Jeff Long met via teleconference with members of the media to talk about the coronavirus, its impact, and what is going with Kansas Athletics.
Here is a full transcript.
Jeff Long:
I know these are incredibly awkward times in some times and you guys are all used to working mobily and all over the place. We're getting used to that here and our IT staff has done a great job in a short period of time. But with that I'll just open up for questions and happy to go wherever you want to go.
Question: What's the day to day operation looking like right now? You mentioned everything's kind of bizarrely different at this point.
Jeff Long:
Yeah. We've transitioned from the Big 12 Championship being canceled, then the NCAA championship being canceled, and then the Spring Sports being canceled too. Getting our student athletes home if they needed to be home, most of them have gone home. We have some that are still here through the university process to allow them to remain in their on campus housing.
We've gone through a process of getting them safe first because our priority is health, safety and well being of our student athletes. And now we've expanded that to coaches, staff and their families. We've focused on that primarily. But now as we're into really our second week of working from home, we've got a number of things happening. With my executive staff, I have two calls a day with video calls, one in the morning, one in the afternoon to go over what we want to accomplish that day.
And then at the end of the day to figure out what we've accomplished and what we've got to do and what has arisen through the course of the day. Having regular conference calls with our head coaches and staff and we've done a couple of those and we're anticipating doing another one, either tomorrow or Wednesday to update them. And you also got to remember that we're having continued touches with our student athletes, whether they're at home or whether they're in their rooms on campus. And that is certainly as head coaches, assistant coaches are reaching out to those student athletes. We have their academic counselors touching base with them. We have tutors going on online and happening, just as if we were here. They're just now doing them virtually. We have the athletic trainers reaching out. We have the KU LEADS program, which is part of student athlete development, engaged with them.
Jeff Long:
And then we have our mental health practitioners engaged as well. Both for those who have had experienced problems prior to this Covid-19 outbreak. And those also who may be struggling now as they find themselves not in their normal routine of practice, academics, strength and conditioning, training room, all those things. We're reaching out to them and making sure they know all of our resources are available and that's been a big challenge and we are using a number of technologies to do that. We have something called Teamworks, which is an app where we can reach through to text stuff every one of our student athletes and coaches. I would tell you what, in the second week we're starting to develop a routine. But this last, I would say 10, 12 days has been herky-jerky as we bring online the new technologies. And again, I can't compliment Brad Beaker, Sarah Sidebottom and [Robert Didier 00:04:06] on our IT staff for getting us all up and running very efficiently.
Question: Hey Jeff, just curious, has anyone tested positive that you know of? Staff, players, coaches, anything like that and what is kind of that situation like for those who are still on campus?
Jeff Long:
Yeah we have I only know of one or two, of two athletes that have been tested on our campus because they have shown the signs and whatever. And those were negative to my knowledge. So don't know. I'm not aware of any staff or any coaches who have tested positive. Nor am I aware of anyone who has some symptoms that we're monitoring. But of course if you think about basketball and the Big 12 Championship, we still haven't reached the 14 day period since that tournament yet. We're still watching that. And again, through our communication process, we have asked all of our coaches, staff and student athletes to report to us if they're starting to show symptoms. And then on this obviously if they go to be tested, if they've tested positive.
Question: Jeff, that Teamworks app, I assume that something that was in place before this, is that right?
Jeff Long:
Yes, actually we actually transitioned from a previous provider along the similar lines to the Teamworks app last fall. And again, we've been in transition with that as well. And this has helped us actually put a little more focus on it and makes sure that we're all off and running on Teamworks as well.
Question: Do they have to sign up? I mean at enrollment or how does that work to get that reach to all of your student athletes?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, It's based on an app or online, so we have them sign up and they have a log in just like you would on any of these apps and it's set up so they'll get a message, a note, or a ping, or a spot on their app that shows that there's a message for them and they can both read it on a text message format or go to an email site where they can see it like an email.
Question: Do you have an estimate of how many student athletes are still on campus? Like self mentioned last week Udoka and Silvio are still on campus.
