Q&A | A year in review with Chapman President Daniele Struppa

Chapman President Daniele Struppa reflected on his experience leading the university out of the COVID-19 pandemic in a May 10 interview with The Panther. SAM ANDRUS, Photo Editor

Chapman President Daniele Struppa set his suit jacket gently on the back of his chair, taking a seat in front of his computer and composing himself for one final Zoom interview with The Panther May 10. After a whirlwind of a year for higher academia that led to adaptive online learning and a complete overhaul of social norms, Struppa reflected on the institution’s cumulative challenges and accomplishments throughout the pandemic.

As the figurehead of the university, Struppa took responsibility for some of the university’s biggest transitions over the academic year, from the closure of campus March 12 to the recent April 30 vaccination mandate for the fall semester. Here, he discusses the weight of these decisions and their intersection into his personal life.

Struppa’s answers have been lightly edited for clarity and stylistic standards. 

Q: What was your first reaction to hearing the news about COVID-19 last March, and did you anticipate that adapting Chapman’s education would become as intensive of an effort as it became?

A: I started to get worried about the pandemic in January (of 2020). I went to talk to Chief Operating Officer Harold Hewitt and said, “I want us to start planning for an emergency situation. I want us to start doing what we can to stop spending if the pandemic forces our students to go remote.” In February, Hewitt, Provost Glenn Pfeiffer and I started looking into all kinds of contingency plans. Then, in March, I felt very confident because we had already identified all the areas where we needed to save money in order to keep the institution successful. 

The day that I closed the university, I also remember thinking, “Wow, I hope (the coronavirus pandemic) doesn’t go away in two weeks, because then I’m going to look like a complete idiot.” I didn’t think it would last this long; I thought it would be fine by the fall. Then, I thought it would be fine by January. Now, I think it will be fine by next fall, but I’m not going to take any bets. Of course, the big game-changer has been the arrival of the vaccine, which makes it a totally different story. 

One of the things I’m most proud of is that we didn’t have to fire anybody. Every person you fire, you have a family on your conscience. They have a mortgage to pay or a rent to pay or children to feed, and I feel good that we’ve been able to provide that.

Q: What are some of the places that financial cuts were made within the institution in order to avoid laying off university employees?

A: I asked my staff to put together for me a huge menu of options. Laying off (faculty members) was one of the options on the table, and we had what we called three “waves” (to do so). The other elements of this menu were significant cuts in salaries, cuts in benefits and (the decision to) not refill any position that may open up because of retirement or a change in jobs. (Another option) was a huge contraction of what we call “no compensation” — so stipends, travel expenses, membership in societies, acquisition of new equipment or anything that we spend that is not related to the compensation of people. I had between 140 and 150 million dollars worth of that and I got together with Faculty Senate, the deans and my senior staff to have a discussion about what would be the payout of this year. 

The first series of cuts were mostly just on operations; that allowed us to reach the end of the year in good shape with in turn about 50 million dollars for our students’ room and board expenses. In the second phase during the fall, we added some more cuts, including one that people were most upset about, which is that we stopped our retirement contributions. It was on hold for about six months, but we started back up at the beginning of March 2021. 

Q: In the early phases of the pandemic, what was it like navigating your own fears of contracting the virus and maintaining your family’s personal safety while worrying about the well-being of an entire institution?

A: I don’t want people to think that I’m irrational or reckless, but I’ll be honest in saying that I never really had any personal fear about the virus. I think it’s because my lifestyle has always been a little more risk-prone. I’ve been on 26,000 foot high mountains. I’ve seen people die. I’ve jumped off of planes. So, to be perfectly honest I was never really worried. I have two teenage kids, and at some point, I had to let them live their life. And actually, at one point, my daughter even gave me coronavirus in December. 

I was more concerned about the health of the institution and making sure that we didn’t have outbreaks here. It’s a little bit like a parent who is more worried about the family than himself. It reminds me of my mom; she would have protected me tremendously, and then herself, not so much. This is the same idea. My responsibility is to make sure the campus is safe, so we spent a lot of money on disinfecting everything and millions (of dollars) on air filtering systems. 

