COVID-19 Information and Safe Campus Reopening

COVID-19 Guidelines for Summer and Fall 2022

Updated May 17, 2022

Vaccination and Booster Doses

For the Summer 2022 and Fall 2022 semesters, the majority of CUNY courses will be in-person. Students taking in-person or hybrid courses must have up-to-date vaccination status when classes begin, or they will be de-registered before classes begin. Further, all students taking in-person or hybrid classes must upload proof of that status to CUNYfirst by ten (10) days before classes begin. Additional guidelines and deadlines below:

• All students (except those with approved exemptions or exceptions) must have up-to-date vaccinations in order to enter any CUNY facility for any reason.
• If your vaccination documents are already approved in CUNYfirst, you do not need to re-submit them, but they must include proof of being up-to-date, which includes a booster shot once eligible.
• The deadline to receive the booster shot depends on when students become eligible, determined by the date of the last vaccine shot received. Find these deadlines and details here: https://www.cuny.edu/coronavirus/faqs/#bst
• Requests for religious exceptions or medical exemptions must be submitted via the CUNYfirst Vaccination Verification Form.

To be sure that your documentation is approved in time, upload to CUNYfirst as soon as you are fully vaccinated. The only exception to this rule is the few students who apply and are granted medical exemptions or religious exceptions.

Students returning to dorms will be required to be tested before moving in. Questions about the Graduate Center Apartments can be submitted here.

A user guide on how to upload proof of vaccination can be found here. Questions about vaccination verification and exemptions can be directed to lva@gc.cuny.edu. Students who have questions or concerns should contact the Provost's Office or the Office of Student Affairs.

As of January 2022, 94% of all Graduate Center employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Per the March 17, 2022 letter from the Chancellor, CUNY and the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY (PSC) have agreed to a May 27, 2022 deadline for full- and part-time faculty and non-teaching instructional staff (which includes among others NTAs, CLTs  and those in the HEO-title series) and personnel in the Executive Compensation Plan, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and to upload proof of vaccination into CUNYfirst in order to remain employed by the University, except if a medical exemption, religious exception or reasonable accommodation has been granted. The required number of dosages for full vaccination is defined as both doses in a two-shot series (such as Moderna or Pfizer), or the one dose in a single-shot vaccine (such as Johnson & Johnson), without boosters. For a guide, please visit here or watch this video.

Please refer to the Office of Human Resources' website regarding Flexible Work Guidelines and Procedures for Requesting Reasonable Accommodations. Research Foundation employees should consult the RF CUNY website.

All vaccination sites in New York City now allow walk-ins and vaccines are administered as part of the CDC’s national vaccination program free of charge. For more information about the vaccine and where to get it, visit the NYS Vaccine Finder and NYC Vaccine Finder.

Testing

Due to the need for testing, PCR tests are available to all students and employees at no cost at all CUNY testing sites. In addition to the site located at the Graduate Center on the first floor, there are 19 other testing sites at locations across CUNY. Any CUNY student or employee who needs to be tested for any reason may walk into a site, provide their CUNY ID (EMPLID), register in the system and get tested. Results are made available within 24 to 48 hours. 

CUNY monitors campus and University-wide positivity rates through the on-campus testing programs with Applied DNA Clinical Labs LLC (ADCL). CUNY’s random COVID-19 testing program of vaccinated students and employees continues, to include more people and increase the frequency of testing. Please be on the lookout for an email in case you are randomly selected to be tested as you are required to comply. For a general FAQ on the testing program, visit here. If you are an employee and have questions about this program, contact covid-19screening@gc.cuny.edu and if you are a student, lva@gc.cuny.edu.

For members of our community who have a medical exemption or religious exception and for staff who are not vaccinated, CUNY mandates a weekly testing program. If you have questions about this requirement, please contact reactivation@gc.cuny.edu. You can check the latest numbers in our COVID-19 Safety Tracker available here.

NYC Health + Hospitals has also made testing available for free on a walk-in only basis and you can find additional New York City COVID-19 Testing sites here.

Mask Mandate

In response to revised guidance issued by the CDC on March 3, CUNY lifted the temporary mask mandate that has been in place since August 2021 that required all CUNY students, faculty, staff and visitors to wear masks inside University campuses, office buildings, classrooms and other non-enclosed spaces.

Anyone who would like to continue wearing masks in any setting is welcome to do so at any time. Masks will continue to be available on campuses and in offices for people who want them. The CDC is not requiring people to wear a mask in communities that have low or medium COVID-19 levels, but we urge the small number of faculty, staff and students who are still not vaccinated including those with medical exemption or religious exception to continue wearing a mask.

This is a community effort that is founded in mutual respect for each other to foster an environment for safe learning and working together.

Contact Tracing and Reporting

Per the chancellor’s message on January 5, CUNY will begin following CDC’s issued guidance that adjusted the recommended quarantine and isolation times for people in close contact with someone who is positive or those who test positive:

• CUNY employees and students who come into close contact with someone with COVID-19 should base their approach to quarantine – if it is needed, when to end it, and when to test – depending on whether they are boosted, fully vaccinated and when, or unvaccinated. Please follow CDC’s guidance on quarantine spelled here.  
• Employees and students who test positive for COVID-19 should isolate for at least 5 days. When to end isolation, test and return to in-person work or class varies depending on whether or not a person develops symptoms or is severely ill. Please follow CDC’s guidance on isolation spelled here.
• For a detailed description on CDC’s guidelines on quarantine and isolation visit here.
• Employees who are able to work remotely during quarantine and isolation should do so.
• We urge employees who are not feeling well to stay home.

Reporting of all positive cases impacting the Graduate Center community is managed by the campus coronavirus coordinator, Brian Peterson, interim senior vice president for finance and administration, and the campus coronavirus health monitoring liaison, Pinar Ozgu, interim vice president for institutional equity and human resources.

The campus coronavirus coordinator and health monitoring liaison are responsible for reviewing health screening data, campus access logs, and other data to confirm reported cases, coordinate contact tracing, and assist New York State and local health officials with tracing. They will also coordinate notification with community members who may have been affected and, when necessary, communications to the GC community.

Students, faculty, staff, vendors, and campus visitors are obligated to report if they have tested positive for COVID-19 to the health monitoring liaison by sending an email to COVID-19screening@gc.cuny.edu.

One of the Graduate Center HR liaisons will follow up with individuals reporting symptoms, aid in identifying exposures, and notify close contacts of the exposure as soon as possible after being notified that someone on campus has tested positive for or been diagnosed with COVID-19.