Returning to CUNY campuses in the Wake of COVID-19

The word “unprecedented” has been appropriately and repeatedly used to describe the COVID-19 virus and its global impact, claiming millions of lives. This disease hit us on a previously unforeseen scale, with over two million cases affecting New York families and claiming the lives of fifty-three thousand people. To meet this challenge, state and local governments are under enormous pressure to take innovative, thoughtful, and flexible actions when planning to reopen the state and preserve public safety. Local governments and governing bodies, such as the CUNY network, must not adopt unnecessarily punitive or exclusionary policies or policies driven by fear. CUNY schools must ensure New York students have fair and equitable education access, and that will be best accomplished through flexibility.