Academic Policies, Instruction & Resources

When New York State and Cornell public health restrictions were lifted in summer 2021, physical distancing was no longer required, allowing classrooms to return to their normal configuration for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Although offices remain open, we advise that non-essential individuals be discouraged from entering offices. Please exercise caution in approving any visitors to campus and ensure that they follow all safety precautions.

We have continually and carefully been looking for evidence of possible classroom transmission in several ways over the course of this and previous semesters, but have not found any evidence that it occurs. At the same time, we have found abundant evidence of transmission through other mechanisms, especially social gatherings, co-habitation and travel. While this does not prove that classroom transmission is impossible, it does strongly suggest that it has been very rare.

Here are the ways we have looked for classroom transmission: First, in instances when questions about transmission in a specific classroom have been raised, we have conducted a detailed investigation including adaptive testing of students in the classroom in question and genetic sequencing (one can exclude the possibility that one person infected another by comparing the genetic sequences of the virus in the two individuals). This has not uncovered evidence of classroom transmission. In contrast, when we suspect transmission at a social gathering, in a shared living space, or among members of a sports team or social organization, we also do adaptive testing and this usually uncovers several cases.

Second, we keep track of classes with multiple positives and investigate when a class has more positives than one would expect given its size. These investigations have not revealed evidence of classroom transmission --- instead, the elevation in positivity is typically because the class in question is popular among a group of students that socializes outside of class and had high prevalence at the time.

Third, we have been collecting seating information from students attending classes in Bailey Hall this semester, a lecture hall that seats nearly 1000 students. We look at where students who test positive have been sitting and check whether students who were sitting nearby test positive. The data is unfortunately extremely incomplete (many students do not report their seat assignments accurately) but we do have roughly 20 examples in the data of a positive student sitting within 3 seats of another student, and in none of those cases has the nearby student contracted the virus.

Fourth, the dates when student case counts have been highest coincide with students being out of class – the beginning of the semester and the end of classes. This is consistent with in-class transmission being rare or nonexistent; and with the rise in cases being driven by an increase in social gatherings driven in turn by students being less busy with classes.

Fifth, contact traces have revealed that nearly all positive students have one of the following risk factors: social gatherings, co-habitation with a positive person, travel, membership in a Greek organization or athletic team with other recently positive individuals, or outside-of-class close contact with a named positive individual. It is rare for a student to test positive without having one of these risk factors. Moreover, investigations of these few cases have not revealed evidence of classroom transmission.

Please see the guidance provided on the Dean of Faculty website.

The evidence is clear that higher-quality masks—ATSM medical masks, N95s, KN95s, and KF94s—do a significantly better job of limiting the spread of infection than do other masks, and this outweighs any negative impact of using these masks.

While teaching, faculty may opt to use face shields instead, though we recommend that you maintain extra distance if you choose to do so. Face shields can be obtained through college A/V teams, and masks can be ordered from eSHOP through your department.

Faculty may not independently decide to move their class online. While full-time remote teaching is not an allowable substitute for in-person instruction, the university does encourage faculty to incorporate limited and specific aspects or components of virtual instruction that they found particularly successful during COVID.

The safety measures put into place on Cornell’s campus seek to balance our two stated goals: (1) limiting infection as much as possible to protect community health and to avoid over-stressing isolation capacity and our health care systems (both within Cornell and in the greater Ithaca community); and (2) providing an in-person, world-class educational experience for our students, while also caring for their overall well-being.

Mandatory vaccines for students and high vaccination rates for staff and faculty (over 85%) reduce both an individual’s chance of being infected and also their chance of infecting others. For example, an article in the Lancet estimates that people vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine are 79% less likely than unvaccinated people to be infected when exposed to the delta variant. Another article studying data from Israel estimates that, if infected, vaccinated people are 41% less likely to infect others compared to unvaccinated infected people.

Masking for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals provides further protection. Masking for just the exposed person or just the infectious person reduces transmission by approximately 80% (Howard et al., 2021), and if both are masked the protection is compounded, achieving a protection of approximately 96%.

