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RYAN LOMBARDI: Hello, Cornellians. Good to see you all again and be with you once again for tonight's reactivation forum for students and parents. I hope you all are doing well.
Ryan Lombardi coming at you again. For those of you that I didn't get to introduce myself to last week, I'm the Vice President for Student and Campus Life at Cornell. Or as one parent, I think, affectionately put it in an email exchange I had since last week, the lead air traffic controller right now.
So I appreciated that levity amidst the questions we're trying to answer for you. It's great to be with you. My colleagues and I tonight are looking forward to spending some time with you and trying to address more of your questions as we prepare for the opening of campus this fall. For those of you that were with us last week, the format will be very similar in that we are in a one way situation here, just because of the sheer volume of people tuning in makes it very difficult to exchange any kind of interactive situation.
But we are here in a panel form again with a number of my colleagues to try to answer as many questions as possible. And thank you for those questions. We appreciate it. We appreciate you communicating with us. And again, as you hopefully can tell, trying the best we can to answer your questions as quickly and accurately as possible.
Before we jump in, I do want to, once again, as I did last week, acknowledge and thank all of you who have continued to support our communities. Whether that's through the service industry and your role in your employment doing that, or whether it's with the health care industry, or the many different areas of work that have required essential workers to continue to support our community.
So my continued thanks and appreciation to all of you for whom that applies. We greatly appreciate it. I also just want to acknowledge, and a lot has changed in the week since we've been here in this forum, with the state of New York adding 10 additional states to our list of those that require quarantine upon entry, and frankly, just the increased cases that we're seeing around the country for sure, and the concern that that's causing and the anxiety that's causing for so many.
I just want to acknowledge that. Certainly, that's something we're keeping a very close eye on and share your concerns about. And it's part of what is certainly complicating these plans as we move closer and closer to the fall semester. I am sincerely hopeful that all of you and your families have not been, or at least minimally impacted by this from a health perspective.
We continue to know, unfortunately, that the disparate effects of this on so many of our communities, it is occurring and it is very unfortunate with that. So we continue to send our good thoughts your way as well.
So just a couple of technical logistical things. As I look at my notes here again, we've appreciated the questions coming in. We're trying to respond to those. I know I engaged with a lot of you over the course of the last week in trying to respond to your questions.
And we will continue to do that. And as we get answers when we don't yet have them, because the situation is evolving, we'll be sure to update our website. Again, I want to continue to encourage your close review of the COVID.Cornell.edu website, especially the Information For sections of that website that are regularly updated.
Just in the last few days, we've updated information about the swim test, PE courses, career fairs, club sports, among many other topics. So please continue to do that. I do want to tell you that my colleagues and I are just working pretty much nonstop to get the answers that you need and to get things ready for the fall.
So we are doing the best we can. We appreciate your generosity and your support. I want to thank so many of you who, when you wrote, gave us a little nudge of encouragement. It means a great deal to us as we work through these really unprecedented times and circumstances.
We will also continue to send emails. I know that I sent one out last week with Vice Provost Nishii about the daily checklist and information there. And we will continue to schedule these for as well. I'm not sure when we'll do the next one, whether it'll be next Wednesday. It may be sooner if we need to. It may be just a little bit later. We want to do it when we have the most relevant and helpful information.
I also know there were some requests for more opportunities for two way interaction. So webinars that would allow Q&A in more of a live format, or through the chat function. And we will see if we can put some of those things together. Again, we're addressing very large volumes of people at one time, so that makes it a little difficult to manage. But we certainly want to stay connected to you.
We are also recording tonight, just as we did last week, and we will post it online within a day or two. It takes a couple of days to get everything converted over to the website, but we'll get that as quickly as we can. And we go.
So tonight we have-- we're going to focus a little more on a handful of areas that questions continue to be out there for. So not quite as broad as last week, but I am joined by four colleagues tonight we're going to go into a little bit of a deeper dive. And I want to take a minute to introduce them.
And I'll let them, just like I did last week, each say their name and introduce them, or say hello to you before coming back to me and starting off with a few of the general questions. So first, I want to introduce Diane Corbett, who is Cornell's Director of Financial Aid. Diane, do you want to say hello?
DIANE CORBETT: Hey, Ryan, and hi, everyone. I'm happy to be here with you today, so thank you so much for inviting me.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Great. Thanks, Diane. Next, I want to introduce to you Chris Payne, who is the Director of Administrative Services at Cornell Health. Chris?
CHRIS PAYNE: Good evening, everybody. It's a pleasure to be here.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Thanks, Chris. Next, I want to introduce another one of my colleagues from Cornell Health, and that's Dr. Anne Jones, who is our Director of Medical Services.
ANNE JONES: Hi, everyone. Good to be with you.
RYAN LOMBARDI: And last, but again, certainly not least, and one who will answer many of your questions today, my good colleague and friend, Pat Wynn, who is our Assistant Vice President for Student and Campus Life. Pat?
PAT WYNN: Hi, everyone. I am so happy to be here. And since Housing and Dining report into me, that's why I'll be having a lot of your time tonight.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Pat, I think we can be pretty sure that you'll be on every one of these at some point. I want to-- so it's obvious by who I introduced, but let me explain to you the topics we're going to focus on tonight. Diane is going to speak about a lot of the financial aid questions that came in. Billing, student employment, some of those types of questions.
My colleagues from Cornell Health, Chris and Dr. Jones, Chris is going to talk about student health insurance, a number of issues and questions that came up around that, and is going to talk about our medical and mental health support services. Many of you asked questions about how we would be able to support our students should they become sick or should they need support and care through the fall. So we wanted to make sure that our medical director was here to speak with you about that.
And then Pat is going to try, with the last segment of time tonight, to take us a step further with a lot of information around housing, assignments, and move in, and spring options, and traveling. And I think we could spend about three hours on this topic, but she's, again, compiled the heavy questions and is going to try to answer them for you.
So, but again, like before, I'm going to start us off with some of the questions that don't fall neatly into any of those buckets and swing through those and cover them for you. We are working with an ever evolving landscape, and I just want to affirm that and just reiterate that every minute.
So I know for a lot of you with whom I communicate, that I would always say that in my emails. And I appreciate, again, your patience and flexibility. We want to make sure that everybody received information about the daily check in the email from myself and Vice Provost Nishii. It's really important to us that you fill that out as much as you can, as quickly as you can.
We realize that you can't complete every section up front, but as much of that information as you can complete is really helpful to us as we put together plans for the fall. And it's also going to be important for you to sign up as a part of that for your testing upon arrival, especially if that's not as a part of the move in process that Pat will talk about a little bit later on.
So if you're an off campus student, or if you're coming up early or something like that, you need to make sure to do that. Now, Pat will talk about this later on, but I do want to address this issue about the 14 day quarantine for move in and the now 31 states that are on New York's mandated quarantine list.
