A summary of some new news related to CUNY's and CSI's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. See https://csi-covid19.github.io for the archive.
To add/suggest news, please email John Verzani
These include plans at the Cabinet level to create an interim position of Vice Presdient for Budget Strategy and External Affairs rather than leave vacant the position of Vice President for Economic Development, Continuing Studies, and Government Relations.
Guidance #15 is out from CUNY with some new things:
NEW Zoom: We are in negotiation with Zoom for an enterprise contract for Zoom Education License for CUNYwide access. Zoom was identified by many CUNY faculty as the preferred platform to supplement Blackboard Collaborate for video-based classes. The current proposal also includes Zoom accounts for CUNY students so they can host their own Zoom virtual meetings for group work, student organization meetings or social activities. Our CUNY partners are all working to complete this procurement and have the accounts implemented for Fall Semester.
NEW Labster: Labster is web based virtual laboratory solution to provide an alternative experiential learning environmentforactivitiesthatwouldnormallytakeplaceincampussciencelabs. TheLabstersystemhasbeen licensed for eleven campuses that indicated need and will be deployed through Blackboard Integration for the Fall Semester. Labster will also provide direct support for faculty to integrate the Labster simulations into specific courses. More information will be forthcoming through campus CIOs and Centers for Teaching and Learning.
NEW Camtasia and SnagIt: We have begun negotiation with TechSmith, the publisher of Camtasia and Snagit, for a university wide license for these powerful online content development tools to ensure they are available to all university faculty to enrich and enhance online instruction offerings. We hope to have this procurement completed in time for Fall Semester.
NEW Domestic Travel: Student and employee domestic travel should be postponed until further notice.
NEW Admissions Policy – Nursing Programs: ...
NEW Considerations for International Students and Scholars:
Here we find:
The waiver from the Student Exchange and Visitor Program (SEVP) allowing international students to participate in distance learning must be renewed for fall 2020 to allow current arrangements for continuing students to be sustained. Updates will be disseminated here and with College International Student Advisors.
However, there are huge issues, it appears WSJ where:
International students can’t take all their classes online if their college offers a mix of on-campus and remote classes, according to new guidelines from Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
The Harvard and Princeton plans resemble others that have been unveiled in recent days by prominent residential universities. But there are vast differences in approach among schools nationwide. Some are bringing nearly all students back to campus for at least some face-to-face instruction, while others are planning for nearly all courses to be remote.
The Chronicle has identified 224 institutions associated with a layoff, a furlough, or a contract nonrenewal resulting from Covid-19. At least 51,793 employees in academe are known to have been affected by those actions.
Two universities that were planning on in-person fall terms are now backing away from those plans due to the rise in coronavirus cases, and a third university is shifting its second summer session courses online.
Meanwhile, Florida State University clarified that employees can care for children while working from home after facing a backlash over a memo it sent June 26 suggesting employees working remotely would need to secure childcare by Aug. 7.
7/2 Cornell University president makes the case for reopening in the fall (Many thanks to Catherine Lavender)
7/5 College Is Worth It, but Campus Isn’t In print 7/5:
Colleges will have to look very different this fall if they are to avoid accelerating the pandemic. But financial and political pressures are forcing many schools to make choices involving difficult trade-offs between their students’ education, public health and their own economic well-being.
Colleges were among the first institutions to respond when much of the world went into lockdown this spring: Campuses closed, and students finished their interrupted semesters online. Now, college administrators are pondering how they will reboot this fall.