Skip to Content
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • flickr
  • WAGNER.EDU
  • A-Z
    A
    • Academic Advising & Accessibility
    • Academic and Cultural Enrichment
    • Admissions
    • Alumni & Friends
    • Anthropology Department
    • Arts Administration
    • Athletics
    B
    • Biological Sciences Department
    • Bookstore
    • Business, Nicolais School
    • Business Office
    C
    • Calendar
    • Campus Life
    • Campus Services
    • Career Planning & Development
    • Center for Intercultural Advancement
    • Center for Leadership & Community Engagement
    • Center for Spirituality
    • Children & Teens Programs
    • Commencement
    • Communications & Marketing
    • Conference Services
    • Continuing Education
    D
    • Dance Program
    • Dining Services
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    E
    • Early Childhood Center
    • Economics Department
    • Education Department
    • English Department
    • Expanding Your Horizons
    F
    • Film & Media
    • Film & Photo Shoots
    • Financial Aid
    G
    • Gender Studies
    • Government & Politics Department
    • Give to Wagner
    H
    • HawkTalk Blog
    • Health & Wellness
    • History Department
    • Holocaust Center
    • Honors Program
    • Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform
    • Human Resources
    I
    • Information Technology
    • Institutional Advancement
    L
    • Library
    • Lifelong Learning Department
    M
    • Math & Computer Science
    • Modern Languages, Literatures & Cultures
    • Music Department
    N
    • Newsroom
    • New Students Hub
    • Nursing, Evelyn L. Spiro School
    P
    • Performing Arts
    • Philosophy & Religious Studies Department
    • Physical Sciences Department
    • Physician Assistant
    • Planetarium
    • Pre-Health Science Program
    • Pre-Law Program
    • President’s Office
    • Provost’s Office
    • Psychology Department
    • Public Safety
    R
    • Registrar
    • Residential Education
    S
    • Sociology Department
    • Student Engagement and Activities
    • Student Government Association
    • Study Abroad
    T
    • Theatre
    • Theatre Season
    • Title IX
    V
    • Veteran’s Resources
    • Visual Arts Department
    W
    • Wagner Fund
    • Wagner Magazine
    • WCBG Student Radio
    • Writing Center
  • QuickLinks
    ONLINE
    • Directory
    • Follett Discover Access
    • Handshake
    • Mailport
    • Moodle
    • myWagner
    • OneLogin
    ON CAMPUS
    • Events Calendar
    • Job Opportunities
    • Library
    • Registrar’s Office
    • Theatre Season
    • Visit Us
    • Webcam
    MORE RESOURCES
    • For Employees
    • For Faculty
    • For Current Students
    • For New Students
    • For Community
    • For Alumni
    • For Parents
Wagner College Newsroom
  • Events
  • Stories
  • Contact
  • Newsroom MENU
    • WAGNER.EDU
    - Prev Article How Wagner College stayed open — and safe — this fall - Next Article
    December 8, 2020 Share
    Share on facebook
    Facebook
    Share on twitter
    Twitter
    Share on google
    Google
    Share on linkedin
    Linkedin
    Share on pinterest
    Pinterest
    Share on email
    Email
    Text Size

    Joel W. Martin

    AN OP-ED ESSAY BY JOEL W. MARTIN

    Many said it could not be done.

    Others said it should not be done.

    To reopen a college campus’s classrooms and residence halls during an ongoing pandemic was not something to take lightly — but it was something higher education leaders had to consider during the summer of 2020. With no precedents to follow and very little guidance from authorities, college and university leaders across the country had to create reopening plans and make lots of decisions in a context of great uncertainty and possible risk.

    Understandably, some decided not to reopen for in-person learning and remained purely online for the fall semester.

    Others opened their campuses to students but soon had to close or otherwise put their plans on pause.

    A few careful colleges, however, made it the entire way — including one right here on Staten Island.

    Wagner College is proud to be within the rare set of colleges that sustained a safe and successful semester during the fall of 2020. Eager to see all colleges and universities succeed, we are pleased to share what we learned in case it might help others.

    There were many keys to our success, but first and foremost was the fact that Wagner has always been a caring community. When the pandemic tested us, we came together and brought out the best in each other. Every week that we remained open made each of us more committed to stay the course, with students, faculty and staff pulling together as never before.

    When we heard of disastrous outbreaks occurring on other campuses across the nation — in North Carolina, Indiana and New York — with campuses going purely online far earlier than planned, we resolved that this would not happen on Grymes Hill. We would not merely avoid outbreaks; we would actually create a really meaningful on-campus experience for our hundreds of residential and commuter students, a semester with course work as well as sports practices, theatrical productions and civic engagement activities.