This is, as I've said to many of you via email, this is creating a very significant challenge for us. We certainly understand the decision of the state for this and the need to put public health and safety of our community at the forefront of all decisions. But you can all appreciate, because I know you're trying to make these plans, how difficult that is to put together.
So we are going to step back from providing a whole lot more detail about that tonight, because the landscape continues to evolve. And as, again, I shared with you, we're in regular contact with the state, the public health officials in the state, with the governor's office, and we do have reason to believe that we're going to get some revised guidance that applies to higher education that will change even some of what we shared last week.
And so again, we appreciate your patience and flexibility. Know that this is a real challenge. But we just want to encourage you to hold off on final plans as long as possible until we get a sense of this. We are, every day, today, I think three different meetings and calls in with the state about this, and trying desperately to get the clarity that we need. So Pat, again, will hit on this later, but I wanted to start with that.
Moving into the daily check and the reentry checklist, there were questions about the address information and emergency contact information. Part of the reason we're asking for a local address is critical for off campus students. We need to know where every student will be when they're in Ithaca.
We know that for people who live in our residence halls, of course, because we assign them and so we know that local address. But for everybody else who's living in the area, we very much need to know where you're living. What apartment, what house, all these things. It's critical for our colleagues, our health colleagues to be able to follow up with students for us to know where people are should we need to reach them.
For students that aren't going to be in Ithaca, you will continue to use your permanent home address. And we need those permanent home addresses as well. Emergency contact information, we would encourage that to be a parent or guardian, someone that we can reach out to in the event of an emergency.
But for students who are going to be in Ithaca area, we would also like for you to have someone identified locally as well. If you're new and you don't have someone you can put down, we'll be able to assign your RA for that at some point down the road.
There were questions about whether or not you can change the information on the checklist once you've submitted it. The answer is yes, that you'll be able to do that. We realize that not everything is perfectly sequenced here because of the many moving parts that we're trying to piece together with course enrollment, and housing assignments, and everything like that.
So you will be able to go in and make changes, but please focus on the steps that you can complete at this point. And we do not currently have plans for a contact tracing app to be required by students. That was a question that came in frequently. The contact tracing is the responsibility of the Tompkins County Health Department.
They work very closely with our Cornell Health colleagues to make that happen, and they use the technology necessary to manage that. There were also a few questions about student behavior and what our Dean of Students, Vijay Pendakur touched on last week and what that will look like. I do want to just hit on a couple of these issues that were raised in there.
We do expect a large number of our students to return to campus. In fact, based on the daily check alone, we know that the majority of campus students are planning to return to Ithaca. That's what we're seeing as a result of people completing that. I mentioned and Dean Pendakur mentioned that we have our public health ambassadors that will be going around and educating students, but also observing behavior, encouraging students to exhibit good behavior that conforms with public health guidelines to the best of their ability.
We are not allowing large events that take place, so in other words, parties. I know there was a lot of questions about that. We are-- social gatherings are limited in size. And if we see gatherings that violate that, the people that are hosting that event whose residents that that is at will be held accountable for that. So I did want to make that clear.
There was a question about when the final behavioral compact will be done. We anticipate that being finished by next Tuesday at the latest, and you're getting full information about that. A previous email I sent out outlines the general tenets of that, so you should be able to refer to that to get a sense.
But the full detail, along with a great public health course that you'll have to go through, which is being developed by our colleagues in Cornell Health, that will be a part of that as well, as well as a reporting mechanism. Information about how to report observed violations of public health behavior. That will be in that information as well.
There were some questions about monitoring of future outbreaks, the health information, all this, when would Cornell close down. I want to-- there's a lot of questions about this and a lot of detail. I want to refer you to our COVID website. That report that we had to submit to the state of New York in order to be approved to reopen has all of those details listed on that.
So I just don't want to chew up our time tonight with these questions. They're very important, but I would generally refer you to the website COVID.Cornell.edu. you can read through that entire document and see how we told the state we would manage these issues in order to get approval for opening.
I want to also talk a little bit about the student experience in an online format. And I do anticipate that we'll have a subsequent session that will focus extensively on this. There were questions about whether students could take all of their classes online, and the answer is yes. If your classes are offered online when you get to your preenrollment, that is permitted, certainly, and we realize that some students may choose to do that.
But you should wait and check the enrollment modalities that Vice Provost Nishii spoke about last week to see which of your courses will be offered online, versus in-person, versus hybrid. And also as you schedule those courses, then you can make your final decision about what you want to do.
And I just want to encourage you always to be in touch with your advisor, your academic advisor in your college or your school, so that you are sure that you're making decisions that keep you on track academically and keep you moving forward towards your course progress and your degree progress.
We do want to support our students who want to be here and want to take classes in person. We plan to fill those in-person seats, as she talked about last week, with students who are committed to the in-person modality. And we don't yet have details about spring. As much as we would like, and we know there are questions about this, we're just not that far ahead yet.
I think many of you are understanding how much it's taking to get us ready for the fall. So we're not quite ready on spring yet. Your best resource, really, for a lot of these detailed course questions, progress to degree, et cetera, et cetera, are really going to be addressed within your school or your college, and I would strongly encourage you to contact the Student Services office within that college or school in which you study.
Their information also is all available on the COVID.Cornell.edu website if you don't already know it. And finally, before I turn it over to Diane, there were a few questions, and this leads us in nicely. Because there are a few questions about the emergency fund that we mentioned last week, and working with Diane and her colleagues to put this together, and other financial support.
We are putting that together and look forward to having more details about that soon. We don't have a lot right now about how that fund will work or be administered, but we can assure you that it will be in place and be set up in a way that is accessible for students who need it most. There were some questions about whether or not we were going to build to support broadly speaking students and their needs as they transition to campus in order to get to campus.
And that is not something that we're likely to be able to provide a lot of additional support to. That's not a part of our normal package. We certainly recognize that the circumstances of the pandemic have probably changed the financial circumstances for many families, and so we absolutely empathize with that. But we are going to need families to make their plans to get themselves to campus this fall if they are, in fact, coming for an in-person situation.
That's part of the reason why we've offered flexibility for those students who choose not to be in person. But we are going to ask you to find that. You know, and you'll hear this from Pat later, that we are providing support once you're here, especially if you're living on campus, with quarantine housing and those types of things. But we will need you to focus on getting yourself to the area on your own.
So those were some of our general questions that came in that didn't fit nicely into any of those buckets, but I'm going to now kick it to my colleague, Diane Corbett who, like I said, is going to talk a bit about financial aid, and some billing questions, and student employment. Diane, thank you.
DIANE CORBETT: Thank you, Ryan, and thank you again for having me join this evening. And thank you to all of our students and families who are here joining us. Just thrilled to be here with you. We realize that many of you have lots of questions related to financial aid and financial matters in general.
So I'm going to try to help share some information tonight that I think will answer some of your questions. I realize that I may not answer all of your questions, and there's a level of uncertainty that certainly, we're all dealing with right now and remains despite our collective best efforts. But we'll continue to work toward that end and answer as many questions as possible for you this evening, or today. Maybe this morning for some of you or afternoon.
