly contagious virus. It is not only 
     possible, but perhaps even likely, that any campus reopening 
     will result in some COVID-19 infections within the campus 
     community.
       As a result, institutions are facing enormous uncertainty 
     about COVID-19-related standards of care and corresponding 
     fears of possible litigation, even when they have employed 
     reasonable decision-making and done everything within their 
     power to keep students, employees, and visitors as safe as 
     possible. In addition to providing critical financial support 
     for institutions that have been hard-hit during this crisis, 
     we believe Congress should pass legislation providing a 
     timely, temporary, and targeted federal safe harbor from 
     liability for illness or the spread of illness when good 
     faith efforts are made to comply with applicable local, 
     state, and federal public health standards. These protections 
     should preserve recourse for those harmed by truly bad actors 
     who engage in egregious misconduct or gross negligence.
       Thank you again for your willingness to examine these 
     important issues during today's hearing. We look forward to 
     working with you and your colleagues on this urgent matter.
           Sincerely,
                                                     Ted Mitchell,
                                                        President.

       On behalf of:
       Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, 
     ACPA--College Student Educators International, American 
     Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, 
     American Association of Community Colleges, American 
     Association of State Colleges and Universities, American 
     College Health Association, American Council on Education, 
     American Dental Education Association, American Indian Higher 
     Education Consortium, Association of American Universities, 
     Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, 
     Association of Community College Trustees.
       Association of Governing Boards of Universities and 
     Colleges, Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, 
     Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, 
     Association of Research Libraries, Coalition of Urban and 
     Metropolitan Universities, College and University 
     Professional Association for Human Resources, Council for 
     Advancement and Support of Education, Council for Christian 
     Colleges & Universities, Council for Higher Education 
     Accreditation, EDUCAUSE, Higher Learning Commission, Hispanic 
     Association of Colleges and Universities.
       NASPA--Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, 
     National Association of College and University Business 
     Officers, National Association of Independent Colleges and 
     Universities, National Association of Student Financial Aid 
     Administrators, National Association of System Heads, New 
     England Commission of Higher Education, Northwest Commission 
     on Colleges and Universities, Rebuilding America's Middle 
     Class, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools 
     Commission on Colleges, State Higher Education Executive 
     Officers Association, TMCF, UNCF (United Negro College Fund, 
     Inc.).

  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                           Opening Statement


  covid-19: going back to college safely--thursday, june 4 at 10 a.m.

     Introduction
       The question for administrators of 6,000 colleges and 
     universities is not whether to reopen in August, but how to 
     do it safely.
       Most are working overtime to get ready for one of the 
     surest signs that American life is regaining its rhythm: 20 
     million students going back to college
       Our witnesses today are here to tell us their strategies 
     for reopening safely:
       Mitch Daniels, President of Purdue University, West 
     Lafayette, IN
       Christina Paxson, President of Brown University, 
     Providence, RI
       Logan Hampton, President of Lane College, Jackson, TN
       Georges Benjamin, MD, Executive Director of American Public 
     Health Association, Washington, DC
     College best health practices
       Purdue University, the University of South Carolina, Rice 
     University, Creighton University, and The University of Notre 
     Dame will finish in-person classes before Thanksgiving to 
     avoid further spread of COVID-19 during flu season
       Vanderbilt will require face masks in classrooms.
       To make social distancing easier, colleges are rescheduling 
     classrooms usually empty in early mornings, evenings, 
     weekends and summer. Concerts and parties are out. Grab and 
     go meal options, flu shots and temperature checks are in. 
     Campuses will offer more online courses.
       I recently was on a phone call with about 90 presidents of 
     Tennessee's 127 institutions of higher education, and almost 
     all of them are planning to resume in-person classes in the 
     Fall, but they want governments to create liability 
     protection against being sued if a student becomes sick.
       Bucking the trend, California's state university system 
     will offer most of its courses only online.
     College testing strategies
       All roads back to college lead through testing.
       The availability of widespread testing will allow colleges 
     to track and isolate students who have the virus or have been 
     exposed to it, so the rest of the student body doesn't

