Message from President Bloom - August 24, 2020

NJIT Administration and Staff,

The below communication was sent this morning to NJIT's faculty in advance of a Faculty Senate meeting scheduled for tomorrow. Please take time to review, as the message pertains to all of us working at NJIT.

Members of the NJIT Faculty,

On Tuesday, August 25, the Faculty Senate will be presented with several motions related to NJIT’s pandemic response. It is important that those voting on these motions understand the scope of what has been done to date and the challenges that lie ahead, so I ask that you consider the following.

Since first presented with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, NJIT has worked diligently, collaboratively and inclusively to make decisions and enact policies that enable the university to deliver upon its mission and, to the best of its ability, safeguard the health and wellness of all its community members. A COVID-19 Task Force led our initial response, and the Pandemic Recovery Steering Committee assumed that role once planning for some resumption of operations became appropriate. More than 80 individuals, including 14 faculty and lecturers, have served on those bodies, and the Pandemic Advisory Committee included broad representation from throughout the campus community, including shared governance and collective bargaining participation. We have taken care to ensure that the right expertise also is present on these recovery committees and subcommittees. Senior administrators have worked alongside the Faculty Senate’s leadership, individual faculty and staff members, union representatives, healthcare experts, students, and others on committees, subcommittees, and through consultation in order to draw upon diverse and informed perspectives and make difficult decisions in the best interests of our university community. In addition, Faculty Senate briefings and multiple virtual open forums were held to provide opportunities to collect input and feedback during the last six months. This collaborative approach to planning will continue as we move forward.

Throughout this process, we have communicated extensively and transparently. We have created a pandemic recovery website that is linked to prominently from the NJIT home page, and we have sent, to date, nearly 50 communications about our pandemic response and recovery efforts to the campus community in order to keep students, faculty, and staff well informed. The pandemic site contains our complete Pandemic Recovery Plan (PRP), which is more than 600 pages, as well as FAQs pertaining to protocols for operations, testing, and other important subjects; and it features a dashboard that tracks positive cases on campus and will be updated weekly. It should be noted that there were three cases on campus in early spring, none since, and that we have completed more than 1,200 employee tests since August 10 as part of our initial surveillance testing program and have received no positive results. In addition, a group of 43 early-returning students just completed a quarantine period on campus without any positive test results. The pandemic recovery site also includes a description of variables that will cause us to consider operational changes, and other useful information. If those variables give us reason to, NJIT will not hesitate to change its course.

This inclusive and open approach has served NJIT well, as we have been able to reach a point where we can proceed with a carefully planned return to campus that implements a converged-learning strategy. In getting here, we all have endured significant challenges and made sacrifices, but our university has, thus far, avoided the extreme measures--mass layoffs and declarations of financial emergencies or exigency--that have been enacted at many other universities.

As a result of COVID 19, NJIT had a $16 million FY20 budget gap, much of which resulted from the State of New Jersey canceling $5.971 million in fourth quarter operating funds for NJIT and our decision to refund to students $5.324 million for spring housing, meal, and parking fees. We were able to close that budget gap because of the strong financial condition of the university, significant operating budget reductions, the sacrifice of the university community, a targeted hiring freeze (10 new faculty were hired, but an additional 10 were not), freezing of all salary increases, and significant compensation givebacks by the senior staff.

As we opened the budget for the first six months of FY21, the impact of COVID created another $36+ million budget gap. That gap has been closed through enrollments, auxiliary income, campus-wide givebacks (furloughs, vacation days, reduced salary) from non-aligned personnel and all but one of the bargaining units that is facing four layoffs, receipt of some federal and state funds, further reductions in operating budgets and CRR funds, and nearly $4 million of fund reserves. The six-month budget is built on assumptions that include fall enrollment of 10,566 (a reduction of 493 from fall 2019) and auxiliary income of $9.668 million from residence halls, meal plan commissions, and parking. However, if we cannot meet our budget projections, NJIT may be forced, as others already have done, to take the harsh steps I mentioned earlier in this message-- layoffs and declarations of financial emergencies or exigency--either this semester or certainly for spring 2021.

Governor Murphy’s issuance of Executive Order 175, which states, “Effective immediately, degree-granting institutions of higher education may resume all in-person instruction not previously permitted…,” will enable us to provide in-person learning with reduced density, open labs and the library, house students, and provide limited indoor dining. This will enable NJIT to pursue its educational mission in the best possible manner and to meet its budget projections for the first half of FY21. 

We know from available research that in-person learning is an important component of a STEM curriculum, and our students have made their strong desire for such opportunities clear. More than 1,300 have registered for campus housing, and more than 7,000 students have registered for at least one or more in-person converged course. Despite knowing these benefits and the preferences of students, we would not be moving forward with in-person learning without putting in place extensive safety protocols; trainings that were developed by the Offices of the Dean of Students, Environmental Health and Safety, Digital Learning, and Human Resources; space modifications; and other measures, some of which were outlined in a message delivered to the campus community last week. We also have encouraged those who may be particularly vulnerable to request reasonable accommodations.

It is probably accurate to state that no plan could satisfy all the members of a community as diverse as the one we are privileged to be part of at NJIT. Each of us has our own concerns, ideas, perspectives, and information, and all of those have value. That is why we have relied upon a broadly inclusive planning process and determined early on that NJIT’s pandemic response and planning efforts always would be guided by the dual priorities of delivering upon our mission and, to the best of our ability, safeguarding the welfare of our community members.

Thank you all for taking the time to consider these points, for what you already have given back, and thank you to the many of you who have devoted your time and effort to helping us develop and execute NJIT’s Pandemic Recovery Plan.

Sincerely,

NJIT President Joel S. Bloom.