So before we begin in actually answering some of the detailed questions, I thought I would share a little bit more context with you in terms of some of my comments this evening. And Cornell has a founding principle of any person, any study. And that is providing opportunities for students regardless of their socioeconomic circumstances.
And Cornell has reaffirmed that commitment, which I'm so very proud of. I am proud to be part of this community, because that is one of the highest priorities of Cornell. We realize that many families right now are undergoing circumstances that certainly were not anticipated, that are very uncertain.
And so we know that lives have changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of your economic situation. So we understand that and we want you to let us know that. So those of you who have experienced or your families have experienced unemployment, sustained unemployment, or perhaps unreimbursed medical expenses that are significant, and you filed your financial aid application perhaps January or last fall, it's based on 2018 income information.
If you've had a significant change, I ask that you go to our website, go to the financial aid website and click on Special Circumstances. We will guide you through a process where you can share with us what that updated information is. So that's a very important message for me to share with you.
I realize that today, your circumstances may be uncertain. And maybe you're going to know a little bit more a month from now. We still want to hear from you at that point. So know that we're here to guide you and help you through this time as much as possible.
So, now down to some more of the detailed questions that we received, so that I can help you understand how this process will work. So again, because of the uncertainty around this fall semester, many of our students and families needed additional time to determine their plans. So we decided that what we would do is essentially delay the fall billing by about four weeks.
So typically, that fall semester invoice would go out in July. And now it's planned that we will send that billing statement out on August 7. That is the planned date for the billing. So those of you who anticipate receiving a bill and wondering when is that going to come, you'll receive an email from the bursar's office in early August, and that will, again, be issued on August 7 and the payment will be due on September 7.
So it gives you a little bit more time. If you need additional information on that, you're welcome to go to the bursar website as well. They have some detailed information out there. But they will send you an email with all the pertinent and relevant information in early August.
So for those of you who are new to the university, many of our incoming students, billing is done by semester. So that's a question that you may have. Am I going to be billed for the whole year? My financial aid package, my financial aid notification will be for the whole year. What's going to happen with my bill?
Well, the bill will be by semester. So that bill that you will receive on August 7 will have your charges for the fall semester, and then you will be billed again in the December, January timeframe for the spring semester. So you'll be billed at two different times for the academic year.
The university also has a payment plan, which I think is important for you to be aware of. So that if it's better for your family at this point in time to have some type of an installment plan, Cornell does have a Cornell installment plan, also known as a full service payment plan. So again, if you go to the bursar's website, there will be information on that website relevant to the Cornell payment plan.
So, financial aid. I'm sure many of you are out there, especially our continuing students, wondering, when am I going to receive my financial aid notification. So I can assure you that the financial aid staff has been working diligently on reviewing financial aid applications. There are many factors that impact the financial aid notifications that are still kind of, as I like to say to my staff, that we need to be nimble, because the ground is still moving under our feet at times.
And so things like the academic calendar, they impact the financial aid notification. So typically, a financial aid notification for a returning student would go out in May. And for this year, those award notifications will go out and by the August bill. So we're working on it. You will receive the award notifications if your application was received and complete by June 1.
So our application deadline is March 1, and we're suggesting that if you completed your application by June 1 and completed all of the required documentation, that we will get that award notification out to you by that first billing date, which will be the critical date for you.
So if you are a new incoming student and applied for financial aid, you should have already received your financial aid notification. If by chance you didn't, then that tells me that something is likely missing from your application. So what I'm going to ask you to do is to go to your financial aid to-do list on the Student Center and look for any outstanding documentation that may be pending. That's a critical piece.
So if we think we're waiting for you and you think you're waiting for us or vice versa, then we want to make sure that we're all aligned. So if you have an item on your to-do list on Student Center, we may be waiting for that information in order to complete your work notification. So if you would check that, that would be great.
If you submit a financial aid appeal, if your circumstances have changed, that may take us a little bit longer to review your application. But that's because we want to make sure that we're taking-- someone's sitting down and reviewing it very carefully. So we'll do our best to get those notifications out.
And again, if you submitted a complete application by June 1, then you can anticipate receiving your award notification prior to that August 7 billing date. Let's see. I think we had a few other questions relative to where you might be studying.
So one of the questions was, if you're wondering how financially would be impacted if you study remotely, it's important to understand that, first and foremost, your family contribution essentially remains the same regardless of the motive instruction or where you live. That said, what could change is your cost, right?
So your cost could change if you're living at home versus living in Ithaca or living on campus. So we have included, I want you to know that we would have included a living allowance, a housing and meal allowance for students who will be studying remotely and living with family for the fall semester. And that will be included in the cost of attendance.
So I'm sure that's been top of mind for some students. Now, it will be less than if the student, if you were living on campus. But again, you'll receive all of that information. But there will be an allowance in your financial aid cost of attendance if you're living remotely with family.
For students who are living on and off campus in Ithaca, your costs are going to mirror the costs that you've had in the past, including a living allowance for the month of December. So we know that most of our students are going to be returning home at Thanksgiving, but the semester continues to the end of December.
So we have actually included a living allowance for that month of December that will be part of your cost of attendance. So that helps us determine your demonstrated financial need and your eligibility for financial aid. So that is something that we are considering. We're very much aware of and we are considering that.
I think you're all aware that housing and dining charges are being reduced for the fall semester. So we just want to ensure that students who request an exception, if you're, by chance, going to remain on campus beyond November, you will be billed separately for that housing charge. And so your financial aid that you receive in the fall, if you receive a refund, you'll need to set aside some of those refunds, the refund that you received to put towards that separate billing in December.
This will be a relatively small number of students, at least that's what we're anticipating. So if this describes your situation, please reach out to us for guidance and we'd be happy to help you with that. Since we don't know for sure and you may not know for sure as yet where you will be living for the fall semester, when we send the aid notifications, they are subject to change.
We're going to try to send this out and be as accurate as possible in the beginning, but we do know that there's much that's uncertain, that remains uncertain. So what we will ask is that you bear with us as we work through these unknowns as quickly as possible. And again, our staff is here and ready and willing to help.
We will, again, send those notifications. So if that's your number one question, just if you would hold tight for us, and you'll receive the notification by the August 7 billing. And then depending on your living situation, if it's going to change your financial aid package, we'll make sure that we go in and make those changes as quickly as possible.
Relative to student employment, this is an area I know that there's a lot of concern, because we have a lot of unknowns. So we realize that many of you are concerned about meeting your summer savings expectations and employment expectations. And we recognize, with the changing state of the economy, that this could have an impact and may have had an impact on a student's ability to work over the summer.
So we're continuing to evaluate options, and we'll have a definitive path forward in the near future. We continue to offer work study awards. They will be part of the financial aid award notification. And departments will be encouraged to offer work study opportunities to students during the fall semester.
