I spoke with President Tim Cloyd on Sept. 10 to follow up on interviews with the Committee and to hear about his role in the pandemic response. Sarah Nenninger, Interim Director of Marketing and Communications for Drury joined us.

While it did not make it into the official interview, President Cloyd elaborated on the story behind the art and objects in his office. The massive John Lennon portrait is the first thing that catches one’s attention as they walk in. It was painted live by an artist in Arizona and auctioned off the same day, along with other Beatles paintings. For whatever reason, the Lennon portrait sold at the lowest price – and sold to him.

The president’s role

President Cloyd oversaw the university’s response on a grander scale, meeting with other university presidents across the nation to exchange information and strategies. He remained involved with the details, too, including quarantine procedures for students who came in contact with an individual who tested positive.

As of the 10^th, Drury had 70 positive cases, including those who self-reported over the summer.

“One of the things that creates a misconception – we have 70 cases. That includes those self-reported over the summer, and they may have contracted it in St. Louis,” Cloyd explained. “But what causes a misconception is when you have someone who tests positive, then you have to do contact tracing. Several people who were in contact with that person have to quarantine.”

“I want to make sure that students and the community understand that our reporting is accurate. We’re very fastidious in our reporting of actual cases,” he said.

In his meetings with other presidents in the New American Colleges and Universities association, Cloyd mentioned new testing methods coming to light, including wastewater testing to more accurately trace where and how the virus spreads on campuses.

“I work with other presidents of other universities. I work with the healthcare department. I work with the governor and Zora Mulligan, a Drury graduate who is now the commissioner of higher education. I work closely with the conceptual strategy for testing on campus, working with the lab, getting [the partnership] set up with the lab in Arkansas that’s working with us right now.”

Drury is currently partnered with Natural State Lab in Little Rock, Arkansas. They process the throat swab tests that Drury students are randomly selected for each week.

“We were having to do the nose swab, which is very uncomfortable. You go all the way up into the brain,” Cloyd said, prompting a laugh from Nenninger and myself.

The nose and throat swab operate with the same analytics through PCR testing, which checks for the RNA of the virus itself.

“They’ve been a good partner,” Cloyd said on the lab. “They will continue to be our partner, unless one of the things we’re evaluating with Washington University and a company in KC, they’re right on the cutting edge on having a saliva test that can also pick up this RNA. If we get that saliva test perfected, then we’ll look at moving to something like that, which is more of a rapid test.”

Saliva tests still have a wide margin of error, resulting in false positives and false negatives.

“50-50 is not good enough, so we’re doing the PCR test, which is 98 percent accurate or better,” the president said.

“Look to the bright horizon”

There is no doubt that this is a stressful time to be in college. Students feel a loss of control, heightened anxiety and face an uncertain future and job market. Although similar health crises like H1N1 in 2009, MERS in 2012 and the 2014 Ebola outbreak generated fear in the past, it is not comparable to the scale of COVID-19.

Cloyd acknowledged this strain, noting the social outrage and issues happening at the same time.

“This pandemic – combined of course with the economic crisis, and it’s also combined with social unrest and conflict over issues that have been simmering under the surface for a long time, with racism and other things, and then it became violent. So, everyone’s dealing with, ‘how do we respond to that?’” he said.

“We have to know that this is a temporary problem. We may have to live with it for six more months, a year, whenever a vaccine comes out and gets distributed, but we can’t forget to look to the bright horizon,” the president stated.

Included on the horizon is the future of Drury. The Enterprise Center, the new home for business and political science students was announced in Nov. 2019. The pandemic has delayed its groundbreaking, but its funding is locked in. Cloyd explained that the $26 million to build it is largely from donors and restricted to a single purpose; it cannot be distributed to other projects.

New graduate programs and expansion into the health sciences are also on the board for Drury.

“What I’m trying to do is convey to the community is that there is a beyond. We implement those things now, not just run in place,” Cloyd said.

A message to the students

When asked about advice for Drury students in this time, President Cloyd said “I’ve thought about this a lot in terms of my own personal life. We have to resist this scapegoating, and don’t make the assumption that a person has negative intentions. Self-forgiveness, being easy on yourself, and recognizing that there is this sense of loss of control. But ask yourself, how much really have you lost control? People should not think that this is a permanent condition. I think a year from now, it’s going to be a whole lot better.”

President Cloyd cited Admiral William McRaven’s “Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World” as a source to look to. Originally a commencement speech for University of Texas graduates, McRaven’s speech and advice is shared widely across social media.

“In combat, there’s this sense of fear. Doing little things, like doing a gratitude list every day, you will be surprised what that does to your attitude. Doing a schedule – I’m working till 6, and I’ve got two free hours blocked out. If you can control right here and take the next best step, that can really reduce anxiety,” he said. “It may sound trite, but I’ve found it really works.”

Tensions are running high with the presidential election only months away. Beyond personal health and safety, maintaining a sense of community is something the president emphasized.

“Talk to [those who disagree] with grace and recognize your common humanity. The students at Drury are bright. There’s a kindness and earnestness among our students – the Midwestern values,” Cloyd said.

Over the summer, Drury issued statements concerning the killing of George Floyd and the attempted federal demand that international students could not stay in the U.S. on their visa if their university did not return to in-person classes.

On the decision to issue these statements, Cloyd said, “I’ve been a college president for a long time, since 2001. I’ve seen through the years that institutional statements are important at particular points. The really important thing in an academic institution is to create a space where we can have conversation. We can learn from each other, listen to each other, and talk through what our community standard should be.”

President Cloyd shared he received requests to paint “Black Lives Matter” down Drury Lane. Others came to him about immigration. Others, on patriotic measures. He remained clear that institutions should not move too fast or too dramatically when issuing statements.

He elaborated on Drury’s decision to speak up on George Floyd and the pattern of racist killings throughout recent American history.

“This is unacceptable, this apparently unjustified killings, which we’ve seen a bunch of them,” the president said.  “But you have to create the academic space where we can have this discussion. We have to look at the data. It can’t be created by the institution or the president issuing a statement for how things should be.”

“In a society, liberty, free speech and open discourse are there at great risk. They’re things that we have to preserve,” Cloyd said.

Transparency

As reports come out of other universities hiding or suppressing their coronavirus numbers, Drury seeks to maintain as much transparency in their cases as possible.

“There’s so many examples on how not to do something,” Cloyd said. “If you avoid them, or you’re not transparent, or you try to repress them, then they’re going to blow up.”

“If you do have any questions on what or how or when we report specific numbers, like Dr. Cloyd said my team manages that on the communication side, so I’m happy to answer any questions you have,” said Nessinger.

As of Sept. 24, Drury reported a cumulative 109 cases, including a current 9 active cases on campus.

Article by Maclen Johnson