[[Page S2723]]

     have to be quarantined. Campuses are exploring using mobile 
     phone apps for tracking and creating isolation dormitories to 
     isolate students who have the virus or have been exposed, as 
     UT-Knoxville is doing.
       Widespread testing not only helps contain the disease; it 
     builds confidence that the campus is safe. Fortunately, U.S. 
     Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir says 
     there will be 40-50 million tests available per month by 
     September. That is 4-5 times today's number--and today's 
     number is twice as many as any other country.
       Dr. Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project, now 
     leads a competitive ``shark tank'' enterprise at the National 
     Institutes of Health to discover new ways to conduct tens of 
     millions of additional accurate tests with quick results.
       Should everyone on campus be tested? On a webinar for 
     institutes of higher education on Friday, May 29, Centers for 
     Disease Control and Prevention officials said that they are 
     not recommending that at this time and encouraged campuses to 
     work with their state and local health officials.
       However, that does not take into account testing for peace 
     of mind. Some schools may want to test everyone before they 
     come back to campus.
       Schools may want to think about testing randomly to detect 
     asymptomatic cases and have the ability to test everyone in 
     certain categories: health care, food service, and cleaning 
     workers; older faculty; students with medical conditions or 
     who are arriving from virus hot spots; all students in a 
     class or dormitory where a person tests positive for the 
     virus.
       Administrators ask: Where will I find tests? The answer is, 
     consult your local health department and your governor. Each 
     state submits a monthly plan to the federal government 
     outlining testing supplies and needs. Admiral Giroir's team 
     then helps fill the gaps.
       My recommendation: you want your school's testing needs to 
     be in your state plan. A school can also contract directly 
     with laboratories who conduct tests, review the Food and Drug 
     Administration list of authorized tests, or ask for help from 
     a nearby large university or hospital that has created its 
     own test.
       COVID-19 plans should last for at least the full school 
     year. The government is pursuing vaccines at warp speed, but 
     no one expects one by August. In the second semester there 
     should be more tests, more treatments, better contact tracing 
     and vaccines--amidst the flu season and the return of COVID-
     19. It will be the Fall of 2021 before school life approaches 
     normal.
       But students returning in the Fall and their families will 
     want and need to have peace of mind that they, and their 
     loved ones, are heading back into a safe environment. Testing 
     is the key to providing this peace of mind.
     College Environment--the Good and Bad
       There are several reasons colleges have an advantage in 
     providing a safe environment for students and faculty:
       The first reason is that younger people have been less hurt 
     by COVID-19.
       For example: In Tennessee, nursing homes account for around 
     5 percent of cases of COVID-19 infections but 36 percent of 
     COVID-19 deaths.
       Compare that with Tennesseans under the age of 30, who have 
     accounted for around 30 percent of cases of infection, but 
     less than 1 percent of deaths.
       Still, there is much we are still learning about the virus, 
     and Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned against ``cavalierly'' 
     assuming that young people are not at risk.
       Second: Colleges are notorious wasters of space. As I wrote 
     for Newsweek in 2009 to encourage colleges to embrace 3-year 
     degrees: Former George Washington University president 
     Stephen J. Trachtenberg estimates that a typical college uses 
     its facilities for academic purposes a little more than half 
     the calendar year. ``While college facilities sit idle, they 
     continue to generate maintenance, energy, and debt-service 
     expenses that contribute to the high cost of running a 
     college,'' he has written.
       Keeping students six feet apart will be a lot easier if 
     colleges embrace a new efficiency and use more of their 
     classrooms and spaces throughout the day and throughout the 
     year.
       Maybe that's a lesson that will last beyond this virus 
     crisis.
       Third, tracking and tracing the virus will be easier to do 
     at colleges--we know what classes students attend, and what 
     dorms they live in. If colleges take it a step further and, 
     for example, assign seats in class, infections will be even 
     easier to track.
       Fourth, a college can require students to wear masks. 
     Campuses can make mask-wearing part of the student culture.