Combining these measures, transmission from one masked vaccinated person to another on campus is reduced by 99.5%, compared to transmission between unmasked vaccinated people.

Finally, while the risk of infection is low, if a vaccinated individual is infected they are much less likely to have severe symptoms compared to an unvaccinated person who is infected.

Faculty would be notified if a student in their class who tests positive requests a temporary accommodation from Student Disability Services (SDS), in which case SDS would send letters to the students’ instructors.

More generally, the process for responding to positive cases will be different this year compared to last year because the vast majority of instructors and students are vaccinated. Fully vaccinated individuals do not need to quarantine after contact with someone who tests positive unless they have symptoms. The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people should get tested 3-5 days after their exposure even if they don’t have symptoms. We have embedded these precautions into our spring semester plan. We will be surveillance testing all unvaccinated students twice a week. Remember, nearly all instructors and students are already fully vaccinated. The CDC also recommends that fully vaccinated individuals wear a mask indoors for 14 days following exposure or until their test result is negative. Our universal indoor masking policy incorporates this precaution, again not just for close contacts but all individuals.

As we did last year, we will continue daily and extensive monitoring of positive cases to understand how they are related (i.e., transmission patterns) and implement customized interventions as appropriate, such as additional testing, changes to classroom protocols, and/or a temporary move to online instruction in select contexts if the data indicate the need to do so.

Cornell cares deeply about our faculty and staff, who have demonstrated tremendous resiliency throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We remain steadfastly committed to offering a wide range of individualized accommodations now that we have returned to in-person operations. We urge all faculty and staff seeking disability accommodations to contact the Medical Leaves Administration office (MLA).

Individual academic and administrative units at Cornell may, at Deans’ and unit leaders’ discretion, choose to offer additional options for faculty and staff with extraordinary circumstances that prevent them from teaching and working in person this spring. Those options may include a reduction in work hours, a temporary reallocation of teaching duties, and/or short-term or partial remote instruction.

The university has a long history of working closely and compassionately with faculty and staff seeking workplace accommodations for disability, personal, and family reasons.

As has been repeatedly demonstrated over the course of the pandemic, the university has taken a rigorously scientific, carefully tailored and highly responsive approach to the pandemic, aimed at pursuing its academic mission while placing the highest priority on campus and community health and safety. To date, there have been no documented cases of in-classroom transmission over the course of the pandemic. Furthermore, mandatory vaccines for students and high vaccination rates for staff and faculty have resulted in the vaccination of a high percentage of the campus population; vaccination reduces both an individual’s chance of being infected and also their chance of infecting others.

Adherence to the university’s mask mandate for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals provide further protection.

No. Students involved in fraternity/sorority recruitment have been instructed that academics take priority and they will be approved to miss Greek activities to take a make-up exam or attend class. The recruitment program is designed to be flexible so that students are not faced with deciding between academics and Greek activities.

Some students may need extra help this year to adjust to studying at Cornell. As an instructor, there are several steps you can take to support them, including forming connections, identifying gaps and normalizing getting help, and checking in early and assessing student knowledge often. For an individual teaching consultation, The Center for Teaching Innovation offers convenient online drop-in sessions to answer your questions.

No. Instructors are not expected to assign seats or take attendance.

Students have been informed that semester-long remote access will not be available, but they might, nevertheless, ask individual instructors for the ability to participate in their classes remotely. One-off decisions made by faculty to allow semester-long remote access are problematic for a number of reasons and are highly discouraged. Students requesting remote access due to a disability should be directed to register with Student Disability Services to develop an accommodation plan.

In most cases, it should be possible for faculty to record their lectures during the online period (though this is more difficult once classes are back in person). We encourage faculty to be prepared to record their lectures to share with students for whom the scheduled class time falls outside 8am-10:30pm in their local time zone, and for students in isolation who may feel too sick to participate synchronously. In some cases where recording is not appropriate – for example, if recording would interfere with open discussions on sensitive topics, other options should be explored.

