ADAM HOWELL: Well, It looks like we're slowing down to somewhat of a trickle with folks joining us, so I'm just going to go ahead and get started. Once again, I'd like to welcome and thank you all for being here. My name is Adam Howell. The chair of the Employee Assembly for the 2019-2020 term. And again, I'm so glad that you all can join us here at our latest and finally, final scheduled summer All Staff Forum on services on campus. 

 

Once again, we're going to get a lot of great information out to you all, and we hope that you walk away a little bit better informed and have some of your questions answered. As we have been doing in the past, please submit questions into the Q&A pod, and after we get through our live questions, we will try to get to as many of the Q&A pod questions as possible and hopefully get as much good information out there as we can. So I don't want to take too much time because we've got so much good stuff to get to, so I'm going to now turn it over to Vise President and Chief Human Resources Officer Mary Opperman. 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: Thanks, Adam, and thanks again to the EA for being so terrific in putting these on for us all summer long. And we'll have more forum opportunities as time goes on, but more on the open forum framework, likely. 

So I wanted to just say a few things. I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues. There's a lot, a lot going on right now as we ready ourselves for the fall semester. We have-- we continue to have changing and evolving circumstances, and so-- and, as I've said to you all many times, we are in an unprecedented time. So there are issues that are arising and that will continue to rise that we don't have obvious solutions for. That doesn't mean we're not continuing to work on issues that we hear about or that we know about, but we don't have every thing solved. 

 

So I do want to thank those of you, and there are many of you, that are working tirelessly to many of you throughout the semester or throughout the summer and now starting in the fall as we get ready for another change. Please bear in mind that we're a community. You all contribute in different ways. It's been a very difficult and challenging time in the country and in the world, and that's true here as well. 

 

I want to express my appreciation for however you contribute to this community. Maybe here, it may be remotely. You may have had multiple changes in expectations since March. You may have been working as you had been all the way through regardless. We are at our best when we act as a community, when we respect those differences, and we and we appreciate the fact that it takes all of us to make the community continue. 

 

So I've seen many, many wonderful examples of that. People celebrating one another, being appreciative to one another. And I just want to say how much I appreciate that and the tone and tenor when we recognize that we are all part of the same community is very different and really appreciated, and it will be by our students as well. So I'm going to turn this over to Rick Burgess now. Rick. 

 

RICK BURGESS: All right. Thanks, Mary, and thanks also to the EA leadership and really for everybody being here. I appreciate the opportunity. I've been sitting in on the last several. It's been a couple since I've had the chance to talk with you all, and I appreciate you coming back. 

 

As I look back over the last, gosh, you know, five months-- I mean, we spent really the first portion of that just dealing with the interruption and the change of circumstances. How do we-- what do we do with the campus to campus? What do we do with the construction sites? What do we do with the campus emptying and everybody leaving all their stuff in their dorm room and going home? And so we were really consumed with that to start with. 

 

And you know we pushed through a lot of that. We got some guidance from the state. We've had people really working extra hard, some on campus, some at home, but everybody really pushing hard to work through those challenges.

 

And then, early in the summer, we shifted towards starting some things back up. And the focus became, how do we get research restarted? What under what conditions can we restore research? 

 

And then we've had people really, for a good part of the summer, doing that. There are a lot of people in the facility side of the house that were involved in repairing facilities to be reoccupied. We've talked about it before, so I'm not going to go into all those details, but we want to make sure that we aren't you know exposing people to stagnant water in the pipes, et cetera. So flushing, cleaning, putting up right signage and all those things have taken place over the summer. 

 

And so a huge push by the facilities team, some of them in FCS, many of them in the units. But really, a great team effort and a very, very impressive effort on everybody's part. And so we've got research-- I won't say completely back online, but largely restored. 

