BY JOHANN NEEM

In a recent New York Times column, NYU business school professor Hans Taparia proclaimed (as many have before) that “the future of college is online.”  Whenever I hear these words, I think of a student of mine, a dual major in history and anthropology, who testified before my institution’s Board of Trustees about her experience with online education.  She transferred, as many students do, from community college, which she had completed online.  When I asked her about her experience in a conversation in my office, she admitted that she had no idea how much she was missing until she came to Western Washington University.

That is what we are up against, those of us who believe deeply in the campus model of face-to-face education, and who seek to protect it in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.  But, despite Prof. Taparia, it seems that most Americans don’t need convincing.  Colleges and universities are panicked that students won’t return if they move online in fall.  At the end of the day, most administrators know that what makes college worth it is the face to face experience.  This is true even of Purdue’s president Mitch Daniels.  After acquiring the for-profit Kaplan University to expand Purdue’s online presence, in the face of the pandemic, Daniels admits, “our students (and, one suspects, their trapped-at-home parents) overwhelmingly are eager to continue their educations, in person and on campus.”

So who stands to benefit from the move to online education?  Primarily Wall Street and Silicon Valley.  A lot of money is at stake.  Investors have dumped money into for-profit universities.  Even as most college presidents are admitting that they need their campuses, a recent Brookings study reminded us that for-profits are spending tons of money trying to convince unsuspecting Americans otherwise.  But it’s not just the for-profits.  Investors have poured money into companies seeking to deliver curricula, course management systems, and technology to colleges and universities, and k12 districts too.  If only they could overcome the resistance of pesky teachers and professors.

In the midst of this conversation, Facebook, responsible corporate citizen that it is, has proclaimed that remote work is here to stay.  Many critics have jumped on Facebook’s proclamation, noting that Facebook stands to gain from breaking down the wall between work and home in order to capitalize on every awake minute of its employees’ time.  True enough.  But it won’t work.  Remote work, like remote learning, does not pay off.

That is the secret Wall Street and Silicon Valley both know.  Do as I do, not as I say, ought to be their motto.  Many Silicon Valley parents (in)famously send their children to schools that limit screen time, even as their lobbyists proclaim the virtues of online charter schools and one-on-one technology.  The benefits of online schooling, apparently, are for other people’s children.

The cat was let out of the bag this week in an NPR interview with Stacey Cunningham, the New York Stock Exchange president.  After closing in response to COVID-19, the NYSE has reopened.  Like other responsible businesses, the NYSE has embraced social distancing.  Brokers will be asked to wear masks.  People entering the Exchange will be screened.  Only a quarter of the traders can enter, and plexiglass will protect them.  In her NPR interview, Cunningham argued that it was very important to bring traders back in, carefully and with “safety precautions.”

Cunningham made several interesting points.  First, she noted, the NYSE allowed back the smaller firms who depend on the NYSE because, in her words, they’re “most impacted by the pandemic.”  But trading has been continuing online, NPR’s Ailsa Chang noted.  “Why do people need to be on the floor, physically in person,” Chang asked.  “The value of the New York Stock Exchange market model,” Cunningham responded, “is that we incorporate human judgment on top of the most sophisticated technology.”  “Data shows,” Cunningham continued, “that since the floor has been closed, we’re not delivering exactly the same level of quality.”  When asked whether it was possible to try to return to the in-person model, Cunningham replied, “the value that the human interaction provides to investors is measurable…it’s millions of dollars a day.”  That’s why they “fully intend” to return to the face-to-face model when the pandemic passes.  The NYSE needs to reopen, just like restaurants offering “takeout and delivery,” Cunningham added, “but not opening their dining rooms.”

If we substitute colleges for the stock floor, professors and students for traders, and learning and research for dollars, we realize how important the NYSE considers f2f human interaction.  And if we substitute first-generation students for smaller firms, we also can see who is most dependent on the campus model of caring professors and student support professionals, and who will be most hurt by the shift to online education.

Nothing Cunningham said would be surprising to Wall Street or Silicon Valley executives.  Google’s former CFO Patrick Pichette admitted, “There is something magical about spending the time together, about noodling on ideas, about asking at the computer, ‘What do you think of this?’”  That seems a lot like what happens on campus.  That’s why Google discourages telecommuting.  Maybe that’s why Yahoo, Bank of America, Aetna, and IBM all pulled back on telecommuting.  In any creative industry, people need to come together to share ideas.  That’s when the unexpected and the inspirational happen.

So fear not, fellow professors and administrators.  The pandemic has demonstrated the value of the campus experience.  It’s not a secret.  Wall Street and Silicon Valley both know that bringing people together in a shared community, where they can learn from each other, and where there are common experiences, is superior to the online world.  The issue is not whether f2f is better.  That is a well understood principle.  In the SF Bay Area, firms emulate traditional colleges because they recognize colleges as centers for innovation and creativity.  As Chris W. Gallagher writes in his book College Made Whole, it is ironic that companies like Google and Apple advocate online education when they “have built extensive campuses.”

The question is whether we will follow what Wall Street and Silicon Valley want for us, or will we learn from what they have found to be best for themselves.

Johann N. Neem is author of What’s the Point of College? Seeking Purpose in an Age of Reform.  He is professor of history at Western Washington University.