A nod to some of COVID’s unsung heroes

In a city where most avoid stereotyping, there’s a demographic often clumped together as a large, faceless group with similar ambitions and focus. This take on a quarter of Tompkins County’s population can fall somewhere between surface and counterproductive, especially given its key roles since March 2020.

Has this group’s work and engagement during the pandemic been perfect? No, but we’ve all stumbled once in a while.

What is true is that Cornell’s 25,582 students who come from every state and dozens of nations have quietly been part of a larger, resilient community that has done solid work through the stresses and messes of COVID-19.

It has been impressive as heck to watch from the trenches.

In my 20 years at Cornell, and 30 all told in Ithaca, I’ve noticed changes in the student body on an annual basis. In part, this is due to natural turnover but also challenges and opportunities in the U.S. and abroad, advances in science and technology and a steadily increasing focus on key issues, ranging from climate change to human rights.

When they were accepted to Cornell, these largely short-term neighbors weren’t counting on strict testing protocols, schedule changes, virtual learning and a level of essential compliance that has been unprecedented in Cornell’s history.

If you haven’t looked at Cornell’s COVID-19 tracking dashboard (tinyurl.com/yynelu9o), please do so. It is a fluid, updated archive of an interesting period that includes links to student messaging on daily checks, supplemental, surveillance and symptomatic testing, epidemiological modeling, health and safety, travel, vaccines and a myriad of other topics.

Within this mix, of course, has been a focus on education and problem-solving, represented in part by a Cornell Chronicle piece from about a year ago, headlined, “Students use active learning to solve COVID-19 problems.”

An excerpt: “The pervasive effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can leave us all feeling powerless at times. Students in the course Engineering Processes for Environmental Sustainability took back some power during the fall semester by addressing critical problems related to [the] pandemic.”

Instructors assigned students to solve problems related to COVID-19, from the logistics of vaccine storage and transportation to the disinfection of public spaces and the sanitation and reuse of personal protective equipment.

Their approach hinged on the critical step of building a sense of community, as students produced technical reports that proposed creative, efficient and technically sound solutions to PPE shortages and vaccine distribution.

Our students’ attention and commitment to public health and safety are part of a Cornell timeline that has never been more fluid, while it’s interesting to look back at a bit of student engagement in a different era.

Fifty years ago this spring, a New York Times headline read, “29 are arrested in Cornell melee.”

The story read in part:

“An unauthorized block party on the weekend before final examinations at Cornell University turned into a melee involving several hundred students and more than 50 policemen and sheriff’s deputies last night and early this morning. Twenty-nine persons were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct during the four-hour disturbance, which began at 10:30 p.m. … Bottles and beer cans were thrown from the crowd, and the police, reinforced by Cornell patrolmen and sheriff’s deputies, used tear gas. One tear-gas grenade was fired into a crowded delicatessen whose owner had refused a police request to close. Nightsticks were used on the students, but no serious injuries were reported.”

Could something like that happen again? Who knows. Should we respect the commitment of our students to public health and safety in the here and now? Yes, and I for one can’t thank them enough.

Finally, a look back to the students’ “first return” in August 2020, which seems longer than 17 months ago, can be found at tinyurl.com/yd5kfdpr. Thanks to so many of you for your support and connectivity with tomorrow’s leaders, who won’t forget the last two years, bumps and all, any time soon.

East Hill Notes are published the first and third Wednesdays of each month in Tompkins Weekly. Gary Stewart is an associate vice president at Cornell University.