Fellow academics: please help explain why all our preparations for a safe and pedagogically sound fall are *more* expensive.

Faculty and staff still need to be paid. They are all working overtime, no compensation, to *literally redesign the entire operation of US universities*. https://twitter.com/profmusgrave/status/1278883873917632512

Schools that plan on having students on campus have to buy PPE, but testing equipment, rebuild classrooms, repurpose other spaces for instruction, implement stepped up cleaning protocols for public spaces, install new AV equipment to make on campus instruction possible.

For schools planning on remote instruction in part or in total (the numbers of which will grow): need to secure computers and internet access for any student unable to make it to campus, pay for software to facilitate online instruction (enterprise Zoom is not free!),

figure out how to ensure all ADA accommodations can still be met without the resources of campus, and on and on.

Payroll still needs to be made. Typical auxiliaries like dining and housing that help subsidize operations are massively curtailed.

There might be marginal savings on overhead here and there but most buildings will still need to be heated and cooled (with airflow being a major aspect of COVID-spread mitigation). Research has to continue. Labs still need electricity.

Faculty juggling everything have a harder time making room to apply for those research grants that come with needed overhead.

Meanwhile, schools are *already* taking hits, reducing budgets, laying off staff & some faculty, ceasing retirement contributions—

& this is without tuition reductions!