    Building on the foundation of our caring community, we relied on science, collaboration and transparency to keep us safe and successful. We invested in campus health and safety, a decision that benefited our students as well as the local community. While the pandemic is not over, we are confident that the health and safety investments we continue to make will allow Wagner to emerge stronger and better positioned to help Staten Island and the rest of New York City recover from the damage caused by the pandemic.

    We believe there were five keys to Wagner’s success in making it through the pandemic, so far.

    We mobilized early, convening our Pandemic Response Team in late January.

    It’s hard to believe that we have been fighting this pandemic for nearly a full year, and even more difficult to comprehend just how resilient we have been, given the stress and toil of this work and the wider Covid fatigue we see in the region and the nation as a whole. But starting earlier than most, and working hard through the spring and summer, paid off. With unstinting effort, Wagner kept learning and improving throughout the entire ordeal, and that has served us well.

    We built partnerships around science and data.

    In July, we partnered with the Broad Institute of Harvard and M.I.T. to provide a frequent, accurate, painless and cost-effective testing program, with quick turnaround to enable contact tracing and control potential outbreaks. The test was so easy to take that many could not believe it was so effective — but by providing nearly weekly testing to all students, we demonstrated just how seriously we took the virus. That had a salutary cascade effect on behavior and compliance among our students.

    We formed the Higher Education Health Analytics Team, an alliance with local government, other Staten Island universities, scientists and healthcare providers to guide our practice. This group was composed of top administrators from Wagner, St. John’s, the College of Staten Island, Staten Island University Hospital, Richmond University Medical Center and Deputy Borough President Ed Burke. Meeting regularly, they shared best practices, emerging public health guidance and data related to the management and mitigation of the virus. Although this group only met on Zoom, they forged strong bonds of respect in recognition that we are all joined in a great cause to support higher education and protect health on and beyond our campuses. This alliance will serve Staten Island well after the pandemic passes.

    While we were careful to under-promise to our stakeholders what we could and would do to manage risks, in fact at Wagner we sought to exceed published promises and reasonable expectations. For example, we proactively exceeded guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for testing, contact tracing and quarantining those who might have been exposed. Being over-prepared and over-cautious served us well.

    We communicated transparently.

    Wagner College has been fully transparent about its coronavirus test results and campus quarantine figures, assuring our own community members as well as our neighbors that we are responsible members of the Staten Island community.

    We created a public Covid-19 tracker that earned an A+ rating for transparency, completeness and clarity from a group of Yale public health experts. You can read more about this on our website.

    We gave weekly video updates and sent twice-weekly community emails about campus coronavirus status and efforts to control the virus.

    We invested strategically in community health and educational continuity.

    Wagner invested $1 million in its coronavirus testing and tracing program — an indispensable investment that made it possible for the school to stay open.

    We added multi-camera systems to many classrooms to allow for remote learning, upgraded our campus wireless network and introduced a new app for dining services.

    We providing training to faculty and staff on how to teach and engage students successfully in hybrid and remote teaching approaches.

    Undaunted by the virus, we completed a full renovation over the summer of the entryway to our freshmen dorm, Harborview Hall, including touch-free doors, a high-quality hand-washing station and ADA-compliant restrooms.

    We relied on the strength of the Wagner community.

    The whole community — faculty, residence hall staff, maintenance and housekeeping, dining services, the business office, coaches and athletes, student affairs staff, student organizations and our 2,000-or-so undergraduate and graduate students — worked together to make it possible for Wagner College to continue in the midst of the pandemic to shape the lives and futures of our students as members of an academic community.

    We built momentum day-by-day. With the passing of every additional day that we remained open and safe, we gained confidence that we could keep it up — and students very much wanted to keep it up. They wanted to remain together with friends and faculty on campus, with classmates on the sports field or theater stage or nursing lab. They liked eating together outdoors in the heated tents we put up on campus. They appreciated, as never before, the in-person collegiate experience, and they were zealous in calling out anyone whose behavior put that experience at risk.

    By October, we all had a growing sense that we could go the distance, though we were careful not to jinx it by saying so out loud. We avoided using metaphors of a possible “perfect game” or a “no-hitter,” though these comparisons came to mind. Given the amount of grit, determination, discipline and luck that had to come together to bring the semester to completion, we did not want to tempt fate. To be sure, we had cases on campus, though these numbers were well below what our models had projected. There were no positive cases among the college’s faculty, and no evidence of transmission within our classrooms or community spread within the campus. The positive cases we did see arose primarily because of the predicted increasing hazard of contracting the virus off-campus as the weather turned colder. Despite the increasing external risks, rates of infection on campus remained at levels well below the percentages observed on Staten Island as a whole and in New York City’s other boroughs. In the end, we can assert confidently that we kept our students, faculty and staff safer by opening the campus this fall.

