Fall 2020 was the first full term affected by COVID-19 in the U.S. Vaccines were not yet available and guidance for educational institutions was scattershot. That inconsistent communication made researchers curious about what factors influenced a college’s pandemic planning.
“This project started, admittedly, in a moment of frustration,” said Sarah Walsh, associate professor at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Health Sciences. “We were all crumbling at the start of the pandemic.”
Walsh co-authored the journal article and is a research affiliate of the College Crisis Initiative at Davidson College, a higher education research center focused on crisis management.