The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented change to higher education. The implications of moving pedagogy online raise significant concerns about traditional student evaluations of instructors at many institutions. These surveys, usually administered at the end of each semester, allow students to provide feedback to help faculty inform teaching practices. In addition, these surveys provide institutions with information that can be used, in part, for annual reappointment, promotion, and tenure decisions. If instructors are evaluated in classes that are substantially different from the ones they’d planned, it may be unfair to administer these evaluations in an environment that is primarily beyond their control.

In July, AAC&U partnered with ABC Insights to conduct a survey of Presidents’ Trust members. Instead of operating in “panic mode,” most presidents are maintaining their cautious optimism as they look forward to the fall. Taken together, the findings signal a resolve on the part of presidents across the higher education landscape to protect students and the core educational mission of their institutions by avoiding tuition increases and cuts to academic programs, focusing instead on reductions in operational expenses and staffing. At the same time, presidents are expecting an increase in organized student activism this fall while making an array of long- and short-term plans to address racial injustice and systemic racism on their campuses.