Any books are sold. We return now to the topic of school and university reopenings. Our guest is sidney mcphee, president of middle Tennessee State university. Viewers mightve seen you when you participated in a Panel Discussion at the white house last week to talk about reopenings and how it might happen. What did you tell the president and the Vice President at that Panel Discussion . Good morning and thank you for having me on your show. I told the Vice President and the president that our university was being very measured and had taken great preparation to safely open our university for our students and our employees this fall. There were a number of challenges that we had to address in order to make sure the campus is safe and that we were ready for the onset of 22,000 students and 3000 faculty and staff at one of the top universities in tennessee. You announced that middle Tennessee State university you were the first to announce that you would open in the fall. How do you plan to do that, and what changes does that mean for how your students will experience school . Yes, we were the First University in the state to announce in april that we were going to offer inperson, oncampus courses, and bring our students back. At that time, the curve was flattening, and it looked as though that it was going to go down, and we certainly knew that in any day based on this virus, that could change, but we made a decision decisively. We actually did a survey of our students and our parents, and the vast majority 90 indicated that they would like to see the campus open up for inperson. Now, we have taken a number of steps. I have always said that the safety and the security, and the health of our students and employees is our number one priority. We will not do anything at this university that would compromise the safety and the health of our students and our employees. We have done things that other schools have not done. For example, we have gone to single rooms. We have cut our residents all populations down in half. We have focused on three things. First, we wanted to make sure that we have enough testing. We wanted to make sure that indeed in the mitigation process we had enough rooms if there were issues for quarantine and isolation. Then we put in a very comprehensive contacttracing protocol in place. For folks who are not familiar with middle Tennessee State, how big is it, how many students live on campus versus offcampus, and how did you navigate this back in the spring when shutdown started . Middle Tennessee State university is about 37 miles east of nashville in a suburb. It is one of the top universities in the region. We are a princetonreviewed top300 plus for 2020. We have 22,000 students, 3000 employees, five campuses, one of the best aviation programs in the country. We own about 37 planes. Our Recording Industry program is number one in the world, and it is a great public university. We prepare our students and our employees to make sure that they know and have some degree of confidence that mtsu will offer a quality education, no matter where it is online or on campus and indeed we are one of the few universities that, in march, we made a very decisive decision in february to bring all of our students who are studying abroad back to the campus, and we began to make plans to address this virus. Really, the end of january, first part of february. So, we are in a position now, because we kept about 500 students on campus during the spring, we have the experience of dealing with this virus and we had a few students that were infected and had to go through the process. We developed a very sound protocol process in dealing with the crisis. Obviously there will be a point whether we will shut the university down and go back online. I must say that only 44 actually 44 of our courses are offered online for the fall. We have 40 that will be oncampus, and then the remaining percentage are internships, dissertations, etc. We have worked very hard to deal with the density issue and i think we will be prepared for all the eventualities. What was life like for the 500 students that stayed on campus in the spring . Do they eat in dining halls . What were they allowed to do and where were they not allowed to go . We actually had, again, a comprehensive program at our Residence Hall. We closed down our cafeteria. We provided food. We fed them in the Residence Hall. We gave them a bit of some flexibility in terms of how they could get around campus, we put in some restrictions on who could get in the door through card access. I walked the campus a couple of times each week and obviously, it was a campus that when you dont have 22,000 students, you only have 500, it does look and feel of it air y, but we encountered no problems at all. It was a tough decision for us because we have the majority of our students, very high sat, very high gpa, but we are a firstgeneration college campus, and many of our students, john, did not have anywhere to go. Unlike some institutions that found students to find other places to live during that period, we decided we would keep our Residence Hall open and take care of those students and that worked out quite good, actually. If you want to ask the University President about schools opening in the fall. It is split up by College Students in parents. Educators, administrators all others. We want to focus on the faculty and staff here at middle Tennessee State. There is an article on todays New York Times with the headline, colleges turned to layoffs as finances shrivel up. Have you had to do any layoffs and what is your budget look like in the coming school year . Obviously, it is going to be a challenge, but we are very fortunate at this time at our university that we do not have to resort to layoffs or furloughs of our factory and our staff. I have been president here now for 20 years and i have gone through a lot of