The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/fall-2020/page/3/)
Cornell administrators recently spoke with The Sun about the University’s reopening plan, anti-racism initiatives in light of the Do Better Cornell movement and other pressing campus issues. Here are the highlights.
Cornell’s student-run grocery store will be closed for the upcoming semester, but Anabel’s is trying to turn the disruption of the virus into an opportunity.
Students usually receive their financial aid packages for the fall semester in the spring. Now, delays have forced some students to agree to pay tuition and fees without having received the aid to cover them.
The Cornell reopening model hinges on two factors: Students will return to Ithaca, as found in survey results, and Cornell has no jurisdiction over students who live off-campus, making testing for COVID-19 difficult if the campus is closed. Testing is integral to their model, as it should be, and inability to test off-campus students would mean COVID-19 could and would spread, potentially largely undetected. These factors are contestable, but let’s assume for a moment the model works, at least within its own framework. The model demands testing, testing and more testing within the Cornell community to keep the virus from spreading. It, of course, takes into account the relationship of the campus to the broader area: “We were surprised to see that the outside infections had such a large effect on results.
Ithaca College announced Tuesday morning it will hold all online classes this fall. Cornell is sticking to its plan to hold a residential semester.
To the Editor:
Sun writer Anil Oza quotes from President Martha E. Pollack on the scientific basis for opening Cornell and Andrew V. Lorenzen highlights some important issues with that decision in his column. On a broader scale, science often involves making a model and testing it. Cornell leadership has, under very difficult circumstances, overseen the development of a COVID-19 model and plan in which the Provost and President strongly believe. As many Cornell students are taught, confidence in a model depends on how well predictions of the model have been tested and supported. The Cornell model has not been tested, but the first test involving all of us is imminent. Maybe the outcome will be in accord with the model (hopefully!) and maybe not.
To the Editor:
In his editorial entitled, ‘The Paradox of the Fall Semester’ Andrew V. Lorenzen presented a thoughtful analysis of the science involved in re-opening Cornell. In particular, he analyzed the assumptions, axioms, postulates, self-evident facts or whatever you want to call them, upon which the model and the analysis were based. This is so rarely done in the use, misuse and abuse of science today. I applaud Mr. Lorenzen for presenting science as it should be presented. In a speech entitled, What is Science?, Richard Feynman said: “As a matter of fact, I can also define science another way: Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.
As Cornell administrators face rising concerns from the Cornell and Ithaca community over their reopening plans, they have repeatedly argued that their plans are supported by research which proves there will be fewer infections in a hybrid semester than online. This conclusion relies on a foundational assumption which has been invoked time and time again — that students will return to the Ithaca area regardless of whether Cornell is in-person or online, and Cornell can only properly test and monitor its students if the semester is in-person. By arguing that Cornell must reopen because students will return anyway, the administration has crafted a central paradox for its reopening plans this semester, which has been reflected in its recent convoluted messaging to the student body. For the administration, both the problem and the solution to managing the virus this fall is students returning to Ithaca. Before we consider the paradox wrought by the administration’s logic, let’s first consider the assumption itself.
To the Editor:
In a recent article you provide a quotation from President Martha E. Pollack describing what she expects will happen this coming semester: “‘We anticipate finding many hundreds, and probably more than a thousand, of coronavirus cases in the Cornell community over the coming semester,’ Pollack wrote.”
According to the Tompkins County Department of Health, since the pandemic began, our county has had 228 people test positive for the virus and two deaths from the virus. Those two deaths were of non-residents who had been transferred to Tompkins County from the overloaded medical system of the metro-New York City area during the worst of the outbreak there. 228 cases in five and a half months. Now, Pres. Pollack expects more than 1000 infections in a little over three months? Does Pres. Pollack’s predicted 1000 infections “in the Cornell community” mean only among students, faculty and staff of Cornell?
Cornell administrators defended the fall reopening plan in national media throughout July. Meanwhile, many peer institutions are planning to welcome only a portion of students back to campus.