 

And then really have now been focused on the last several weeks on bringing the students back and getting back to the teaching restart. And again, that just brought a fresh wave of challenges to sort out on the facility side of the house. What classrooms are they going to be in? How do you achieve the reduced density and still have good instruction? How do you schedule all these things? How do you clean them? It's just been, again, a major team effort. The focus of those efforts evolved a little bit and became, frankly, a little more complicated even than the research restart challenge. 

 

So I just want to express my appreciation to the entire facilities organization and those folks that have also been diligently coming in across the board. CU police-- they've maintained their presence on campus. They've continued doing a great job and dealing with keeping our campus safe and secure. 

 

We've had the utilities folks on board, making sure we have light and cooling, et cetera, et cetera. So even the ones that have continue to just to show up to work. And I know it goes beyond facilities, but I got to give my team a shout out. 

So we do have some good stuff to update you on. I know there are particular questions on things. I don't want to answer them all in advance, but I do in this introductory phase, I just want to let you know that we take your input seriously, and that when we get to the parking question, I'll let Bridgette give you some details. 

 

But we really took your feedback on board. And I challenged Bridgette or team to come up with good solutions, more flexibility, more-- you know, a change to how we've always done business. And they really have stepped up to that challenge. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Bridgette Brady who is our senior director for transportation services. Bridgette. 

 

BRIDGETTE BRADY: Thank you, Rick. And as Rick mentioned, we've had the opportunity to participate and not necessarily speak in any of these, but participate in the forums, and we have heard you. And some of the solutions that we have generated are created were much about the conversations that we've had with the EA. 

 

We have some important updates. Things change all the time. And so right now, transit to this point hasn't received a lot of attention in communication quite simply because there wasn't much to report. But TCATs service fall servic will begin on August 30. And I know that there's some hesitation to using transit, but I'd like ensure you that TCATs number one goal is safety of both their employees and the passengers. 

 

They exceed mandated sanitation guidelines with a strong commitment to adopt new measures for expertise when possible and as things come forth. They're always researching. So here's a few additional measures that are taken, they have purchased a professional-grade germocide electrostatic sprayer. So after they do regular sanitation, they go through each bus every night and use the sprayer. They do that in their facilities as well. And so anybody that is coming in contact with the facilities have also experienced or will experience that treatment. 

 

And the employees at TCAT use the same or use a similar check-in process as Cornell does. You know, hand sanitizer on the buses, the drivers have wipes, and one of the most important CDC guidelines -- 50% occupancy on the buses. It does create some volume issues, but TCAT is prepared for that. And face masks that are required, and there's a strict enforcement policy for that as well. 

 

Cornell has also taken some measures for education at the bus shelters and stopped on campus in regards to mask requirements and distancing requirements. I do want you to feel confident that TCAT is taking all the measures that they need to take care of us. 

 

So we've had far greater opportunity to discuss and communicate parking updates. And again, through our conversations, we've tried to alleviate anxiety regarding the need for more choices with changing work conditions and schedules. A little more time to decide if you wanted to renew your annual permit. I think that that's going well. We've received a lot of positive feedback. It's not a perfect solution , but I will tell you right now, the team is working so hard to make sure that we can try to alleviate any of the anxiety associated with all of the changes that we're experiencing. 

 

We've recently extended the suspension of the payment for the daily decision lots just let people try them out. So through the end of the month, you can try them out for free if they're going to work as a solution for you. And then several individuals have taken advantage of participation in our V boarding program. If you're new to Cornell, you went through an onboarding program. So if you want to talk about your options, make an appointment, and you'll have personal attention and someone can help you. 

 

Move in parking, we know that that's-- it's swiftly approaching next week, 23rd and 24th. We anticipate minimal displacement. We had an announcement that went out yesterday, so take a peek at that. Primarily, the A lot, that you will have half the A lot available. And if you are displaced, I think we have reasonable options nearby the location that you would be otherwise displaced. And with that, those are the major updates. I will send it over to Kerry now. 