What we're anticipating is the type of jobs may be different. So if you worked for dining services in the past, you may continue to work for dining services, but it may be a very different job than what it's been in the past. So we anticipate that they will have jobs that are remote, and we're still exploring these possibilities.
And we're hearing back from our employers that they are interested in hiring students, but it just may be a little bit different than what we've experienced in the past. So, much more to come on all of this, and keep the questions coming. I think it's really great that you're asking us so that we can get the information out to you.
And thank you again for your patience as we work through all of these changes, and we're really looking forward to seeing all of you. So Ryan, I'm going to send it back to you.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Great. Thank you so much, Diane. That was very helpful information for our students and the families. We appreciate you being with us tonight. All right. Next, we're going to turn to our colleagues in Cornell Health. A lot of questions around insurance, and health, and all those types of things. We're going to start with Chris Payne, who, again, is our Director of Administration at Cornell Health.
CHRIS PAYNE: Thank you, Ryan, and thank you all for having me tonight. I'm going to actually pick up on the theme of equity and accessibility that Diane started for us and talk a little bit about our strategies at Cornell to promote equity and accessibility for students around health and well-being.
One of our key strategies is to offer a student health plan that has very low out-of-pocket costs for students at the time that they seek care. We know that not all students are going to enroll in that plan. So for students who waive the student health plan, we have a health fee that covers them similarly when they seek care at Cornell Health.
So one thing we really like to start with is emphasizing that all students who are enrolled at the Ithaca campus and in the Ithaca region have access to Cornell Health services, whether they have the student health plan or they've paid the student health fee. We do charge for our services, and those charges are covered, most of those charges are covered by the student health plan or the health fee.
For most of our services, there's a $10 out-of-pocket cost, a copay. For some services, there's no copay at all. For preventive services and, for example, for flu shots at our flu clinics across campus, those are covered without cost to the student, whether you have the health plan or the health fee.
There are a handful of services that we do have charges for. Those are our pharmacy services, when students need vaccines or if they need travel medicine services. So for those, we either bill your insurance if we participate, or we believe you directly. So while there are some charges, I do want to emphasize that most of the services that we deliver, most of the services that students use, there's very little out-of-pocket cost when they seek care at Cornell Health.
Now, there were many questions specifically about how Cornell Health services for COVID are covered, and so I'll dive into that a little bit. So it's important to know that with the student health plan, there are both state and federal regulations that currently require 100% coverage for both diagnosis and treatment of COVID-related care.
So those mandates, we're monitoring them very closely and we'll continue to comply with them. And I'll talk to you a little bit about how we're complying with those right now. So if a student is seeking care at Cornell Health, whether it's via telehealth or via an in-person visit to assess the need for COVID testing, and here I'm talking about diagnostic testing for COVID.
If you have symptoms or if you've had an exposure, for example, a known exposure. So if you're coming to Cornell Health or seeing a provider via telehealth, there's no copay for that evaluation. Regarding the testing itself, that is billed to your insurance, so the health fee doesn't cover that, but your student health plan does.
However, for students who are covered by the health fee, we make sure that your private insurance is billed for that service. And again, I want to emphasize that insurances across the country right now are required to cover that testing at 100%. So for COVID care that occurs outside of Cornell Health, and that's typically by providers in the community, for example, our local hospital, Cayuga Medical Center.
Those services are billed directly to your insurance by the provider of the service. And again, I want to emphasize that regardless of network status, so even if you're seeking care out-of-network, currently, your insurances are required to cover those costs at 100%. Now, some of those mandates could be withdrawn over time. They're both state and federal mandates.
So I do want to emphasize that even if those mandates are withdrawn, the student health plan is a very robust coverage. That covers 90% of charges and has a cap on that coinsurance cost of $3,000 annually for an individual. So it's very good coverage with a lot of protection, very limited risk for students for out-of-pocket costs there.
So there were a handful of other questions that were asked about waivers, and timing, and eligibility for insurance. I'll try to run through those pretty quickly. So first, we have not changed the start date for the insurance plan. It will begin on August 1.
While the academic year is starting officially into September, students are actually coming into Ithaca beginning in August, and do need to have coverage in place at the time that they arrive. Anytime after August 1, if you're enrolled in the student health plan, you can visit our website and you can follow the instructions to print your insurance card.
It's pretty straightforward. Just visit our website at Cornell Health, and you can follow those instructions. Students who-- so a lot of students have asked about their waiver approvals, waiver denials, and what happens if they're remote from Ithaca. So right now, if students have received a denial and they end up studying remotely, once we've confirmed their location of study, we will be reaching out to them if they're eligible to essentially hold on to their current insurance.
So even though you've had a denial, many students who are studying from home will be eligible to actually have that denial reversed and be able to hold on to their insurance plan. So, then, what I really want to emphasize is that we will proactively reach out to students in this category, whether they're located in the United States or in an international location.
And finally, we've had students ask us if they have waived the student health plan in the fall and come back in the spring for in-person instruction, will they be able to opt into the student health plan at that time. We are exploring that with New York state.
So New York state regulates our insurance plan. We're exploring whether or not that can be an option for students when they return in the spring. And so more to come on that. Ryan, I think I made it through quickly all of the questions around insurance. Thank you very much.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Great. Thanks, Chris. You've done a great job. Insurance is always one of those complex issues. I'm not sure I quite have a grasp on it already, so I appreciate your detail there. We're going to keep on the Cornell Health theme and get our medical director, Dr. Anne Jones.
ANNE JONES: Thank you, Ryan, and hello everyone. I'm coming to you this evening from my office at Cornell Health, where we just wrapped up clinic for the day, where we saw patients in person and also finished up our testing clinic, which runs every afternoon from 1:00 to 4:00.
So we continue to see you, whether it's here in the building or over telehealth, which we know that many people have been using and giving us great feedback. And I just want to thank everybody for your flexibility, as our services have adjusted and changed in response to this pandemic time.
And for all of the feedback, as well as the gratitude that we're hearing from students for how much we've been providing care, no matter the circumstances. So we've been trying our best to adjust, to hear from you, and then to get you exactly what you need. So thank you very much.
Yes. Like everybody, we've been hearing lots of questions about medical and mental health. So I'll jump right into that as well. And hopefully, through those questions, can highlight a little bit too about some of our major updates.
The first and probably most common question that we're getting is, how will students that become ill, whether it's with COVID or with any other illness, be supported this fall semester. And I think this is a key question that people are asking, because it is normal to have many, many viral illnesses circulate during a normal fall semester.
And so the question being, how is a recovery from illness from COVID, as well as the many normal viral illinesses, going to be supported. And in particular, we're hearing from parents, can students come home, if so, how would we arrange that, and can we visit from our home in order to make sure that our student and child is recovering well.
So the first that I'll say is that we are doing our very best to ensure that we will have rapid and comprehensive diagnostic and testing capability available at Cornell Health. So if someone comes to us with symptoms and we need to figure out what it is, whether it's COVID or whether it's one of the very many common illnesses, strep, influenza, mononucleosis, adenovirus, or many of the other viruses, that we'll be able to help distinguish that based on symptoms, but also based on comprehensive testing.