Jeff Long:
Yeah. And it has changed a little bit. We are down to I think approximately like 74, 75 student athletes that are in on campus housing or in their off campus housing here in Lawrence.
Question: Obviously you had the disappointment of basketball getting canceled, but looking ahead a little bit, you have a lot of student athletes who were looking to be competitive for conference titles, even the Olympics. Could you just address sort of the uncertainty, the disappointment that some of your athletes and coaches are dealing with and how you guys are helping everyone get through that?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, it really is the unknown that is most troubling and you're right. I think there were some reports coming out today and I'm not sure if they're official yet, that the Olympics have been postponed to 2021. Again, I saw that there was a recommendation to that. Certainly we have track athletes that were looking forward to that and having the opportunity or possibility of qualify either for the United States or some of them from international, internationally. Yeah, I can tell you that we're making resources available to them as far as mental health and strategies to cope. Certainly we've asked all of our coaches, and again athletic trainers, all of those who have relationships with those student athletes to be on top of that touch base, let them know that they're not alone and that we're trying to advise and counsel them throughout this process. Really it's all in the form of phone calls, texts, emails, it might be a video call, Zoom chats, those kind of things.
Just trying to provide information as quickly as we get it and then try to answer their questions because in these times, the uncertain times, it's the uncertainty that is even more troubling than the ultimate, Hey, the season's over. We're certainly aware of that and we're working closely with them.
Question: And just a quick follow up, along with the mental side of it, what are you guys doing to encourage... Even though the seasons are over, are you still encouraging the student athletes to stay fit, their physical preparations for whenever things resume in the summer, in the fall. What are you guys doing along those lines?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, absolutely. We as a conference, Big 12 conference has kind of shut down coaching and those kinds of things, even virtually through the 29th of this month. We will be talking later this week about how will we move forward after that. But we're certainly staying in contact with workout pro, things that they can do on their own running, and lifting, and the band stretches, and things that they can do where they're isolated in place, they're doing. And then we'll look going forward at what we're permitted to do as a Big 12 conference. And even nationally we're waiting for NCA instructions on that in a while but again, I emphasize that they are in touch with their strength and conditioning coaches about that, and they're in touch with nutritionists as well because again, we want to guard against the inactivity and trying to make sure they stay fit, as fit as they can.
Question: Hey Jeff, how big of a challenge is this specifically for your football program and knowing that this is an important spring for you guys?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, I mean obviously Coach Miles and his staff had geared up and were just on the cusp of starting that and it is a big blow. The thing that we have in Coach Miles and his staff are great coaches who develop student athletes and as you guys know that we may be getting three stars that we develop into five stars. Not having the Spring Ball will be setting us back.
We are looking nationally about how that will be handled, whether there's a possibility of being able to come back and have some kind of a spring practice in June. Maybe it's an extension of the preseason going into August, so maybe there's additional days added on that front end. But none of that has been decided. Certainly there's some question about the September Football Season starting off and again we'll have to adjust to that. But we all know that competitively and preparing our student athletes is very important, so we'll be working to get some extension of time that our coaches can practice with student athletes prior to next season.
Question: But at what point will you have to start worrying about losing football games and what could be like some contingency plans for that scenario?
Jeff Long:
Well again, we're talking a lot about that then as you might expect and again we're somewhat waiting for more information right? Earlier today we got the announcement that our County has got to stay in place, a order. It just depends on how the virus curve goes that we've heard so much about if it flattens, and how far it flattens, and when this country will resume kind of normal operations. But we are working on multiple contingencies now and then we're working with NCAA on various aspects of this. Obviously the health and safety, the medical community will weigh in heavily on this. To answer your question, lot of contingencies, not sure they're defined yet because we not sure we have enough information to really define them.
