The New School canceled in-person classes, the week of March 23-27, and recalled international students this week, the latest developments as the school navigates the arrival of the global coronavirus outbreak in New York City.
Regular, in-person classes will not be held the week of March 23-27, the school announced Monday, March 9th. “Students will not be expected to attend classes that week, but you may certainly be on campus,” wrote president David Van Zandt and provost Tim Marshall in an email to faculty and students. Faculty members were told to create online lessons and meetings for the week following spring break.
Monday’s email was a follow up to one sent on March 5th, which stated: “Given the latest guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , The New School is taking the additional precaution of suspending international university-related travel through the end of the semester.”
The New School’s decision follows a recent decision by Fordham University, Columbia University and other city universities to conduct classes online in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
The CDC is advising against travel to China, Iran, South Korea, and Italy. It placed the nations on a “level three” travel notice — which tells travelers to avoid all non-essential travel — on February 28th.
The New School will suspend university international business travel and university-sponsored international travel by groups or individuals for academic study or projects, research, conferences, or events until the end of the semester.
“Students studying abroad should remain in contact with their deans’ offices. While studying abroad students in Italy, South Korea, and Japan have been advised to depart those countries, others are well situated in their host countries and will remain there,” the March 5th email read.
Students and university members who return from areas with level three travel advisories to New School campuses in New York or Paris are advised to self-quarantine for 14 days before returning to campus, in accordance with CDC guidelines.
The March 5th email asked students to monitor their temperature and contact their healthcare provider or The New School Student Health Services if they develop a fever of 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher or respiratory symptoms.
Jaqueline Maldonado, 19, a culture and media student at Lang was studying abroad for the spring semester at John Cabot University in Rome. On February 29th, while on the train returning to Rome from Naples when she got an email from the New School that told her that she had to return back to the U.S.
“I knew it was inevitable. I’d be coming home,” said Maldonado, whose roommates were called by their school at 3 a.m. that morning.“They were crying because they knew that meant they’d be leaving.”
Her parents were able to exchange a family member’s ticket for an immediate flight back home. The New School is offering reimbursement for flights back home, according to Maldonado.
Despite the New School and CDC guidelines recommending a 14-day quarantine for those returning from level three countries such as Italy, Maldonado said it was never mentioned once she got back to the U.S. “I wasn’t screened or anything at the airport. So no one said anything about having to be quarantined,” she said.
Students who study abroad with the New School’s exchange programs pay the normal semester tuition and Maldonado has some concerns about reimbursement for involuntary time off from classes. “Honestly I’m not taking classes for a month so we should not have to be responsible for this cost. So as soon as this quarantine thing is up I am going to the financial aid office,” she said.
The coronavirus outbreak has spurred a multitude of reactions from the public and students and brought forth a response of racism and discrimination towards people of Asian descent due to the fact that the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China late last year.
In February, an Asian student was assaulted near campus by a man who referenced the coronavirus. The message about the assault was sent university-wide through the university’s “New School Alerts’ ‘ system.
On Saturday, March 7th, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency. 142 New Yorkers have tested positive for the virus as of March 9th, according to the State Department of Health. – a number which is expected to grow as hospitals continue testing individuals. In New York City there are 19 total confirmed cases. On March 4th, The New York Times reported that 2,700 New York City residents are under quarantines in their homes.
Prior to the school’s announcement of virtual classes, fears of the coronavirus and attacks such as these have even prompted some students to demand that the school close all campuses. Ray Xia, a fourth-year Design and Technology student, created a Change.org petition entitled “CLOSE ALL CAMPUS of The New School due to COVID-19 Outbreak.”
“Sign the petition and stand with all the lives that are potentially at risk,” the petition reads. “Let’s make The New School a free zone of COVID-19 and protect our fellow students and colleagues by do[ing] the right thing before it’s too late.”
The petition reached 2,500 signatures within two days of its March 3rd launch.
“The school is supposed to make the entire community feel safe,” said Xia. Due to the recent hate crimes targeting Asian students near campus, she expressed concern not only for her health but also for her security. “I’ve been thinking about whether or not I should carry pepper spray in my pocket to guarantee my safety,” said Xia, who commutes to school from Queens.
In addition to the signatures, comments, and shares of students, Xia’s petition has also gained financial support. After signing online, a notification appears stating “Within an hour, this petition could have thousands of more supporters if everyone chipped in the price of coffee.” The suggested donation is eight dollars. As of March 4th, the petition had collected donations from 24 people.
Xia said that she wasn’t receiving any money from the petition. “I think it’s the platform [change.org] that collects the money to promote the petition, to get it to the front page,” she said.
While Change.org did once have a crowdfunding platform where petition creators could collect donations, the website states that this feature was to be decommissioned in 2019. No updates have been released on the issue since last year.
Kristiana Stitt, a third-year Creative Writing student, first saw the petition on Instagram. She signed it, and went back the next day to post a comment. “My brother is immuno-compromised and I have an auto-immune disorder,” wrote Stitt.
To get to school, Stitt commutes from her home in Metuchen, New Jersey, where she lives with her family. “While my brother does not attend The New School, I do and as a commuting student I am at risk of contracting and spreading it to my brother who is the MOST at risk of dying from COVID-19,” she commented under the petition.
Stitt was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis over winter break. The auto-immune disorder could complicate or worsen her symptoms if Stitt were to contract the virus, according to the Arthritis Foundation. “I asked my professor if there was any sort of plan in place for students who have immunodeficiencies,” Stitt told the Free Press. “I kind of got stared at, and then the professor was like ‘Well, no,’” she said. “It was pretty disheartening.”
Journalism + Design professor Blake Eskin is one of the many faculty members working on contingency plans for his classes. Eskin received an email from the provost office on March 3rd regarding the outbreak. “Should a disruption occur, consider using Zoom to run a classroom from a remote location,” the email read.
Zoom is an online video conferencing platform that allows multiple people to video or audio chat. It can be accessed via a computer or phone, making it a viable option for students without consistent internet access.
“Not everybody knows how it works or uses it the same way. So it’s good to practice,” said Eskin, who had his students download and test drive Zoom during class last week, even before the official notice of class closures was sent on March 9th.
“I see it as kind of like running a fire drill,” said Eskin. “Maybe there’s not going to be a fire, but we know what to do if there is.”
Contributed Reporting by Simon Chen