Statue of Ezra Cornell wearing a mask on Cornell University campus
In an email to the Cornell community, university officials cancelled all student gatherings, while pushing ahead with in-person final exams.
Early Saturday evening, university Provost Michael Kotlikoff and Vice President Ryan Lombardi sent an email to the Cornell community cancelling “All in-person student gatherings, formal or informal.” They added that in-person exams will proceed as there “has been no evidence of classroom virus transmission.”
In their message, Kotlikoff and Lombardi urged students to wear masks both indoors and “outdoors when physical distancing is not possible,” even though there is still considerable scientific debate regarding the efficacy of the latter policy. They also urged students to use “grab and go food options if available” and to “wear masks and maintain your distance” when studying for final exams.
This announcement comes on the heels of a substantial increase in COVID-19 cases, with 171 new cases reported since last Sunday, according to the university’s COVID-19 dashboard. Tompkins County’s Department of Health said that sequencing at Cornell University identified two cases of the new omicron variant, according to reporting done by the Ithaca Voice. Cornell University also boasts a 97% vaccination rate.
Even though in-person finals will be allowed to go ahead as scheduled, several students have told the Cornell Review that their professors will be moving their final exams online, in light of the increase in cases.
Other students have expressed their frustration over the new restrictions. Early Saturday evening, the Cornell Republicans released a statement to their Facebook page, decrying what they called “dramatic steps toward ensuring Covid restrictions become a permanent feature of life in the Cornell community.”
“This administration assured the student body it was not pursuing an impossible ‘Zero Covid’ strategy yet its policies point to just that. It is past time President Pollack end the power grab and give students their lives back,” the College Republicans wrote.