Question: Jeff, I know that you've got a ton of experience and been through a lot of things as an AD. I think the world hasn't really seen anything like this. Is there anything you can draw on from your experience on how to handle something like this and how to just, I guess keep your head above water even?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, no, I think back of a couple of things that none of them, I don't think reach this level, but I am old enough that I remember when Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV and all the unknowns about that disease, and that infection, and all the processes the NBA went through and players concerned about playing, and players concerned about competing against Magic and on some level there was that going on. We were uncertainty about this virus, when it broke and things started canceling, we had student athletes and coaches and staff concerned because they didn't know how far reaching this virus would be and how their health could be in jeopardy. There was that piece. And then I think about 9/11. Again, it doesn't compare, but it's a national thing we're all focused on, so kind of put those two things together. But then also these are extraordinary, the video call we're having right now.
I mean I had never had one of these until a week ago. And now I'm pretty adept at getting around on it. It's going to change athletics, it's going to change the higher education systems in the United States. It's going to change so much that we can't even predict. It's important as you guys all know technology, and then it continues to change dramatically. It's going to increase. This is going to be a stimulus that increases it in every area. And we'll all have to work harder to stay on top of and in front of all of this.
Question: Where were you when the Magic Johnson thing hit? What school?
Jeff Long:
I was at the University of Michigan. I was working as a sub assistant or associate AD for football, basketball, women's basketball and ice hockey. And I can remember hearing it in Schembechler Hall for the first time. I know exactly where I was when that hit and I know exactly where I was in 9/11 as well. Those are things that are I think burned in all of our minds. We know exactly where we worked when those incidents occurred.
Question: For the student athletes that are here, how do they eat and stuff? Can you provide them food or are they just like the rest of us they have to go to the grocery store and all that?
Jeff Long:
Well, yes, those who are on campus or in the Lawrence area, we have dining halls that are still open so they can get carry out from those dining halls and they'll be able to continue to feed themselves and whatever. Their scholarships continue because obviously they have rents to pay. Obviously we take care of the educational expenses with the university, but yeah, they'll continue to get their checks, whether that's a cost of attendance checks or whatever. They'll get all of that as we continue through this academic year.
Question: All athletic directors are probably worried about the budgets. Do you foresee any layoffs or anything like all businesses have to make?
Jeff Long:
Well that's a great question Gary. What we've done like similar other companies and government, we've extended our part time employees through the remainder of this academic year. Even if they were part time and graduate assistance and events workers and things like that for events we're not having, we're going to continue to pay them through this academic year till those events were over. We will have to look into the future and we're doing some exploratory cutting. What would a 10%, what would a 20% cut in our operations look like? We just again started those. It's part of strategic planning for the future. Haven't made any decisions. And again, most of that is determined on how far and how long this crisis lasts.
Question: Is there concern with Williams Fund donations recently being sent out with the current state financially with the Coronavirus?
Well, yes there's concern, but I will tell you our fans have been great. They've stuck with us through thick and thin through the years, through other economic downturns. Are we concerned? Yes. Are we confident though? Our fans and our supporters will be there for us. We are. We are doing some things to extend the deadline. It is a time for a securing season tickets and such and so we're going to extend those deadlines to try to ease that pressure. We're also going to be more innovative with payment plans so fans can stretch out their payments throughout the season. We've done that in the past, but we'll make that more visible and allow that to happen on a larger scale, so yeah, absolutely. We're concerned about our fans, we're concerned about the economic impact of this on them and we'll be trying to do what we can to ease that for them.
Question: Have you guys heard from the NCAA if there'll be a delay in the basketball case because a hearing would be tough to bring people together. We can't travel, people can't travel. Have you heard that there could be a delay?
Jeff Long:
Gary, we've been in communication as of this point there is no delay. Were still expecting the response from the NCAA on our NOA and that's still coming. That was 60 days from when we submitted our response to the NOA. We have no information at this time that, that process has changed at all. The timeline remains the same. I think you ask a good question of could the hearing be conducted through Zoom video call? Have not heard that, but certainly it, I guess remains a possibility.
Question: For a lot of people, the Kansas Relays mean a lot. I mean they've never been delayed.
