What’s ahead for Mizzou and the class of 2020? COVID-19 will hasten dramatic changes
Draped in full regalia, I walked last week onto a relatively empty Francis Quad on the University of Missouri campus in Columbia to film a congratulatory message for the class of 2020.
In a regular year, the quad’s sidewalks would be filled with scurrying students headed into finals. Even standing amid the columns — symbols of enduring strength — the scene was a stark reminder of our reality.
This week, we will celebrate more than 10,500 graduates across our four universities with virtual celebrations, and later we will do so in person. That’s a promise. I am very proud of our graduates, who demonstrate that the mission of education will prevail, no matter the challenge. They suffered great disappointment, yet completed their degrees with courage, resilience and commitment to their futures and ours.
Through this ordeal with COVID-19, we know we can depend on Missouri’s can-do spirit, unending creativity and deep compassion. As part of our state’s response, our research universities are finding solutions to the pandemic — for Missourians and the whole world.
Our faculty, staff, students, alumni and supporters all mobilized quickly. Early on, we focused on easing the statewide coronavirus testing shortage. Our medical teams, both human and veterinary, quickly cleared regulatory hurdles to set up daily drive-thru testing.
After learning hospitals could face a shortage of protective masks, several efforts across our four universities created locally-made backup supplies.
The same week we lost our first Missourian to COVID-19, many of our researchers — co-led by our Nobel Prize laureate and new National Academy of Sciences-elect George P. Smith — formed new collaborations to dig into the vexing problems posed by this virus.
Since then, the National Institutes of Health have contacted our swine geneticist teams for help developing treatments and devices that work on humans. A second team has shown the potential of four antiviral drugs. Global companies are running clinical trials with our doctors to fast-track Food and Drug Administration approval on medicines and quicker tests. And we just received FDA approval to make our own hand sanitizer.
In addition, MU Health Care has increased video medical visits from hundreds to nearly a 1,000 a day, a shift showing how we can help expand health care access across our state.
While we are encouraged by this progress, we still have recurring moments of uncertainties about the future, as do many of our graduates. I ask myself, will we survive the new normal? How can we adapt to the new reality?
While I don’t have the answers to these questions, I know achieving excellence in student success, research breakthroughs and engagement with our state will remain the hallmarks of our university. These unwavering principles will guide our decisions as we rebuild for that new normal.
As we create a university that will meet these challenges, everything is up for discussion: How do we streamline what we offer? Run more efficiently? Forge opportunities for our people and enhance our impact on society? What do we not do so we can continue to invest in our mission?
In many ways, this situation accelerates restructuring plans that were already in the works to cut costs and grow revenues. Our task is not only to make strategic choices, but also to use this opportunity to adapt to the new world before us.
I expect one day, we’ll look back to this time as an important pivot for our institutions and our state. And we will stand proud of how we moved with clear purpose and agility.
While memories tend to fade, we will never forget the class of 2020. As these graduates set out on their promising new lives, our universities must do the same.
Mun Choi is president of the University of Missouri System and interim chancellor of the University of Missouri.
This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "What’s ahead for Mizzou and the class of 2020? COVID-19 will hasten dramatic changes."