Carol Folt Cowers to the Coronavirus

Coronavirus panic is in full effect at USC. Late Friday, the school announced classes would be temporarily moved online March 11-13.

Yet there has not been one case of coronavirus at USC. Not one. Since late January I have received 15 emails from school leadership and administration about the virus. From inaccurate reports that a USC student contracted the coronavirus, to requiring students studying abroad in Italy or South Korea to come home, it's been quite the story to follow.

From the sidelines that is. Because here at USC nothing has happened. Nothing has happened YET, say the doomsday crowd. Last year the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), estimated that roughly 35 million people contracted the flu with a burden of 16 million medical visits and 500,000 hospitalizations. Approximately 34,000 died. According to the doomsday crew, our healthcare system will be overrun by millions of hospitalizations. Quarantines will halt global supply chains and markets will collapse.

So far that doomsday view has won out in the court of public opinion, both for markets (down 10%+) and here at USC. From cancelling study abroad programs to moving classes online next week, the university is taking an abundance of caution. The administration has decided that, in the long line of bad press it's received, coronavirus won't be next.

While President Folt is protecting the school from litigation, oh wait, I mean prioritizing student's health and safety, it's students who are bearing the brunt of the consequences.

My roommate, Jackson Stephens, who is also in the masters of journalism program, came to USC to prepare for a career as an international reporter. In the fall he had the wonderful opportunity to report on the United Nations in Belgium. A trip that USC funded and provided access for, it was everything that made him choose USC over other schools.

This semester he had more trips planned. First a reporting trip with his class in March to Armenia that would be the focal point of his capstone project. Then another trip to report in Ghana over the summer.

Both, in the last two weeks, were cancelled. Armenia he could understand. Neighboring Iran, had had an outbreak, and while Armenia still had far less cases than California, he could see why the administration cancelled the trip out of an abundance of caution.

Not so for Ghana. Last week all summer international travel programs were cancelled by President Folt. Ghana has no reported cases of coronavirus and neither does any country bordering it. My roommate was furious. After meeting with the head of our program, he learned that Folt had not consulted with the faculty and staff of the journalism school beforehand. Instead, she had initiated her decision by responding directly to concerned parents.

Nice. This is what happens when leaders like Folt, who have been in the political game too long, let second and third order consequences like litigation get in the way of the first order mission of educating students. Things get silly, like cancelling an international program, months away where there is no coronavirus.

If handling an issue like the coronavirus is like walking a tightrope, where a leader like Folt must balance the universities mission to educate students with more basic concerns like health and safety, Folt isn't even on the tightrope. She's already back on steady ground, unwilling to even attempt to thread the needle.

Don't get me wrong. Folt is a smart woman. You've got to be if you're the president of an institution as large and powerful as USC. She understands that oftentimes what is perceived is more important than what's real. Just like the markets have crashed on fear and panic, so too could her standing as president. Keeping student international trips on-course would leave her responsible to bear the consequences of the USC community's fear and panic. So, she licks her finger, puts it in the air and sees which way the wind is blowing.

As for me, I'll be off to Australia Wednesday, a country with less cases of coronavirus than California. And while I'm traveling I'll think back to the words of my date Saturday night, a woman who works at a hospital here in Los Angeles.

"It's like Trump," she said. "It's not going to be as bad as people think."