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The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 138, No. 6
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2021
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ITHACA, NEW YORK
8 Pages – Free
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The Sun is currently recruiting new staffers for all of its departments. Organizational meetings will be held later this week. | Page 5
New Exhibit
First-Year Impact
Mostly Sunny
Venture into last week’s gorgeous nature-inspired Tjaden Hall art exhibit. | Page 4
New recruits impress in volleyball’s opener. The team won two of three matches this past weekend. | Page 8
HIGH: 78º LOW: 63º
Student Assembly Holds Productive First In-Person Meeting of Fall in WSH S.A. debates resolutions for over two hours By ELI PALLRAND Sun Staff Writer
JULIA NAGEL / SUN ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Balch hall | The all-women dorm building is now used as quarantine housing for students who test positive for COVID-19.
Quarantined Students Bear Burdens of COVID Policies levels are reaching record highs in Tompkins County — as of Monday evening, there are 442 active cases in the county. With nearly all students vaccinated, the In February 2021, Jamie ’24 was forced to quarantine hours after stepping foot on Cornell’s University suspended arrival testing and reduced campus after someone on her bus from New York surveillance testing to weekly nose swabs for City tested positive for COVID-19. She never vaccinated students. But now, some students are tested positive herself — but she spent seven days reporting long waits to get supplemental tests and test results, and some have been forced to navigate in quarantine at The Statler Hotel. But on Aug. 26, after Jamie, who asked to campus with the suspicion that they are positive omit her last name because of mention of personal for COVID-19. After Jamie learned she might have been exposed, medical history, learned the boss of her summer job tested positive, the sophomore spent two days she spent two days attending classes and gathering trying to get a COVID test at Cornell before learn- with her friends. She minimized her time spent indoors and wore a mask indoors and outdoors — ing that she, too, had COVID-19. “[The health department] basically said since but without specific University guidance, she was you’re vaccinated, it’s not urgent,” Jamie said. forced to calculate her own decisions while she awaited her test results. “Between the time that (According to the I found out I was con“I have no idea why this house of University, fully vactact traced, and when 20-year-olds has to make cinated individuals do I actually got my posnot need to quaranitive result back on public health decisions.” tine after contact with Saturday night, I had Clara Enders ’22 someone who tests no restrictions. I could positive unless they have gone anywhere.” have symptoms). Jamie is one of near“It was pretty scary, because I knew that I had ly 400 Cornell students who tested positive for COVID from Aug. 26 to Sept. 5. They’ve scram- been in contact with a lot of people,” Jamie said. bled to get tested and find isolation arrangements “At a certain point, I knew I should limit my during the first weeks of classes — isolating in indoor use, like the mask on outside when possible, but I’d already been in close contact with like 30 Balch Hall, hotels or at home. She and hundreds of other students are now people.” While Jamie said she tried to keep her distance, keeping up with coursework with few live classes to attend. Some students will meet their professors even avoiding crowded dining halls, she attendfor the first time three weeks into the school year, ed Trevor Wallace’s performance in Bailey Hall as faculty aren’t required to provide remote course directly before she received a call that she had tested positive. While Jamie wasn’t breaking University access to those in isolation. Most Cornell cases are linked to “informal, policy when attending class and the event, she off-campus gatherings” among undergraduates, feared facing repercussions now that she has tested and the University has asked students to put off parties and wear masks as much as possible. Case See QUARANTINE page 3 By MADELINE ROSENBERG and ANIL OZA
Sun Managing Editor and Sun Assistant Managing Editor
In Thursday’s Student Assembly meeting, representatives discussed COVID-19 risks on campus given the rising number of cases and potential academic accommodations, financial aid delays and beginning-of-year business. In one of their first meetings back in Willard Straight Hall, the representatives spoke to a nearly empty room. The S.A. approved its annual budget and heard presentations about the Empathy, Assistance & Referral Service’s new mentoring programs, which aim to be more informal and cultivate better peer-to-peer support than their previous model. Later, the S.A. heard presentations about plans to generate interest in the first-year and transfer student elections, and the S.A.’s new role in soliciting applications for the University Hearing and Review Boards.
This meeting came in the midst of extensive delays in the distribution of students’ financial aid packages. Some students have had to pay tuition without knowing what their aid would be, have received incorrect aid packages, have been temporarily
“I really want to call on Cornell to fix this situation, because paying for college is one of the biggest stresses that students face.” Adele Williams ’24 withdrawn from the University over outstanding fees or have not yet received a package of any kind. Condemning this state of affairs, the S.A. passed Resolution 15, which calls on See S.A. page 2
Sunny days
LEV KATRECZKO / SUN STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Ithaca sunshine| Students soak in the sun outside of Klarman Hall.