Supporting Our Students

September 29, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

On Friday, September 24, both faculty and students received strongly worded reminders
about CUNY’s student vaccination policy, which calls for students who are not in compliance with the policy to be withdrawn (i.e., dropped) from hybrid and in-person classes after Thursday, October 7.

We acknowledge that students may feel distress about this and will be reaching out to trusted faculty and staff to help them stay in class. We know that you want to help students succeed. However, neither individual faculty nor staff may offer individual exemptions to the CUNY Vaccination Policy. Please refer student inquiries to the Office of the Dean of Students at DeanofStudents@baruch.cuny.edu.

We will be looking to January, Spring, and Summer 2022 as opportunities to help the affected students recover academically. Details on that effort will be shared with you soon.

Our approach is guided by the following principles as directed by the CUNY Central Office for system-wide implementation:

• Operating within a safe environment for students, faculty, and staff is a top priority;
• Equitably supporting all of our students in their pursuit of degrees is also a top priority;
• We embrace the best science available to guide decisions, and it has unquestionably demonstrated that vaccination against Covid-19 is essential and the most important tool we have;
• It is necessary to have a vaccinated student body in order to function fully as a university/college now and beyond this pandemic;
• We hold to the approved policy and meaningful deadlines that were announced starting in early May and communicated frequently to students since then in many ways;
• While maintaining deadlines, we strive to provide practical pathways to a fully vaccinated student body.

We would like to thank all of you for the work you are doing every day to support our community. We recognize that the challenges are far from over, but we also recognize your commitment. We will continue to work together with you to move Baruch forward.

Sincerely,

Linda Essig
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

Mary Gorman
Vice President for Enrollment Management and Strategic Academic Initiatives

Art King
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students