City College Reopening Plan for Fall

The City College of New York’s President, Vincent Boudreau, hosted a campus-wide virtual Town Hall meeting on April 20, 2021 to update students and faculty for the fall reopening plan. He also wanted to hear students’ concerns.

As President Boudreau began, he encouraged faculty and students to get vaccinated. He emphasized that getting vaccinated is not only for yourself, but for everyone around you. “The most important thing, for the college, for society in general, and your safety and health of you and your family, I can’t urge you enough to get the vaccine,” he said. City College has set up an on-campus vaccine site for faculty, students and the general public. The school may not be able to require students to get vaccinated or require them to show their vaccination status, but it will mandate masks and social distancing. The vaccine and the number of people in the community who get vaccinated are the most significant elements to determine the reopening plan.

City College Provost Tony M. Liss said the reopening plan has two stages and clarified students’ confusion about the occupancy rule. “The first stage [of the reopening plan] was setting our schedule for the fall, which will be based on 50 percent occupancy. It doesn’t mean that half of the students will be on campus. It means that a class that has enrolled 25 people that is in person needs a space that holds 50 people. And the school will have less than 50 percent of the classes on campus,” he explained. The second stage will focus on maintaining both physical and health safety on-campus. That is still in progress.

Students wanted to know the Fall 2021 class plan and if they will have options to choose to be online or in-person.

Provost Liss said that he felt confident students will see many hybrid classes take place in the fall, and the school had posted how the classes will run on CUNYFirst. Different classes will have different hybrid mixes, and these are not set at this point. President Boudreau also clarified that the school will not decide who will be on campus and who will not, but individual professors should have more flexibility on the class structure if the students are concerned about being on campus.

Provost Liss continued to explain that the school planned the schedule based on the assumption that students will be safe on campus at this occupancy level in the fall. But if the situation gets worse again, they will reconsider being fully online. They will publicize the finalized reopening plan by June 15.

President Boudreau said he can’t guarantee any student who wants to be fully online can do so, but he hopes advisors can help students map out their desired academic plans.

In addition to the class plan, students wanted to know if the school will continue to offer CR/NC options in the fall.

Provost List said that, at this point, the school will not be implementing the CR/NC policy this fall because, “CUNY has said that they will not continue the policy that was in place the last two semesters. And we can’t implement this policy locally. CUNY has to do that.” He added that there will soon be more information on the City College website.

Rebecca Rivera, an Adjunct Assistant Professor at City College wanted to know if the school will offer technical support to professors. “Will faculty teaching hybrid classes have technology in the classroom and training to support?” she asked. President Boudreau said the school has invested money on new technology, such as Owl, that allows students to be online and to have a 360-degree view of the classroom, so that they know what is happening there.

As part of the community, I also asked how the school will maintain the campus environment to address sanitization and cleaning issues in light of on-going struggles to keep City College cleaned.

President Boudreau emphasized the school has changed its cleaning protocol since March 2020. “We spent lots of money, attention and energy cleaning physical spaces, and it is broadly accepted that it doesn’t help viruses spread. We have shut the buildings down for two weeks and brought in a deep cleaning crew to do that. And we spent lots of time making sure the air is filtered with MERV filters. The campus now is very protected against the virus,” he said.

The school has made sure the system follows New York City Health Department requirements for disinfection and operation of the cooling tower. Before the Fall semester starts, the school will clean all office spaces and rooms and leave with a notice which identifies the offices’ last cleaning date and steps they took. Also, the school will leave a spray bottle of disinfectant and microfiber cleaning cloths in every office.

President Boudreau said the reopening plan in June will reveal all the steps they will take to ensure students are safe on campus and the campus’s adaptability in the fall.

Speaking of adaptability, Liubov Kreminska, an Electrical Engineering Professor asked a question that matters to every student. “If the student has one-after-the-other in-person and online class, will there [on campus] be some special places to accommodate them?” she asked. Peter Baptiste, President’s Administrative Assistant, emphasized, “We are working on allocating space on campus for this. It will be a common occurrence [on campus].” And, they will have all the details in the reopening plan, as President Boudreau mentioned in the beginning of the meeting.

“We have all kinds of support for students. If you find yourself in a situation where you need help, understand that the college and faculty have the best ability to provide that assistance for you. If you feel you are carrying the burden of this pandemic, we are eager to help and protect those of you who feel vulnerable,” President Boudreau emphasized at the end of the meeting.

President Boudreau reminded participants to get vaccinated and asked them to educate people around them who are skeptical about the vaccine to balance the risk when making their decisions before he closed the meeting. The school will implement a COVID testing program for students and faculty to keep track of how everyone is doing on campus, but they don’t have specific details about it at the moment.