Online Classes to Continue at Elmira College
Elmira, NY (10/23/2020) — Elmira College received approval from the Chemung County Health Department on October 19 to transition students and employees back to campus. However, on Wednesday, October 21, Governor Cuomo identified parts of the City of Elmira, including the Elmira College campus, as being in a micro-cluster Orange Zone. As long as the area remains in an Orange Zone, the College is not permitted to return to in-person classes.
Members of the EC community should check their email for additional information.
"The number of positive cases in Chemung County continues to rise, meaning the area is at risk to move to a Red Zone," said Charles Lindsay, president of Elmira College. "If that happens, it would be 10 days before the area could potentially transition to Orange and another 10 days before transitioning to Yellow. The College must fall within a Yellow Zone, or no zone, before in-person classes would be permitted. With that in mind, and after consulting with County Health officials and Arnot Health, classes will remain online for the remainder of Term I in order to protect our campus community."
The College preemptively moved to online classes on September 28 as the positive cases in Chemung County and on campus began to increase. The College worked with Cayuga Medical to implement a campus-wide testing event on October 1. As anticipated, the number of positive cases saw an increase as test results were returned. The College moved students through the isolation and quarantine process and all active cases were resolved. Zero new cases have been identified within the campus community over the past 14 days.
The College will continue to follow New York State guidance, which indicates that "if colleges have 100 cases or if the number of cases equal 5 percent of their population or more, they must go to remote learning for two weeks." The College's regularly scheduled in-person classes conclude on November 21 with students completing their final exams online November 30-December 5. The College has extended its holiday break with students currently scheduled to return on Tuesday, January 19.
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Elmira College received approval from the Chemung County Health Department on October 19 to transition students and employees back to campus. However, on Wednesday, October 21, Governor Cuomo identified parts of the City of Elmira, including the Elmira College campus, as being in a micro-cluster Orange Zone. As long as the area remains in an Orange Zone, the College is not permitted to return to in-person classes.