Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced higher education institutions to reexamine their modes of instruction for the Fall 2020 semester. Some institutions chose to reopen for in-person instruction, others chose online or hybrid modalities. Leveraging data for 2,458 colleges and universities, we examined how political, epidemiological, economic, and institutional characteristics correlated with Fall 2020 reopening plans. We found no discernible relationship between county-level or state-level COVID-19 case counts and reopening plans. Campus demographics (such as White student enrollment) and state political characteristics were related to campus mode of instruction decisions for Fall 2020. The findings highlight the continued, and perhaps increasing, relevance of sociopolitical factors to higher education leaders’ decisions.

Keywords

COVID-19 higher education campus reopening policy instruction

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adamecz-Völgyi

Henderson

Shure

(2020). Is ‘first in family’ a good indicator for widening university participation? Economics of Education Review, 78, 102038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econedurev.2020.102038

Allcot

Boxell

Conway

Gentzkow

Thaler

Yang

(2020). Polarization and public health: Partisan differences in social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic. Journal of Public Economics, 191, 104254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104254

Allison

P. D.

(2010). Missing data. In Marsden

P. V.

Wright

J. D.

(Eds.), Handbook of survey research (2nd ed.). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Baum

Perlis

R. H.

Ognyanova

Chwe

Lazer

Druckman

Green

Santillana

Della Volpe

Quintana

Simonson

(2020). The COVID States Project #11: Perceptions of school reopening safety in the US. OSFPREPRINTS.

Bevins

Bryant

Krishnan

Law

(2020, April 3). Coronavirus: How should US higher education plan for an uncertain future? McKinsey. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/coronavirus-how-should-us-higher-education-plan-for-an-uncertain-future

Bhanot

S. P.

Hopkins

D. J.

(2020). Partisan polarization and resistance to elite messages: Results from survey experiments on social distancing. Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 3(2), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.30636/jbpa.32.178

Bruine de Bruin

Saw

Goldman

D. P.

(2020). Political polarization in US residents’ COVID-19 risk perceptions, policy preferences, and protective behaviors. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 61, 177–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11166-020-09336-3

Butler

D. M.

Pereira

M. M.

(2018). Trends: How does partisanship influence policy diffusion? Political Research Quarterly, 71(4), 801–812. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912918796314

Carothers

(2020). The United States: Presidential leadership, polarization, and the coronavirus. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/04/28/united-states-presidential-leadership-polarization-and-coronavirus-pub-81643

10.

Centers for Disease Control. (2020, April 17). Geographic differences in COVID-19 cases, deaths, and incidence–United States, February 12–April 7, 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 69(15), 465–471. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6915e4-H.pdf

11.

Chakrabarti

Gorton

Lovenheim

M. F.

(2020). State investment in higher education: Effects on human capital formation, student debt, and long-term financial outcomes of students (NBER Working Paper No. 27885). National Bureau of Economic Research. https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27885/w27885.pdf

12.

Collier

D. A.

Fitzparick

Brehm

Archer

(2021). Coming to college hungry: How food insecurity relates to amotivation, stress, engagement, and first-semester performance in a four-year university. Journal of Postsecondary Student Success, 1(1), 106–135. https://doi.org/10.330009/fsop_jpss124641

13.

Collier

D. A.

Fitzpatrick

Dell

Snideman

Mariscano

C. R.

Kelchen

Wells

K. E.

(2021). We want you back: Uncovering the influences on in-person instructional operations in Fall 2020. Research in Higher Education, 63, 741–767. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-021-09665-5

14.

Collier

D. A.

Mishra

Houston

D. A.

Hensley

B. O.

Hartlep

N. D.

(2019). Americans ‘support’ the idea of tuition-free college: An exploration of sentiment and political identity signals otherwise. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43(3), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2017.1361516

15.

Collier

D. A.

Parnther

Fitzpatrick

Brehm

Beach

(2019). Helping students keep the promise: Exploring how Kalamazoo Promise scholars’ college motivation, engagement, and external factors influence performance and persistence. Innovative Higher Education, 45(5), 333–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-019-9468-0

16.

Cook

C. E.

(1998). Lobbying for higher education: How colleges and universities influence federal policy. Vanderbilt University Press.

17.