CIT and CTI offer helpful guidelines for how to record online lectures delivered via zoom, including how to share recordings with a select subset of students.

Teaching assistants responsible for delivering any portion of the course instruction components are expected to do so in person. The modality of other responsibilities is up to the discretion of the course instructor(s).

Once in-person classes begin this spring, students interested in visiting a class during the course add/shopping period may do so provided there are open seats in which they can sit after all enrolled students are seated.

Yes, all in-person classes are expected be held in that modality, even when guest lecturers participate remotely.

It is up to the discretion of the course instructor(s). Ideally, faculty would offer the opportunity for students to meet with them in person and remotely in order to provide the greatest flexibility in accessing office hours.

Yes. All we ask is that students remain masked. Remember, there are also online collaborative tools that can be used for in-person small group work where physical closeness isn’t needed, such as working on a digital white board (Jamboard) together, post notes and lists on a shared page (Padlet), brainstorm and fill-in information together (Google slides, sheets or docs), participate in interactive team polls, surveys or games (Poll Everywhere), peer review classmates’ work, or annotate and comment on readings or visuals together (Hypothesis, Perusall). Contact Cornell’s Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) to help you incorporate group work and collaboration activities into your classes.

Clip on microphones will be assigned to classrooms, rather than to individual faculty. We ask that faculty disinfect the microphone before and after use utilizing the disinfectant wipes provided in the classroom. We know much more about COVID-19 now, and that the primary mode by which people become infected is through exposure to respiratory droplets carrying the virus. Epidemiological data and studies of environmental transmission factors show that surface transmission is not the main route by which the virus spreads, and the risk is considered to be low.

The Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) offers a variety of resources and support to ensure that your course is accessible for all of your students.

There are a number of tools that can be used to imitate Zoom chat during in-person classes. We recommend using Ed Discussion, or the Chat available in Canvas. Students can open either program on their device during class and pose questions or leave comments. If you have two display screens in your classroom, you can use one to display the chat discussion. If you only have one screen, you can occasionally switch to display the chat, or you can monitor the chat on your computer or a mobile device without displaying. You might consider having a TA monitor the chat, or even asking a student to share questions from the chat with you at designated times during class.

The Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) has developed support strategies for faculty to consider when giving prelims to students who are unable to take them in person due to quarantine or isolation. Review CTI’s guidance on alternative assessment options that faculty can use to fairly and effectively test students.

Instructors should work with their department chair to explore all options before switching temporarily to online instruction. Options that would maintain an in-person learning environment for students are preferred, and might include having a colleague or TA fill in, or team teaching with a TA who is in the classroom while the instructor connects remotely. In some cases, having the instructor teach remotely while in isolation (if they feel well enough to do so) may be identified as the best solution for students.

When students are placed in isolation or quarantine, SDS will provide them with a temporary accommodation letter indicating that they will need flexibility in attendance, and may need alternative arrangements for assignments and/or exams. Students will, in turn, forward this letter to their instructors (Cornell Law students should forward the message only to the Law School Dean of Students, law.dos@cornell.edu). If students contact faculty saying they are in isolation, faculty should ask them to forward the email with the accommodation letter from SDS. For students who need to remain in isolation for a few more days beyond the initial five day period because their COVID symptoms are not improving (this should be very few), faculty will receive a follow-up message from the student that includes an isolation extension notice from SDS.

We ask that faculty use their discretion to determine the best way to support students based on the nature of their course. Faculty are not required to provide remote access to students who cannot attend class. In fact, in the majority of classrooms, remote access will not be an option because classrooms are not Zoom-enabled. Instead, lapel mic recorders will be available to capture audio recordings to accompany other course materials. College A/V teams should serve as the primary resource for faculty when electing to use technology-enabled solutions. The COVID-19 Response website has a range of other ideas for how to support students.

