Coronavirus News Roundup for April 1

Finally. A new month.

Welcome to April, all of which will likely consist of shuffling around our respective homes and trying to live vicariously through our old Instagram posts (if we're lucky).

The month is already starting off a weird note. Lindsay Lohan is apparently resurfacing with new music.

For your palate cleanser, here is a dog petting other dogs. Very relatable.

Let's get to the news.

U.S. senators are asking Betsy DeVos, education secretary, to delay issuing a final rule for Title IX in light of, well, everything.

Colleges might not be able to use coronavirus relief funds to reimburse their contracts with online program management companies to help them transition to online instruction during the pandemic.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is letting spring Division I athletes compete for another season in light of the coronavirus. Teams can provide scholarships for more athletes than is usually allowed.

Illinois is forecasting for its budget, with the caveat that we are in unprecedented times and who knows what will happen. The forecast predicts the state will lose more revenue than it did during the Great Recession. This is troublesome for higher ed, which in many places is still recovering from the last recession's budget cuts.

Professors at the University of California, Riverside, have shared tutorials for how to use Zoom to run a class. Meanwhile, New York's attorney general is requesting policy information from the web-conferencing service, citing security concerns.

Here’s a quick roundup of our latest stories, in case you’ve fallen a bit behind (we don’t blame you):

Students and faculty are helping each other get through this tough time, Greta Anderson reports.

Lilah Burke wrote about how the move to online is going at the University of Washington.

I wrote a story focused on student parents, who are getting hit with a double whammy by the pandemic.

News From Elsewhere

The graduates of 2020 are entering a rough job market, The Conversation reports.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on how parenting professors are juggling their duties right now.

A college student living on campus during the pandemic wrote up a first-person account for Slate.

Percolating Thoughts

This is a time when everyone has an opinion. As journalists, we try not to have opinions, but we've gathered some interesting ones from others.

A couple of marketers have some ideas for how to hold commencements virtually.

Here are five lessons from the past to help higher education deal with the current financial crisis, courtesy of Vanderbilt University's chancellor emeritus.

Several higher ed experts predict more permanent closures from the coronavirus in a MarketWatch op-ed.

Have any percolating thoughts or notice any from others? Feel free to send them our way or comment below.

We’ll continue bringing you the news you need in this crazy time. Keep sending us your questions and story ideas. We’ll get through this together.