HIGHER ED TODAY
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In times of crisis, institutions like
CUNY that are integral to the life of New
York and its future have an especially
important role to play.
CUNY’s responsibility in these extraordinary
times is both to protect
the safety of our community members
and to ensure that all of our students,
regardless of their circumstances, are
able to continue their education. But we
are also called to step up, to put the country’s
premier urban public university at
the service of the state and city we call
home.
I have been moved by the resilience,
fortitude and innovation that have been
on display across the university in the
face of this unprecedented health emergency.
CUNY’s 275,000 students and
nearly 50,000 faculty and staff have been
at their best.
In a five-day recess, CUNY accomplished
the Herculean task of transitioning
to distance learning most classes
across 25 campuses and five boroughs.
By the time classes resumed, on March
19, up to 95 percent of CUNY’s 50,000
course sections had moved to distance
learning instruction, and 95 percent of
its nearly 50,000 faculty and staff to working
remotely. Today, those numbers are
closer to 100 percent. My most sincere
thanks to all the faculty and staff who
keep the University going while facing
disruption, fatigue and anxiety in their
personal lives.
Our efforts are also aimed at doing
our part to aid the widespread campaign
to slow the coronavirus spread and help
those in need.
Just as we made our services available
following Superstorm Sandy and
the 9-11 attacks, CUNY facilities including
cafeterias, gyms and some dorms
are available to the State and City to
increase health care capacity, when
and where needed, in the fight against
COVID-19.
Essential campus services like food
pantries remain open in our campuses
to serve our most in need students. Child
care centers are operating with low demand
but they remain open so they can
be fully activated as part of Governor
Cuomo’s efforts to support the needs of
families of medical first responders.
Responding to the need for personal
protective equipment for frontline workers
and other essential employees, several
of our colleges have combined to
donate N-95 masks, nitrile gloves, shoe
covers, disposable lab coats and bottles
of 70% isopropyl alcohol.
Working with Memorial Sloan Kettering
Cancer Center, we have helped
establish a testing site on universityowned
property on Manhattan’s Upper
East Side. The Graduate School of Public
Health and Health Policy is releasing
a weekly survey that provide a datadriven
picture of the pandemic’s effects.
Queensborough Community College is
in discussions to manufacture, through
3D-printing, much-needed equipment
for hospitals through its Advanced Manufacturing
Lab.
As we move forward with the critical
effort to preserve the health and wellbeing
of our city, I am grateful to the professionals
and unsung heroes who have
marshaled their services to ensure that
CUNY remains a stabilizing, reassuring
force.
Our response to this global pandemic
is yet another way that CUNY is going to
bat for all New Yorkers. It is yet another
reminder of why I couldn’t be prouder to
be CUNY’s chancellor.
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.14 COM | MARCH 27-APRIL 2, 2020