Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. So delighted to have with me.
Speaker 1: Dr Wayne Frederick, the President of Howard University, joining me
Speaker 1: on the phone from Washington, d C. Dr Frederick, President Frederick,
Speaker 1: Really nice to talk with you. How are you. I'm
Speaker 1: doing well, Thank you, Thanks for having me. I hope
Speaker 1: you're staying safe and healthy as well. We're doing the
Speaker 1: best week can all of us are? Right? Um, So
Speaker 1: tell me about what's going on on your campus when
Speaker 1: it comes to reopening. We've talked so much about it.
Speaker 1: I know that there are meetings and zoom calls and
Speaker 1: all sorts of contingency plans. How are you thinking about
Speaker 1: the fall right now? So we are thinking that we
Speaker 1: will be identify our campus by and by that I
Speaker 1: mean we have ten thousand students. We don't anticipate having
Speaker 1: that many, certainly not more than four thousand students. We
Speaker 1: have students in UH schools and colleges UH that that
Speaker 1: need the faith to faith interactions such as medicine, dentistry,
Speaker 1: um et cetera. So so we we have to bring
Speaker 1: students back for that. The students with clinical practical comes
Speaker 1: that will be there with We are looking at dorm
Speaker 1: assignments as well to see if we can go down
Speaker 1: to single rooms as well. We're going to have a
Speaker 1: hybrid um some online. We also are going to have
Speaker 1: UM the Faith to Faith classes live streamed as well,
Speaker 1: so students can participate. We want to be also cognizance
Speaker 1: of the fact that we have students from about seventy
Speaker 1: one countries and forty six states, so at the time,
Speaker 1: zones challenge and we have to make sure that we
Speaker 1: can make accommodations there, so you know, a lot lots
Speaker 1: of precautions, UM, lots of ppe and and making sure
Speaker 1: that we have the right barriers and social distancing in
Speaker 1: the classroom. And you know, Dr Frederick, it's interesting, I
Speaker 1: feel like we all, especially in the media, talk a
Speaker 1: lot about students. And maybe it's because you know, I
Speaker 1: have almost college age, a teenager, so we talk a
Speaker 1: lot about it from the students perspective. Talk to me
Speaker 1: about your faculty and the conversations you're having with them
Speaker 1: individually and as a group, and their concerns about coming back. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: academic deans have been engaging them, UM, the faculty have
Speaker 1: been fantastic. You know, they have really going about the
Speaker 1: business of standing up the online instruction uh and and
Speaker 1: that has been really fantastic to watch. The other thing
Speaker 1: that they have been UM doing that I think is
Speaker 1: very very helpful is being thoughtful about the classes that
Speaker 1: don't naturally fit UM, you know four online with instance,
Speaker 1: like a physics lab. We because African Americans five times
Speaker 1: more likely to drown. As an example, we have a
Speaker 1: requirement to take a swimming class and how would actually
Speaker 1: to graduate, So trying to think creatively of how we
Speaker 1: do that. At the same time, we have a significant
Speaker 1: number of faculty who's sixty five and over and faculty
Speaker 1: who have cool mobilities we hire. We employed more African
Speaker 1: American faculty than any other single institution higher institution America,
Speaker 1: and so that also poses a challenge because we recognize
Speaker 1: that we have an employee base that there's more at
Speaker 1: risk for contracting this UM virus and also having a
Speaker 1: bad outcome. So we are being very thoughtful UM about
Speaker 1: managing that, and they were making sure that we understand
Speaker 1: their concerns as well. So talk to me about testing,
Speaker 1: because I know that you're offering testing at one of
Speaker 1: your locations for your faculty. Tell me about how that extends,
Speaker 1: how it works and and the role that you're playing
Speaker 1: in the broader community. Yeah, that's a good question. You know.