Jeff Long:
I think our track athletes, our track fans, I mean you guys know you've seen this competition for far longer than me. But again, it starts with the participants. I mean this is a great event for the young people who get to participate in it. A lot of time, effort, energy goes into training, but also preparing for the Kansas Relay. Yeah, as you would expect, we're disheartened about that and we're sorry that it's happening, but we'll continue to plan to bring it back when we can.
Question: Has this had much impact, again, I know you can do it through technology here, but how about in terms of your year end meetings and reviews and stuff of your head coaches, I mean is that all kind of on hold or do you do it this way or has that changed much?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, I've kind of put it on hold a little bit because I'd prefer to do it in person, but it appears, now it's going to be at least til after April 23rd right, with the new guidelines we've been given. But I think I'll have some level of communication into the year via Zoom video call just to make sure we don't let things linger too far. That'll happen. We haven't set those up because again, we've been so focused with the crisis at hand and getting everything organized. But yeah, that will come in the weeks ahead.
Question: Doing something to honor the basketball team on their season...
Jeff Long:
We talked with Coach Self for a minute about possibly doing something to recognize the basketball team considering that they entered the tournament, unanimous number one, anything more along those lines or some of your thoughts about what might be done to honor this basketball team?
Well this is a special team. I mean they were ranked number one to finish the regular season by AP, by coaches polls, by many other polls, so they are worthy of being recognized and you can expect that we're going to recognize them appropriately come next beginning of basketball season but coach [inaudible 00:21:09] and I aren't ready to share what that might be and we're still really working through that. What is the best way, what is the most appropriate thing? We know that our special team, we know they were poised for a great run and so they will be honored and honored appropriately.
Question: Can the public get into the facilities and can people go to work? I was just wondering, can people that work in the field house go there?
Jeff Long:
You know, great question. Gary. On March 15th we kind of got out in front of the curve in my opinion we closed our offices through March 31st and that was really a leading edge decision at that time. But I felt again health safety, well being of our student athletes was first and to keep our coaches from going to the office and possibly spreading the virus. We've kept them home. Now we have thoroughly cleaned our facilities inside and out, every office, every strength and conditioning area, we have cleaned that. We also allowed our staff last Friday to come in for a limited period of time to get work from home items to take back and then we sanitized again once they left. They are working from home and we are extended now through April 23rd to do that. And as we go forward, there may be another time when we say, okay, we're going to have a limited time to come into the facility, restrict where they come in, where they go, in and out to their office and gone, and then we'll re sanitize again.
But we're being very, very cautious and our facilities staff, let me emphasize that to you. Our facility staff has been awesome. They're the front line and they've done a great job of taking care of our facilities, sanitizing and then helping us with this process of letting our coaches and staff go in and out of the building to get materials. We are closed down and we will be closed down for the foreseeable future.
Question: Can you just put a personal touch on this? What's this been like for you? Is your family all home together? How has that worked?
Jeff Long:
No, my family, my daughters are both quarantining. No, that's not the right word. But they're in their homes, in their places on their campuses, and in Fayetteville in Columbia. My wife and I are here in our house. It's very unusual and it's stressful in a very different way. I'm a high energy person, no actually everybody, you guys are high energy. I'm used to bounding across the hall, back and forth to coach's office, to staff office, and now I'm sitting in front of this computer, or I'm on these phones and I'm texting, and I'm doing whatever, and it's different. It's a different stress level. It's a different management challenge. One that is awkward and uncomfortable because we're driven by the people around us who we get energy from, those coaches and those student athletes. I miss those student athletes outside my doorway.
They're usually in the facility or they're out there in those lounge chairs. They're studying, they're talking on the phone, or they're getting ready for a tutor appointment. They're going to KU LEADS, they're out there. And I feel that energy and pulse and it keeps me going through the tough stuff we have to go through. I miss that. I have binged. I learned what binge watching is. My wife and I have done these, what is it, not sole survivor? What's it called? Designated survivor. I've caught up on that series anyway, but yeah, it is different. It's a different level of stress. It's a different level of challenge. I feel an edginess that I don't necessarily feel when I'm in the office because again, all those people around me, that energy that flows from people, and now to be isolated in front of a screen, it's very, very different.