 

KERRY HOWELL: Thank you, Bridgette. Appreciate it. So I'm Kerry Howell. I'm the director of Cornell University Wellness Program. Thank you so much, Employee Assembly, for allowing me to be here today to connect in this way with the community. Throughout this whole pandemic, myself and my staff have been actively just listening to people, trying our best to provide services and programming. And our main goal and continuing forward through the fall and throughout the whole pandemic is to continue to provide something for each and every person that will resonate with them that will help to build and maintain their resilience throughout this time. 

 

We're providing services and programs that are focusing on supporting your healthy eating, supporting moving more, supporting positive sleep, supporting your mental wellness. These we know are critically important throughout a pandemic period because they help to support your immune system. So we were very quickly able to pivot from in-person to virtual means for doing these things, and we're planning on continuing to do that. We know through your comments that many of these have been vitally important for your mental wellness, for your physical wellness, or helping tips for sleep. 

 

And just to calm, and bring a sense of calm and community to the university and its employees. So we look forward to continuing to serve you through this period in these ways. And just as a fun fact, this past week, Cornellians virtually walked from Ithaca to London in the Ivy League Snap Challenge. So we look forward to continuing to provide those types of things plus many more offerings to help provide that sense of community that we're hearing that people really miss and anything that we can do to help provide that. So I look forward to answering questions as they come up today. And at this time, I'm going to turn the mic over to Pat Wynn. 

 

PAT WYNN: Hi, everyone it's Pat Wynn, assistant vise president for Student and Campus Life. And Housing and Dining report in to me, in addition to the Cornell stores. So we've been very busy since March when we had the move out. And just as a fun fact, we had 2,000 rooms where either partial or all of the contents were left behind. So it was a huge logistical task to get everything out of those rooms, and now, we have the challenge of putting the stuff back into the rooms. 

 

So of course, if you left in March and you were in Balch, you might not be in Balch this year. So there's many, many, many moving parts to this process. And we're doing the best we can to get items into the right rooms. 

 

One of our biggest challenges has been the 14-day quarantine imposed by New York state from the travel-restricted areas. And we've changed our process on this several times. But we finally landed on a concept where we would allow students from those states to come into Cornell if they had extenuating circumstances. 

 

So yesterday, we welcomed almost 400 students into our residence halls. The first step of that was having them tested, and they were tested at Robert Purcell. They were given a wristband that indicated they were tested. And they were placed in the residence halls in single rooms. And now, we are awaiting test results for some of those. If they are testing positive, they will be put into isolation. If they're not testing positive, they will stay quarantined in the in these rooms for the next 14 days. 

 

One of the big challenges that my team had was for this particular move-in, we are not only assigning rooms, we're also assigning testing locations and times. So it's a huge amount of data to process. And they've been doing this now for about a week and a half, and it's just a constant upping of the data, looking at the students who have chosen not to come back and freeing up those rooms. 

 

Looking at students who now want to come back and finding them rooms. But we can't give them rooms until we can test them. So it's a very complex time for us, but we're getting through it. And I just have a wonderful team. And I'm just-- I know. So thank you for letting me be here. 

 

But I think you want to talk about dining. So let me talk about some things that the dining team has done, and I think this will help you have a better understanding of how we're going to provide the service and how dining has really taking a hard look at what they can or can't do to make it safe for everyone. So first of all, there will be contactless payment. There'll be touchless payment options with the Get My Card in the Get app and self-scanning of your Cornell ID. 

 

So there will be a lot of information out there, it's already out there, on how to download the Get app and actually do this contactless payment and self-scanning of your Cornell ID. We're going to have satellite locations for meal swipes across campus. So those locations will be the Appel Service Center on North Campus, the Robert Purcell first floor lobby, also on North Campus, Duffield Hall on Central Campus, the concession stands in Bartels, also on Central Campus, and the Noyes Community Recreation Center on West Campus. 

 

So for a meal swipe, you can pick up a meal to go for lunch or dinner at any one of these locations. So again, you need to get the Get app and download it and place your meal orders. We're going to have an RSVP system with OpenTable. So students, staff, will be able to reserve a spot and plan their day using OpenTable to schedule both dine-in and take-out service in our residential dining locations. 

