Skip to main content
Masked students chat outside Goldwin Smith Hall

For general policies and information about Cornell's response to COVID-19, the most up-to-date source is still the University's COVID-19 web site.

Information for specific groups is available here: Students | Faculty | Staff.

Professional Education in New York City and Buffalo

General Information

The majority of Spring 2022 professional education programs in New York City and Buffalo will be delivered online. For those programs taught in-person, we will follow all required safety protocols. If we are unable to deliver an in-person session due to safety concerns, we will offer a virtual alternative or reschedule the session for a later date. Our standard participant cancellation/refund policy will apply.

Health and Safety Protocols

  • Participants will be required to show proof of vaccination of an FDA or WHO authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccine or a negative PCR test taken within the previous 72 hours.
  • Participants will be required to have a negative antigen (rapid) test taken within 24 hours of the start of the workshop.
  • Participants must wear masks everywhere in the building. Masks must be KN95, FFP2, KF94, NIOSH N95, or ASTM (procedure or surgical) masks. Cloth masks are not approved by Cornell ILR unless worn in conjunction with an ASTM medical mask, i.e. double masking where the cloth mask is used to improve the fit of the medical mask.

Participant meals in our conference center cafeteria are governed by New York City policies. These currently require proof of vaccination to enter the food service area. Participants will need to bring that proof with them if they plan to eat at our cafeteria or anywhere within the conference center during their visit.

Teaching

Cornell University Academic Calendar

Cornell University’s academic calendar is the most current source of information from the university regarding any changes to start dates and other relevant academic calendar information.

Online Instruction and Canvas-Zoom resources

Cornell (CTI) Resources

ILR Resources:

Remote Teaching Tech Support

If you are teaching remotely, ILR Tech Services will try to help you get started with your first few classes. Please be aware that Tech Services will also need to support in-person classroom teaching and so there will be significant demands on their time and resources. It will be helpful if remote teaching technology needs are communicated as early as possible and set-ups are tested in advance. For tech services requests use: https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/about-ilr/faculty-and-staff-resources/technology-services/submit-requests

Teaching Studios

ILR Technology Services will make Rooms 181, 185, and 199 in the Ives Hall Faculty Building available for faculty and lecturers who plan to teach remotely but would prefer to teach, or broadcast, from campus instead of from home. We will temporarily call the spaces “teaching studios”. There would be no students in the rooms with the instructors. The studies provide a quiet dedicated space for teaching with reliable internet and high quality technology. But using them requires coming to campus.

Please take a look at the advantages and disadvantages below. In person and remote training on the use of technology in the teaching studios will be available prior to the start of classes. Instructors should expect a similar level of technology support when teaching from the on-campus teaching studios as from home. At this time, we are not equipped to provide dedicated staff support to manage the teaching studio technology during class sessions as has been done in our distance-learning-enabled classrooms. The classrooms and teaching studios will be inspected each weekday morning to verify that they are working as expected, and ILR Technology Services will staff a phone hotline (607-255-5484) for call-in support.

If you are interested in learning more about the teaching studio option, please email ilrtsrequests@cornell.edu and we will schedule a time to meet with you to discuss your specific technology needs and provide training on the use of the rooms.

In-Person Teaching

  • All in-person teaching is being conducted in Ives 217. Classroom assignments are still being reviewed at the university level.
  • In-person classes need to provide access to students who are taking the class remotely. This includes opportunities to interact with the faculty member and other students in the class. However, the expectations for online content for in-person classes are lower than they are for a fully online course. For in-person courses, you can stream and record and post your live class sessions.

Safety Kits

Tech Services is preparing a bag of safety materials for each of the 12 ILR faculty who have agreed to teach in person that contains masks, hand sanitizer, and wipes to clean off spaces in the classroom. These will be delivered to your office before the first day of teaching. Safety materials will also be provided to any TAs who are teaching in-person.

Office Hours

To reduce building occupancy and traffic, office hours should be held virtually.

Student Study Areas in Ives Classroom Building

ILR will be designating these spaces where students can use a Salesforce App to reserve a numbered space to study:

  • 103 Ives
  • 107 Ives
  • 220 Ives
  • Undergraduate lounge

Facilities and building hours

Access to ILR facilities

Access to any ILR facility (Ithaca-Ives, NYC – 570 Lex; or Buffalo – 617 Main St) requires you to check in with the university Daily Check app.

If you want to go into the office on a particular day, enter your data into the Daily Check: https://dailycheck.cornell.edu/. If you wish to be added to the Daily Check system, please send an email to Ask-ILR-Employee@cornell.edu and your request will be reviewed and you will be contacted.

Access to ILR Buildings

Beginning Monday, January 24, open access to ILR buildings will return to the normal semester hours listed below. After-hours access will continue to require ID card access.

  • Ives Hall Classroom/Library building including Ives Hall West
    • Open Mon.-Thurs. 6:00am-11pm, Fri. 6:00am-5pm (Semester hours)
    • Opened on weekends per request for special events/Classes.
    • Afterhours Card access for all Cornell Id’s to the 1st floor Library study space via two outside doors (1st floor off the Katz lower courtyard near Donna Ramil’s office and 2nd floor off the upper courtyard – 24/7 (No access during normal Library hours).
    • Card access for Faculty and Staff who have office space within the building. All Faculty have access to the Ives Hall Classroom/Library building.
  • Ives Hall Faculty Wing
    • Open Mon.-Thurs. 7:00am-6pm, Fri. 7:00am-5pm
    • Card access for Faculty, Staff, Adjunct Faculty and PhD students who have office space within the building.
  • Ives Hall East
    • Open Mon.-Thurs. 7:00am-6pm, Fri. 7:00am-5pm
    • Card access for Faculty, Staff, Visiting Fellows and students who have office space within the building.
  • King-Shaw Hall
    • Open Mon.-Thurs. 6:00am-6pm, Fri. 6:00am-5pm
    • Card access for Faculty and Staff who have office space within the building.