Here is a full transcript.
Jeff Long:
I know these are incredibly awkward times in some times and you guys are all used to working mobily and all over the place. We're getting used to that here and our IT staff has done a great job in a short period of time. But with that I'll just open up for questions and happy to go wherever you want to go.
Question: What's the day to day operation looking like right now? You mentioned everything's kind of bizarrely different at this point.
Jeff Long:
Yeah. We've transitioned from the Big 12 Championship being canceled, then the NCAA championship being canceled, and then the Spring Sports being canceled too. Getting our student athletes home if they needed to be home, most of them have gone home. We have some that are still here through the university process to allow them to remain in their on campus housing.
We've gone through a process of getting them safe first because our priority is health, safety and well being of our student athletes. And now we've expanded that to coaches, staff and their families. We've focused on that primarily. But now as we're into really our second week of working from home, we've got a number of things happening. With my executive staff, I have two calls a day with video calls, one in the morning, one in the afternoon to go over what we want to accomplish that day.
And then at the end of the day to figure out what we've accomplished and what we've got to do and what has arisen through the course of the day. Having regular conference calls with our head coaches and staff and we've done a couple of those and we're anticipating doing another one, either tomorrow or Wednesday to update them. And you also got to remember that we're having continued touches with our student athletes, whether they're at home or whether they're in their rooms on campus. And that is certainly as head coaches, assistant coaches are reaching out to those student athletes. We have their academic counselors touching base with them. We have tutors going on online and happening, just as if we were here. They're just now doing them virtually. We have the athletic trainers reaching out. We have the KU LEADS program, which is part of student athlete development, engaged with them.
Jeff Long:
And then we have our mental health practitioners engaged as well. Both for those who have had experienced problems prior to this Covid-19 outbreak. And those also who may be struggling now as they find themselves not in their normal routine of practice, academics, strength and conditioning, training room, all those things. We're reaching out to them and making sure they know all of our resources are available and that's been a big challenge and we are using a number of technologies to do that. We have something called Teamworks, which is an app where we can reach through to text stuff every one of our student athletes and coaches. I would tell you what, in the second week we're starting to develop a routine. But this last, I would say 10, 12 days has been herky-jerky as we bring online the new technologies. And again, I can't compliment Brad Beaker, Sarah Sidebottom and [Robert Didier 00:04:06] on our IT staff for getting us all up and running very efficiently.
Question: Hey Jeff, just curious, has anyone tested positive that you know of? Staff, players, coaches, anything like that and what is kind of that situation like for those who are still on campus?
Jeff Long:
Yeah we have I only know of one or two, of two athletes that have been tested on our campus because they have shown the signs and whatever. And those were negative to my knowledge. So don't know. I'm not aware of any staff or any coaches who have tested positive. Nor am I aware of anyone who has some symptoms that we're monitoring. But of course if you think about basketball and the Big 12 Championship, we still haven't reached the 14 day period since that tournament yet. We're still watching that. And again, through our communication process, we have asked all of our coaches, staff and student athletes to report to us if they're starting to show symptoms. And then on this obviously if they go to be tested, if they've tested positive.
Question: Jeff, that Teamworks app, I assume that something that was in place before this, is that right?
Jeff Long:
Yes, actually we actually transitioned from a previous provider along the similar lines to the Teamworks app last fall. And again, we've been in transition with that as well. And this has helped us actually put a little more focus on it and makes sure that we're all off and running on Teamworks as well.
Question: Do they have to sign up? I mean at enrollment or how does that work to get that reach to all of your student athletes?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, It's based on an app or online, so we have them sign up and they have a log in just like you would on any of these apps and it's set up so they'll get a message, a note, or a ping, or a spot on their app that shows that there's a message for them and they can both read it on a text message format or go to an email site where they can see it like an email.
Question: Do you have an estimate of how many student athletes are still on campus? Like self mentioned last week Udoka and Silvio are still on campus.
Jeff Long:
Yeah. And it has changed a little bit. We are down to I think approximately like 74, 75 student athletes that are in on campus housing or in their off campus housing here in Lawrence.