Cox

(2020, June 16). Hardship, anxiety, and optimism: Racial and partisan disparities in American’s response to COVID-19. American Enterprise Institute. https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/hardship-anxiety-and-optimism-racial-and-partisan-disparities-in-americans-response-to-covid-19/

18.

Dar

Lee

D.W.

(2014). Partisanship, political polarization, and state higher education budgets. The Journal of Higher Education, 85(4), 469–498. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2014.11777337

19.

DeAngelis

Makridis

(2020). Are school reopening decisions related to union influence? SSRN. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3684867

20.

Delaney

J. A.

Doyle

W. R.

(2011). State spending on higher education: Testing the balance wheel over time. Journal of Higher Education Finance, 36(4), 343–368. https://doi.org/10.2307/23018116

21.

Doherty

Kiley

Johnson

(2017). Sharp partisan divisions in views of national institutions: Republicans increasingly say colleges have negative impact on US. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/07/07-10-17-Institutions-release.pdf

22.

Doyle

W. R.

(2007). Public opinion, partisan identification, and higher education policy. The Journal of Higher Education, 78(4), 369–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2007.11772321

23.

Doyle

W. R.

(2012). The politics of public college tuition and student financial aid. The Journal of Higher Education, 83(5), 617–647.

24.

Drezner

N. D.

Pizmony-Levy

Pallas

(2018). Americans views of higher education as a public and private good. Teachers College, Columbia University.

25.

Felson

Adamczyk

(2021). Online or in person? Examining college decisions to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic in fall 2020. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023120988203

26.

Fitzpatrick

(2019). Challenges mitigating a Darwinian application of social capital: How specific advising activities by high school counselors shift measures of college readiness but not college-going. Research in Higher Education, 61(5), 652–678. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-019-09575-7

27.

Fowles

(2014). Funding and focus: Resource dependence in public higher education. Research in Higher Education, 55, 272–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-013-9311-x

28.

Funk

Tyson

(2020). Intent to get a COVID-19 vaccine rises to 60% as confidence in research and development process increases. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/12/03/intent-to-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-rises-to-60-as-confidence-in-research-and-development-process-increases/

29.

Gadarian

S. K.

Goodman

S. W.

Pepinsky

T. B.

(2021). Partisanship, health behavior, and policy attitudes in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. PLOS ONE, 16(4), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249596

30.

Gecewicz

(2020, August 7). Amid pandemic, Black and Hispanic worshippers more concerned about safety of in-person religious services. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/07/amid-pandemic-black-and-hispanic-worshippers-more-concerned-about-safety-of-in-person-religious-services/

31.

Grossman

Reckhow

Strunk

Turner

(2021). All states close but red districts reopen: The politics of in-person schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic (EdWorking Paper No. 21-355). Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://doi.org/10.26300/cb1f-hq66

32.

Hartney

M. T.

Finger

L. K.

(2020). Politics, markets, and pandemics: Public education’s response to COVID-19. (EdWorking Paper No. 20-304). Annenberg Center, Brown University. https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-304

33.

Hawley

(1968). Human ecology. In Sills

D. L.

(Eds.), International encyclopedia of the social sciences (pp. 328–337). Macmillan.

34.

Hearn

J. C.

Griswold

C. P.

Marine

G. M.

(1996). Region, resources, and reason: A contextual analysis of state tuition and student aid policies. Research in Higher Education, 37, 241–278.

35.

Higgins-Dunn

Farr

(2020, August 19). Trump pushes universities to continue reopening amid a string of campus coronavirus outbreaks. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/trump-pushes-for-universities-to-continue-reopening-amid-a-string-of-coronavirus-outbreaks.html

36.

Hill

Gonzalez

K. E.

Davis

(2020). The nastiest question: Does population mobility vary by state political ideology during the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic? Sociological Perspectives, 64(5), 786–803. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121420979700

37.

Hopkins

D. J.

(2018). The increasingly United States: How and why American political behavior nationalized. University of Chicago Press.

38.

Horowitz

J. M.

(2020, August 5). Republican, Democrats differ over factors K-12 schools should consider in deciding whether to open. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/05/republicans-democrats-differ-over-factors-k-12-schools-should-consider-in-deciding-whether-to-reopen/

39.

