{"id":5,"date":"2020-05-15T09:05:42","date_gmt":"2020-05-15T13:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/administrators.internationalstudentinsurance.com\/blog\/?p=5"},"modified":"2020-05-25T11:14:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T15:14:19","slug":"risk-management-during-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/administrators.internationalstudentinsurance.com\/blog\/2020\/05\/15\/risk-management-during-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Risk Management During COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Risk Management: \u201ca properly implemented holistic risk management strategy enables an organization to maintain tolerable uncertainty, drive profitability and growth, ensure legal and regulatory compliance, pursue social responsibility and reduce the cost of risk and the deterrent effect of hazard risk.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As written in the Chronicle Review recently, if one were to invent a crisis uniquely and diabolically designed to undermine the foundations of traditional colleges and universities, it might look very much like the current global pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Amid the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. colleges and universities are confronting unprecedented change. Many have transitioned to an almost-universal distance learning model, shifted to remote work for most employees and cancelled collegiate athletics events. Other significant developments include transition to pass\/fail grading, waivers of standardized testing and systematic closures of residence halls. And many seniors and their families find themselves disappointed at the postponement or cancellation of commencement ceremonies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent URMIA article entitled \u201cCOVID-19 Conversations: Returning to Work and Reopening Campuses\u201d stated how the global impact of COVID-19 has presented higher education with sudden and complex challenges. But this new frontier also presents opportunities for them to engage in innovative ways to provide quality education and research. The coronavirus crisis has – in what seems like an instant – upended much of modern life, and higher education has not been spared. Uncertainty and fear cloud the future. In the short term, students scramble to figure out their fall plans, the faculty faces hiring freezes, and administrators debate once-unimaginable options. The pandemic might also permanently change the character of higher learning in America’s culture, its role in society and in the economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all of these pressing and important issues in mind, we reached out to higher education Risk Managers with a straightforward question: \u201cWhat are some of the most critical issues you are dealing with today regarding COVID-19?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the many responses, here are three that capture the challenges:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/i>I can think of no worse planning environment than one in which you don\u2019t have (and can\u2019t have) a reasonable understanding of the underlying risk. In just the few months that we\u2019ve been responding to COVID-19, the nature of the risk and the guidance as to how to respond to it has continued to evolve in an environment where we don\u2019t yet have conclusive science. We were all initially told that casual contact posed little risk and now we are all wearing masks when we go to the grocery store and everywhere else. The result is that it is difficult to help clients plan when accurate advice currently has a shelf life of barely a week. These complications with ascertaining risks and developing mitigation strategies are compounded exponentially when considering international operations. Every country has a different approach and it has added whole new challenges such as assessing access to health care in locations that heretofore were not an issue at all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/i>Right now, we have these issues that we are attempting to deal with across many facets of the university:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n