 

We'll have mobile ordering so you can order ahead and skip the line. Again, using the Get app, you can preorder in many of our cafes, and as I said, the satellite locations on campus. Cornell dining now provides access to menus and hours. It's very mobile friendly. It's a web app, and you can check that anytime to see what's open, what the hours of operation are. 

 

And lastly, we want to have-- we want to not forget our commitment to sustainability. So there will be sustainable takeout options where you'll be able to purchase a reusable takeout container for your to-go meals, and then you'll bring that back. We will recollect it. It'll be sanitized. And then they can be reused. We're trying to eliminate the waste is going to be generated by so much takeout food. 

 

So again, contactless payment, reasonable containers, satellite locations, RSVP with OpenTable, and mobile ordering. So I think that addresses most of the issues that I read in the notes. But if there's more questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Thank you. 

 

ADAM HOWELL: And thank you to all of our panelists. We really appreciate you being here and giving us all this great information. So without any further delay, I'm going to turn it over to Employees Assembly Executive Vise Chair Hei Hei Depew. Hei Hei, take it away. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Hello, everyone. So I'm going to introduce three individual staff members who have submitted responses via Qualtrics to the most recent inquiries that we've submitted. So I'm going to talk between, again, the live Q&A questions and also the pre-submitted Qualtrics submissions. So I'm going to try my best to get to everybody. I apologize if I'm unable to get to all the questions and concerns. 

 

So I'm going to start with Casey Lucier, who was asked the question, what will be important for you as we look forward to the future? I'm going to allow Casey to provide her response now. 

 

CASEY LUCIER: Thanks, Hei Hei. Prior to COVID, there were significant amounts of remote staff that had mentioned feeling left out of local and campus-based options like parking, fitness, childcare. When COVID hit, the world became more remote-friendly and remote-focused, and there's a fear that when staff returned to campus that they'll be left out again similar to before. The flexibility of working remote can have many benefits both to the university and employees, such as lower commuting charges or parking needs and changing needs at home. So it's important to me and others that we enhance the remote staff work-life balance and work on creating more inclusive environments for everyone in the future. 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: Thanks, Casey. So it is the case that it is a different relationship between ourselves and our work when we do it from a remote location. I think that we've-- I would invite you to take a look at what we already have done. There's quite a if you look. There's a whole tab for remote services and support on the HR website. If you have specific things that you think are lacking, please let us know. 

 

Our intention is to continue to offer programming that will be available virtually and remotely because we will have people who are continuing to work from home. But even people who are coming back to the campus for group meetings, we are we are not going to encourage people to get together in large groups, especially in the beginning, so that remote work, those remote opportunities, will be helpful to everyone. 

 

So the work that Kerry does, and I'm going to ask Kerry to talk a little bit about that, and much of the work that Michelle [INAUDIBLE] has done around balancing work and home priorities-- those are all available training programs, which we now offer remotely, will continue. So I agree with you that our goal, since no one can predict the future, our goal is to continue to provide a wide variety of ways in which to engage on the campus. And those hopefully will continue to have options, but people who are fully or partially remote feel are helpful and supportive to them. So thank you for asking that question, Casey. Kerry. 

 

KERRY HOWELL: Casey, thank you so much. I would say that I can absolutely assure you from a Cornell Wellness standpoint and from my colleagues who fall under the well-being umbrella that we will not fully go back to where we were. Things have changed. We've made advances that have absolutely resonated with a lot of people. Were able to access things much more than they had before. 

 

In the past year, we thought, oh, we're doing a pretty good job on this. And it became apparent very quickly when a lot of people change to do remote work that we weren't meeting the needs sufficiently at a sufficient level. And so in the future, you can absolutely look forward to much more things being offered virtually. Thanks for that. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. Moving on to Sarah Day, who's, again, addressing the question of, what will be important for you as we look forward to the future? I'm going to send it over to Sarah Day for her response. 

