COVID-19 Crisis Management at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): A Contemporary Approach to Governance and Leadership

Abstract

COVID-19 has forever changed the trajectory of higher education institutions and the delivery of their services, particularly at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This unprecedented pandemic necessitated HBCUs to undergo rapid, significant alterations to their academic, instructional, and technological infrastructures in order to remain operational and to continually provide students with academic support services and a conducive environment for higher learning. Therefore, how HBCUs approach the strategic transformation of their campus operations with limited resources in order to remain competitive is vital to their organizational continuity. Considering these challenges, this study examined the role of crisis management as well as investigated the efficacy of decision-making processes of the governing boards and leadership at four (4) HBCUs.

Impact of COVID‐19 on sense of belonging: Experiences of engineering students, faculty, and staff at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

“…That is, HBCU staff and faculty provided positive responses regarding their perceptions of the support they received during the pandemic, particularly how their institutions handled and managed the abrupt transition to online learning. This aligned with the findings of Johnson and Thompson (2021, p. 43), who suggest that “… HBCU leadership and governance have made effective decisions in the areas of Crisis Preparedness, Crisis Prevention.” In our study, 95% of our HBCU staff respondents indicated that they were prepared to work remotely should the pandemic continue through the Fall 2020 semester and 75% indicated that their HBCU's leadership had made them feel supported during the pandemic. Taken together, and despite the resource inequity experienced by HBCUs at a national level (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2019), HBCU stakeholders reported positive perceptions of how their respective institutions provided support in response to a global crisis.…”

“…This group included administrators and engineering faculty at HBCUs and executive team members from one of the nation's largest nonprofits focused on increasing the number of Black engineers in the country. Johnson and Thompson (2020) note that a critical component to HBCU governance and leadership during these current times of global crisis is the consideration and involvement of all stakeholders (including faculty) in the decision-making process. As a result, a central topic discussed among our KPs consisted of the importance of faculty and their level of comfort with returning to campus and other challenges, such as mentorship during virtual instruction.…”

The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2023 Official Conference Proceedings

“…To code the data, the researchers used a Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS), ATLAS.ti, which has the functionality to search, code as well as relate data from text, audio, video, and images (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). ATLAS.ti also has the capacity to amalgamate data into cases, create memos, and assign codes in order the conduct a thematic analysis (Johnson & Thompson, 2021). The coding categories for this study were established based on the cluster activities from Jaques' (2007) Issue and Relational Crisis Management model for post-crisis management: 1) Postcrisis management to include: operational recovery, finances, and business momentum; 2) post-crisis issue impacts, and 3) Evaluation and Modification.…”

“…The governing structure for these institutions is divided into three categories: 1) statewide; 2) local; and 3) shared. The purpose of this study is to conduct a post-COVID-19 assessment of four (4) HBCUs that were previously studied (Johnson & Thompson, 2021) and determine if leaders were successful at implementing any crisis management strategies. The researchers sought to understand if the lack of crisis management at public state-funded HBCUs impacted the decision-making processes of the governing boards and administrative leadership at HBCUs in the post-pandemic period.…”

“…Adopting the situated learning theory (SLT), the development pathways of CCS for these participants were drawn out. 9) institutions within a statewide system and makes it one of the most unique systems in the country (Johnson & Thompson, 2021). Southern University and A & M College is the only HBCU system in the country and is considered a statewide governing structure, responsible for governing four separate institutions within the Southern University System (Southern University System, 2023).…”