Q: Has it been difficult to try and find a balance between student dissatisfaction with online learning and finding a compromise that allows for in-person learning with property safety enforcements?

A: It’s been actually quite difficult. I had a mom writing to me (May 9), and she wrote to me very politely. But the majority are violent messages; people are angry. Before we closed Chapman (in March 2020), there was a petition with maybe 1,500 signatures, many of which were saying that I had blood on my hands and was going to let students die. There was this exaggerated sense of danger. 

Then, as soon as we closed, I was (confronted with other) people saying they want tuition money back. Whatever you do, the anger that is thrown at you I think is a reflection of the anger of a society that is in a very difficult position right now. Our society seems to be in a heightened emotional state and very easily triggered by everything. 

Q: Beside your decisions involving student, faculty and staff safety during the COVID-19 outbreak, how are your actions perceived from both sides of the political spectrum?

A: People know my wife (Lisa Sparks) ran for public office as a Republican, so they make all kinds of assumptions. I am a conservative, so that’s not a mystery, but they’re making assumptions about what we must (believe). You know that whenever you make a decision, you’ll be attacked, and that’s OK. But you’ll also be pegged and stereotyped.

The other thing that makes it difficult is that everything becomes politicized. It’s very interesting. Many of my conservative friends are angry at me because they think that I’m leading the university to be more liberal. Yet, it’s many of my liberal friends that think I’m the protector of conservative interests. I always tell both (Republicans and Democrats) that this makes me feel that I’m probably doing the right thing if nobody really likes me anymore; the liberals think I’m conservative and the conservatives think I’m liberal, so that’s pretty good. My decisions are always made based on what I think is the best thing for this institution.

Q: You mentioned that the decision to pursue a COVID-19 vaccine mandate was primarily your own in our email interview May 5. Can you elaborate on how you combat the emotional and psychological toll of shouldering the responsibilities of a university that hosts 10,000 students?

A: (My responsibilities) can be unpleasant because of what we just discussed, so I think a certain quality that my job requires is the ability to disengage. When I go home, I never talk about my job — not with my wife and not with my kids. If (my family) wants to go out to dinner, then we go out. If they want to stay home, we stay home. If they want to watch a movie, we’ll watch a movie. This is my way of withstanding the pressure. 

Once I get home, I just let go and enjoy the flow, so to speak. I told my kids I suspect that most people in powerful positions are the same. I can’t imagine somebody with a big responsibility coming home and then bossing around people.

Q: For students that opt to remain unvaccinated but still come to campus, will this require campus COVID-19 safety protocol to remain in place longer, such as mask-wearing and social distancing? Do you think this will negatively influence students that are on the fence about returning to campus unless it's fully normal?

A: Some parents and students may be a little reluctant to come back, but personally I think (the reluctance is) a mistake. We know that unless you are in a special category and immunodeficient, the risk is absolutely minimal for people in this age range — especially if you are vaccinated. It baffles me to imagine that people would say they don’t feel comfortable. I suspect that everybody who is scared will get vaccinated, with the exception of people where medical issues don’t allow them to be vaccinated. In that case, of course, we’ll find ways to help them.

I had a mom reply to me a couple days ago that her daughter has very serious health issues, and even though she is vaccinated, she does not feel comfortable coming (back to campus). I told her that we will find a way for her to keep learning. We won’t do remote classes, but maybe we’ll ask her teachers if they’re willing to tape the class. Hopefully, those will be a handful of cases that we can just handle one by one. Other than that, I’m not afraid to go to campus now and I will be vaccinated as of May 13. My hope is that people will overcome what seems to be an excessive fear.

People that always wanted to follow the science now, all of a sudden, are not really following the science, because if you’re vaccinated the likelihood of getting sick is very remote. And, if you do get sick, the likelihood of it being serious is almost nonexistent. Every day, if you think about it, we take a lot of risks. 

