submission_gyiw7k

submission June 07, 2020 Score: 93 u/tonyg31897

An Open Letter to CUNY Admins

An Open Letter to CUNY Admins

To all CUNY Admins, Chancellor, Presidents. The last few months have been difficult to say the least; transitioning to online classes, the stress of living in a pandemic, living in close quarters with family non-stop for the last three months. I can say with utmost certainty many students want to begin to resume life, even if it isn’t even close to what we used to consider normal. But that isn’t going to happen if you continue to remain silent.

Every week or so, the COVID page on CUNY.edu updates to add minor details regarding CR/NCR policies, wishing the graduates well and so on. However one important detail has been left out - some kind of plan of how you plan on reopening. We haven’t heard a word. There have been rumors of memos flying around, articles about how adjuncts have been laid off and even the DOE Chancellor for NY public schools saying it’s a 50/50 shot of them going back to in person in any capacity. But we have yet to hear anything directly from a CUNY Admin. I understand that it’s not entirely your call; our “wonderful” Governor probably hasn’t thought about it yet. I get it. But what isn’t ok is the complete silence as you begin to take our money for the fall semester.

I think it’s come across all our minds that in-person just isn’t possible within the CUNY ecosystem. We are too crowded, too few teachers and too little space. It’s understandable in a public university. Not only that, but you are unable to hire enough cleaning staff to keep surfaces disinfected. We get these issues; but these are things that should be transparent to every student, faculty and staff members. We’re tired of staying in the dark.

I’m asking for some kind of transparency; something that has been completely lacking throughout this entire pandemic. Tell us what to expect, or at the very least tell us when we can expect an announcement.

My hope is that more students will add ideas below, but I can only ask that if classes should be moved online, that teachers adopt a format designed to be online rather than just pretend we are in person. This was the major issues with transitioning online- teachers expected us to keep up with the same level of work without taking into consideration many students are cramped into a small apartment with anywhere from 3-5, or possibly even more family members. This was a major issue for me, trying to concentrate using a small table to balance my laptop and textbook. It didn’t work. So my hope that all of this time spent not talking to us was used to train what remaining faculty is left to teach online.

To my fellow students, I hope this post is used to offer more suggestions and voice more concerns to CUNY admins should they find it.

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