Introduction

Abstract

Over the past 25 years, higher education institutions have grown familiar with managing crises. In 2007, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) experienced the violence of a mass shooting, and since then numerous mass shootings have shaken higher education institutions across the United States – nearly one every year (Voice of America, 2019). In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, and local higher education institutions had to manage the displacement of students and their families, which left many students with nowhere to live. Similarly, the wildfires of 2019 and 2020 in California forced some higher education institutions to evacuate students during the middle of the term, resulting in significant disruptions to day-to-day operations. In each of these cases, institutional leaders and policymakers were required to simultaneously support students, staff, and faculty; ensure that the core work of their institutions could continue; and balance local government requirements along with local and national media attention. In each of these crises, the impact on higher education was to a large degree localized to a specific institution or geographic area. Bataille and Cordova (2014) note that in every crisis the “day-to-day work continues. But, some instances change the campus routine…” (p. 2). The COVID-19 crisis that emerged in spring 2020 was unprecedented in its impact on the day-to-day operations of higher education worldwide.