 

SARAH DAY: Thank you. My response was that I think, moving forward, the university should be focusing on programs to protect and support the mental and physical health of students and employees. This past few months has been intense with the pandemic and important social justice causes. I think finding ways to make people feel safe coming to campus should be a priority. 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: I'm going to turn this over to Rick in a minute, but we completely agree with you, Sarah, that it's really important that we keep a focus on health and also on the important societal issues that we are just beginning to unpack and understand and take action on. So we are we are absolutely in agreement on that. 

 

And I think part of the challenge that we have found is that people get their information from lots of sources. So health and safety is, I think, perceived differently by different-- depending on sort of what piece of information that you take in and that you feel strongly about. But we've been undertaking a painstaking review depending on science for how best to reactivate the fall. And much of that is predicated on individual responsibility for their safety and also our community's focus on public health and public safety. 

 

So we agree with you completely. The public health campaign is up and running. If you've been on campus, the signs are up. So we agree. And it's up to each of us to model the behavior that we expect, and then we're needed to point out the areas where we continue to have trouble. Rick. 

 

RICK BURGESS: Well, thanks. And it's a good question. It's one on a lot of people's minds these days, right? When we talk about safety in, say, I started in the construction world before I got here. And there's no such thing as a perfectly safe construction site. You have risks, and then you exercise controls. You put controls in place. The idea is that you bring the risk level down to an acceptable point, right? 

 

So nobody's going to want to work construction if basically you're walking to your doom by stepping on the site. And certainly, go back in the history of the United States and elsewhere, it used to be a very, very hazardous occupation. It's still hazardous as compared to be an office worker, but we have succeeded in bringing the risk down to a much, much lower level. And we do that by looking at our risks, thinking through and developing the right controls, and then implementing and monitoring those controls. 

 

So I'm talking about construction. Put it in a more personal context. You're driving in your car. Not that long ago, cars didn't even have seatbelts, right? I mean, I'm not young, but I'm not an old geezer yet either. We had seat belts in our car. We didn't always wear them. OK? 

 

So now, almost everybody in the United States, anyway, you climb in your car, you put on your seat belt, and off you go. There is a perfect example of a hazard. If you get in a collision, you can be injured by banging around in your car.

 

We have a control, the seatbelt. And then you implement the control. And now, it's not that people don't get killed in car accidents-- they do, but at a far lower rate as compared to the amount of travel. Seatbelts, airbags, more robust cars. I mean, they've put a lot of thought into it. 

 

So why do I say all that? Because we are you taking the same approach to reducing risk on campus. If you look at what we've done with all the various measures, we've maximized remote work. We've asked people if they do return to maintain a lower density so you're not so close to your workers in doing the job. 

 

If you're inside we have a mask policy that says if you're inside a building, unless you're in your own private office or you're eating your lunch, your mask is on. And just so people are clear, the mask policy is all buildings owned by Cornell. If you're in a Cornell building, you're wearing your mask. I just want to make it clear. I know you guys get it, but I just want to reinforce that. 

 

If you're outside and you can maintain sufficient distance, you don't have to wear your mask, but we want you have your mask visibly on your person. Hanging out of your pocket, around your neck, so if you do get in a close passing situation, you just pop your mask on, smile and wave, and keep going. So the mask policy. 

 

We then extend it out to things we can do in the workplace. We've gone through all our buildings and figured out if we have automatic HVAC controls, can we introduce more air into those buildings? We've looked at the cleaning. Can we introduce more cleaning frequency, especially on those things that where people touch and that kind of stuff? 

 

So these are all things that the university has been doing. Then there are the personal measures. You know, your mask, your distance, washing your hands, not touching your face. Everybody's heard those. And then the other thing, I would just offer this, and Kerry and her team have done a great job. 