Question: Obviously you had the disappointment of basketball getting canceled, but looking ahead a little bit, you have a lot of student athletes who were looking to be competitive for conference titles, even the Olympics. Could you just address sort of the uncertainty, the disappointment that some of your athletes and coaches are dealing with and how you guys are helping everyone get through that?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, it really is the unknown that is most troubling and you're right. I think there were some reports coming out today and I'm not sure if they're official yet, that the Olympics have been postponed to 2021. Again, I saw that there was a recommendation to that. Certainly we have track athletes that were looking forward to that and having the opportunity or possibility of qualify either for the United States or some of them from international, internationally. Yeah, I can tell you that we're making resources available to them as far as mental health and strategies to cope. Certainly we've asked all of our coaches, and again athletic trainers, all of those who have relationships with those student athletes to be on top of that touch base, let them know that they're not alone and that we're trying to advise and counsel them throughout this process. Really it's all in the form of phone calls, texts, emails, it might be a video call, Zoom chats, those kind of things.
Just trying to provide information as quickly as we get it and then try to answer their questions because in these times, the uncertain times, it's the uncertainty that is even more troubling than the ultimate, Hey, the season's over. We're certainly aware of that and we're working closely with them.
Question: And just a quick follow up, along with the mental side of it, what are you guys doing to encourage... Even though the seasons are over, are you still encouraging the student athletes to stay fit, their physical preparations for whenever things resume in the summer, in the fall. What are you guys doing along those lines?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, absolutely. We as a conference, Big 12 conference has kind of shut down coaching and those kinds of things, even virtually through the 29th of this month. We will be talking later this week about how will we move forward after that. But we're certainly staying in contact with workout pro, things that they can do on their own running, and lifting, and the band stretches, and things that they can do where they're isolated in place, they're doing. And then we'll look going forward at what we're permitted to do as a Big 12 conference. And even nationally we're waiting for NCA instructions on that in a while but again, I emphasize that they are in touch with their strength and conditioning coaches about that, and they're in touch with nutritionists as well because again, we want to guard against the inactivity and trying to make sure they stay fit, as fit as they can.
Question: Hey Jeff, how big of a challenge is this specifically for your football program and knowing that this is an important spring for you guys?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, I mean obviously Coach Miles and his staff had geared up and were just on the cusp of starting that and it is a big blow. The thing that we have in Coach Miles and his staff are great coaches who develop student athletes and as you guys know that we may be getting three stars that we develop into five stars. Not having the Spring Ball will be setting us back.
We are looking nationally about how that will be handled, whether there's a possibility of being able to come back and have some kind of a spring practice in June. Maybe it's an extension of the preseason going into August, so maybe there's additional days added on that front end. But none of that has been decided. Certainly there's some question about the September Football Season starting off and again we'll have to adjust to that. But we all know that competitively and preparing our student athletes is very important, so we'll be working to get some extension of time that our coaches can practice with student athletes prior to next season.
Question: But at what point will you have to start worrying about losing football games and what could be like some contingency plans for that scenario?
Jeff Long:
Well again, we're talking a lot about that then as you might expect and again we're somewhat waiting for more information right? Earlier today we got the announcement that our County has got to stay in place, a order. It just depends on how the virus curve goes that we've heard so much about if it flattens, and how far it flattens, and when this country will resume kind of normal operations. But we are working on multiple contingencies now and then we're working with NCAA on various aspects of this. Obviously the health and safety, the medical community will weigh in heavily on this. To answer your question, lot of contingencies, not sure they're defined yet because we not sure we have enough information to really define them.
