WENDY WOLFORD People are still joining but we have a lot of questions to cover, so we'll jump right in. I know people are still probably enjoying their summer and winter break but we're excited to Have you back on campus. We'll start with the questions but first let me turn it over to the provost, Michael Kotlikoff, for a welcome. MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Thanks Wendy, and thanks everybody for joining us, particularly new students, new Cornell students. I want to welcome you and say just a few words of introduction for this important information session. The most important thing is we're working very hard to make sure that we have a safe and pretty much normal semester. Obviously, the US urgent cases associated with the emergence of the Delta variant is making things a little bit more difficult. We're watching this very closely. The variant is troubling for two major reasons. First, of course it's more infectious than previous viruses. And second, the vaccines provide a lower level of protection against infection. The good news is that the protection is still excellent against serious disease. Further good news is that we have a very low prevalence in our region, and we have a very high vaccination rate at the present time. We're very carefully modeling any additional protective measures that we should take, the most important of which is likely to be surveillance testing. These measures have been very, very effective for us in creating safe conditions throughout the pandemic, and we're very confident that they will serve us well for the coming semester. We'll keep you informed as we further refine these plans, but as I say we're very confident these measures will allow us to have a safe and relatively normal Cornell fall semester. And over to you Wendy WENDY WOLFORD Thanks Mike. Including Mike, we have six panelists today. So Mike Kotlikoff, the provost. Myself, I’m the Vice Provost for International Affairs. Lisa Nishii the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Catherine Boor, the Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education. Laura Taylor, the Senior Associate Director of International Services. You will know her well as the head of immigration on campus. Brandon Lanners, the executive director for the office of global learning, our moderator today is Gustavo Flores-Macias, the Associate Vice Provost. Over to Gustavo. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Wendy, and welcome everyone. I’ll turn my video off in the interest of saving bandwidth, and then We'll start it. We got roughly 130 questions in advance. We will address as many of those as Possible but please do submit questions in the Q&A box as we go. There will probably be too many questions to answer during this hour, but our panelists will either respond in writing as we go, or we'll answer them in real time or provide answers in the FAQ available on the international services website. And we'll put that in the chat in a second. Now recording of this panel will be on the COVID website as well. So we'll start with the first set of questions for the provost, for Mike, these have to do with vaccines. The first one has to do with students who have received a vaccine that is not approved by WHO. Are they required to be vaccinated upon arrival to campus? And are students who have had one dose of an accepted vaccine required or allowed to get a second dose on campus? And are there risks associated with multiple vaccinations of different types, Mike? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Thanks Gustavo. The answer to the first two questions are: yes, a WHO approved vaccine is required, full inoculation through that or Cornell will re-vaccinate you. There is no evidence of increased risks associated With vaccinations from different manufacturers or different types of vaccine. Each of these vaccines has gone through extensive safety testing, and booster vaccinations are common with many, many vaccines. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And what if someone was fully vaccinated with a vaccine on the WHO impending decision list? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF If by the time you arrive on campus, the WHO or the FDA has not approved the vaccine that you've been inoculated with we will require inoculation with an approved vaccine. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And could you tell us about the process for arranging vaccination upon arrival? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Yeah, this will be handled by Cornell Health, and we will inform you of that. We'll put in the chat the website but basically if you search for Cornell Health and COVID-19, you'll see the vaccination information site, which will give you all that information. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And how should international students prove their COVID-19 vaccination records, and what if their proof is not in English, for example? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF So if you upload your vaccination proof into the Daily Check, which will be described for you and we're requesting that you do that as soon as possible. This information will be verified by Cornell Health, and that of course will be confidential. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Do you anticipate students needing a booster vaccine sometime during the academic year? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Yeah, this isn't yet clear. Current evidence suggests long-lasting protection, but studies are ongoing in terms of the degree of protection and the duration of that. And we'll be monitoring that, and it is possible that we will ask for booster vaccines and facilitate that during the academic year. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Could you tell us about the restrictions that might apply while a student is unvaccinated? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Unvaccinated students will be required to wear a mask and distance when indoors that's a New York State regulation and until you're vaccinated those restrictions will be in place. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And will visitors have to vaccinate before they come to campus? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Visitors are also under New York State regulations they'll be required to wear a mask if unvaccinated. If they're vaccinated, they can come to campus without and interface with us without a mask. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS I have the last two questions for you, Mike, about testing and quarantine. The first one: how do students register for arrival testing? Will weekly testing be continued? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Now all those unvaccinated students will be tested immediately upon arrival. We'll give you that information about how the how that will work in your arrival information. We'll have results from those tests from by the next day. Due to the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant, it is possible that we will be testing vaccinated students at least initially during the year. We haven't yet fully determined that schedule we had hoped that vaccinated students would not require testing. Some of the spread of the Delta variant, and as I said, the ability of the Delta variant to infect vaccinated people, although not creating serious illness, argues for us understanding this the level of infection even in our vaccinated population of students. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And will internationals students, unvaccinated or vaccinated, need to quarantine on arrival? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF No, quarantine will not be required of unvaccinated or, of course, vaccinated students. The one thing that we will ask is from the period of time where you arrive, and we test you until the next day when you receive the results of that test, and we have the results of that test, we'll ask you to um to adhere to some special precautions around masking and interaction for that single day. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you for sharing those answers, Mike. The next set of questions is for Lisa. These are questions related to teaching and administration. Lisa, the first question: will we still have virtual classes, and will there be remote access to classes at the start of the semester for international students who will be arriving to campus late? LISA NISHII Yeah, great question, so as the provost mentioned, you know our plan is to return to normal operations and so this coming year things will look quite different than they did last year. We're returning to all in-person classes. Almost all classes will indeed be taught only in person. There are a few that were taught online or hybrid prior to the pandemic and those may continue to be taught in that format, but otherwise as a general rule, unfortunately we will not be able to offer remote access to courses this year and that includes for students who will be arriving late on campus so we urge you to do absolutely everything possible to arrive here on campus before the start of the semester, which is August 26th. There may be some possibility for until September 9th, which is the last day to add classes, but this really depends on the way the courses are taught and also depends on course department or program policies. So starting next week or so if you are increasingly concerned about your ability to make it back to campus on time for the start of the semester we urge you to contact the student services office in your home college and describe your situation to see if there's any possibility of flexibility but please know that this flexibility is not guaranteed and it does depend on the particular program and courses in which you're enrolled. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you what about thanksgiving break? Will we return to campus after the break and will international students be permitted to travel overseas during the winter break? LISA NISHII So we will be resuming in-person classes after Thanksgiving break like we usually do. The last day of classes is December 7th, and then we have exams from the 11th through the 17th of December, and then it's the winter break. We'll of course be watching things really closely. You know how the pandemic unfolds around the world at the moment. We're expecting that students will be permitted to travel over winter break, but I would of course remain really cautious about making firm plans because we don't know how things will unfold. And of course, I would recommend that you if you can purchase tickets where you can change the dates that's always a good idea. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Can students be exempted from PE classes? Freshmen you know pe with their freshman fall or be allowed to delay the requirement, as we are still unsure about the COVID situation? LISA NISHII Yeah sure, you know of course it's good to take PE classes earlier rather than later, and in fact students can take PE classes every semester if they'd like to. But yes, there is flexibility in when you can take PE classes so for example if you're not yet, you won't be fully vaccinated when you arrive and you're concerned about taking a PE course, you can delay that until a later semester. If you're a student who had trouble getting into a PE course during pre-enrollment, you should check back to on the roster when our add-drop period begins in later in August because more PE classes will likely be added to the roster for you to choose from. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS A question about facilities and events, how will campus facilities and resources such as libraries, but also events like workshops and lectures, how will they work for the upcoming academic year? Will access be limited to smaller numbers or perhaps fewer hours? LISA NISHII Good question. So you know we are planning again on normal operations, so we expect facilities like libraries to be operating with normal hours and for workshops and lectures to also operate as normal. That is in, you know, our regular classrooms with occupancy at normal levels. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And how should we go about choosing classes and enrolling? And are there mandatory classes? LISA NISHII Yeah so if you have not yet enrolled in your classes, please contact the student services office of your home college as soon as possible. They can walk you through this. There are often mandatory classes at one or two classes, depending on the program college or major, in which you're enrolled, and a lot of first first-year students take a first-year writing seminar. But all of this again it depends on the college and majors, so the best thing to do is for you to reach out to your student services office. And I’ll include a link right now so that you can find that contact information. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Lisa, for this guidance. The next questions are for Wendy. They have to do with resources for international students. Wendy, we have been hearing about students being denied visas or not being able to get visa appointments. What support is the university offering, if any? Is the university helping to push consulates to issue visas more quickly? WENDY WOLFORD Thanks Gustavo. This is such a difficult question and such a difficult situation. We know it's a stressful process for everyone. We're keeping a really close eye on the situation with visas this year. Of course, it's been more complicated than usual, but of course consulates are opening and opening mostly more every day and they do appear to be prioritizing student applications as they have been urged to do. We haven't seen a large number of denials whether due to proclamation 10043, which of course we're keeping an eye on, or for other reasons. We have been sending out a regular survey, so a survey that goes out every two weeks to try to get as complete a picture as possible. So that we have information about who still doesn't have a visa or a visa appointment or who has been denied a visa. So if you have gotten that survey but haven't filled it out, please do and it will come to you until that survey is filled out. I'm sure you know we can't influence individual consulates of course or the application process itself but our immigration advisors can analyze your case and they will advise where possible. We've been advocating for our students regularly to the extent that we can with policy makers in DC and in Albany, and you can see, I’ll put into the chat, some of the link to a page where we update our advocacy. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS What sorts of resources does Cornell have to help international students as they get settled, say, to adapt to the cold weather perhaps, find a bank, or improve their English, for instance. Maybe you can give us some recommendations on first steps to be followed or things to keep in mind when arriving in Ithaca WENDY WOLFORD Yeah, sure it's not that cold. No, it is that cold and it might get cold right so we hope that you will be comfortable and happy on campus. The office of global learning provides a lot of resources, so there are services regular programming there are links for new students on their website, and i’ll copy in some of those links into the chat. There's a link for getting started, what to think about before you come to campus. There are resources then under a link for life at Cornell. That's a good one. On you know what to bring to stay warm, where to go for good food, etc. I think probably one of the best ways to get settled and some of your best resources are going to be other students or other people on campus, so you'll get good information in your orientations and of course in your classes and departments. But you can also join a club we have many, many clubs, over 1500, so you can get involved in pretty much any activity that sounds like fun. One activity in particular for international students is the International Students Union. That's a group of students who meet regularly. They advocate for international students they plan a number of activities. There are also quite a number of regional clubs. If being involved with people from your country or your region are of interest, but I would encourage you to look at the websites for any of the clubs. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Wendy. And what about assistance getting to Ithaca. Does Cornell offer any assistance, for instance, will transportation between Ithaca and New York City be resumed in the fall of 2021? WENDY WOLFORD So there is currently transportation between Ithaca and New York City. We have our own bus, we have the Campus to Campus bus that runs from New York City to Ithaca, and that has been offline for the past year. But we should be making an announcement sometime this week about the bus starting up again, so we hope that will be soon. But there is even without the C2C, a bus service called Ourbus. You can find that information on the international services webpage. That bus runs regularly between most of the cities you would fly into and Ithaca. There are also ride share options. So young people today are much more comfortable with these maybe than those of us who grew up without them, but there are of course options with Uber or Lyft or independent rentals and car shares. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Does Cornell provide on-campus residence for international students during the winter break? WENDY WOLFORD So international students who live on campus during the school year may ask to remain on campus over winter break. There's an additional fee and space can be limited, but even this past winter during the pandemic, the office of student and campus life worked really hard and made space available for people who needed it. So if you live on campus housing should be available. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And for international students interested in doing internships, what should they do to maximize their potential to secure one? WENDY WOLFORD That's a great question and it's good to see that people are thinking already about all of these activities. There are so many internship possibilities. There are internships on campus, so internships with faculty or with student organizations on campus, and then there are many internships through campus but with organizations outside in Ithaca, across the United States, or internationally. So I’ll put three links into the chat. One of those is from student campus life, which is a whole selection of internships that you can look at before you get to campus. The second two are centers on campus that provide internships for specific more targeted purposes. The first one is the Einaudi Center for International Studies, and they do a number of international internships. So if you're interested in working with international organizations like Oxfam America, or if you're interested in actually being located internationally, the Einaudi Center has great internships. The second one of those is for people who are interested in sustainability, so working on questions related to sustainable energy, economics, and ecology. And that's the Atkinson Center your best bet in terms of being able to prepare yourself for an internship is that once you get to campus, talk to people. Ithaca is a small place, people are very friendly. I would talk to your professors, talk to the student advisors in your department or program, and talk with other students of course. If you know you want to do an internship and many, many of our students do internships, then ask around, and you'll find many opportunities. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Wendy. And given the recent episodes of anti-Asian violence in the U.S., is Cornell providing any assistance or reassurance for international students of Asian descent. WENDY WOLFORD Yes, there has been an increase across the country in incidence of anti-Asian violence or discrimination. This is something that we find very disturbing. It makes us very sad, and we hope that you will find that Cornell’s campus and community are very welcoming, but we do have resources on campus to support students who experience any sort of bias. But in particular because of the question bias against Asians or Asian-Americans. There are two resources that will be particularly useful, again you can talk to anybody about this, but I will put two links into the chat. The first one is to the Asian and Asian-American Center run by Nancy Martinsen. Nancy’s fantastic. It's a really wonderful center that is both a community of people and also a place to find more resources. The second link is a link to the East Asia Program in the Einaudi Center which I already mentioned. The East Asia Program maintains a long list of really helpful resources for confronting anti-Asian violence, and also information about it, so data and other organizations to get involved with whether here on campus or elsewhere. It's an unfortunate situation but it's best to have the links to be able to meet it. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And speaking of resources, does the university offer any form of psychological counseling for international students or researchers? WENDY WOLFORD Yes, of course. We have really comprehensive mental health services. I’ll again post in a link into the chat from Cornell Health, which has a great page of resources for a whole number of more health related, you know, a full list of health-related questions. But in that is how to go about getting counseling and specific advice for international students and let me just say that we don't have a Q&A button that is working at the moment, but what you can do is put I think questions into the chat. If you can’t, we do have a lot of your questions that were submitted beforehand and so we hope that we will answer many of your questions during this hour. Anything we don't answer of course you can still send afterwards, and we will follow up. Thanks Gustavo. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Wendy. The next set of questions is for Kathryn. These are questions having to do with graduate students. The first one: what will access to research labs and other opportunities be like for graduate students this fall? KATHRYN BOOR A moment to unmute here, and so we will have a fully open campus this fall of research. Laboratories are up and running, libraries will be open, and our expectation is that all resources will be available to graduate students upon their arrival on campus. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Is there a mandatory training course for international students who will be teaching assistants in the fall? KATHRYN BOOR We do have a mandatory assessment of comfort with the English language for international students, for whom English is not their first language. And so that assessment will occur this fall, and then for those who are not comfortable with the English language in the sense of speaking about teaching opportunities and the information to be given in classes, there will be a training course for those students GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS What are the options to submit the official transcripts, other than by using Certifile? Is sending the official transcripts directly to the college to the through the email address transcripts at cornell.edu an option? KATHRYN BOOR We do require certification of transcripts prior to their being sent to Cornell University, and so transcripts and other required academic records must be delivered to Cornell electronically and sent securely by the institution or by their service partner and not by the student. I will copy and paste into chat the specific requirements for that, but we in addition to Certifile, we use World Education Services, we use another service called Parchment. And so I’ll send those information instructions specifically in the chat function. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And how can graduate students balance being pregnant and being in graduate school? Is antenatal care part of the student health plan? KATHRYN BOOR So the most important thing for someone who's pregnant is to make sure that they're taking care of their health and the health of their unborn baby. And so in fact, we do have student health benefits that cover in summary office visits with a no cost share and then child birth and delivery with a 10% cost share. And so I will also copy those benefits and place them in chat. Furthermore, Cornell University graduate and professional students are eligible for parental accommodation to help balance the competing demands of academic and family life. And those accommodations do vary with the students funding and degree program. And again I’ll put parental accommodation policy 1.6 in the chat momentarily. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Kathryn, and the last question I have for you is about choosing courses. When can graduate students start to choose courses? And how should they make decisions about which courses to take? KATHRYN BOOR Well this would be a wonderful time for everyone to be reviewing the courses that are available, and to be dreaming about what you're interested in. However, please be in touch with your director of graduate studies, as there are typical courses that are taken by first year graduate students upon arrival, and the formally enrolling in those classes has to happen by September 9th. But really be in communication with your director of graduate studies to find out the courses that you would be recommended or expected to take. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Kathryn. I appreciate these thoughts. The next questions are for Laura. These are questions on immigration. Here I have some questions about arrival. Laura, when should students expect to receive their new I-20 forms from Cornell after transferring their previous records from their undergraduate school? LAURA TAYLOR Thank you, Gustavo. So you'll want to communicate with the Cornell admissions office that's handling the admission. A transfer I-20 can only be created after a release date that's entered in SEVIS. And that release date would have been entered in SEVIS by your previous institution. Keep in mind that the admissions office here at Cornell may need some time to create that new I-20, so to avoid any stress in that process please make sure you've certified all funding and respond to any inquiries they may have. They do recognize the importance of the form to your travel plans and on-campus jobs and will produce the I-20 as quickly as they can once that release date has been reached. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Laura. The next question is presumably from a Canadian citizen. Does a Canadian citizen require a visa to enter and study in the US? This person was informed by the embassy in Ottawa, as well as customs and border protection that they do not require one. Is that correct? LAURA TAYLOR Yeah, that's actually correct. Canadian citizens do not require a visa stamp or sticker in the passport. However there is an important caution here. They must however take care to be properly admitted to the U.S. as an F-1 student, or in the case of J-1 students as a J-1 student to do this. They would need to show their I-20 or DS2019 if they're a J student to the officer at the border. And following entry to the United States, make sure that the record of entry to the US reflects the F-1 status or the J-1 status, if that's the category. Sometimes Canadian students are inadvertently admitted to the U.S. as visitors, and that's problematic because visitors are not permitted to study. And so sometimes this does require a trip back to the U.S. border, so it's important to make sure that Canadian citizens are properly entered as F-1 students. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Laura. And here's a question that has to do with vaccines, but non-COVID vaccines. The student asks: I do not have my tetanus or meningococcal vaccinations; will this be an issue at the border for entering the U.S.? LAURA TAYLOR I'm happy to say that no it will not, not pre-COVID and not now, yeah. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS That was a nice short answer. The next question: what is the process for getting a license in New York and a Social Security Number? LAURA TAYLOR Yeah well we get the question about a license a lot. We're not experts in how to do this but because it's so important for so many students, we have an entire web page dedicated to driving in the United States, and the steps that one needs to follow in order to get a New York State license. So I’ll put that link in chat. In terms of Social Security Numbers F-1 and J-1 students are only eligible for U.S. Social Security Numbers, if they are working. If that work is on campus, we in the international services office must produce a certification letter confirming that employment and the fact that the individual is a student at Cornell. That certification letter along with a passport I-29 and I-94, that's the record of entry that one gets on arrival to the U.S. All of those documents are necessary to apply for the Social Security Number and that's done at a local Social Security Office. We do have a Social Security Office here in Ithaca. The good news is you don't need that number, you don't need a social security number in order to start employment GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And the next questions, Laura, have to do with working in the United States during and/or after Cornell. Are international students able to work in the U.S. during and/or after college? And how can international students apply for an on-campus job? Are there any things to be aware of or be careful with? Do I have to apply for a work visa if I want to get an internship or externship from May to August? LAURA TAYLOR Okay there's a lot to unpack. There lots of questions. All together international students are eligible to work on campus for up to 20 hours a week while school is in session and also eligible to work full-time during breaks and holidays. One important caution is that while school is in session, please do be careful that you're not working more than 20 hours per week, because it is a violation of F-1 status to be employed for more than 20 hours while school is in session. For off-campus work for an employer other than Cornell, work authorization must be applied for and granted. There are two principal types of work authorization. One is curricular practical training or work that's part of or required for the curriculum and optional practical training. Training time that's optional and typically used at the end of the degree program. Students must have at least two semesters of study in F-1 status before becoming eligible for an off-campus employment benefit, although there are some rare exceptions for graduate students who are in degree programs that require immediate participation in an employment experience. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Laura. As soon as we open the chat, I see several questions already having to do with opts, and you know Social Security Numbers. And so on let me ask first a couple that we already had that I think summarize several that had come in. Is an F-1 visa sufficient to apply for a post-study working visa in the U.S.? And is it possible to extend your F-1 visa by a few months, say a couple months, after your studies so you can travel around the country? LAURA TAYLOR So the F-1 visa is the visa stamp is the sticker in the passport, so it's really F-1 status the arrival in the United States with that visa stamp. In F-1 status that allows a student to begin accumulating the eligibility requirements for off-campus work authorization. Most F-1 students are eligible for 12 months of optional practical training after the completion of their degree. Some students choose to apply for opt prior to the completion of the degree but most save it for the end. Also some students those in qualified STEM degrees may also qualify for an additional 24-month STEM extension following the first period of opt. That last question, is it possible to extend by a few months F-1 status? And the form I-20 can only be extended for academic purposes so to complete the degree program or to change the level to a new degree program those are academic purposes for which we could extend the I-20. The I-20 can't be extended for personal or travel reasons alone. However F-1 students have a 60-day grace period at the end of their F-1 status for their F-1 program the 60 days can't be used for travel in and out of the United States but it can be used to travel within the United States to visit family and friends, to take time to pack, and enjoy some time off. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you Laura. The last one I have for you is the F-2 visa, only for dependent spouse. Which visa category should my husband use to visit me in Ithaca? LAURA TAYLOR Good question. The F-2 is a visa category for the dependent family members of an F-1 student. This could include a spouse and any minor children under the age of 21. Cornell can issue an I-20 for F-2 dependents if the student, the F-1 student, can show that they have sufficient funding to support them. That's important; it's a regulatory requirement as F-2 spouses and family members are not eligible for work authorization. However in this example, if the student has a spouse who will be residing at home and just making occasional trips in and out of the united states to visit, then a visitor visa may be a better option. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you Laura. You know to our audience remember that please do submit questions and our panelists are doing their best to answer them in the chat as well, and if we don't get a chance to answer them, we'll post them in an FAQ answer sheet as well. You can send them to us by email so don't please do keep sending your questions if you have them. The last set of questions is for Brandon. These are questions about orientation. When are Prepare and graduate and professional orientation and what will the format be? BRANDON LANNERS Thank you for that question, Gustavo, and to our audience. Really quick in the chat, I’m going to post a direct link back to the question about getting to Ithaca from a variety of places. The Office of Global Learning is keeping close track of the different bus companies and their operating status so you can follow that along with us on the link that I just posted from our website. So in terms of the orientations, I’m also going to post the direct link for both of those. First of all, Prepare is a pre-orientation program that's for first year undergrads in advance of new student orientation. So prepare gives a lot of insight on life at Cornell and focuses on making friends with other international students. This year we're going to have video content that participants can watch on their own time. We'll have two synchronous sessions on August 10th and 11th and then in-person activities at in Ithaca from August 17 to 19. We're doing the move-in for prepare on august 15th and 16th so a bit in advance to allow time for testing and we'll also have vaccination support when students arrive. The registration deadline was going to be today but we decided to push it back a little to give us more time to address student questions and so we'll continue to stay in touch with the Prepare first year audience. The graduate professional orientation is going to happen in person on august 28th and we'll also have some of the asynchronous video content that people can view in advance. It's not required, and neither is Prepare, but the grad professional orientation is really helpful, you know, to attend and hear from campus resources and fellow students. We usually get over 700 students that attend each fall and we're hoping that the later date this year again August 28th makes it more accessible for everyone. You can find out more online and register by August 13th. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Brandon. Is the Prepare pre-orientation program mandatory for international students and is the cost covered by our financial aid or do we or do students have to pay out of pocket? BRANDON LANNERS Yeah so again Prepare is not mandatory but it is highly recommended. You know we know that not everyone's travel plans will allow them to attend Prepare but we are working on ways to be flexible to accommodate the many situations that students are navigating. And again we're working with students on those questions and we'll communicate out to everyone as we have further information. Financial aid will cover the cost of Prepare for both the registration cost and the additional housing cost but importantly this is for international aid recipient students only GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS And when and how should students get the arrival testing so they can participate and prepare? BRANDON LANNERS So we've been working closely with the COVID testing folks and the vaccination team so that students can get tested and vaccinated shortly after they arrive to check in for Prepare. Students have already received the arrival information and registered students will get further details shortly on how that process is going to play out. Students can't participate in Prepare activities until they get their negative test results but we've timed the arrival window for Prepare in advance again to allow for the 24 hours for tests to come back. For the graduate professional orientation, we move the start back to August 28th once classes have started to give students time for testing and vaccination if needed. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you Brandon. And do students have to be on campus before the move-in dates that is the 19th through the 21st of August and do they have to stay on campus during Prepare or can they live off campus and move in on the 19th of august? BRANDON LANNERS So Cornell Housing allows prepare participants to move in early before the August 19th to 21st move-in window. We coordinate closely with Cornell Housing on that while Prepare activities begin on august 17th. Again we've asked participants to move in even earlier on august 15th or 16th to allow that time for testing and vaccination. However we have received requests from students who already have a hotel or something similar until august 19th or their you know planned move-in date and they've asked us if they can stay at their hotel until that date but still participate and Prepare. We're working on this request with housing right now and we'll communicate to the registered and eligible Prepare participants and students shortly with an answer. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Another question has to do with immunization requirements it says: if some of my immunization requirements are not satisfied and I plan to get them immediately upon arrival, can I attend orientations and classes without any restrictions? BRANDON LANNERS So I’m going to add another link to the chat that is to the Cornell Health site that talks all about the different immunizations. Generally, students who arrive on campus without having met their health requirements will have a temporary hold placed on their registration status. They can still access campus housing and dining and register for and attend courses, but they won't be able to use a variety of other campus facilities until they complete their requirements. There are a couple of dates to keep in mind for students that have not met those requirements. By august 16th students that have not met them will have a temporary hold placed on the registration status and then by 30 days after the first day of classes they will be disenrolled from the university and they'll be charged a fee to re-enroll once they come into compliance. And so students need to meet with Cornell Health staff as soon as they get to campus to get those pieces taken care of again if not in advance so that any holds can be removed. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Brandon. So I will turn to some of the questions that have been coming in now. I think we have some time and one that I see perhaps this might be for the provost that it asks about parents moving in their children, whether that's possible and what the parents might need to do to move in their children? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Yeah thanks Gustavo. I'm not certain now about the move-in protocols and what I can say is we will provide that information in a timely fashion. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you Mike. There are lots of questions one for perhaps Laura that is about banking, you know, how can one open a bank account? Does one need a social security number first? LAURA TAYLOR This is a difficult answer or question to answer because it depends on the bank so there are some universal policies of course but banks all have different requirements for setting up accounts with them. We are not permitted to recommend one particular bank over another bank but there are several banks in Ithaca and several that have on-campus facilities. We do have on the international services website a section that relates to on campus or sort of life at Cornell. And banking is one of those topics and so we do have information and links about the different banks that are located in Ithaca and some of their requirements. MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF So if I could also add to my last answer I would just highlight the fact that a student in campus life is having a orientation for all students or a town hall for all students. I believe it's next week, right Wendy? So Vice President Ryan Lombardi will be on that and I think that will provide more details of some of some of the specifics of move in which applies not just to international students but all students. WENDY WOLFORD Yeah thanks that's august 4th and we put the link into the chat for you to register. Thank you. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you Mike. A question perhaps for Wendy. If international students are unable to find a place to stay whether on campus or off campus due to full capacity, is there any way Cornell can help? And perhaps we can tie this to another question that has to do with are emergency funds available for international students. WENDY WOLFORD Thanks Gustavo. So I’ll take the second question first. We do have very limited funds emergency funds for situations extreme situations for students those can be applied for through the Office of Global Learning. So you can talk to Brandon Lanners who's on the screen. He can help with that. We've tried to be to make that available particularly under COVID when there were emergency travel in other situations. Unfortunately, of course our international students sometimes have situations that require significant funding and the amount of funding we have isn't available to cover tuition or usually not available to cover things like housing or other residential aspects of life on campus. In terms of housing availability when you say Gustavo or when the questions asks whether everything is full, I assume they mean that on-campus housing has already been filled up or they're not able to get access to on-campus housing and so they are looking for housing options off campus. And also of course our hotel situation is such that the hotels fill up at certain times of the year and then it really can be difficult to find hotel space so for hotel space you should look early to reserve, and you may find yourself having to go outside of the immediate Ithaca area to hotels that are in the surrounding area. For help finding residents off campus the student campus life office maintains off-campus housing support and I can put the link into the chat for that. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you, Wendy. I have a question for Kathryn. Where can graduate students find the roster for their classes this fall? KATHRYN BOOR So i’ll put a link to various to the course roster in the chat. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you and perhaps Lisa could answer this one. Where can students pick up their student ids when they get to Cornell LISA NISHII That is a great question. I believe in Day Hall at the Office of the Registrar. Does that sound right? GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS That sounds right to me thank you. Brandon I see several questions about Prepare the you know some of them have to do with whether one can attend only the online portion of Prepare but not that in person? Is that allowed? BRANDON LANNERS Yeah thank you Gustavo. So that is a piece that we're looking at you know recognizing that some students travel plans are making that difficult to attend for that in-person portion so I’m in direct contact with the Prepare participants and we'll be providing instructions very soon on the different options that we'll have to accommodate student circumstances. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you Brandon. I see a question about vaccination someone asked whether antibodies can be tested for on campus and you know this question specifically asks about chickenpox antibodies but maybe just more generally. Do we have the capacity to do that maybe even with COVID? MICHAEL KOTLIKOFF Yeah we're not testing for COVID antibodies, a number of reasons for that but Cornell is not offering that service. I don't believe we as at Cornell will be able to test for chickenpox antibodies either. Our policy really is requiring vaccination and if you there are some services available through health providers or commercially for antibody testing. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Thank you mike um we might have a couple of minutes for a few more questions. I see one about visas. Does perhaps what if a visa is not approved and I cannot make it to campus because of that by the enrollment date? What should I do. I don't know if Wendy or Laura might be willing to take that. WENDY WOLFORD I mean I can jump in, and then hand it over to Lisa and Laura. We tried to answer that question earlier and in fact many of the questions that are coming in through the chat have been addressed already in the hour of this town hall so we will make the recording available and please do take time to watch it. I know there were a lot of links that were provided and those are probably difficult to get a hold of quickly to capture quickly on your end so we'll make those available too. Unfortunately the options for people arriving late to campus are going to be limited so we really hope that students will be able to make it to campus by the start of classes in August. There is some flexibility potentially up until the last day to add classes again that is something you really should talk to your department, your undergraduate or graduate advisor program manager, or your college student advisors, to find out whether or not the classes that you're taking can actually accommodate a late arrival because. Not all of them can if you know that you will be arriving late and truly we are so sorry about this situation we know it's not easy and that there are things that will keep international students from coming that are outside of your control whether it is the visa process or as we're hearing more about difficulties with travel so we do really understand this the difficulty is that we are returning to an in-person campus and so the classes are going to be not offered remotely. You should if you find out that you will not be able to make it to class by the beginning of September by September 9th which is the last day to add classes, we urge you to get in touch with your advisors with your program managers. And unfortunately, we know that we need to be flexible in terms of students taking a leave of absence or deferring those are decisions that are made at the local level in your department or in your college. So again please do reach out to those advisors I don't know Laura or Lisa if you want to add. LAURA TAYLOR No, I think that that's accurate Wendy. Thank you very much LISA NISHII Yep, I agree. GUSTAVO FLORES-MACIAS Well thank you thank you for these thoughts we're almost out of time so maybe i’ll just reiterate what the provost said about this event on August 4th. It's Vice President Ryan Lombardi with student campus life will hold a forum for students, parents, families. More generally just you know it's a forum an open forum to ask questions information that might be helpful for everyone and the link for the registration is now active. It's in the chat and we'll post it again and now I will turn it over to Wendy for a final message. WENDY WOLFORD Thanks Gustavo, and thank you to all of our panelists, and thank you to all of the audience for all of your questions and for listening there was a lot of information that came through in this past hour. And you have a lot of questions so we will really endeavor to get you the recording quickly and also to take the questions and answer any of those that haven't already been answered on the FAQ page for international services. So again, there is almost certainly an answer to the question that you might have please do check that FAQ or get in touch with your local advisors. I know this is a really exciting but also difficult moment. It's stressful to get ready to come to campus. I myself was an international student so I know what goes into preparing for this moment. Please feel assured that Cornell has your back we have a lot of resources we have thousands of international students come to our campus every semester, every year and so we have a very good infrastructure to be able to answer your questions and to support you on campus. If you have any questions, reach out to other students to your advisors. Reach out to us, we'll provide that information as well and get excited. It's wonderful here and we look forward to welcoming you. Thanks.