And then that way, we can figure out what might be causing the symptoms and then direct the student and work with the student to figure out the best way for them to get better and to feel better. Now, if someone is diagnosed with COVID or if there is a clinical suspicion for COVID, then there is a protocol for isolation, as we know.
So someone would have to go into a special housing unit on Cornell's campus. There are specific housing units that are identified just for the isolation protocol. They have very specific conditions. There has to be-- it's a private bedroom, a private bathroom, and a kitchen.
And there is an approval process through the local health department to identify those spaces. So if someone is identified as having COVID, then that is arranged as an isolation unit. If someone is particularly sick, then we work together with the student, as well as take into account what their living situation is.
We work collaboratively with the local hospital to identify conditions that might require hospitalization. And then to this question of parents and coming home, this is a question that comes up a lot in clinical care. Sometimes, whether it would be COVID, or sometimes if someone has mono, for example, when they're very, very sick, it can be helpful for the student to travel home to recover.
And so that becomes a clinical decision that is considered between the student, and the parent, and the clinical team at Cornell Health. And we will do our best to make sure that students and families are making the decisions that are right for them.
So that's the first big question. The second is, how is Cornell going to help students who may become sick during the semester not fall behind in classes. And of course, we at Cornell Health, we know the reason that you're here is to be in the academic environment, not to be at the health center. We don't want you to be here as much as you're engaging with the Cornell experience.
So the first thing that I would say as a physician here is that, when someone is ill, and feels sick, and is coming into the health center to receive care, once we're figuring out what's going on, it's important for the student to directly speak with their professors, to let them know that they're not feeling well and to ensure that the student is updating your faculty advisor, your professors, your teaching assistants, to stay closely connected with the academic teams around you.
Cornell Health also has within it services that can help, especially student disability services. I know my colleague Zebadiah Hall was on the call last time and shared some great information about how accommodations, including temporary accommodations, could be helpful in this environment.
And I know as well, our colleagues in the Dean of Students Office have the crisis manager team who also provides support to ensure that students are supported in the academic environment. But I think that the other thing to convey here is that this will be, as we've all said, a semester like none other.
And I think that the thing that we want to convey is that students should feel ready and willing to connect with professors, let them know how you're doing, and that we're hoping that we can all help each other recover from illness, even if that means being out of class for a period of time, accessing classes virtually, if needed, and then having necessary accommodations in place to support students.
The third question is, will I be able to get a flu vaccine at Cornell Health and what will the scheduling look like. Absolutely. We make flu vaccine available in multiple ways at Cornell Health. One is through a vaccine schedule. So you could come in saying, I would like to get a flu vaccine and then make an appointment directly for that.
We also offer the flu vaccine with any other clinical appointment that we are conducting. So you can also, basically, if you're here with us, say, I'd like to get a flu shot, and we'll help you do that in whatever way we can do that. So the next question is a really important one, and one that we've all been thinking and working very much on. And that is, Cornell is promoting many policies to promote physical health, especially in this time of COVID.
But how will we be addressing mental health concerns, and especially, what kind of extra support will be provided to ensure mental health and well-being? And I think that the first thing, as we step back from this question, is that physical symptoms and mental health, physical health and mental health are interrelated, as we know.
And as we've been observing this virus and how it's evolved, one of the things to say is that many of the symptoms that are related to COVID, things like shortness of breath, or cough, or fatigue, or problems sleeping, muscle aches, things like that, are also the symptoms that can be related to things like anxiety, and depression, or things that might be experienced in a normal fall semester coming from things like homesickness or adjustments.
And so we want to make sure that students know that if you're having any of these feelings and you're not really sure, could this be something coming from COVID or is this something that might be related to my mental health, that we're here to help you sort those things out. And we'll make sure that you get both the testing that you need as well as the mental health support around that.
And that that's an important piece of our procedural and operations planning that we're putting into play right now. And as college health professionals, we have the ability to help students sort those questions out, and we want to be here for you as you experience them.
Also, our colleagues in CAPS, Counseling and Psychological Services, are doing amazing programming around outreach for mental health. They've got group sessions going, wonderful opportunities, Zoom opportunities. And I think mostly formulated around providing support for some of, again, those things that we would expect to happen in a normal fall semester that you can get support around.
You know, questions like relationship issues, questions about friendships, or help and support in navigating the social and behavioral environment that you're in. So we are here for you for your physical and mental health, and aim to do that well.
A couple extra questions. And these, I think, will be quick. So the fifth is, how is Cornell Health supporting students with health conditions that are known prior to coming to campus. And so I want to mention here that every student at Cornell Health has access to a PCP, a Primary Care Provider.
And that's someone who you can get to know as a provider who will get to know your symptoms, get to know your history, and then be able to help you navigate as health questions come up. And so you can go online now and make an appointment with your PCP to talk about any health conditions that you might have that would affect your experience in the fall semester, especially as you're navigating this environment.
A couple last specific questions about testing. And I will just say that there's a lot about testing that is known, and there's a lot about testing that is being discovered, and there is a lot about testing that is in the validation phase right now. So we received many questions about testing, and I'll touch on a couple that were the most common.
But I think highlight very much the fact that science is actively catching up in these areas around testing as we plan for the semester. So the first example of that is, can I get tested for COVID without using a nasopharyngeal swab. This is a great question. Because for anybody who's had that done, it's a swab that goes up into your nose and can feel like a tickle.
And it makes you feel like you have to sneeze, and a lot of times you do sneeze right after. And actually, many have mentioned that this is not insignificant for many people. That it can feel very invasive and intense, and so the question being, are there alternate testing options available.
So there are. There are several alternate testing options that are currently being validated, both in the broad scientific literature, and also locally. And many of them are out there. The most common ones that are not involving the swab up the nose are the anterior nary swab. So that's a swab that goes right in the front of the nose.
Or a cheek swab, that goes into the inside of the cheek. Or another is just a saliva collection. Now, each of them are being validated. But there has not been a consistent recognition of what the sensitivity and specificity of these tests are.
And so as we learn more, the goal is to try to have alternate testing options that have appropriate and high quality sensitivity and specificity for those tests. But for now, what we're using is the nasopharyngeal swab.
The very last question, and I think that this is a good segue into the next question around housing, is, we got a lot of questions around, if I get COVID and I'm living in a certain place, should I stay there or would I get moved and how does that work.
And so basically, as I mentioned in the beginning, someone is getting tested for COVID and has symptoms, then they are receiving isolation. Someone tests positive, then that protocol unfolds. And that's basically what happens, is a protocol unfolds to identify an isolation unit.
The Tompkins County Health Department collaborates fully in that process to basically evaluate the environment that someone's in. And if it's deemed necessary, to move them into an isolation unit. Then it's facilitated. That process is facilitated. So I think those were the key questions. Thanks again everybody, and thanks to you, Ryan.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Great. Thanks so much, Anne, and please extend my gratitude to all of your clinical team for the support they continue to provide to our students and our community through this. They've done really amazing work. They did in the spring, I know through the summer, and will as we lead into the fall semester. So thanks to you and the team. We really appreciate it.