Speaker 1: We we have a facility that we have stood up
Speaker 1: in conjunction with a partner out in Wards seven. So
Speaker 1: it conceived the Residents Awards seven and eight that African
Speaker 1: American UM. We also at a hospital. When we look
Speaker 1: at the patients that we've been seeing, the vast majority
Speaker 1: came from these Wards. So looking at and putting those together,
Speaker 1: we decided that we really needed to get information out
Speaker 1: there and to get UM testing UM out there as well,
Speaker 1: and so Bank of America gave us a grant of
Speaker 1: one million dollar grants. I told Hours to stand up
Speaker 1: a testing site there and it has been oversubscribed very
Speaker 1: early on. It We didn't need a doctor's note or
Speaker 1: anything like that. We have a lot of frontline workers
Speaker 1: who lived there and therefore we felt that their exposure
Speaker 1: was significant and we wanted to really uh system. So
Speaker 1: it has been really important for us to do that.
Speaker 1: At the same time, I also want to remind everyone
Speaker 1: that the elective clinical care that we were providing there
Speaker 1: was also suspend did and Therefore, that gave us an
Speaker 1: opportunity as a group to really put those healthcare workers
Speaker 1: to work, and they really wanted to see their communities.
Speaker 1: So I also want to thank our staff who, while
Speaker 1: UM we did not have regular clinical activity, really volunteered
Speaker 1: and stepped in and stepped up to do this. And
Speaker 1: I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you what is
Speaker 1: it like in Washington right now with this virus? Because
Speaker 1: I feel like we're dealing with all these hotspots around
Speaker 1: the country. What are you seeing in your community? The
Speaker 1: man in Washington d C. I think has done a
Speaker 1: fantastic job, and so what we're seeing is continued decline.
Speaker 1: I think just recently we may have had an uptick
Speaker 1: on one day of cases, which I'm hoping is that
Speaker 1: strictly due to testing. But she's been really good. She's
Speaker 1: been open about educating everyone about UM, ensuring that they're
Speaker 1: wearing mask in public, UM, et cetera. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: she's been I think she's she's run a very very
Speaker 1: thoughtful process. UM that was very engaging as well. I
Speaker 1: still done her reopening committee and that a chance to
Speaker 1: speak close up the wood that was was put into
Speaker 1: that and the thoughts from this. So all in all that,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we've been been in the d theory.
Speaker 1: DC is interesting because obviously you have Virginia, so we
Speaker 1: really looked at the d MB and the governors of
Speaker 1: Board Mayland and Virginia wild Um, totally different styles and
Speaker 1: republic one Republican, one Democrat. Uh. You know, I think
Speaker 1: again when we put aside of politics and we you know,
Speaker 1: put the health and safety food, they both have demonstrated
Speaker 1: as well, I think very goodly. And we talked a
Speaker 1: lot in our earlier part of our conversation, Dr Frederick
Speaker 1: about reopening school. I want to pivot if we can,
Speaker 1: because I want to take you back to a letter
Speaker 1: that you wrote on MAT that deals with the other
Speaker 1: major crisis that this country is facing, in one that
Speaker 1: you're facing personally as a leader, and I think most
Speaker 1: notably in this letter as a father, and you write
Speaker 1: about talking to your fifteen year old son. And this
Speaker 1: letter is incredible, and I have to say, incredibly moving,
Speaker 1: and I recommend anybody who as a child or doesn't
Speaker 1: and wants to understand more deeply this crisis that we're
Speaker 1: facing as a country to read it. It struck me
Speaker 1: very notably because I have a fifteen year old son
Speaker 1: and the conversation that I have and the conversations I
Speaker 1: have with him are very different than those that you
Speaker 1: have with your fifteen year old son. Tell me what
Speaker 1: moved you to write this? You know, as as we
Speaker 1: were thinking about this crisis, and as I myself was
Speaker 1: experiencing it um with my kids, it really struck me
Speaker 1: that sometimes we can, you know, in all partisan politics,
Speaker 1: lose sight of the humanity that's involved. And at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, you know, my uh, sixteen year old,
Speaker 1: as you can imagine, is the world to me, as
Speaker 1: is my daughter who was enforced in a couple of weeks,
Speaker 1: and what he is facing as he is about to
Speaker 1: get his driver's license, and I think of all of
Speaker 1: those things, it was just really um, it really shook
Speaker 1: me to the core. I came home and met him
Speaker 1: watching the television, and I could just see on his
Speaker 1: face that look of you know, bewilderment, of hopelessness, um
Speaker 1: about a circumstance that he could not really understand. You know,
Speaker 1: why should the color of the skin dictied helps someone
Speaker 1: interact with him more so than the content of his character,
Speaker 1: And so that you know, I I talked about the
Speaker 1: young people who come to Howard very much looked like him.