Iyengar

Sood

Lelkes

(2012). Affect, not ideology: A social identity perspective on polarization. Public Opinion Quarterly, 76(3), 405–431. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfs038

40.

Jaquette

Curs

B. R.

(2015). Creating the out-of-state university: Do public university increase nonresident freshman enrollment in response to declining state appropriations? Research in Higher Education, 56, 535–565. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1162-015-9362-2

41.

Jiang

Chen

Yan

Lerman

Ferrara

(2020). Political polarization drives online conversations about COVID-19 in the United States. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2(3), 200–211. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.202

42.

Kramer

(2020). More Americans say they are regularly wearing masks in stores and other businesses. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/27/more-americans-say-they-are-regularly-wearing-masks-in-stores-and-other-businesses/

43.

Lenth

(1993). The tuition dilemma: State policies and practices in pricing higher education (Technical report). State Higher Education Executive Officers.

44.

A. Y.

(2017). Dramatic declines in higher education appropriations: State conditions for budget punctuations. Research in Higher Education, 58, 395–429. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-016-9432-0

45.

Looney

Lee

(2019). Does the 90/10 rule unfairly target proprietary institutions or under-resourced schools? Brookings Institute. https://www.brookings.edu/research/does-the-90-10-rule-unfairly-target-proprietary-institutions-or-under-resourced-schools/

46.

Kane

T. J.

Orszag

P. R.

Gunter

D. L.

(2003). State fiscal constraints and higher education spending: The role of Medicaid and the business cycle (Discussion Paper No. 11). The Urban Institute.

47.

Kerr

Panagopoulos

van der Linden

(2021). Political polarization on COVID-19 pandemic response in the United States. Personality and Individual Differences, 179, 110892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2021.110892

48.

Kumar

(2020, September 25). DeSantis wants “bill of rights” for college students facing virus rules. Tampa Bay Times. https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2020/09/25/desantis-wants-bill-of-rights-for-college-students-facing-virus-rules/

49.

Marken

(2020, January 7). About a quarter of US adults consider higher ed affordable. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/education/272366/quarter-adults-consider-higher-affordable.aspx

50.

Marsicano

Felten

Toledo

Buitendorp

(2020). Tracking Campus Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic (Working Paper). American Political Science Association. https://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2020-3wvrl

51.

Marsicano

C. R.

Brooks

(2020). Professor Smith goes to Washington: Educational interest group lobbying, 1998–2017. Educational Researcher, 49(6), 448–453. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X20921845

52.

McLendon

M. K.

Hearn

J. C.

Mokher

C. G.

(2009a). Partisans, professionals, and power: The role of political factors in state higher education funding. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(6), 686–713. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2009.11779040

53.

McLendon

M. K.

Mokher

C. G.

Doyle

W. F.

(2009b). ‘Privileging’ public research universities: An empirical analysis of the distribution of state appropriations across research and non-research universities. Journal of Education Finance, 34(4), 372–401.

54.

Mettler

(2016). The policyscape and the challenges of contemporary politics to policy maintenance. Perspectives on Politics, 14(2), 369–390. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592716000074

55.

Meyer

J. W.

Rowan

(1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340–363.

56.

Miller

G. N. S.

Morphew

C. C.

(2017). Merchants of optimism: Agenda-setting organizations and the framing of performance-based funding for higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 88(5), 754–784. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2017.1313084

57.

Muller

(1987). Should states support private colleges—Yes! In Goodall

L. E.

(Ed.), When colleges lobby states: The higher education/state government connection (pp. 162–166). American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

58.

Murakami

(2020, May 15). State cuts grow deeper. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/05/15/size-state-budget-cuts-becomes-clearer

59.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2020). IPEDS: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/DataFiles.aspx?goToReportId=7

60.

National Conference of State Legislatures. (2020). State partisan composition. https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/partisan-composition.aspx#

61.

National Public Radio. (2020). States are broke and many are eyeing massive cuts. Here’s how yours is doing. https://www.npr.org/2020/08/03/893190275/states-are-broke-and-many-are-eyeing-massive-cuts-heres-how-yoursis-doing

62.

Natow

R. S.

(2017). Higher education rulemaking: The politics of creating regulatory policy. Johns Hopkins University Press.

63.