Signage

Signage has been posted throughout the ILR Ives Complex as well as in Buffalo and NYC. Please read the signs and respect a person’s space with appropriate physical distancing.

Air Quality in Ives Classroom and Other Buildings

All ILR buildings meet the AASHRE standards for air handling, including a number of fresh air exchanges per day. The university has adjusted the Ives air exchanges to increase the rate of exchange (i.e. a high volume of air is being exchanged for each time period) and have installed MERV-13 air filters in Ives.

Ambassador Program

There will be about 5 senior staff members who will be walking the Ives Complex two times per day, starting August 24th, to ensure faculty, staff, and students are complying with COVID restrictions. The people who will be walking Ives include: Alex Colvin, George Boyer, Joe Grasso, Kara Lombardi, Laura Robinson, David Lippincott, and Melissa Manning. If you have concerns, please report them to these people as you see them making their rounds.

Dean's Office Staffing

The ILR Dean’s Office is expected to be staffed physically in Ives Hall from Monday through Thursday between the hours of 10am and 4pm (and periodically at other times).

Mail Delivery

Mail and packages will be hand-delivered and picked up on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons around 3 pm. The mail will be delivered to the faculty department workroom or to the main administrative department desk in all other offices. It is the responsibility of each office to sort the mail and ensure it is processed within their unit. You may not come to campus to pick up mail without first certifying in the Daily Check system.

Voice Mail

The ec500 Office system we use has an option to have your office phone ring on your cell phone. However, all voice mails are left on your office phone and you need to call into the Audix system to retrieve your messages, or you can reprogram your office message to say not to leave messages on your office phone.

ILR Lower Katz Courtyard Tent Request and Use Policy

The ILR School has a 40’ x 60’ tent available for the convenience and use of our school’s academic and student event use in the Lower Katz Courtyard. The tent may at times be available for use by those within the Cornell community. The tent will remain in place for use until the end of October, or as weather allows.

Tent Capacity:

40’ x 60’

24 tables with 120 chairs

120 person capacity (without social distancing)

Furniture may not be removed and or rearranged without prior approval from ILR Conference Services.

Garbage and recycling should be placed in the associated bins.

Priority of Use:

  • Academic
    • Faculty and staff
  • Student Services
    • Allowable ILR student functions and events
  • ILR Community – Student Organizations, Other meetings, etc.
  • Cornell community

Tent Scheduling:

Current: Submit all requests to: ilrconferencecenter@cornell.edu.

The Director of the Conference Center and her staff will be responsible for reviewing requests for use of the tent. In the case where there are competing priorities, the issue will be decided by School leadership.

In the near future, there will be an Outlook calendar/scheduling feature available to check availability and to submit requests for use. Details will be coming out soon.

When the tent is reserved and NOT available for public use, there will be laminated “Reserved” signs posted throughout the tent. Each day a list of scheduled activities will be posted near the table where the wipes, sprays and other protective equipment is placed. This will allow groups to view the scheduled use of the tent and to find alternative locations to sit if there is a class or event underway.

Inclement Weather

  • In case of thunder, lighting, or high winds move to a permanent building for shelter.
  • Tents may not be occupied during storms.
  • Do not reoccupy tents until 30 minutes after thunder/lightning have stopped.

COVID-19 testing

For latest testing frequency information and scheduling, visit the university’s reopening page.

See real-time data on test results and the current Cornell COVID-19 alert level

Important Information

Any member of the community who develops symptoms of COVID-19, or who becomes aware that they have been in close contact with someone with COVID-19, should never seek COVID-19 testing from a surveillance site. Instead, students should contact Cornell Health at 607-255-5155; employees should seek testing at the Cayuga Health System Ithaca Mall testing site.

A series of FAQs and updated information will be added to Cornell’s COVID-19 with more details about the surveillance testing program over the coming week. Direct questions to covidtesting@cornell.edu.

Vaccines

If you have not already done so, please visit Cornell's Daily Check system to supply proof of vaccination.

Students

Cornell requires vaccination and a booster for students attending classes on the Ithaca, Geneva and Cornell Tech campuses or participating in any other Ithaca-based program, at any point of the 2021-22 academic year. 

Employees

All employees, whether they work on campus in Ithaca, Geneva, New York City, or any other location, are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or to have obtained a university-approved medical or religious exemption. This requirement extends to temporary and casual employees as well as those who work fully or partially from a remote location.

See Cornell's COVID-19 site for complete information on vaccination.

Travel

All business travel to non-Cornell locations or between Cornell locations continues to be restricted to exceptions for essential business and requires pre-approval directly from Dean Colvin.

Full details on the university's changing policies on travel for students, faculty and staff are available on the main COVID-19 site.

Return to Campus

Positive daily check status

Please visit our page for full information on returning to campus, including instructions on how to enroll in Cornell's Daily Check system if you have not already done so.

Resources