All right. So for those of you keeping track of time, we're coming close to the end, but we're nowhere close to the end at the same time. So I want to let you all know that we are going to continue to go on, because Pat has a lot of information to share about housing, and move in, and all the things and the questions you've asked.
So we're going to hang here and we're going to keep going with this tonight and let Pat get her section in. But I did want to just tell you before she started that we will be going long. So if you made plans to move on to something else at 6:30 PM Eastern, you'll either have to get the recording or you want to change those plans and hang on and listen to Pat's presentation. So with that, Pat, I'll toss it over to you.
PAT WYNN: Thanks, Ryan. Hello, everyone in the Cornell community. I do have some slides to share. This is a very dense presentation, a lot of content. So we will post these slides on the website afterwards. And please note, all of this is subject to change. These are our best efforts right now to plan based on what we know today. So next slide, please, Matt.
I wanted to point this out. This guiding principles document was really embedded in all of our plans, all of our decision making to reactivate the campus. And first and foremost was caring for our students, safeguarding Cornell's future as a world class academic institution, maintaining our staffing, and really seeking new knowledge.
And Cornell has continued to be doing research in COVID and other diseases, and I am so proud to be part of this organization. So again, this was sort of the bedrock from which we developed our reactivating plans. Next slide.
So what I'm presenting really represents the work of my entire amazing team who are trying to make this difficult process as seamless as possible for our students, for you folks. And a lot of this can be frustrating, especially some of the things that are coming from New York state as far as the 14 day quarantine is concerned.
So this is changing almost daily. And unfortunately, I can't provide a lot of details on this tonight, because we are expecting some changes as early as the end of this week. I know this is difficult, and I do share your concern and frustration. But please know that we will post anything that we know at the COVID.Cornell.edu website as soon as we have that information.
So I would ask you to please go to that website daily, and you will receive an updated notification from the housing office as to when and where to report to move in, and be tested, and where you will be quarantined as required within the coming weeks.
Right now, we're expecting as many as 1,900 students to arrive from travel-restricted states and international locations. So we ask for your patience as we route you through all of the testing processes and all of the arrangements that have to be made. The current New York state guidance is that all international students, including Canada, must quarantine for 14 days.
So just as a reminder, please quarantine at home for 14 days prior to departing for Ithaca. And please, if you can, be tested prior to departure. And this list of updated states with travel restrictions can be found at that website. Again, I would ask you to visit that. Currently, they're changing this list every Tuesday, but that hasn't been necessarily 100% consistent, so you might want to check more regularly than that. Next slide, Matt.
So what I'm going to start with is just a guide for all students arriving from the non-quarantine states, and this will go from August 23 through September the 1st. So, next slide. Again, just reiterating those guiding principles. First and foremost, caring for our students. Next slide.
So I'm going to spend a little bit of time on this one. It is, again, very information dense. And I want everyone to understand the cadence of how this is going to happen. So starting on August 23 and 24, students will arrive from the non travel-restricted states. We'll be bringing in 2,000 students each of those two days.
Upon arrival, students will be tested and placed in quarantine in a single in their designated residence overnight. We are assuming we will have most test results the next morning. So as students test and they are testing negative, they will be placed or allowed to stay, I should say, in their permanent residents.
If they test positive, we will move them to an isolation unit. So again, 2,000 students on the 23rd, 2,000 students on the 24th, tested, placed in overnight quarantine in a single in their designated residence. If they're negative, they stay. If they're positive, they're placed in isolation.
On August 25, an 800 additional students will arrive and will be tested. But they will go directly to a hotel to await the results. The reason being we don't have enough beds beyond those 4,000 that are coming in on those first two days.
If negative, students will be taken to their designated residence and we will provide that transportation. And if positive, will be moved into a 14 day isolation. On August 26, no new students arrive. On the 27th, it's a repeat of August 25. 800 additional students arrive, are tested, transported to a hotel to await the results.
Negative, taken to their designated residents. Positive, moved into isolation. August 28, no new students. We'll repeat the process on August 29. August 30, no new students. And then we're really using August 31 and September 1 to catch up on results, to catch up on people who, for whatever reason, had their travel plans blown apart by bad weather or whatever.
So we're leaving that buffer at the end in order to be able to catch up on all of our students so everybody can start classes on September the 2nd. Next slide. So, as noted, there are multiple check in days and processes. And again, that's driven by the availability of beds on campus.
Students assigned to arrive on 8/23 and 8/24 will go quarantine in residence halls. Students assigned to arrive between 8/25 and 8/31 will quarantine in area hotels. Prior to arrival, students will receive a detailed email communication about the moving process, the day, time, location of arrival or assignment, and will have access to a placard to print and bring with you.
This placard will indicate the residence hall to which the student has been assigned, and it acts as confirmation that the student is authorized to arrive and be tested on that day and time. You really must adhere to your scheduled date and time. We cannot have exceptions. Next slide.
If you are planning on traveling via a personal vehicle or car service and are assigned to arrive on the 23rd or 24th, so again, as noted, you will get a detailed email with this information. You'll have the ability to print the placard. And this email will include the date, time, and location to report for the initial check in, testing, and move in.
You must adhere to your scheduled date and time. The testing sites are still being finalized. But again, just to recap, we have the capacity to house and test 2,000 students on Sunday, another 2,000 students on Monday, and place those students directly into the residence halls. Next slide.
If you're coming via a car service, again, same process. And during the check in, you'll be given a welcome kit that contains two reusable face coverings, a thermometer, a key fob, and hand sanitizer. You'll also be given boxed meals for the time that you are in quarantine overnight.
Student arriving on these dates will be tested and then driven and dropped off near the residence to which they have been assigned. Students will be given a wristband or some other form of confirmation by staff at the testing site to show that they have been tested and are permitted to enter their residence hall.
And I know this next part is very, very difficult. Parents, guardians, friends will not be permitted to enter the residence hall, and that is because we do not want anyone in the residence hall who has not been tested. And I know this next part is also very difficult. Students are limited to bringing two suitcases and a backpack, as they will need to move themselves into their residence hall.
And the reason being everything I just reviewed. We have so many moving parts. It will be impossible for students to have more than that to move into a hotel, out of a hotel, be bussed to a hotel, bussed back from the hotel to a residence hall. It will just be impossible to have more than that two suitcases and a backpack.
And again, I know this is difficult. I know it's difficult for parents to not be able to enter and help to set the room up. As Anne said, this will be a semester like no other, and we are asking for your cooperation with these two rules. Next slide, please.
So again, if you are scheduled to arrive on the 23rd or 24th, you will be expected to quarantine overnight. And that means that you will be placed alone in your room, no roommates. You'll be permitted to leave your room only to use the restroom.