We ask that faculty use their discretion to determine the best way to support students based on the nature of their course. There are low-tech ways for students to keep up with class until they are able to be present in person, just as they would have prior to the pandemic. Faculty are not required to provide remote access to students who cannot attend class. In the majority of classrooms, remote access will not be an option because classrooms are not Zoom enabled. Instead, lapel mic recorders will be available to capture audio recordings to accompany other course materials. College A/V teams and should serve as the primary resource for faculty when electing to use technology-enabled solutions. Options might include:

• Current class audio recording: The university has procured lapel mic recorders for making audio recording of class lectures to share with students. Please note, clip-on microphones issued last year will not work with these recorders. Instructors should contact the local AV technical support for the building in which they are teaching to borrow these mics and receive training on how to use them. Detailed instructions on how to use the lapel mic recorder and transfer recordings to you student(s) can be found here.
• For blackboard capture, faculty can utilize high-resolution USB cameras on tripods. These cameras were successfully used last semester and are very light weight and easy to deploy. The cameras are used in conjunction with the room's built-in PC or the instructor's laptop. Software such as Panopto or Zoom can record and share the recordings with your student(s). Detailed instructions are available on CIT’s website. Please note that if you are recording blackboard work, you may also choose to record with the lapel mic recorder. This will produce two files for the student(s) but allows for audio of the entire lecture to be captured, not just the work at the blackboard. The local AV support can consult on which approach is best depending on the particulars of the room and course pedagogy.
• If available, lecture audio or visual recordings from previous semesters may be shared with students via Video on Demand, in conjunction with current slides.
• Zoom: Please note that even if your classroom is equipped with a computer, it may lack the other pieces of technology required to enable a proper zoom connection for students. If that is the case, instructors who are interested in using zoom to support students can use their own laptop (or a loaner) to connect to zoom, either to provide a live synchronous connection or an asynchronous class recording. Instructions on how to record in Zoom are available on CIT’s website. If a room is not setup for Zoom a USB speakerphone can be used to improve the quality of audio captured. Please note that using a USB speakerphone has limitations and may not work well if you move away from the teaching station or turn to work at the blackboard.
• Instructions on how to transfer recordings to specific students are available on CIT’s website. Please contact the local AV technical support to make arrangements.

In addition, faculty can support students by facilitating collaborative notetaking:

• Ask that students use a Google doc to compile (crowd source) lecture notes to share. OneNote allows students to write, draw or sketch course notes and collaborative in a shared folder.
• The use of Hypothesis, accessible through Canvas, enables instructors and students to annotate handouts, create notes, and start conversations in the margins of text (readings, new, blogs, books, etc.). It also allows students to authentically connect online to ask questions, share ideas, and collaborate.

Students who are not compliant with the university’s mandatory COVID-19 testing requirements or have not completed the spring checklist will be restricted from accessing Canvas. They have been repeatedly reminded of these obligations and there is nothing faculty or their college student services office can do to reinstate their Canvas access. Faculty should not provide course materials, accept assignments, offer make-up exams, grant extensions or provide alternative methods to taking quizzes/exams administered through Canvas while the student is restricted. Instead, faculty should urge students to complete their requirements right away. Students’ compliance status is updated four times a day (the first update each day happens at 7:10 a.m. and the last at 9:10 p.m.).

Faculty will see these students show as “inactive” in their Canvas class list. The student’s name will not show in the Gradebook, but when the student is reinstated in Canvas, their grades and assignments will be restored. If students have questions, they may contact the COVID-19 Support Center via the Daily Check.

Faculty should not accept informal proof of compliance. Students are reinstated to Canvas when their “inactive” tag is removed in the system, which can take 12-24 hours from the time the student actually completes their surveillance test. Faculty are not obligated to provide students with course materials, offer make-up exams, or grant extensions assignment deadlines for missed work that occurred during a student’s access restriction period.

Faculty will not be directly notified when their Canvas access has been reinstated, however a student’s active status can be viewed in the People tab in the course Canvas site, which is updated multiple times daily.