The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/cornell-staff/)
Under a recent executive order, Cornell will require all Cornell employees to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 — marking a shift from previous University policy that only encouraged faculty and staff to get their COVID vaccines.
With the fall semester fully underway, the hustle and bustle of campus is back with in-person classes and events –– but crowding in campus dining halls is posing concerns for some students and workers.
Despite the overwhelming awareness that this could all be over in a matter of days and despite the best efforts of students online to publicly shame those who break the rules, Cornell was moved to threat level yellow after a mere two days of classes — not by a group of students who contracted the disease in spite of Cornell’s ample countermeasures, but by a group of students who willfully ignored them. I am sure these people understood the risk to themselves and, given the well-expressed fears by their fellow students online, I’m sure they understood the risk to the student body as well. And, while I would like to believe the event that caused this cluster was an isolated incident, a rare deviation from the straightforward and essential guidelines we’ve all agreed to follow, frankly, you’d have to be living under a rock to believe that. We can all hear the music. So, if the judgment of your peers, the requests of your university and the very real danger to the health of you and your friends are insufficient motivators to keep you out of a party this semester, then please consider the people who rely on Cornell for employment. Because the fact of the matter is, a few more “get-togethers” gone wrong, and hundreds, if not thousands, of people here are unemployed overnight. Yes, unemployed. Without a job, without a stream of income, a.k.a. something necessary to feed, clothe and house oneself when one’s parents do not do so.
“Essential Employee.” As I stand here on campus with my rake in hand, these words are in the front of my mind: What am I doing? It’s not snow season, it’s not mow season. Everyone around us is going home and being offered alternative work methods while we are out here preparing for a commencement that may not happen, for a reunion week that might be canceled. If we are so essential, why does it also appear that we are expendable?