Risk managers at universities are finding plenty to keep them busy despite their now virtually empty campuses.

In addition to having to address concerns about the safety of employees and any remaining students, they still have their traditional responsibilities of risk management, insurance coverage and renewals. 

And while there are benefits to working from home, they keenly miss working directly with their colleagues.

Since the outbreak, Luke Figora, senior associate vice president and chief risk and compliance officer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has become incident commander for the university, and has “kind of left my day job” as a risk manager, delegating those duties to his team, while he manages the broader situation for the university. He had been scheduled to be in London and Bermuda for renewal meetings, which will now take place online.

Samuel C. Florio, director, risk management and compliance, at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, California, focused on acting as an adviser to the emergency operation center’s policy group at the university in the initial days after the shutdown.

Mr. Florio said, “I’m able to have a 30,000-foot view of everything that’s going on in campus.” Mr. Florio said as a result, he has been able to advise the emergency operations team on what was going on at the university and consult with peers as to what they were doing, to determine best practices and make sure these matched with what the university was doing. This was “a ways away from what I normally do” as a risk manager at the private Jesuit university, he said.

Julie L. Groves, director, risk services, financial services for Wake Forest University, who is based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, said the pandemic has “certainly changed risk management because everything right now is all centered around the virus.”  

The university’s students are gone, except for about 400 international students who may have travel restrictions, she said. 

“Right now, we’re still managing the risk of who is still going to campus,” who are considered essential employees, “making sure their exposure is minimized, and making sure those students who remain are able to get the services they need, food and things like that,” she said.

Ms. Groves said in response to the situation, the university has updated its pandemic plan for the first time since 2008, when the bird flu virus outbreak occurred. “Just the difference in technology between now and then is enormous. It’s fabulous. In 2008, we didn’t have those things in place.”

The situation is “a complete 180-degree change from what we’re used to. But I will say people are pulling together very well to manage everything over a distance, and Zoom meeting’s our best friend right now,” she said.

Northwestern University has not filed any formal claims yet, but is looking at policies that affect general events and revenue disruption, said Mr. Figora, noting that the university is seeing a revenue impact due to NCAA and Big Ten Conference cancellations, as well as expenses it incurred associated with helping some students return home and acquiring laptops and Wi-Fi hotspots for online learning for those who did not have that technology available at home.

“Things are changing around us so quickly and we are having to make decisions with imperfect information,” Mr. Figora said. “It has been a challenge for everyone.” 

Unlike many other colleges, there are still 300 undergraduates who remain in campus housing and about 1,000 graduate students who live in its graduate residential facilities, Mr. Figora said.

Craig McAllister, Coral Gables, Florida-based executive director, department of risk management for the University of Miami, said his job has entailed “lots of reporting up to senior management around insurance coverage and potential assistance” under the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Pamela Jeffreys, Knoxville, Tennessee-based director, department of risk management for the University of Tennessee system, said, “I’m trying to prepare for a future COVID-19 FEMA claim, because we all know it’s coming.”

Another concern is with university property. With fewer people on campus, the risk of a pipe bursting initially going unnoticed is greater, she said. Facilities services on campus are “stretched pretty far right now, because we’re shorthanded” and had been so even before the COVID-19 virus, “but it’s gotten worse now,” she said.

In addition, “We’re looking at risk control measures such as a water intrusion plan and a freezer loss control plan, and then we’re working on our insurance allocations to charge back to the campuses for premiums next year,” she said.

The university’s facilities include a regional biocontainment lab and a health sciences center that is providing COVID-19 testing. The coronavirus “puts us more at risk of work comp claims, especially with (coronavirus) exposures and needle stick claims,” said Ms. Jeffreys, who added the university is self-insured through the state of Tennessee and has a third-party administrator. 

She said while she has seen a few needle stick claims, “I’m shocked that we haven’t had any telecommuting claims yet as far as employees working from home.” 

“I think we’re busier than normal.” Even after working from home for several days, “I’m still trying to get caught up on my emails,” said Ms. Jeffreys.

Technology is placing a much greater role in risk managers’ jobs. Ms. Groves said with everyone working off campus, “we have lots of remote meetings,” including daily calls with operations staff. 

But their normal job functions remain. Mr. Florio said about a week after the shelter-in-place policy took effect in Santa Clara County, “I started again working for our renewals,” filling out certain applications, and asking insurers for extension or “wiggle room” because “things were still up in the air” due to the pandemic. “I had to start focusing on my own job, in a sense,” he said.

Mr. Florio said he began asking questions across campus in this process, having to tell employees that while he knew they were worried about the students still on campus, he still needed information about the residence halls for insurance renewals. “I’ve been doing it long enough I know what the answers are, but I always double check,” he said.

“It’s unclear what this whole situation will do for insurance markets,” said Mr. Figora. “Now you’ve layered on some real financial strains from colleges and universities … there’s not going to be a lot of tolerance for significant cost increases for insurance. I think this will force us to think harder about how we finance risk. It will be an interesting renewal.”

Ms. Jeffreys said her job “really hasn’t changed that much besides the fact that I’m working from home. It’s still business as usual. We’re still dealing with the property, workers comp and auto accidents,” although “of course there’s fewer workers comp (claims) and auto accidents now that people are working from home.”

Risk managers say they are handling their own confinements well, in part because they continue to work closely with colleagues. “I’m making sure to touch base with teammates because you don’t have the ad hoc opportunity that normally happens in the office,” said Mr. McAllister.

“The commute to lunch is much shorter, and I just have to consciously get up and move around more than I would have in the office environment due to the usual interruptions that would happen, and going to meetings and such.

“And I’ve got two supervisors that watch over me,” he said. “They’re both 20-pound dogs, that always want to know what’s going on.” 

“This is just being adaptable and doing what needs to be done to continue the job,” Mr. McAllister said of working from home.  

“We’ve been kind of creative,” said Ms. Jeffreys. “We’ve been Skyping and we’ve done the videos and a lot of Zooming.”

She said, “I do miss the social interaction for the in-person meetings, but I think we’ve done pretty good about staying in communication with each other and some mornings, like this morning, first thing in the morning, we’ll get on a Zoom meeting” and “talk about what we’re going to get into that day.”

However, “I would rather be in the office because I miss the social interaction we had for the in-person meetings. That one has been an adjustment,” said Ms. Jeffreys.  

“I’m very isolated right now,” said Ms. Groves. “I’m normally working on my insurance renewal applications, because all policies renew at June 30. It’s actually very quiet, and I have a lot of time to sit around and work on those, so I think, in some respects, it’s a little bit of a blessing.”

But there are also frequent calls, making sure everyone has a chance to talk about their concerns. “There’s a lot more time spent on calls than I ever did before, but it’s worked out well,” said Ms. Groves.

She added, however, “It’s interesting because it was 83 degrees yesterday and the flowers were in bloom. It’s just surreal because everything is so empty, and spring is a huge time in our educational system because everything’s getting geared up for the spring semester and commencement.”

Working from home, “you lose some of the direct contact with your teams and colleagues,” but “we’re adapting,” said Mr. McAllister, who has been in Miami for about nine months, after spending 18 years working at Cornell University in upstate New York. “We’re able to connect with people over the phone or with video conference.” 

“I don’t feel under a lot of pressure because I feel we’re all part of this team together,” Mr. Florio said. “I feel good about the team…to see us through this crisis.”

“Risk managers are qualified to handle situations like this, so it is important for us to be part of the answer for this situation,” rather than being on the sidelines or playing only a small part,” Mr. Florio said. “I’ve been lucky to be part of this whole thing.”

More insurance and risk management news on the coronavirus crisis here.