To: President of City College 

From: Castellanos Naidelyn 

Date: March 2, 2022

Subject: About Student Safety In A Pandemic

CC: Dr. Vincent Boudreau

The purpose of this memo is to address a problem on campus which is the safety issue in regards to attending in-person classes during an ongoing pandemic. There has been a huge increase in COVID cases as of December of 2021; with weekly averages cases being around 2,000 to enter the new year with an average of around 40,000 cases weekly. For this reason, students feel unsafe when returning to in-person classes due to rules not being followed.

Since the mandate to close on March 13, 2020, students’ education and grades have dropped due to there not being a structured online learning method; as a result, the government and educational systems have chosen to reopen and return to in-person learning. COVID not only has affected our educational experience but, puts to question why the government urges so much for students to return to school with the unknown possibility of their safety; being compromised with a mask and a vaccine.

The coronavirus has impacted transportation, and a person’s day-to-day life and they just expect students to return to normal. For the government to reopen schools, they have posted mandates that each school, student, and faculty must abide by. But specific rules haven’t been strictly enforced, but rather pushed to the side. I am concerned as to how and why the COVID cases are rising again since “school is taking safety measures to ensure students can return to school safely”. In my experience, safety measures haven’t been strictly followed to protect students. 

Some ways that the educational system is getting away with following the COVID protocols is  by 

• Make sure everyone is vaccinated but, the building has more than the capacity of students in school.
• Social distancing outside, but placing 25 to around 30 students in a classroom without social distance.
• Many students are not wearing their masks on the right.
• Now, a new rule was announced this weekend about masks not being mandatory during class.
• Some students come to class sick.
• Not sanitizing and cleaning desks after a classroom has been used.
• Placing students in a classroom without windows or a ventilation system for fresh air.
• Showing a barcode every single day; to show that everyone is safe and has a barcode can tell whether someone had COVID. 
• Randomly Selected COVID test
• Sometimes faculty does not follow the rules

These are some ways the education system and schools have been getting away with following the safety rules for schools. The beliefs are to open schools and keep the money flowing to the government but students’  safety is disregarded. If students’ safety is as important as they say, more action would’ve been taken to ensure a safe environment in schools. Although people are working on finding a solution, we have to take this into our own hands and so, I have also come up with

 Some solutions for the problem, like 

• Making all students and faculty get COVID tested monthly and comparing the numbers.
• Someone comes to sanitize and clean the room after each class has been used.
• Using available classrooms that have windows for fresh air or at least a ventilation system.
• Limiting the number of students in the classroom and making them social distance.
•  Dividing classes for students who don’t want to use masks and for those who do. 
• Putting out a message that if you feel sick stay at home and not be penalized for missing class or work. Be given an extra day to hand in work.
• Make sure everyone follows the rules. 
• Monthly questionnaires to everyone so that they can write about how safe they feel and ask for their opinions on this matter.

These are some of the concerns and solutions that I have come up with to address the safety issues in this ongoing pandemic since clearly, it doesn’t look like the government is going to take classes online. As a student in this college I have kept myself safe but taking these extra steps can help everyone stay safe and keep their loved ones safe. If people are choosing to continue getting an education during these difficult times, everyone must be considered to try and accomplish and overcome this pandemic but the people have to get involved to be part of the solution.

I hope that this summary will provide a helpful guide in what to do in regards to the safety of the whole college.

Thank You,

Naidelyn Castellanos 

Ncastel0012citymail.cuny.edu