Date:  September 2, 2020
To:  THE NYU COMMUNITY
From:  Katherine Fleming, Provost
Martin Dorph, Executive Vice President
Dr. Carlo Ciotoli, Executive Lead, NYU COVID-19 Prevention & Response Team

We hope that you and all in your life are healthy and safe and coping well.

Start of classes, end of quarantine for many

This week marks the start of classes for much of NYU, and the end of quarantine for those who arrived early from hot-spot states and abroad, and move-in for those not required to quarantine. The students who were quarantining did an excellent job of abiding by the quarantine’s strict rules, notwithstanding some initial missteps on NYU’s part with respect to meal delivery.

We welcome you to the start of academic year 2020-2021, and wish everyone the best of luck with their fall classes and studies.

Students not required to quarantine arrived for move-in this week. As we move forward with classes, we want to re-emphasize the importance of observing our health and safety rules. It is particularly critical given the new state guidelines about pivoting to remote instruction. The University will continue to be serious about enforcing the safety and health rules.

Reminder: Use the Daily Screener

With the resumption of classes, we want to remind everyone – students, faculty, administrators, and staff – that they need to complete the Daily Screener every day that they plan to enter an NYU building for classes or work.

Community health and protocols

Testing

Next week will mark a pivot in our testing program – we will go from a program principally of arrival or gateway testing to an ongoing testing program. As with the arrival testing, participation will be mandatory for all community members. We will send out a message about the ongoing testing program later this week.

As to the results of the arrival testing: between August 1 and August 28, NYU conducted 17,175 tests, and had 11 positives from our testing, plus another six postives from the submission of independently obtained tests.

For students who still need to be tested as part of their arrival requirements, testing will be available on campus on Wednesday and Thursday. You will need an appointment, which you can make here.

We are working to establish a dashboard with regularly updated testing results on the Status page of the NYU Returns web hub. We hope to have it up by the end of the week.

Seating for Students – A New Seat-Reservation System for Remote Learning and Study

For fall 2020, in line with our safety and health practices, we are introducing a seat reservation system that will enable students to find and secure appropriately physically distanced places to sit around campus for the purpose of studying or participating in a remote class. You can find more information about the seat reservation system here.

Public Health Ambassadors

To encourage and model compliance with our safety rules and to be a resource for information about COVID-19 and NYU’s plans, some 200 students are stepping forward as Public Health Ambassadors. They will be a visible presence on campus, recognizable by their specially designed handkerchiefs and tote bags, and available to answer questions or to provide masks or bottles of hand sanitizers.

Keep each other Safe