Question: Jeff, I know that you've got a ton of experience and been through a lot of things as an AD. I think the world hasn't really seen anything like this. Is there anything you can draw on from your experience on how to handle something like this and how to just, I guess keep your head above water even?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, no, I think back of a couple of things that none of them, I don't think reach this level, but I am old enough that I remember when Magic Johnson was diagnosed with HIV and all the unknowns about that disease, and that infection, and all the processes the NBA went through and players concerned about playing, and players concerned about competing against Magic and on some level there was that going on. We were uncertainty about this virus, when it broke and things started canceling, we had student athletes and coaches and staff concerned because they didn't know how far reaching this virus would be and how their health could be in jeopardy. There was that piece. And then I think about 9/11. Again, it doesn't compare, but it's a national thing we're all focused on, so kind of put those two things together. But then also these are extraordinary, the video call we're having right now.
I mean I had never had one of these until a week ago. And now I'm pretty adept at getting around on it. It's going to change athletics, it's going to change the higher education systems in the United States. It's going to change so much that we can't even predict. It's important as you guys all know technology, and then it continues to change dramatically. It's going to increase. This is going to be a stimulus that increases it in every area. And we'll all have to work harder to stay on top of and in front of all of this.
Question: Where were you when the Magic Johnson thing hit? What school?
Jeff Long:
I was at the University of Michigan. I was working as a sub assistant or associate AD for football, basketball, women's basketball and ice hockey. And I can remember hearing it in Schembechler Hall for the first time. I know exactly where I was when that hit and I know exactly where I was in 9/11 as well. Those are things that are I think burned in all of our minds. We know exactly where we worked when those incidents occurred.
Question: For the student athletes that are here, how do they eat and stuff? Can you provide them food or are they just like the rest of us they have to go to the grocery store and all that?
Jeff Long:
Well, yes, those who are on campus or in the Lawrence area, we have dining halls that are still open so they can get carry out from those dining halls and they'll be able to continue to feed themselves and whatever. Their scholarships continue because obviously they have rents to pay. Obviously we take care of the educational expenses with the university, but yeah, they'll continue to get their checks, whether that's a cost of attendance checks or whatever. They'll get all of that as we continue through this academic year.
Question: All athletic directors are probably worried about the budgets. Do you foresee any layoffs or anything like all businesses have to make?
Jeff Long:
Well that's a great question Gary. What we've done like similar other companies and government, we've extended our part time employees through the remainder of this academic year. Even if they were part time and graduate assistance and events workers and things like that for events we're not having, we're going to continue to pay them through this academic year till those events were over. We will have to look into the future and we're doing some exploratory cutting. What would a 10%, what would a 20% cut in our operations look like? We just again started those. It's part of strategic planning for the future. Haven't made any decisions. And again, most of that is determined on how far and how long this crisis lasts.
Question: Is there concern with Williams Fund donations recently being sent out with the current state financially with the Coronavirus?
Well, yes there's concern, but I will tell you our fans have been great. They've stuck with us through thick and thin through the years, through other economic downturns. Are we concerned? Yes. Are we confident though? Our fans and our supporters will be there for us. We are. We are doing some things to extend the deadline. It is a time for a securing season tickets and such and so we're going to extend those deadlines to try to ease that pressure. We're also going to be more innovative with payment plans so fans can stretch out their payments throughout the season. We've done that in the past, but we'll make that more visible and allow that to happen on a larger scale, so yeah, absolutely. We're concerned about our fans, we're concerned about the economic impact of this on them and we'll be trying to do what we can to ease that for them.
Question: Have you guys heard from the NCAA if there'll be a delay in the basketball case because a hearing would be tough to bring people together. We can't travel, people can't travel. Have you heard that there could be a delay?
Jeff Long:
Gary, we've been in communication as of this point there is no delay. Were still expecting the response from the NCAA on our NOA and that's still coming. That was 60 days from when we submitted our response to the NOA. We have no information at this time that, that process has changed at all. The timeline remains the same. I think you ask a good question of could the hearing be conducted through Zoom video call? Have not heard that, but certainly it, I guess remains a possibility.
Question: For a lot of people, the Kansas Relays mean a lot. I mean they've never been delayed.
Jeff Long:
I think our track athletes, our track fans, I mean you guys know you've seen this competition for far longer than me. But again, it starts with the participants. I mean this is a great event for the young people who get to participate in it. A lot of time, effort, energy goes into training, but also preparing for the Kansas Relay. Yeah, as you would expect, we're disheartened about that and we're sorry that it's happening, but we'll continue to plan to bring it back when we can.