Speaker 1: You know, I thought it was important for me to
Speaker 1: really punctuated with the humanity then, even as the president
Speaker 1: of Howard and stud practicing surgical on college, just I
Speaker 1: am not immune to it, and no all my kids. Well,
Speaker 1: and you echoed something that I think a lot of
Speaker 1: Black leaders have said, including the Mayor of Atlanta at
Speaker 1: Keisha Lance Bottoms, who said something very similar that she
Speaker 1: thought about her teenage son through all of this. Are
Speaker 1: enough of these conversations happening right now? And are I
Speaker 1: guess more importantly, are these sorts of conversations being understood
Speaker 1: outside of the Black community. I think that's a great
Speaker 1: question and also a very very pregnant point. Um. I
Speaker 1: think these conversations are happening, um within you know, black families,
Speaker 1: and they have been for some time. But the problem
Speaker 1: is they can to continue to simply happen there. They
Speaker 1: must happen outside of our community because ultimately, the full
Speaker 1: understanding must be a comprehensive engagement of all our communities
Speaker 1: so that we can understand and see and and I'll
Speaker 1: tell you I've had it to experience myself. I went
Speaker 1: to MBA Anderson Cancer Center as a surgical oncology fellow.
Speaker 1: I had my attendings who were Jewish, and one day
Speaker 1: in the upgraating whom I asked one of my attendings, UM,
Speaker 1: you know what exactly, um, what exactly does quotia means?
Speaker 1: And the reason I did that is because I think
Speaker 1: a lot of times all of us assumes certain things,
Speaker 1: but we really want to make ourselves uncomfortable enough to
Speaker 1: ask that question and seem um, you know, either uneducated
Speaker 1: or ignorant about something, but the reality is we are
Speaker 1: and unless we do ask questions about how people feel
Speaker 1: know what they do. And it turned into an unbelievable experience.
Speaker 1: You know, he explained to me what it meant, showed
Speaker 1: me what a kitchen looks like. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: eye opening, you know, from my prior understanding of it.
Speaker 1: And I think more of us um need to do
Speaker 1: that first to really get a full understanding of what's
Speaker 1: happening and that have it happened, you know, on a
Speaker 1: on an episodic basis, Well, I want to end our
Speaker 1: conversation again on on a slightly happier but but important note,
Speaker 1: which is you had a big commit as they say,
Speaker 1: to your basketball program recently, and it's notable in part
Speaker 1: because of what it may signal in terms of top
Speaker 1: athletes committing to historically black colleges and universities. Tell us
Speaker 1: about the significance of that, you know, I I think
Speaker 1: it's amazing. Um, this young man. I met him when
Speaker 1: he came last October to visit, and I was immediately impressed.
Speaker 1: You know, he wants to come to Howard for the
Speaker 1: right reasons. He recognized that recognizes that we have a strong,
Speaker 1: vigorous academic environment. He recognizes that people will treat him, um,
Speaker 1: based on you know, who he is and his academic
Speaker 1: fourth he shut and he very much also is honest
Speaker 1: about the fact that he's probably a one and done athlete.
Speaker 1: But what we hope to change as well is that
Speaker 1: we're really going to encourage him to complete his degree,
Speaker 1: you know. And and so I am looking forward, um,
Speaker 1: you know, to having him engage with us. And while
Speaker 1: he may not be our traditional students and graduates in
Speaker 1: four years, we're going to definitely insist and do everything
Speaker 1: possible to make sure that he ultimately matriculate. He was
Speaker 1: going to get a world class education, and not just
Speaker 1: in the classroom, but but outside of the classroom, and
Speaker 1: about a lot of things that I think would benefit
Speaker 1: him in his future. All Right, well, good luck to him,
Speaker 1: and good luck to you. I hope you'll come back
Speaker 1: and visit with us. I really appreciate the time. Dr
Speaker 1: Wayne Frederick, President of Howard University, joining me on the
Speaker 1: phone from Washington, d C.