Per usual, I’m thinking about higher education.

I’m going to say some things that will make some people mad, and others question my sanity. But I’m usually a pretty level-headed thinker so I’m forging ahead and saying some things that need to be said.

Thread time.

I fear that if campuses aren’t planning to offer their high-quality education experience fully online for an entire academic year, they may be signing their own death warrant.

Maybe they could cut on-campus headcount by 1/2 to 2/3 to establish distance. Focus on programs that require in-person instruction. Hybrid models. Something.

Oktoberfest is cancelled. Do we really think there’s going to be anything resembling a normal fall semester?

If you believe in the value higher education provides to society, you have to keep going. When we get past this pandemic (and during it) people will still need post-secondary education. But we can’t be naive enough to think our institutions can bully a pandemic into submission.

The world has changed. It’s not “going to,” it already has. We’re just in the anger or denial stage of grief.

Those of us who lead organizations or institutions need to implement mission-aligned, positive change or the changing world will leave us behind.

With our mission, values, and purpose at our core, we can reimagine our work within the boundaries pandemic constraints have set for us. Our movement may be constrained, but our minds aren’t. Our networks aren’t. Our knowledge isn’t. We can do this.

As Robert Frost said, the best way out is through. Plan and execute a strategy that gets you through the pandemic, rather than one that just hopes we avoid the worst-case scenario. Because I think no matter what happens we’ll see the worst scenario any of us have experienced.

It’s not just next year we need to think about. Consider how a student could get their entire degree under these conditions.

Your virtual tour is not your top priority if the physical campus may not be core to the experience for the next few years. Yes, years.

The world record time for vaccine development to deployment is 4 years (mumps is the ‘50s). Anti-virals or innovations may speed it up, but it’s years.

Your pandemic plan should go till 2025.

Not a five-year lockdown, but perhaps 5 years of dancing with this virus.

After we get through this, the economy will rebound. Maybe even before, if solid leadership and ingenuity provides pathways for millions of employees to find a new way of working.

“Unprecedented” means never before known or experienced. If these are truly unprecedented times, the old way of working isn’t the answer. Lead from your core.

Be bold. Be brave. Be prudent. Be whatever you need to be to ensure your organization exists in 2025.