EDITORS NOTE: 4/22/20 – President Blake sent an email April 21 to students, faculty and staff announcing all summer courses will be fully online. VP of Student Affairs Hart sent an email April 22 to all students about a confirmed case of COVID-19.
EDITORS NOTE: 4/28/20 – UHCL released a Hawk Talk April 27 and President Blake answered student-submitted questions. There is no mention of the confirmed case of COVID-19 within UHCL community. All Hawk Talks remain unlisted on YouTube.
EDITORS NOTE: 4/29/20 – The Health Alert page on UHCL’s website has been updated to include the latest Hawk Talks.
One of the key values at the core of journalism is transparency.
This alone is something truth seekers desire at the forefront of their day-to-day lives. Transparency, most would argue, is one of the top needs during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
For millions across the nation, there lies an uncertainty in determining whom to believe and what to trust. Likewise, this sentiment is held by those within communities of higher education, including the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL).
During this time of chaos and confusion, institutions require a certain amount of leeway regarding their responses. Nevertheless, educational institutions also need to provide further clarity. This rings true with UHCL’s current rollout of information regarding COVID-19.
Website provides tucked away answers
Most recently, the university posted on its website an update regarding confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the UHCL community. As of April 10, the university was aware of five self-reported cases.
However, unless one went to the UHCL Health Alert webpage and then found the General FAQs section, one would not know this significant piece of information. As of April 20, there have been no email announcements, no social media postings and no video messages addressing the self-reported cases within the UHCL community.
Furthermore, on the UHCL Health Alert page, there is a “Latest Updates” section, which does not include additional information about the confirmed cases.
UHCL has a student body of nearly 9,000 and over 800 faculty and staff, so it is expected that members of the university community will almost undoubtedly be impacted by COVID-19. However, doing the bare minimum amount of communicating with the UHCL community speaks to a lack of transparency and could be viewed as a disregard for overall public safety.
For an institution that prides itself on ensuring it is #UHCLStrong, the university gives a sense they lack concern for student and employee fears.
Messages sent to the masses
Starting in early March, UHCL regularly provided its community of students, faculty and staff with updates. This included not only social media posts but also emails sent to all UHCL domain addresses.
In total, these emails reached thousands, while social media posts are typically limited to only those with accounts on these platforms. There is also the chance social media messages will not be seen at all because of how algorithms work on these platforms.
President Ira K. Blake sent out her first COVID-19 related message via email March 5 to all students, faculty and staff. In this address, Blake provided information regarding the monitoring of COVID-19 and the implementation of the UHCL Health Alert webpage – a central location on the university website for all COVID-19- information.
In a March 11 mass email to students, faculty and staff, Blake announced the transition of all face-to-face courses to online or an alternative format starting March 23. Additionally, all campus events through the end of April are canceled and campus operations would function under mostly normal conditions.
Blake sent out her first video message to the masses March 16 regarding the transition of courses from in-person to online. The second and final emailed video message was sent out March 20, in which Blake announced the postponement of commencement ceremonies.
‘Hawk Talks’ for some, not all
Since March 20, Blake has not sent out a video message via email even though she has filmed six as of April 20. The March 16, March 20, March 28, April 3, April 11 and April 18 videos have all been posted on UHCL’s social media accounts.
Additionally, all of these “Hawk Talks,” as Blake refers to them, are currently posted on YouTube as unlisted. This setting, which is not the default for any video being uploaded to YouTube, means these videos can only be viewed by one who has a direct link to the video, whether it is provided in an email or social media posting.
By making the videos unlisted on UHCL’s YouTube channel, there is a significant drop in the availability of pertinent information. This is because if one – whether as a student, employee or concerned community member – were to visit the YouTube channel, the latest video for public view would be a “Hawks at Home” video posted April 20 featuring various administrators, faculty and staff.
Prior to this, the latest video for public view was a Feb. 24 Black History Month spotlight. This is unacceptable, as the updates provided in Blake’s “Hawk Talks” are not easily accessible.
Of the six videos, all but the ones published March 16 and April 3 have the comment section turned off. It is understandable UHCL would turn the comment feature off if bombarded with obscene messages. However, of the two public comments left on the March 16 video, the messages were positive. This raises concerns of a public university censoring its constituencies from expressing their concerns.
At a time when many are in need of information, these methods of doing some work and sharing just enough speaks to the lack of transparency from UHCL. Even in looking at video views, as of April 20, the ones sent out via email have received 1,976 and 1,926 views. The four latest videos, which were only shared via social media, have between 213 and 496 views.
Solutions should serve all, not some
Although we are in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic – this should not prevent the fair amount of accessible transparency needed at this moment in history. There is still time for UHCL to take the necessary steps to keep its community informed.
The university needs to make all video messages public to ensure even those outside of the student and employee constituencies have equal access to released information and updates. Furthermore, there needs to be regular mass communication to the UHCL community, beyond social media.
In this time of unprecedented chaos, UHCL must go beyond the bare minimum when communicating with members of the university community. By implementing these solutions, UHCL can change the current narrative of silence to one of leadership and reliability.