We'll have RAs, RHDs, and health staff on site to assist students, and online programs will be available. As test results become available, students who test negative, again, released from quarantine and permitted to leave their assigned rooms. Students who test positive will be moved to a local hotel for isolation, and Cornell will arrange for transportation to the local hotel and meals will be provided. Next slide.
If you're coming via public transportation on August 23 or 24, again, you'll receive that email. Students who arrive by bus will be dropped off at a testing site, be tested, receive their welcome kit and meals, and then proceed to their assigned room. And all other requirements of the quarantine remain the same as those for students arriving by car. Next slide.
If you are arriving by plane, you will need to make arrangements from the airport to Ithaca on your designated test date and time. So you will need to get yourself to Ithaca from whatever airport it is you're flying into. If you're using Uber, or Lyft, or a taxi, again, you'll be instructed to go to a testing site.
Again, we'll provide you with the welcome kit and meals for your first night in quarantine. And once you've been tested, the car service that you came on will have to drop you off near your assigned residence hall. Next slide.
So for students who are moving in on August 25 through the 31, as I noted on the previous slide, all of the instructions remain the same, except quarantine that first night will occur in a local hotel. You'll be given the hotel assignment information prior to arrival in Ithaca. All arrangements are being made by Cornell, including payment for the room.
If you have a student who will not be 18 years of age by these dates, we have already made those arrangements with hotels. They will allow students under the age of 18 to check in, because everything is being handled through Cornell. You must first report your assigned testing site.
Negative results will be communicated to students. Transportation will be provided. And again, positive results will be communicated. Students will be moved to the appropriate isolation housing, and transportation will be provided. Next slide.
So let's talk for a moment about the reentry checklist. All students should have received that in their email on Friday, July 17. If, for some reason, you have not received that, please let us know and we will get that to you as soon as possible. It is due no later than Sunday, July 26.
But the sooner you get that information to us, the better. The better for us. We can plan better. We're asking for your home address. This is to help us understand better where students are coming from.
But here's a very important point. If you are coming to New York state early, or any of the non-restricted states, and you will be quarantining in one of those states for 14 days prior to coming to Ithaca, on the reentry checklist, you should note that you are coming from x, not your home state.
So if you come-- if you're flying from California to New Hampshire and you're going to stay in New Hampshire for a couple of weeks prior to coming to Ithaca, you will note your home address as California. But when it asks you on the reentry checklist where you're arriving from, you will say New Hampshire.
We've had many questions about this, and it is very important that everyone understands that that is the way you should answer so that you are not subject to the 14 day or whatever that quarantine time will be. Next slide, please.
So for upper class, really, all of the above requirements apply, including attesting to the Cornell behavior compact that Ryan mentioned earlier. The biggest difference for upper class is that, unlike prior years, we will be determining the date and time that you must check in in order to complete the required testing protocols.
So in the past, upper class have come in sort of when they felt like it, which was fine. This is a different time, so you will receive an email with this information. And again, there will be no exceptions. Off campus, upper class, students will be expected to abide by all of the testing, quarantine, and/or isolation rules, acceptable behaviors, et cetera, et cetera.
So in summary, we all have a shared fate and we all must abide by the New York state public health requirements in order to ensure a safe, successful, and in-person educational experience this fall. We trust in your commitment to this, and we know that we can do this together.
So now I'm going to move into some information about Cornell Dining. Next slide. We have done everything we can to put measures in place to keep you safe while dining on campus, so we're going to ask you to sign up for an account with OpenTable. So basically, we'll be taking reservations for both takeout service and dine-in service at our residential dining halls.
This will also help with our sustainability efforts, and we'll ask students to purchase a reusable container for our takeout service. We're going to get students to get GET. What is GET? GET Food is our mobile ordering tool, and this will be available in all of our retail locations.
So you will log on to GET Food. You'll select your eatery, choose your items, and submit. And your mobile order will be waiting for you when you get to that location, and you can use your GET My Card for contactless payment as well.
So again, several measures in place to keep you safe and to keep the process moving quickly, and really, with minimal impact to the student experience. Next slide, please. Just a reminder that face covering requirements will be strictly enforced in all of our eatery locations.
And if you want some additional information and help with navigating our locations, you can go to this website, the DiningNutrition@Cornell.edu. If you have special dietary needs, Cornell has a tremendous positive reputation in dealing with many, many, many student dietary needs, whether it's gluten free, tree nut allergies. So please, visit that if you do have any special needs.
You can check Now.Dining.Cornell.edu to see some satellite locations to pick up meals on your way to class or on your way home. We'll have directional signing in our locations to help keep you safe and distanced. And you can check Dining@Cornell.edu with any questions, and we certainly look forward to hearing from you. Next slide, please.
So we've had a lot of questions about the Cornell store. Will it be opening? Will be operating? And yes, the Cornell store on central campus will be open this fall. We're following all of the New York State and university standards, including implementing protocols for physical distancing, very strict sanitation measures, requiring face coverings, and limiting the number of customers in the store at any given time.
Updates for the store can be found at this website, and we are offering expanded online order pickup options. So you can ask for curbside pickup. You can do store pickup by appointment, which will reduce your wait time and limit contact with other customers. Next slide.
In order to maintain physical distancing and reduce contact, in-person textbook shopping and browsing at the main store will not be available for fall 2020. This is a huge change for us. I've worked textbooks at the Cornell store for nine years, and it's always very exciting days.
But this year, in-store shopping will only be for other departments, because the congestion in the textbook would just be too great. All textbooks purchased through the Cornell store must be preordered online and either scheduled for curbside, or store pickup, or shipped.
Course materials will be available to order online in conjunction with courses opening for enrollment. And we recommend that students begin preordering course materials when enrollment opens, but not sooner. And again, more information on ordering textbooks and course materials can be found at this website. And I know that this is very important information for all of your students. Next slide, please.
The Instant Access Program is something that was started several years ago, and we worked very closely with the Office of the Provost and university faculty to significantly increase the digital textbook options for courses, allowing for instant and contactless delivery.
This semester, many more faculty are using this platform. Many courses are participating in the Cornell store's Instant Access Program. And that means that on day one of class, you have access to all of your required materials directly through the digital course materials in Canvas.
There is no advance purchase necessary. Students have two weeks from the start of class to decide whether to keep access to the digital textbook or to opt out, and access materials are billed to the student's bursar account. This has saved Cornell students a lot of dollars in the last few years, and this will continue to be a very important platform for us to provide you the academic materials that you need. Next slide.
Because we have the limitation on what students can bring with them, the Cornell store has worked closely with a company called DormCo who is well regarded in the field to provide bedding and room essentials that you can preorder, and they will be waiting in your room when you arrive. And that can be accessed through that website there, the cornellstore.com/dormco.
Students living on campus in residence halls can have their order delivered, like I said, right to their room prior to arrival. Orders must be placed by August 7 for delivery to on-campus rooms. Students living off campus in co-ops or in Greek Life housing can place orders for shipment at any time using their housing address, and the contactless delivery fee is a flat rate of $2.95, so it's very reasonable. Next slide.
