Strange Thoughts

From the LA Times: The University of California could reopen just one-third to one-half of dorm rooms this fall in order to maintain safe distances among students amid the coronavirus outbreak, a top UC official said Monday, raising questions about what would happen to others without campus housing.

Campuses are still making decisions on their fall scenarios, which may come in June or July. Last week, UC President Janet Napolitano said campuses will first be required to satisfy systemwide guidelines to ensure public health and safety and any reopening “will probably be greatly reduced.”

Any reduced availability of dorms — and subsequent decline in housing revenue — would amplify the staggering financial toll on the UC system triggered by the coronavirus crisis.

The UC system was hit with $558 million in revenue losses and added expenses to its 10 campuses and five medical centers in March alone and those costs are projected to rise to about $2.5 billion by the end of the fiscal year that ends June 30, according to Nathan Brostrom, UC Merced interim chancellor, who also has served as systemwide chief financial office. 

He made the remarks about dorm reopenings during a broad-ranging online discussion on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education sponsored by the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education.

Brostrom said the “financial shock” of lost revenue from multiple sources, including dining and housing contracts, sporting events, study abroad programs and elective surgeries, would be a short-term crisis.

“These are one-time shocks,” Brostrom said during the webinar. “There still is incredibly strong demand for our medical centers, pent-up demand for treatments, our housing. We could fill every single bed tomorrow if we were to open.” ...

Source: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-05-04/uc-could-reopen-just-one-third-of-dorm-rooms-this-fall

Wait a minute! Sure it's "one time." But that money is not just postponed. It ain't coming back. And it has to come from somewhere. If you don't fill the dorms this year because of social distancing, that money is gone. You can't somehow overfill those same dorms in the future to catch up. Even postponed medical procedures at the hospitals won't all just be done later. Someone who didn't go to the emergency room today out of fear of exposure to coronavirus won't just show up in the future with the same emergency. And, of course, at this point no one knows how long the "time" in "one time" will last. 

The Regents will be meeting in a couple of weeks. Up to this point, they have been able to avoid the obvious. It won't help if high UC officials go all Pollyanna on them at this meeting.