 

Get yourself in shape. If ever there was a time to lose 10 pounds and lay off the donuts, it's right now, because the data show that the people most at risk are the people that have other health issues going on. And let's face it. You know, we live in a wealthy society. We have so much sugar and so much junk food out there that we can kind of get lazy. 

 

This is a bad time to indulge in that stuff because the research is starting to come out how that leads to greater susceptibility to getting sick and then worse outcomes if you do get COVID or anything else. Not just COVID. So there are some things that we can do. Get yourself in shape. Get outside. Get some sunshine. Get some vitamin D. 

 

And the last thing I would just say is, you know, people have different points on the risk spectrum. OK, get it. Everybody is free to choose. I would just say, we're all survivors of a long line of humans who have come before us, and they weren't little, delicate, shrinking lilies. We should be smart, we should be prudent, but we should also be balanced in things. And read good information, take it on board, but don't let some of this alarmism in the media knock you off your kind of peaceful spot there. 

 

I can only stand a very short amount of reading the news every day because it gives me high blood pressure. I mean, it makes me crazy. And guess what? They love that because that's how they get their eyeballs, that's how they get their clicks, is making people crazy. A little bit is fine. Stay informed. I'm not saying be ignorant. But don't let yourself go overboard. 

 

We all want to know. We all want the answer. I guarantee the mainstream media doesn't have it for you. I would recommend you spend more time reading the COVID guidance that's being put out by EH&S, the stuff that's coming out from our own health experts at Cornell, and make sure you understand that you're comfortable with it, that you get it, and that then you can understand where you want to be on your own personal risk spectrum. 

 

So there are-- I guess, long answer to a short question. There are a lot of measures. There is no one single bullet. They work together as an ensemble. But I think you can have confidence in that. There's no need to cower fearfully in your house, never going out. You know, this is still our one life to live, all right? Now, do it within your risk envelope. Don't be foolhardy. But at the same time, don't be so terrified by everything because there are plenty of good measures in place. And I hope that answers your question. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. Moving on to another question asked in the Qualtrics, as the campus begins to reactivate and given the continued financial challenges, how should the university prioritize the availability of fitness, parking, dining, TCAT, childcare, et cetera? I'm going to send this over to Meredith Collins for her response. 

 

MEREDITH COLLINS: Hi, I'm Meredith. I work for Cornell University Library. And I think that childcare should absolutely be the number one priority for employee services. I don't have children, but I see directly in my work how this is affecting everyone within the campus community. Do we have plans to better support parents and other child caregivers? 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: So I'll take this one. So I agree with you, Meredith. Child care is a particular-- it is always, by the way, a particular stress. Trying to-- we all have a number of things in our lives in addition to our jobs. And however you define your family, balancing between those priorities and your work is oftentimes a stressful reality. 

 

But where we are today is that we have families who don't have a care solution for their children. We are doing the very best we can. We have a small group of staff, faculty, and students who have been trying to understand this reality for a few weeks. Their report will come due I think at the end of this week. 

 

But I want to be honest about this. We had a child care shortage before COVID. There are a lot of regulations necessary to be a family care provider or a center provider. They're significant, and sometimes, they make it very hard for particularly family care providers to stay certified, licensed. So we were already well at work on trying to expand the opportunities for, the options for child care in the area, when COVID hit. The same issues that cause the complexities for the school districts and for other-- and for centers and the like are still there. So expanding those opportunities is not simple or easy. It's actually pretty complicated. 

 

So here's what I would say back, Meredith. We all need to recognize-- and it's not all about childcare. So for those of you who are going to email me later, I understand. If you're caring for-- if you have a medical condition, if you're caring for an elderly parent, if you have other complications in your lives, I totally understand that. But what we are going to have to do, this is back to my original comment, is we have to act as a community. 

 

Recognizing that the issues an individual faces you may not even know, but if you do know then, how can we support one another? Because eventually, that's where we're going to be as a community. And Rick started to talk about that. We are an interrelated community. We all need to participate together in how we move forward in this really, truly unprecedented time. 