Q: The admissions team recently brought in one of the most diverse classes Chapman has ever seen and reported a total of over 15,000 applicants. How will you go about making the transition not only for these students, but students of the previous class who were denied an ideal first year of college and typical Chapman experience?

A: We are working with Dean (of Students) Jerry Price. I asked him to think of something we can and should do for our sophomores. If you think about it, they didn’t have high school graduation or prom, and then they didn’t get to do orientation with us or the candle-lighting ceremony. We’re going to do something, but what it is, I don’t know yet.

This is also why we’re doing two commencement ceremonies this year, one for the class of 2020 and one for the class of 2021. Each group has its own separate event. The very last weekend of July that seeps into the first day of August will be the commencement for 2020, and the first week of August we’ll have the one for 2021.

Q: In interviewing Frank Frisch, the vice president of Faculty Senate, he mentioned that he fully expects lawsuits to arise as a result of the vaccine mandate. Do you anticipate that financial loss will occur based on the legal complexities of this decision?

A: This is America, so people sue you for anything they can sue you about. The policy that we have in place is the same policy we’ve had for many other years with other vaccines. I’d be very surprised if there’d be any legal action that ends up with us on the losing side. 

Q: Are there any other areas of the institution that have incurred financial loss as a result of the pandemic? Specifically in terms of the investment in technological resources for online learning, how will this equipment still be maximized even when transitioning back to in-person learning, or will it be put to waste?

A: My hope is that faculty will continue to use the equipment. For example, now we have really cool cameras in our classrooms. I would (advise faculty to) keep using it and I’d make all my classes available to all my students. So, if you’re in my class, I would ask you to come to class. But if for some reason you can’t, then you can watch from the comfort of your room. In the past, if you had the flu and had to miss a week of work, it was a big deal because you need to talk to your friends, get their notes and you really don’t know what the teacher said. Now, you don’t have to worry. But, I wouldn’t do (online live-streaming and in-person learning) simultaneously because then I don’t think people would come to class. (Online learning) isn’t a substitute, but it’s still a fantastic complement.

For my course last semester, (I spent) two full days on campus to record the entire semester’s worth of class. Then, I still went to teach every single week to all of the classes, but on Sunday night I would release two or three videos that the students could watch before my class. That way, you could see my class on differential equations before I’d come and teach. Then, when I was teaching, I was using different examples so students wouldn’t be bored. I hope many faculty members will choose to do this, because I found it very effective.

Q: We talked a lot about the criticism you’ve been subjected to throughout the course of the pandemic from students, parents, faculty and staff. Looking back, are there any places in which you can concede that things could have been handled differently?

A: I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I don’t think I would change anything. Whatever I would change would just upset another group of people. (Some people say,) ‘We could have given a tuition discount.’ Well, no, we couldn’t have done that for millions of reasons, so I would not change that. 

Q: What are some of those reasons?

A: The fundamental reason, as I explained many times to parents, is that the cost of instruction has not diminished. In fact, it has increased. They say, ‘This is not what we wanted.’ The point is that the cost of what we’re delivering is actually more than it was before. I think the assumption was that if you’re not coming to class, the university is spending less. We are spending more because of (increased) technology and health and safety measures. 

Q: What are you most excited for moving forward out of the pandemic, now that Orange County is moving toward the yellow, “minimal” tier and Chapman announced its vaccination mandate?

A: I am most excited to no longer wear a stupid mask. I cannot stand the masks. It’s nothing to do with politics; it just makes it harder for me to breathe, and I just don’t like it. I do it though; I follow the rules. I walk on campus alone, and I’m like, ‘I have to wear a mask? Really?’ But of course, I made the rule so I have to do it.

I’m also looking forward to seeing students, because when I come to work every day for my job and it’s empty, it’s just not nice. Students, even when they can be annoying, are the sole blood of the institution. You see them walking, talking, arguing, getting a cup of coffee — it reminds us of why we are here. When I walk around and see students, it’s a constant reminder: these are the people you are serving, this is why you are here and this is why you have a job. I look forward to when I can see my colleagues too. Plus, I’m Italian, which means we like to hug.