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

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.

Student Experiences in Pre-COVID Virtual Internships: Integration, Barriers, Motivation Challenges, Supportive Supervisors, and Intern Growth

This study explores the experiences of undergraduate students participating in virtual internships prior to the onset of COVID-19. We used a phenomenological approach to understand the experiences of ten undergraduate students engaged in virtual internships. Six themes emerged: initial concern about virtual work, the salience of the intern-supervisor relationship, lack of exposure to office dynamics, motivation and time management concerns, perceived benefit of developing work-life balance, and perception of growth/development during the internship. Our findings indicate that higher education institutions and employers should design virtual internship programs that deliberately select and train supervisors, integrate virtual interns into the workplace, and support students in managing challenges with self-motivation and time management;and that virtual internships can greatly benefit students. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of American Journal of Distance Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

We Want You Back: Uncovering the Effects on In-Person Instructional Operations in Fall 2020.

Postsecondary institutions' responses to COVID-19 are a topic of immediate relevance. Emergent research suggests that partisanship was more strongly linked to institutions offering in-person instruction for Fall 2020 than was COVID-19. Using data from the College Crisis Initiative and a multiple group structural equation modeling approach, we tested the relationships between our outcome of interest (in-person instruction in Fall 2020) and state and county sociopolitical features, state and county COVID-19 rates, and state revenue losses. Our full-sample model suggested that County Political Preferences had the strongest association with in-person instruction, followed by Pandemic Severity and State Sociopolitical Features. Because institutional sectors may be uniquely sensitive to these factors, we tested our models separately on 4-year public, 4-year private, and 2-year public and 2-year private institutions. State Sociopolitical Features were significantly related to in-person instruction for 4-year private and 2-year public institutions but were strongest for 4-year public institutions. For 4-year private and 2-year public institutions, County Political Preferences' effect sizes were 2-3 times stronger than effects from State Sociopolitical Features. Pandemic Severity was significantly, negatively related to in-person instruction for 4-year private and 2-year public institutions-similar in magnitude to State Sociopolitical Features. Our analysis revealed that COVID-19 played a stronger role in determining in-person instruction in Fall 2020 than initial research using less sophisticated methods suggested-and while State Sociopolitical Features may have played a role in the decision, 4-year private and 2-year public institutions were more sensitive to county-level preferences.