Texas Tech University

What 'Middle' Administrators Can Do to Help in the Coronavirus Crisis

The Chronicle of Higher Education

March 10, 2020

The Chronicle of Higher Education - If you’re a college president or provost, the global coronavirus scare means you are making some really big decisions lately, affecting the entire campus. But what if you’re a midlevel manager — dean, chair, program director? What is your role in this crisis?

It's certainly true that the new coronavirus — even though, so far, it's infected relatively few people in the United States, and killed even fewer — has set off a meteor shower of events that are rattling campuses across the country. Every day there's a new chain of emails, social-media posts, and news stories announcing that some campus is closing and going online, that an important conference is being shut down and trying to go virtual, or that parents are pressuring institutions to bring study-abroad students home. And everyone is worried: What is coming next?

To read the full story by David D. Perlmutter, a professor in and dean of the College of Media and Communication, click here.