Question: Has this had much impact, again, I know you can do it through technology here, but how about in terms of your year end meetings and reviews and stuff of your head coaches, I mean is that all kind of on hold or do you do it this way or has that changed much?
Jeff Long:
Yeah, I've kind of put it on hold a little bit because I'd prefer to do it in person, but it appears, now it's going to be at least til after April 23rd right, with the new guidelines we've been given. But I think I'll have some level of communication into the year via Zoom video call just to make sure we don't let things linger too far. That'll happen. We haven't set those up because again, we've been so focused with the crisis at hand and getting everything organized. But yeah, that will come in the weeks ahead.
Question: Doing something to honor the basketball team on their season...
Jeff Long:
We talked with Coach Self for a minute about possibly doing something to recognize the basketball team considering that they entered the tournament, unanimous number one, anything more along those lines or some of your thoughts about what might be done to honor this basketball team?
Well this is a special team. I mean they were ranked number one to finish the regular season by AP, by coaches polls, by many other polls, so they are worthy of being recognized and you can expect that we're going to recognize them appropriately come next beginning of basketball season but coach [inaudible 00:21:09] and I aren't ready to share what that might be and we're still really working through that. What is the best way, what is the most appropriate thing? We know that our special team, we know they were poised for a great run and so they will be honored and honored appropriately.
Question: Can the public get into the facilities and can people go to work? I was just wondering, can people that work in the field house go there?
Jeff Long:
You know, great question. Gary. On March 15th we kind of got out in front of the curve in my opinion we closed our offices through March 31st and that was really a leading edge decision at that time. But I felt again health safety, well being of our student athletes was first and to keep our coaches from going to the office and possibly spreading the virus. We've kept them home. Now we have thoroughly cleaned our facilities inside and out, every office, every strength and conditioning area, we have cleaned that. We also allowed our staff last Friday to come in for a limited period of time to get work from home items to take back and then we sanitized again once they left. They are working from home and we are extended now through April 23rd to do that. And as we go forward, there may be another time when we say, okay, we're going to have a limited time to come into the facility, restrict where they come in, where they go, in and out to their office and gone, and then we'll re sanitize again.
But we're being very, very cautious and our facilities staff, let me emphasize that to you. Our facility staff has been awesome. They're the front line and they've done a great job of taking care of our facilities, sanitizing and then helping us with this process of letting our coaches and staff go in and out of the building to get materials. We are closed down and we will be closed down for the foreseeable future.
Question: Can you just put a personal touch on this? What's this been like for you? Is your family all home together? How has that worked?
Jeff Long:
No, my family, my daughters are both quarantining. No, that's not the right word. But they're in their homes, in their places on their campuses, and in Fayetteville in Columbia. My wife and I are here in our house. It's very unusual and it's stressful in a very different way. I'm a high energy person, no actually everybody, you guys are high energy. I'm used to bounding across the hall, back and forth to coach's office, to staff office, and now I'm sitting in front of this computer, or I'm on these phones and I'm texting, and I'm doing whatever, and it's different. It's a different stress level. It's a different management challenge. One that is awkward and uncomfortable because we're driven by the people around us who we get energy from, those coaches and those student athletes. I miss those student athletes outside my doorway.
They're usually in the facility or they're out there in those lounge chairs. They're studying, they're talking on the phone, or they're getting ready for a tutor appointment. They're going to KU LEADS, they're out there. And I feel that energy and pulse and it keeps me going through the tough stuff we have to go through. I miss that. I have binged. I learned what binge watching is. My wife and I have done these, what is it, not sole survivor? What's it called? Designated survivor. I've caught up on that series anyway, but yeah, it is different. It's a different level of stress. It's a different level of challenge. I feel an edginess that I don't necessarily feel when I'm in the office because again, all those people around me, that energy that flows from people, and now to be isolated in front of a screen, it's very, very different.
