“What, then, are the goals we should set? With the fall of 2021 as the target for a return to normal life, I propose the following:

No. 1: There will be as many tenure-track faculty members as there were before the pandemic. Institutions might have hiring freezes, but given that tenure protects academic freedom, the goal should be to ensure that tenure-track faculty positions are not cut.

No. 2: Numbers of tenure-track faculty members of color will have increased. If college or universities hire new faculty members, they should focus on identifying and hiring qualified faculty of color insofar as they remain underrepresented on our campuses.

No. 3: Any merit raises will have been reserved for early-career faculty members, and reductions to retirement accounts will be targeted for senior faculty with 20 years or more of service. Salary freezes and reductions to retirement have a much greater impact on younger faculty, and their careers should not be derailed or made untenable.

No. 4: Student debt for people of families making less than $150,000 will have decreased. Institutions should not have raised tuition. The state, and in particular the federal government, must increase grants to students who require assistance. Further debt in this economic climate is untenable for the poor and middle class.

No. 5: Any reductions in personnel will have been two to one of administrators to faculty members. Administrative costs have ballooned over the past 20 years, and the administration — not the academic side of the house — should bear the brunt of rightsizing.

No. 6: Reductions in salary will have been parceled out according to employees’ current compensation. Some sort of scenario like this should occur: the top 5 percent of salary earners will take a 20 percent reduction, the next 20 percent will take a 15 percent reduction, the next 40 percent will take a 10 percent reduction, and the rest will have no reduction. Wage differentials have significantly increased, and the pandemic should not exacerbate them.

No. 7: Any sweetheart deals between the president and board that provides delayed compensation upon retirement will have resulted in a recall of the board and the firing of the president. Far too often, boards act as if their nonprofit CEOs should receive compensation akin to that of for-profit ones. Such gifts and perks are anathema in academe, especially at a time of fiscal crisis.

No. 8: Academic benefits that have been raided to reduce the deficit will have been restored. In a crisis, colleges may have good reasons to curtail travel, eliminate sabbaticals and even defer payment to retirement plans. What is not viable is to turn a “one-time” deferment into a permanent policy without considerable justification and broad discussion.

No. 9: Students will have been able to take credit-bearing classes in the final term of senior year of high school and throughout the summer. We should use the coming academic year as an opportunity to expand what we achieved online with college students this past spring to high school seniors, enabling them to speed up their time to degree.

No. 10: Students will be able to attain a three-year bachelor’s degree. We will have reopened the campus in 2021 and built on what we have learned to provide a better, streamlined learning experience.”