That's it. Thank you. We can't wait to see you in August. So now, before I finish, I am going to address some questions that we were asked prior to this forum. And these are questions that, again, I think you do want some answers to, and I'll try to go through these as quickly as I can.
So the first question was about contracts. So for students who are staying home and doing remote learning, the published date to cancel a housing contract without penalty is August the 10th. After signing the housing contract and before move in, students may still decide to stay remote.
So housing for the spring semester will not be guaranteed, but every effort will be made to accommodate requests. The application for the spring semester housing is currently live in the Housing Portal. The housing contract is for a full year, so students who sign their housing contracts during the semester will have housing for both fall and spring.
Students will be able to leave their belongings in their rooms between the fall and spring, but we don't recommend you leaving valuable items or items that may be needed over the break, or in the event students don't return right away for the spring semester.
If you do choose to study remotely for just the fall semester, to avoid paying for on-campus housing and meals, you will need to contact the housing and dining departments directly. You'll need to cancel through the Housing Portal or by sending an email to Housing@Cornell.edu and Dining@Cornell.edu. And we will, again, post this information on the website.
Please note that changing your response in the reentry checklist will not communicate your intentions to the housing and dining offices. You need to contact housing and dining directly. The Office of Off-Campus Living can help students find a room or apartment off campus if on-campus housing is not available. These resources are included on the Cornell housing website, Housing.Cornell.edu.
We will be assigning roommates to fill open spaces in residence halls. So if you had planned to live with another student and he or she decided not to return, we will be filling those spaces because we need every bed available to us for the fall. And we will try to abide by students' preferences to the extent possible. Early riser or late riser, likes noise, doesn't like noise, you know what I'm talking about.
We expect to inform students of their housing assignments on or about July 24. Students will have until 11:59 PM on July 27 to sign their contracts. Move in and arrival information will be provided during the next few weeks, hopefully by next week.
Upper level students who made housing selections during the spring semester received an email on Monday, this past Monday, July 20, describing the new date range and asking them to sign a revised agreement. The deadline for signing the revised housing contract is actually tonight, Wednesday, July 22, at midnight.
Transfer students who applied for on-campus housing will be notified on or about July 24 regarding housing assignments or the need to find off-campus housing. And lastly, questions about travel, again, I'll reiterate. There are restrictions for students traveling to us from other countries.
Under New York state guidelines, those traveling to New York from restricted states must quarantine for 14 days. That's the current requirement. That could change. International students must also quarantine for 14 days arrival. That, again, is the current requirement. That could change.
If students wish to come sooner than that August 17 proposed date for students arriving from restricted areas, they certainly may do so. And again, if you do come in early, on the reentry checklist, you'll want to note that you're actually coming in from either New York, or New Hampshire, or Connecticut, not from your home state.
Lastly, I just want to reiterate again and again that this is a fluid situation and things could change tomorrow. We'll continue to be in close contact with state officials, and we'll communicate changes broadly with you as we become aware of them. If you're planning to fly to Ithaca, we strongly encourage you to purchase refundable tickets, and we appreciate your continued flexibility in the face of uncertainty.
Please visit our COVID.Cornell.edu website daily. Again, COVID.Cornell.edu to get the most up to date information. Thank you. I know this was a lot. We'll get it posted on the website. I appreciate your patience and flexibility, and now I'll turn this back to Ryan.
RYAN LOMBARDI: Great. Thank you so much, Pat. Very helpful information. I know will address a lot of the questions that have come in from our students and parents. And similarly, appreciate all the good work that you and your team are doing.
I think all of our viewers can appreciate the challenge of coordinating these logistics under these circumstances. And we, again, as Pat said, appreciate all of your patience and flexibility as we work through this evolving situation. I want to cover just a couple of other quick things before I wrap us up, and these are just some things that I've gotten chatted to me here in between that we want to emphasize a little bit more.
First, on the reentry checklist, you've heard that mentioned several times. You've had it since Friday for students. The deadline to finish filling that out that we're asking for is this Sunday, July 26. It's very helpful for us for you to complete that so that we have this understanding of where students-- when they're arriving, where they're coming from, et cetera.
This allows all of our teams to put the plans in place that you hear us saying we're having trouble finalizing in some cases, because we need that information. So the sooner you can populate that information, the better. But I also want to emphasize if your plans do change, you can go back in and adjust that.
But at least putting in your intentions now, it's very helpful to us. But we certainly understand that might change for you as well, just as it has for us. Also as a part of that, when the behavioral compact is loaded into that, I wasn't clear about this before, but I want to be clear that all students will have to attest to the behavioral contract, not just those who say they're coming back to Ithaca or choosing to participate in class in Ithaca, but all students, no matter where they are, are going to adhere to that compact.
Now, obviously, some elements of that compact will not apply if the student isn't in Ithaca. But the idea there is that later on, probably at some point in this year, they may be in Ithaca, whether that's in the spring semester, whether that's midway through the fall semester. And so everyone needs to attest to that upfront.
And then the very last point I want to emphasize that I didn't have a chance to before is, there was some questions about faculty and staff safety, and health and safety, and for people sending their students to us, are they going to be interacting with faculty and staff. We also have our own daily check in that we have to complete when we come to campus with regular testing, and all of the things that we're asking of our students.
So for parents and students who have asked this question about the folks that your students will interact with on campus, we are also, as faculty and staff, operating under very tight guidelines about the way that we interact with campus and our own health and safety. So I just wanted to reiterate that.
With that said, we're coming to the top of the hour here at 7:00, so we're going to wrap up. I do want to apologize. I'm told that we had some challenges with our closed captioning this evening. I apologize for that. We will make sure that video versions of that have that available subsequent to this so that people can view this afterwards. I'm not sure what happened there, but I want to apologize.
I want to thank again my colleagues who joined us tonight, and once again, the folks behind the scenes that helped put this together. And most importantly, to all of you out there who are along on this journey with us. I hope that you have a sense of the confidence that I have in my outstanding colleagues as we put together these plans and try to get things finalized for you to arrive.
We are so excited to proceed with our plans, but doing so under these evolving circumstances certainly do present a challenge. But with that said, I encourage you to continue to visit our website, COVID.Cornell.edu. We will continue to commit to open communication, answering your questions, putting updated information on the website, and doing everything we can to help you with your own decisions and your own plans as we prepare for this fall semester.
So with that, we're going to sign off here from Ithaca tonight and wish you all the very best and look forward to seeing you on a subsequent forum in the near future. Take care, thank you, and have a good night.
Note: The information shared in this video is accurate as of July 22, 2020 but continues to develop. Please visit covid.cornell.edu for current updates and for links to the most recent recordings.
Ryan Lombardi, Vice President for Student & Campus Life, moderated a July 22 forum for students about campus reactivation, including an overview of procedures and expectations for student arrival.