Nicholson-Crotty

Meier

K. J.

(2003). Politics, structure, and public policy: The case of higher education. Educational Policy, 17(1), 80–97.

64.

Okunade

A. A.

(2004). What factors influence state appropriations for public higher education in the United States? Journal of Education Finance, 30(2), 123–138.

65.

Parker

(2019). The growing partisan divide in views on higher education. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/the-growing-partisan-divide-in-views-of-higher-education/

66.

Parker

Barroso

Fry

(2020, October 26). Americans are divided on whether colleges that brought students back to campus made the right decision. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/26/americans-are-divided-on-whether-colleges-that-brought-students-back-to-campus-made-the-right-decision/

67.

Potrafke

(2018). Government ideology and economic policy-making in the United States—a survey. Public Choice, 174, 145–207. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-017-0491-3

68.

Puma

M. J.

Olsen

R. B.

Bell

S. H.

Price

(2009). What to do when data are missing in group randomized controlled trials (NCEE 2009-0049). National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED511781.pdf

69.

Putnam

R. D.

(2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Touchstone.

70.

Raisanen

S. R.

Birkeland

K. F.

(2016). State appropriations and undergraduate borrowing: More debt, less money. Applied Economics Letters, 23(8), 566–570. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2015.1088135

71.

Richardson

R. C.

Bracco

K. R.

Callan

P. M.

Finney

J. E.

(1999). Designing state higher education systems for a new century. ACE and The Oryx Press.

72.

Schuh

J. H.

(1993). Fiscal pressures on higher education and student affairs. In Barr

M. J.

(Ed.), The handbook of student affairs administration (pp. 49–68). Jossey-Bass.

73.

Stankiewicz

(2020, April 28). Connecticut governor says he wants Yale and state’s other colleges “to open in the fall.” CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/28/connecticut-governor-ned-lamont-wants-states-colleges-open-in-fall.html

74.

Tandberg

D. A.

(2006). State-level higher education interest group alliances. Higher Education in Review, 3, 25–49.

75.

Taylor

B. J.

Cantwell

Watts

Wood

(2020). Partisanship, white racial resentment, and state support for higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 91(6), 858–887. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2019.1706016

76.

The New York Times. (2020, December 20). Tracking the coronavirus at US colleges and universities. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/covid-college-cases-tracker.html

77.

Tollefson

T. A.

(2009). Community college governance, funding, and accountability: A century of issues and trends. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 33(3–4), 386–402. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668920802580481

78.

Toutkoushian

R. K.

Hollis

(1998). Using panel data to examine legislative demand for higher education. Education Economics, 6(2), 141–158.

79.

Tyson

(2020, July 22). Republicans remain far less likely than democrats to view COVID-19 as a major threat to public health. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/07/22/republicans-remain-far-less-likely-than-democrats-to-view-covid-19-as-a-major-threat-to-public-health/

80.

USAFacts. (2020). US coronavirus cases and deaths. https://usafacts.org/visualizations/coronavirus-covid-19-spread-map/

81.

Valant

(2020, July 29). School reopening plans linked to politics rather than public health. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/07/29/school-reopening-plans-linked-to-politics-rather-than-public-health/

82.

Victor

J. M.

(2020). The pandemic makes politics worse: The United States as a case study. Al Jazeera Centre for Studies. https://studies.aljazeera.net/sites/default/files/articles/documents/2020-06/The%20Pandemic%20Makes%20Politics%20Worse.pdf

83.

Weerts

D. J.

Ronca

J. M.

(2012). Understanding differences in state support for higher education across states, sectors, and institutions: A longitudinal study. The Journal of Higher Education, 83(2), 155–185.

84.

Whatley

Castiello-Gutiérrez

(2021). Balancing finances, politics, and public health: International student enrollment and reopening plans at US higher education institutions amid the COVID-19 pandemic (C2i Working Paper Series No. 210201). College Crisis Initiative. https://collegecrisis.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/C2i_WP_210201.pdf

85.

Yuen

(2020, June 11). Mounting peril for public higher education during the coronavirus pandemic. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/reports/2020/06/11/485963/mounting-peril-public-higher-education-coronavirus-pandemic/

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.03 MB

Campus Reopening in Fall 2020: Linked More to Political Leadership and Institutional Characteristics than to COVID-19 Pandemic Severity

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material