 

We're doing the best we can. We're not getting everything right, but we're working really hard. We can also as individual colleagues help one another. Find out how we can work together in ways that allow those individuals who really have, it feels like just a stress point that they can't figure out, how can we all work together and be supportive of one another? But Meredith, you've raised a hugely important question, and it's just a really complicated one to try to address. But we're doing the best we can. We hope to be able to come out with some new information pretty soon. So thank you for asking that question. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. Moving on to the live Q&A, several questions have come in regards to masks. And it looks like Rick Burgess has provided some direction to go EHS for the type of masks to be worn on campus. There are also two questions in regards to, will sloganeering our mask be discouraged and will face shields be required as well? So I wanted to present those as we're talking about masks. 

 

RICK BURGESS: Yeah, let me just-- I'll go ahead and jump in. I was in the middle of typing out an answer on the face shield. I had asked that question early on when we were working on the face mask policy. You know, the face shield is nicer just because it's not right up on your face. It doesn't provide the same level of protection. 

 

So our policy requires the fabric face covering. Go to the EH&S website, the COVID web site. It's got the details on the mask policy, and it will give you more information on the various types of the fabric face covering. The face shields by themselves are not an acceptable alternative. We are looking at-- thank you, I saw the link just posted there. We are looking at face shields as a potential accommodation for faculty while they are teaching, but that would really be the only instance where a face shield is a sufficient substitute. 

 

And I don't want to try to predict things, but I really don't see us having face shields in addition to the fabric covering. I think we're good with the mask as the fabric covering, and we're not looking to make face shields on top of that. And with respect to sloganeering, I mean, if it's not contrary to our campus code of conduct and it's not foul language and rude. I mean, if I have a Cornell one on there or somebody wants to wear a Notre Dame one, I think people are going to be allowed to put stuff on there. 

 

Again, we're part of a community. I would encourage everybody to kind of think of it that way. We shouldn't be looking at this as an opportunity to insult others or to do something that's contrary to that. We're trying to we're trying to act as a team And think as a team, and we want to build our team up. So stuff that builds up the team, great. Put it on there. Stuff that tears team down, let's steer clear of that place. 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: So I would encourage you all to take a look at the Cornell values, and they state right up front these two values that we believe in. One is the importance of the belonging for all members of our community and with a special focus on the impact on marginalized communities of some of our speech, and our adherence to a belief in free speech. So the issue of sloganeering should be looked at in context of those two values. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. Another question we received in the Q&A is, what is the parking permit deadline? Does this apply to those who use the Seneca Street Garage as well? 

 

BRIDGETTE BRADY: Thank you for the question. If you are deciding whether or not to renew your permit, you have until September 7th. Permits were required or start a requirement on the 17th. However, those renewing still have time. The Seneca Street Garage, I'm told that permits are currently required. If you need arrangements, please contact the transportation office. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. A question we received in the Q&A is, what are the plans for testing Cornell dining staff regularly? 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: Thanks for the question. So the university does intend to test those employees who are on campus. The testing frequency is being finalized this week. But we will be testing not just the dining workers. If your job brings you to campus, there will be a testing schedule that you will need to adhere to. 

 

And just a reminder, this is surveillance testing. So I can never remember the names of them, but this is one. I think it's called anterior nasal. But it's a self-administered under supervision test that will be done in the testing sites around campus. That's different than the symptomatic. So if you have symptoms and you go to the mall, all I can think of is that they tickle your brain. That's one that someone else does for you, and it's a very different kind of a test. 