    We aspire to do the same this spring, and we are confident we can do so, building on the caring community that is Wagner coupled with our strong reliance on science, transparency and prudent investments to strengthen our campus life.

    Opening a college campus during a pandemic is not something to take lightly. But with the right community employing the right approach, it is not only something that can be done, it is something that should be done.

    Joel W. Martin, Ph.D., is the president of Wagner College on Grymes Hill, Staten Island.


    Published on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020 on the Staten Island Advance website

      • Homepage Feature
      • President's Office News
      • Wagner News

    Popular Stories

    • Jeffrey Forchelli e1695133310720 Jeffrey Forchelli e1695133310720

      Presidential Search Announcement from the Board Chair

      September 19, 2023

    • angelo 2022 commencement 1 angelo 2022 commencement 1

      President Angelo Araimo to retire following 2023-24 academic year

      September 18, 2023

    • DSC02683 DSC02683

      Now hiring Wagner students: Browse on-campus jobs and off-campus community service opportunities

      September 20, 2023
     

    Related Stories

    Group of six student staff members wearing matching blue shirts and nametags pose for photo around an empty green cart during move-in at Wagner College.Hidden Image September 20, 2023 Now hiring Wagner students: Browse on-campus jobs and off-campus community service opportunities The Office of Financial Aid has many openings for Wagner students looking for an on-campus job or an off-campus community service opportunity. From an events staff position with athletics to an office
    Jeffrey Forchelli e1695133310720Hidden Image September 19, 2023 Presidential Search Announcement from the Board Chair Wagner College: As you read yesterday, President Angelo Araimo has announced that after 30 years of distinguished service, he will retire from Wagner next summer. The Board of Trustees joins the faculty,
    angelo 2022 commencement 1Hidden Image September 18, 2023 President Angelo Araimo to retire following 2023-24 academic year Wagner College President Angelo Araimo Longtime leader to conclude 30-year tenure, calls Wagner College “strong and poised to thrive” Angelo Araimo, president of Wagner College, announced his retirement
    211220 Wagner Shot 01 0242 2Hidden Image September 18, 2023 A Message from President Angelo Araimo Wagner College: January 2024 will mark my 30th anniversary at Wagner College.  When I arrived in 1994 as director of admissions, it never occurred to me that I would be here more than a few years. I
    Hidden Image September 16, 2023 Seahawk Spotlight: Preserving Wagner archives, a pilot dance program in Brooklyn, and more By Lindsey Schwarzbach Seahawk Spotlight is a monthly roundup covering campus happenings and student, faculty and staff accolades for Wagner College. Below are highlights from September 2023. Wagner
    Jose Ocasio gives a demonstration of his Puerto Rican identity through rhythm. He sits on a box with a microphone and a drum by his side as panelists and audience members listen.Hidden Image September 14, 2023 Join Wagner College in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 Click to view event details. National Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated annually in the United States from September 15 to October 15, recognizes and honors the contributions, culture, history and
    Five members of the Wagner College community stand in front of a sign which reads "Happy Constitution Day," wearing red, white, and blue hats and holding red, white and blue balloons.Hidden Image September 14, 2023 Register to vote on campus or online In honor of Constitution Day (September 17) and National Voter Registration Day (September 19), all Wagner College students are encouraged to register to vote, check their voter registration status, and
    close-up photo of a ceramic pot being spun.Hidden Image September 13, 2023 Call for submissions: Inaugural Wagner staff and faculty art show The Wagner Art Department will hold an inaugural juried art show late this fall at the Spotlight Gallery (exact dates to be determined). All creative staff and faculty are encouraged to submit one to
    Artist Helen Levin stands in front of three of her abstract paintings hung on the wall in Wagner College's Union Gallery.Hidden Image September 11, 2023 Visit the Union Gallery now through Sept. 30 The Wagner College Department of Visual Arts is excited to be hosting Arch(itecture) Homages Meet Art Advocacy: Work and Words, a selection of works by abstract artist Helen Levin. Wagner community members
     
    • Wagner Magazine

      Stories from alumni around the world.

      Read the magazine

    • Contact the newsroom

      communications@wagner.edu

    • Wagner in the media

      Wagner College news coverage

      Browse Catalog

    • Visit Campus
    • Explore Majors
    • Library
    • Make a Gift
    Wagner College
    Work One Campus Road
    Staten Island, NY 10301
    • CONTACT US
    • Privacy Policy
    Back top