SCIENCE sciencemag.org 22 MAY 2020 • VOL 368 ISSUE 6493 797EDITORIAL
T
he notion that U.S. colleges and universities will
open this fall in “normal” mode should not be in
any forecast. As Dr. Anthony Fauci (of the White
House’s coronavirus task force) testified last
week before the Senate, it’s unlikely that a vac-
cine or treatments for coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) will be available by the time students
return to campus. I sympathize with the predicament
of college and university administrators who need to
reopen in ways that are safe and supportive for all their
students while also planning for the possibility that
they won’t be able to reopen in-person classes. To help
them grapple with this, let’s suspend two things, at least
temporarily—test scores and rankings.
Although universities that support research, gradu-
ate, and postgraduate training have struggled during
the pandemic with the shuttering of labs, clinics, and
academic programs, these func-
tions seem to be on their way back
and probably can restart safely. I
worry less about the recovery of
this sector of higher education
than I do about undergraduate
students, of which there are an es-
timated 20 million in the United
States. We know that their success,
on multiple fronts, is enhanced by
completing college.
Recent statements by a few U.S.
college and university presidents
about the coming fall semester range from the bull-
ish announcement that Purdue University will open
with in-person classes to the cautious decision that
the California State University system will be all-vir-
tual. My guess is that there will be a messy, hybrid
solution involving mainly virtual instruction, for most
institutions. In-person classes will require new con-
figurations for housing and dining, smaller lectures,
and more instructors. Student health centers need to
prepare for testing, isolation, and mental health sup-
port. And those are just the most obvious needs to be
addressed, quickly. The chaotic move to virtual classes
this spring demonstrated that this approach needs to
be executed much more deliberately in the fall, which
will require resources to help faculty prepare for a new
mode of teaching.
My biggest worry is that certain students may get lost
in the planning debates and that COVID-19 health and
economic impacts may further exacerbate inequities in
higher education. The spring semester showed us that
students had to make quick arrangements to continuetheir education online—a path that was easier for some
than others. And the large number of students who al-
ready lived off campus—particularly those enrolled in
community colleges and big urban public universities—
were in the same situation as they were in the prepan-
demic era, but without adequate recognition. Shutting
down in-person classes and campuses all together com-
pounded student insecurities—from food, shelter, and
medical to financial and technological. A major concern
is whether these students will be able to continue (or
even begin) their higher education in the fall.
For institutional leaders strategizing to reopen, ad-
dressing the imbalances in college access, enrollment,
and completion of undergraduate education should
be a priority. High scores in admissions tests and high
ability to pay tuition are already given too much weight
by American academic institutions when it comes to
undergraduate admissions. This
inequitable behavior is further re-
inforced by the yearly rankings as-
signed to colleges and universities,
most notoriously by U.S. News and
World Report (since 1983), which
university donors and political
stakeholders study more than they
should. To any logical scientific
observer, the fine distinctions of
where schools show up on this list
are statistically meaningless—but
try telling that to a roomful of
alumni or parents. Countless hours of trustee meetings
are spent going over the minute details of the formula
and setting institutional goals. Achieving these goals
usually means doing things that make the college or
university less accessible, like admitting more students
with high standardized test scores.
A truly transformative move in this moment of crisis
would be to suspend testing requirements and college
rankings. This is not a time for undergraduate insti-
tutions to be using precious resources to chase these
numbers. Rather, they need to support struggling stu-
dents and other members of the academic community
so that education can resume this fall in a manner
that is fair to all. Some schools are already making test
scores optional for the time being, and hopefully that
requirement will never return. Ranking colleges and
universities changed higher education, mostly for the
worse. Now is the time for institutions to suspend those
rankings and, when the crisis is over, bring them back
in a more progressive form.
–H. Holden ThorpSuspend tests and rankings
H. Holden Thorp
Editor-in-Chief,
Science journals.
[email protected];
@hholdenthorp10.1126/science.abcPHOTO: CAMERON DAVIDSON
“...COVID-19...may
further exacerbate
inequities in
higher education.”
Published by AAAS