VIDEO: Plain talk about UND’s plans

UND’s ‘two presidents’ – Interim President Wynne and Incoming President Armacost – share the latest about UND’s response to COVID-19

Editor’s note: On Friday, April 17, UND Interim President Joshua Wynne and Incoming President Andy Armacost posted a video with high-level information about the University’s response to the coronavirus. The video can be seen above, and a transcript is below.

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Joshua Wynne: Good afternoon, UND community. I’m Interim President Joshua Wynne, and I am in North Dakota. And joining me is Incoming President Andy Armacost. Andy?

Andy Armacost: Good morning, Josh. Good morning, everyone. It’s great to be here. Colorado is under the same type of situation as the state of North Dakota. We’re wrestling with a lot of the same COVID-related issues that everyone is, and we’re trying to pay attention to the national scene. And Josh, I hope you and Susan are doing well in your state there, isolating and keeping it safe.

JW: We are. We hope that you and Kathy are doing well as well.

AA: Yes, thank you.

JW: Folks, this COVID situation has really changed life for us. Here you have the interim president and the incoming president of the University of North Dakota, meeting with you through video. So I’m in North Dakota. Andy is in Colorado, and that really is the new reality. And in that new reality, first of all, both Andy and I want to thank the entire UND community – for your adaptability, your hard work and your perseverance in the face of this very major challenge.

The University has remained open thanks to your activities. But we’ve changed how we are operating. We have gone to a mainly online education, and that has been challenging in any number of areas. For instance, in my main area of the health sciences, it has been difficult to educate our students because they’ve not been allowed in the clinic. There’s been a similar problem in flight operations and in many other areas. But we have been very pleased with the remarkable transition that you have made possible to keeping the university open, continuing to do our educational research and service missions, but with a different mode of operation. And this different mode of operation is centered on the physical distancing that is critical to prevent the rapid rise of cases that would overwhelm our healthcare system.

And you have been very successful in doing it, although it’s obviously been a challenge.

I want to thank you, and I know Andy joins me in thanking you for your efforts. When we get back to a more normal operation, it is not going to be the old normal; there will still be changes in the future. We’ll talk about that in future discussions with you.

But for now, Andy and I wanted to talk to you about some of the other impacts of the COVID-19 situation on your University of North Dakota.

First of all, the importance of separating physical distancing from social distancing is important. While it is true that many of us are working remotely, it’s very important that we stay connected, even though it’s through the internet, or cell phones or whatever.

Second, COVID has obviously changed the way we do a lot of things. And inherent in that is that there have been additional financial stresses on the University that we really need to address. For example, in this part of the year alone, this last quarter of fiscal year 2020, it is estimated that UND revenues are going to be down something like $13 million. Now we’re a big operation, and we can adapt to that sort of hit. But we need to adapt; we can’t ignore it.

When we look at these budgetary issues, there are two important principles that need to guide us. Number One is that we have to make sure that we run a fiscally viable operation. And that means we have to look at revenue shortfalls and what we’re going to do about that, but Number Two, the most important resource we have at the University of North Dakota is you, the people who make University of North Dakota great.

While we address the budget issues, we not only need to, but also will do everything possible to make sure that the faculty, staff and students of the University of North Dakota are our Number One priority looking forward.

So, there are a number of things that we need to do in the short term. One, as you know, is that we have a hiring chill, as we’ve called it; that doesn’t mean a hiring freeze. So for mission-critical slots that we need to fill, we will fill them. On the other hand, if there is an open position where we can make do for the foreseeable future, without that position being filled, we’re not going to fill that.

But we need to do more than that to make up for some of the revenue shortfalls. And one of the things that we need to do is what we’re calling a reduction in effort. That is the following: that because the switch to online has reduced the workload of some employees, we need to look at employees whose work has been reduced to see how we can both protect them, but also address the fiscal realities of the University. We are rolling out a process where employees whose workload has been substantially reduced, we’ll be able to have their hours reduced, in many cases to zero, but they will continue to be employees of the University of North Dakota, and they will continue to get important fringe benefits such as health care insurance.

By reducing their hours to zero, the employees will be eligible not only for North Dakota unemployment benefits, but also the federal benefits through the CARES act. In this way, many employees will have their actual income remain intact, even though their hours have been reduced to zero.

Now this program will run through the end of July. It is one of the short-term efforts that we’re doing to both address the budget reality, and also to stand by our employees. Looking forward into the next fiscal year, the new academic year that begins in the summer, I’ll turn it over now to Andy, for some thoughts about what we’re going to be doing in the somewhat longer term.

AA: Great. Thanks, Josh. Along with the uncertainty of the present, we have uncertainty in the future. We don’t know what the impact of COVID will be on life on campus. We’re hoping deeply to ensure that we’re back on campus, in some form with students and faculty and staff members, but we’re working through a number of planning scenarios to determine to what level that can happen safely for the members of our community.

In so doing, we know that as the consumers of our education – namely our students and their families – are making decisions about their future on our campus or other campuses, there could certainly be a hit to the revenue that we take in as a consequence of tuition.

In other words, if enrollments dip, it will leave a gap in terms of expected revenues. And so we have a number of planning teams working to go through all these scenarios to understand how we can respond as a community – how we can further reduce costs if necessary – when we see a reduction in revenues due to tuition.

So this is a very careful and deliberate process that’s involving all corners of the campus.

I’ve been fortunate to be onboard for this entire semester, as what I’ll call a part-time employee of the University. Beginning in January, my role was mostly just getting to know the members of the campus. On March 11, when President Trump gave a big speech nationally, that changed things. The NBA shut down its operations, the NCAA curbed its operations, campuses started sending students home, and we were among those folks.

At that point, my role changed. My role is now to support Josh in the leadership of the institution whenever we face campus-wide issues that will extend beyond just the near term. Josh and I have spent hours talking about the impacts of our decisions on the future of the campus and making sure that we and our entire leadership team are in sync and making good decisions on behalf of you.

So know that my role has changed. You’re going to get a smooth transition from Josh Wynne to Andy Armacost as a consequence of my involvement in the very senior-level decisions that have been happening on campus. Rest assured from what I’ve seen of the great leadership team that we have, what they care about is is you, making sure that your livelihoods are taken care of.

And when we have to make tough decisions, we do so openly, and we share and communicate with you about the rationale for the decisions, and how those decisions might impact you and the rest of the campus.

So as we move forward – I know we’re getting short on time – I wanted to let you know that on this upcoming Tuesday (April 21) at noon, we will hold a Zoom Town Hall meeting where both President Wynne and myself, as well as all of our senior leaders on the campus, will join you to explain more about the situation, how the campus is responding, and furthermore, to entertain the questions that you have.

So we’re eager to see you on Zoom on Tuesday, and the link for that will go out today by email. Josh, back to you.

JW: Thanks very much, Andy. Andy and I have also talked about doing another update on video even after the Tuesday Town Hall meeting. So you can expect to see that in a few weeks’ time.

I’ll close for both of us in thanking you again for all that you do for the University of North Dakota. I want to remind you that the physical distancing that we are practicing is the main reason why North Dakota, at least so far, has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic better than some other places. I would urge you to continue to follow the guidelines that we send out to ensure not only your health, but the health of your colleagues, your friends, and your family.

So at this point, I think we will sign off. I want to remind you to stay safe, stay connected with each other and stay home. Thanks very much, everybody. We look forward to talking with you again. Bye, Andy.