Reimagining the College Experience in a Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the nation, higher education is confronted with a monumental challenge: how to plan for the fall semester, the apex of the academic calendar. Higher education must plan now but cannot know whether campuses will be able to open come September.

If the fall must be online, higher education leaders must strive to conceive as much of the full college experience as possible. Mere “remote instruction” will at best depress enrollment and disappoint students, and at worst threaten institutional viability.

This report takes seriously the prospect of a fully remote fall semester for some or many schools, and lays out arguments, ideas, and examples of how to reimagine the college experience in a pandemic.