challenges the 20082009 recession we did not lay off folks than. We are looking at enrollment for the fall. I am pleased to say unlike the institutions i am hearing, enrollment is up by 2 right now for the false investor. So, we are in a position to manage whatever deficit we are going to encounter as a result of this pandemic without, at this point, laying off any faculty or staff at the university. The University Get any cares act in money and how did you use it . Yes, we got about 19 million, primarily because we have a large percentage of our students pel eligible and lowincome. Half of that money went directly to the students. We tried to get those funds out as quickly as possible. The other remaining part of the cares act we used to help us strengthen our instructional and Educational Programs dealing with the technology. For example, we actually purchased, using cares money and the university funds, a 7 million new technology that allows faculty to be taped electronically, to have that tape archive, and that any student at any time can have access. For example, if a student gets ill during the fall and they cannot come to class, they will have the opportunity to access those educational support, instructional programs and keep up with what is going on in the classroom. If they have to take care of a sick family member, etc. We also provided some support in the technology airy for our faculty and our staff. So, i think we made good use of the tax payers dollars, and we focus on making sure we maintain the quality of the programs and our offerings at the university. Lets chat with a few colors out of greensboro, maryland. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I listen to the radio. I never get to see you guys on tv. Two points real quick, and it is not directly with the college, but it is about schools. I think two things should happen i kind of want his opinion as far as kindergarten through 12th grade, and even colleges, but two things is if we want the kids to go back to school, we need to double the pay whatever a teacher is making for kindergarten through 12, we need to double their salary. The second point is kids do not need to go to school for as long as they do. The day needs to be cut in half. That is all i have to say. Thank you, god bless. , . Gabriel, are you with us . Yes. To answer your question, yes, but we spend so much money on worse, on killing people over the years i feel like there is so much tax money being spent we need to pay teachers double, and schools will open because teachers are so important. They teach our kids. They are so, so important. That is all i have to say. May i make a comment . He is absolutely right. My father was a high school principal. My wife, of 40 years we just celebrated our 40th anniversary on the 12th of this month, she spent 39, 40 years as a teacher, and regardless of whether or not we are dealing with the pandemic or other kinds of crisis, gabriel is absolutely right. It is for our society what we pay our teachers is really shameful, frankly, and we talk about how important education is, we hear i am the education governor, president , mayor, and then you look at where the resources are going, and it certainly is not matching up. I would say not just the pandemic issue, i think teachers need to be paid much more than they are, and i would give credit to our governor, bill lee and the budget this year, even though he had to cut the budget, there is a significant allocation to increase teachers pay. The governors, the last eight or 10 years in tennessee, have really focused on that, but we still need to do more. Have you been able to give pay increases to the professors there at middle Tennessee State, or have there been any calls for pay cuts amidst the financial situation we are in now . First, we are not planning at this point to do any reduction in salaries or pay cuts. We were scheduled before the pandemic to give a raise to our employees, and obviously, as a result of the Economic Situation of the states, we are state public supported institutions through appropriations from the state. Economically, the state is not in a position so at this point we set aside the 2. 5 , 3 we were scheduled to give. William from greensboro, north carolina. You are next. How are you . Im doing well. I just had more questions for the gentlemen. Where did he go to school . And since its such a interracial school did they receive any money from historical black Colleges Fund and how is he treated in washington, d. C. When he went up for the meeting that he had attended . Thank you, sir. Thank you. Great question. First my undergraduate degree is from hbcu, one of the top engineering schools in the country. I got my masters from the university of miami and my doctorate at Oklahoma State university. Our university is a historically white institution. There is a very good hbcu in this area, Tennessee State university. About 20 of our students are either African Americans or individuals of color so its a historically comprehensive Research University thats over 110 years old. In washington i have a very productive set of discussions with experts on the roundtable that was sponsored by the Vice President and the president when we came away with the few points that i have been talking to my Leadership Team about with regards to how we can better be prepared for the fall semester as we open up. Those points . Well, the first point was that we developed what i call some criteria and indicators that will tell us when we need to visit or transition from oncampus depending on the nature and the activity of the virus. I have always felt that as far as decisions regarding the university and this virus, the virus makes the decision for us. We are in contact with Public Health officials. We have done tabletop exercise. We have provided a number of rooms offline in case we need those. We have made contact with