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Cornell University

Employee Assembly Staff Forum: COVID - A Year Later

This forum will be an opportunity for the staff community to hear from President Pollack and her colleagues at the one-year milestone of the campus (and the world) reacting to the impacts of COVID-19. This will be a look back and a look ahead, with a focus on the years effect on the staff community. The invited panelists are the university administrators best positioned to respond to the breadth of your concerns. This forum was held on Friday, March 12, 2021 from 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (EST).   Panelists include:

Martha Pollack, President
Joel Malina, Vice President for University Relations
Ryan Lombardi, Vice President for Student and Campus Life
Mary Opperman, Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer


One year in: Cornell's leaders look back, and forward

March 16, 2021 - On March 13, 2020, President Martha E. Pollack announced that the university was immediately suspending classes due to the newly declared COVID-19 pandemic. The expectation was that the pause would be temporary and business as usual would soon resume.

“And yet, here we are a full year later,” said Pollack during the Zoom broadcast of the “Employee Assembly Open Forum with President Pollack: COVID – A Year Later,” on March 12. The moderated Q&A included Pollack; Joel Malina, vice president for university relations; Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life; and Mary Opperman, vice president and chief human resources officer.

Read the full article in the Cornell Chronicle


Video Recording March 12, 2021 Closed Caption Transcription (formatted) TXT March 12, 2021 Closed Caption Transcription (formatted) PDF Questions Asked Questions Asked and Answered