 

They have tested the efficacy, and the surveillance testing that we're using is very effective. So that's the testing that will be done on a regular basis. So more to come. We hope to get our testing frequencies out soon. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. Another question from the Q&A is, will the child care grant be extended? 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: You mean continued? The child care grant? Yes. We are going to continue the child care grant. We're actually looking at some potential changes to make it a bit easier for people to use. And so we hope that that will come out along with the other recommendations from the committee that's looking at child care right now. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you very much. If we were only on campus certain days of the week, will our testing schedule correspond with those days? 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: Yeah, it's a great question. So Pat referred to just the resilience of logistics that they're dealing with with student move-in and student testing and the like. Some of what we're trying to work out now is the staff and faculty testing logistics. And we still have a ways to go to just finalize it and get it out. 

 

But the goal is to have our testing schedule that people can know and put in and that's hopefully consistent with their on-campus work anyway so that they're not having to come in just for their test. But we're working on that now. And we are talking about a really lot of tests every single day through the testing process. So I appreciate these are all great questions and ones we've been working on for a while. So hope to have something out soon. 

 

HEI HEI DEPEW: Thank you. It looks like we're almost out of time, so I'm going to provide one final comment response from the Qualtrics which was in regards to, what would important for you as we look to the future? The response we received from Allison Pelletier was this. "I trust Cornell's leadership. They have proven themselves to be resourceful, thoughtful, nimble, and willing to make difficult decisions. I think this trust is important moving forward as we try to get back to normal in as smart and cautious a way as possible." 

 

In addition, in the Q&A, somebody mentioned that they want to provide a big thank you to the EA and also administrators for spending so much time sharing and updating information. So I think I've been seeing a lot of commentary in that line as well. So thank you all for your participation in this. So with this, I will turn it back to Adam. 

 

ADAM HOWELL: I think it's always-- thank you, Hei Hei. It's always great to end on a positive note. And I want to echo all that, especially, Mary, I want to thank you so much for your partnership and all of our panelists, all of our staff. Thank you so much for helping us produce these and get so much great information throughout the summer and, really, since the beginning of the crisis as it unfolded. It's been such a wonderful opportunity to have that, like I said, that partnership. And we truly, at the EA, and all staff, we're very grateful for it. 

 

So like we mentioned before. This is our last scheduled summer forum, but the future is unfolding before us daily. So we hope that there may be more opportunity for more getting into the fall. But with that, I know we want to be respectful of people's time. And I will turn it to you, Mary, for final thoughts, comments, or anything else. Thank you again. 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: Thank you, Adam. And as always, thank you to the EA, and in particular, the EPA leadership who have been just amazing in all of this. Thank you to the Office of the Assemblies who does a lot of all this work behind the scenes. CIT for their work on technology. We have a captionist. There's a lot of people that make these happen. So thank you, thank you, to today's panelists and all of the other panelists that we've had. 

 

And so I'm actually going to-- I do want to say, well, I know we're over, so if you have to leave, we understand. Pat just wanted to make one more comment. 

 

PAT WYNN: Yes. Thank you, Mary. Everyone, we are planning on moving in about anywhere from 1,600 to 2,000 students on Sunday and Monday the 23rd and 24th, and we desperately need volunteers to help with directions, to help with answering questions, just to assist students in this / This will be unlike move-in in previous years. You're not going to be lifting heavy boxes or moving stuff up and down steps. This is purely personal interaction from a safe distance, and we just really, really need your support. So if you can volunteer, we would really appreciate it. This is a university event, and we really need to make this happen. So thank you. Thanks, Mary. 

 

MARY OPPERMAN: Thank you, Pat. So that's a great way for us to end because I think what I'd like to do is end by saying, thank you to all of you. I have seen and I have witnessed, heard about, and participated in some of the most generous actions I've ever seen in my working life. And I am an old geezer, so that says a lot. 

 

People have been incredibly kind of spirit. They have been collaborative, and they have been positive, . Even when they aren't necessarily feeling that way. Sometimes, they'll start by expressing some frustration. but they end up really supporting one another. We are a community. 

 

We are a community. We are dealing with something that we did not create. We are doing our very best to continue forward based on science, based on goodwill, and based on ourselves as a community. So I want to thank you all so much. Wish you all the best as we move into the final weeks of summer. Take good care. Thank you.