       But college environments pose a couple of challenges as 
     well.
       First, we know that 19 and 20-year-olds don't always choose 
     to do what's healthiest. For example, the 2018 National 
     Survey on Drug Use and Health found that a third of college 
     students admitted to binge drinking in the past month. So a 
     social-distanced, mask-wearing culture in class may not 
     always extend into the evenings and weekends.
       And second, 86 percent of undergraduate students are not 
     living on campus, according to the National Center for 
     Education Statistics. That statistic includes big variations: 
     40 percent of students at private 4-year colleges live on 
     campus; 26 percent at public 4-year institutions, 2 percent 
     live on campus at community colleges. Nearly half of 
     undergraduates live within 10 miles of campus. That means 
     many students will leave and return, potentially exposing 
     themselves and others to the virus--making social distancing 
     and CDC-recommended health status checks all the more 
     important.
     Federalism
       What should the federal government's role be in helping 
     colleges and universities safely reopen?
       Providing advice from the CDC about best practices
       Funding for innovation, such as the shark tank I mentioned, 
     so there's an ample supply of rapid tests for colleges
       Encouraging colleges and universities to work with states 
     and get included in their testing plans, and then help states 
     get supplies they need for testing
       Funding, such as the nearly $14 billion in CARES Act to 
     address lost revenue due to COVID-19 and help students 
     disrupted by the crisis
       Federal government can provide liability protections
       Beyond that, decisions should be left to the individual 
     campuses. From small technical institutes like Lincoln 
     College of Technology to research institutions like the 
     Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From community 
     colleges to tuition-free, four-year institutions like Berea 
     College in Kentucky.
       When I became a university president in 1988, I asked the 
     president of the University of California System, David 
     Gardner, what made that university so good. His first answer 
     was autonomy--that the government provides students with 
     funds that follow them to the school of their choice and then 
     allows the institutions to run themselves.
       The United States is home to 6,000 colleges and 
     universities--arguably the best system of higher education in 
     the world because institutions have maximum autonomy and 
     minimum direction from Washington on everything from their 
     curriculum, tuition, admission policies, health care plans 
     for students, and compensation for faculty. They determine 
     what their policies will be for student behavior and conduct, 
     housing, safety, and a host of other things.
       So I would suggest we honor that same tradition now: 
     President Trump and Congress should not be telling the 
     California State University System that it has to open its 
     classes in person, or telling Notre Dame it cannot--or 
     telling UT that it must test everyone on the campus or 
     telling Brown University that it cannot. Colleges themselves, 
     not Washington DC, should make those decisions.
     Conclusion
       We know that a single lost year of college can lead to a 
     student not graduating from college and set back career 
     goals.
       Already, disruption of university research projects has 
     erased much of the progress that was being made with the 
     record levels of research funding Congress has provided over 
     the past five years. Many American colleges--overall 
     considered the best in the world--will be permanently damaged 
     or even closed if they remain, in witness Christina Paxson's 
     words, ``ghost towns.''
       Two thirds of college students want to return to campus, 
     according to an Axios survey. At Purdue, tuition deposits by 
     incoming freshmen broke last year's record. Colleges and 
     universities are microcities. College presidents and 
     administrators can make them among the safest small 
     communities in which to live and work during this next year. 
     In doing so, they will help our country take its surest step 
     toward normalcy.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Next week in our committee we will take a look at 
going back to school safely, K-12. That is a lot more families--20 
million college students, 75 million children in K-12. And in every one 
of those families, in every one of those homes, I can tell you those 
families are worried about whether those children can go back to school 
and whether they can go safely. I believe they can, and all across the 
country, Governors, classroom teachers, mayors, principals are working, 
just as we heard today from the college presidents, to make sure they 
go back safely.

                          ____________________