LHU Grapples with the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic

LOCK HAVEN – The COVID-19 impact on Lock Haven University is immense, according to a “President’s Message” posted on Wednesday by LHU President Robert Pignatello.

The school earlier this semester went to “virtual” delivery of classes, students not returning to campus. As a result the school has issued prorated refunds to students for more than $2.2 million in housing, meal plan and facilities fees.

The president’s message also said 41 staff members have had their schedules reduced, including 12 placed on leave. Also an extensive East Campus upgrade, including some $2 million dollars in previously committed state assistance, has been put on hold.

Pignatello said LHU has received $3.7 million in federal stimulus money. This is a one-time infusion of money, he said, and noted that half of that amount is required to go directly to students in the form of financial aid and hardship; the other is institutional to help absorb the school’s loss of revenue due to the pandemic.

The complete update from President Pignatello:

President’s Message
As we continue to move together through this unprecedented time of social distancing and temporary isolation, I am so amazed and proud of the strength and resiliency our university community has shown to preserve this semester for our students. Despite the enormity of the challenges we face, the University’s executive team is collaborating with internal and external partners to keep us safe and mitigate the negative impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having and will continue to have across multiple areas of the University.
Financial Impact

Throughout this crisis we have worked to minimize the impact to our students. As a result, students who were unable to return to campus due to COVID19 were issued prorated refunds. Student Accounts issued $2,249,240 in housing, meal plan, and facilities fees refunds, which will impact Lock Haven University’s Auxiliary fund. In addition, students received a prorated refund for their Student Activity fee. The total of this refund to date is $352,208 and impacts our affiliate, Student Auxiliary Services.

To minimize the impact of these refunds, and certain future revenue losses it will be necessary to reduce spending through the remainder of the fiscal year. Cost savings will accrue from a spending freeze for activities unrelated to essential services, as well as general cost savings from a reduced level of operations. This will come from the reduction of payments for dining services, the elimination of travel and conferences, a reduction in utilities, limited overtime, and eliminating the hiring of temporary summer facilities employees explained in greater detail below.

Campus Activities
We currently have 22 students who remain on campus and as you know all students are completing their courses by remote instruction. The vast majority of our faculty and staff are teleworking while a skeleton crew remains on campus to provide essential services. Currently, the facilities staff is performing extensive cleaning of campus buildings, following the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health’s directive on building cleaning and CDC guidelines on building cleaning and disinfecting. This deep cleaning is being done in the vacated residence halls first and will extend to the academic and administrative buildings in the next few weeks.

Cleaning of labs will be coordinated with appropriate personnel to protect equipment and sensitive contents. Faculty and staff will be notified when buildings housing their offices are to be cleaned.

Personnel
On Friday, April 3, 2020, Governor Wolf announced that he was extending the Paid Office Closing Leave (i.e. administrative leave) until April 10, 2020, for staff unable to telework. The Governor chose this option as an alternative to furloughs so each affected employee could keep their health care benefits and have the flexibility to choose from a range of leave options that was best for them. Nevertheless, this led us to some very difficult decisions that many other employers across the   nation have also had to make.

Starting April 11, employees performing essential services or able to telework continued to do so. The remaining employees had the option to use their own leave or unpaid leave, while maintaining their health benefits. Each Vice President reviewed employee data in their respective divisions and identified staff member for which a full-time (37.5 hours per week) workload was not available due to the impact of COVID-19 on University operations. A total of forty-one (41) staff were identified to have a reduced schedule and twelve (12) of those employees are utilizing leave on a full-time basis at the present time.

Hiring
In addition to the measures taken as a result of Governor Wolf’s order, the University has taken several steps pertaining to hiring. Each summer the University supplements the permanent facilities workforce by employing approximately 30 temporary custodial, grounds and trades staff to complete facilities projects during the summer months that cannot be completed during the academic year.

Projects planned for Summer 2020 include: campus office relocations, dorm repair maintenance and general painting, expanded ID card reader installation, general grounds projects, and exterior cleaning of buildings. Those projects will now be reviewed and completed by existing personnel. The estimated savings for electing not to hire summer facilities staff is $350,000.

In addition, all staff vacancies have been reviewed with each Vice President to determine if the position is critical and must be filled, delayed for a time period, or eliminated. This review resulted in reduction of approximately $700,000 in budgeted staff personnel costs for FY 2021. Due to the financial challenges and uncertainties in enrollments for 20-21, we have pulled back on some faculty searches in order to provide both short-term savings and flexibility to adapt next year. In some cases, a search was closed because of failure of the search and in others we determined instruction could still be delivered through part time temps, or other approaches. We recently cancelled six searches for this year, but it is important to note that these positions may be filled during the next cycle pending programmatic needs, growth potential, and budgetary realities during these uncertain times.

Capital Projects
The East Campus renovation project has been placed on hold following consultation with the executive staff and the LHU Foundation finance committee. We will be discussing with the state how to best to suspend the project while preserving our ability to undertake it at a much later time. You’ll recall that the original plan called for the LHU Foundation to borrow $2 million in funds in order to secure another $2 million in match funding. Considering the circumstances we find ourselves in, raising money for scholarships and student financial need should be our top priority rather than trying to raise money to pay off a loan for renovations.

Community
Finally, in times of crisis it is important that we join forces with our local community partners. The University is working together with the county and the city through a newly formed task force—the Community Emergency Coalition—to plan for multiple possible scenarios concerning the pandemic’s
impact to our community.

The University, in partnership with PEMA and other local agencies, has identified buildings on campus which could be used should the need arise. In the weeks and months ahead, it will take all of us working together to overcome our present challenges and plan for an uncertain future. This means making contingency plans for numerous scenarios through different operational modes for the fall semester depending on our ability to operate.

We continue to work hard to recruit the fall class and retain current students. Federal stimulus fund for Lock Haven ($3.7 million) is a one-time infusion of funds that will help but is not a long-term solution to the more fundamental financial challenges we have that like many institutions in and out of PASSHE have been severely exacerbated due to the pandemic.

Half of these funds are required to be directly distributed to students in the form of financial aid and hardship. The other half is institutional aid that will help absorb the loss of revenues for this year. I think it would be prudent to allocate funds also to support technology needs, instructional support and faculty development for remote learning. On Thursday the University Leadership Council will meet to discuss the impact of COVID-19 to our community as well as the University’s Sustainability Plan, which is due to PASSHE in June.

I again want to applaud all of you for your hard work in ensuring our students’ success during this difficult time. Our students are and will remain our first priority as we continue to make decisions to sustain and protect us and our institution.

Let me know what you think at president@lockhaven.edu.