We know that transportation within the five boroughs and wider metropolitan area will remain a challenge for several days to come and that there will inevitably be some students, faculty and staff who may have special difficulty reaching our campuses. We want to emphasize that everyone whose families, homes and neighborhoods have been severely affected by the storm have our full support in attending to their needs on the home front in the days ahead.
We are fortunate to have large populations of students, faculty and staff living in, or within close walking distance of, our campus communities, which escaped significant damage from the storm. Our students will only benefit by beginning to reengage in the purposeful work that brings our University community – and our City – together each day.
Administrative and support staff should report to work on Wednesday. If that presents difficulties, please contact your supervisor. Faculty members and teaching assistants who cannot reach campus tomorrow should try to follow normal procedures to inform their students that a particular class will not be held, as they would do with other instances such as missing class due to illness. Teaching assistants should follow the same protocol in regard to recitation sections or other academic sessions. To be sure, we appreciate that because of flooding and power outages elsewhere, it may sometimes be impossible to alert students of a class cancellation.
We encourage faculty members to be flexible and creative in making provision for students who may themselves not be able to reach campus, such as providing class materials including notes from lectures and discussions. Please do not hesitate to contact your deans and department chairs for more information and guidance, if needed.
We will continue to update the University community about the status of activities and operations depending largely on decision-making by State and City about travel and transit conditions. For example, because of limited staffing, we can expect that some campus services will be reduced this week.
It is also worth noting that this coming Monday is an Academic Holiday at Morningside, and next Tuesday is a University Holiday at all campuses.
With patience, understanding and flexibility, the University can move forward with the rest of our City and region in reestablishing our daily lives and work in the days ahead.
Additional Information on Planning a Commute to Campus