Connect, COVID and Cornell

These are unsettling times so we are reaching out more often.  We encourage you to touch base with classmates via email, phone, Zoom calls or our class Facebook group (link is at the bottom of the email).  Social distance does not mean social disconnection.  So track down your old friends and catch up!

The Cornell campus is quiet, with most undergraduates back home and all classes cancelled until April 6, when courses will re-start remotely.  Touchdown, the Cornell bear, remains on campus but she has taken appropriate precautions to protect against the coronavirus.

Cornell is presenting a free COVID-19 virtual panel on March 24 at 1pm EST and March 28 at 7am featuring a panel of professors.  Register here.

In other Cornell-related coronavirus news, did you know that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the impressive public face of the pandemic and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, is a Cornell alum?  He graduated from Cornell Medical College in 1966 and has served six US presidents over the 50 years he’s been a doctor at NIH.  Fauci is currently the top infectious disease expert in the US.

And, Cornell Engineering and Weill Cornell Med are collaborating on the possibility of repurposing 3D printing machines to manufacture ventilators, which are in short supply globally.

With all of the bad news, we can take hope in the fact that spring has arrived in Ithaca. Crocuses and snowdrops are blooming, the ice has left Beebe Lake, and the red-wing blackbirds have returned to the Arboretum ponds—surly signs of brighter times ahead.

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay engaged!