a local hospital. These are the informations as discussions that we were able to fine tune. Parents. Good morning. Good morning. Go ahead you are on with president mcphee. I just wanted to talk about slavery for a moment. He was one of the worst things that we ever had in the United States and the back black folks in america would not be here living in the greatest country in the world if it had not been for slavery so slavery, as bad as it was, john we are talking about College Reopenings but mcphee if you want to talk about this issue of social justice and African Americans dying at the hands of police in this country and what the George Floyds death meant to your campus, can you talk a little bit about what that experience was like back in june . Yes, in fact it is an area that obviously has been a concern for our university for a number of years. Are we doing enough . Absolutely not. Can we and should we do more . Absolutely yes. In fact, i am really pleased that you brought this up, john, because i actually have a virtual zoom meeting scheduled for monday where i have invited faculty, staff, community members, to begin a conversation with regards to this issue of social justice and equality, and how our university can be more actively engaged in young with the issue not just on campus, but in the community. It is my goal in my vision that the monday the mondays in session will be a listening session. There are no speeches on my part. I will listen to hear peoples feelings, experiences and suggestions, and from that we will then put together a reasonable, doable set of initiatives that hopefully begin to address, obviously there are years and centuries of this problem being part of our society, and i am under no illusion that we can deal with this in any short period of time or within a year or two. We are going to try to develop some measured approach to address the issue on our campus or in our community. Katrina is next out of heights ville, maryland. Good morning. Good morning. I have been listening to the show this morning and i am an earlychildhood educator, and we have not closed. All the Staff Members wear a mask, but the students dont mostly due to their age. I am kind of wondering why is it that students are having such a difficult time trying to figure out how to reopen when our center has been open this entire time, and if everybody is just following the rules of wearing a mask and everything, why is it so difficult for kids to go back to school . Yes, katrina, depending on the region and the activity level, the surge of the virus, there are certain challenges that schools in those areas might have. It makes it very difficult. For us, like you, we never really shut down the university. As i said, we had about 500 students on our campus during the peak in march and april, and we were able to take care of those students. I do think that making sure that you communicate to the community and the faculty and staff, the expectations for example, we are requiring students to wear a mask, but if they dont, they will have to resort to the online version of our programs, or they will have to find another institution. We will be very strict. We also have programs in place working with the historically black africanamerican sorority, akas, in putting together an Educational Program that will give students information on how to put together. We are going to try to get that word out that you have to take care of yourself, wash your hands, and if you dont do that, then of course what is going to happen is the university will have to resort and pivot to the online. Most of our students want to be on campus, and the message we are giving them, if you want to be on campus, what the university to continue to stay open, you need to do these things, wash her hands, do all these things that the cdc and local and Public Health officials are asking you to do. We have great evidence from our states in the world when you do those things, you get the virus under control. I wonder if the numbers of the july survey fits with what you are seeing on campus there at middle Tennessee State. 76 of respondents say they would attend inperson classes if available. 79 said they would not attend parties. 95 say they currently wear masks when they cannot socially distance. Those excellent results and consistent with what we are getting from our students and our parents. I am really pleased to hear that 90 said they would not be attending any mass gatherings. 79 . 79 said they would not be attending parties if it were to happen. I hoping it is 96 . We will be pushing for 100 at our university, but that 76 is very high. That is one of the concerns we have on our campus. Make sure we understand the risk in large gatherings at large parties, fraternity parties, organizational parties, we will get the message out clearly to them that it will not be in the best interest and will not help the university. Good morning. I am in savannah now. Go ahead. Good morning, mister president. My fear is, as a graduate student, i am looking at this and i am wondering there was a 20year break between my undergraduate and my pursuit of this particular academic journey. We are not learning the right we are not learning the right lessons from this and this has pulled back the curtain at those ugly scabs that have been there for a long time. Online is not the same. Now it is good enough. I do not hear anybody addressing that. I could build a hydraulic slab in my garage if i wanted to, but then again i have been charged for lab fees forever. How do you reconcile this . I understand there is a safety thing here, but there is a bigger issue. If you could speak to that, i would really appreciate it. Thank you for that question. I will tell you as part of the demographics of our university, we have a very large percentage of our students that are adult students that have responsibilities with thei