Your divisions, schools, and departments were recently asked to submit confirmation of your various course section offerings so that the College could prepare for the posting of WA grades for students (as part of CUNY’s COVID-19 vaccination policy compliance process). 

As of today, CUNY has not given the go ahead to apply any WA for COVID-19 vaccinations; however, I write to you with a summary of the expectations for data provision and the resulting actions that will be taken, based upon the data you’ve provided and pending final guidance from CUNY Central.

WA Grade for IN-PERSON CLASSES

  • All fully in-person class sections are subject to the vaccine completion and documentation upload deadline of Thursday, Oct. 7. Students in these classes who remain unvaccinated were told they will receive the WA grade beginning on Friday, Oct. 8.  (Again, awaiting the go ahead from CUNY).

WA Grade for Identified HYBRID CLASSES

If your course section was reported as “In-person classes will be held all semester”

  • Your students were REQUIRED to upload their vaccination proof prior to CUNY’s deadline of Monday, Sept. 27, 2021; Any student’s failure to comply will result in the receipt of a WA grade for your course.

If your course section was reported as “In-person mid-term is scheduled after Oct. 7”

  • You were required to provide the date of the mid-term examination administration;
  • Your students were REQUIRED to upload their vaccination proof no later than ten days before the examination date;
  • Any student’s failure to comply will result in the receipt of a WA grade for your course.

If your course section was reported as “In-person classes will not start until after Oct. 7”

·         You were required to provide the date of your first in-person class meeting;

  • Your students were REQUIRED to upload their vaccination proof no later than ten days before the first in-person class meeting; Any student’s failure to comply will result in the receipt of a WA grade for your course.

If your course section was reported as “In-person final only. Vaccination status due Nov. 30”

  • Your students are REQUIRED to upload their vaccination proof to CUNYfirst no later than Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021.
  • Any student’s failure to comply will result in the receipt of a WA grade for your course.

Please remember that it is likely your students are enrolled in courses which fit more than one of the categories described above, or they may be enrolled for courses which are fully online.   They may have a vaccination proof upload deadline of Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021 for one course, an earlier upload deadline for a different course, and yet another course for which they were not required to upload vaccination proof (due to being fully online for all course activities).  Regardless of the combination of course modalities being taken this term, students who do not meet the stated deadlines for uploading their vaccination proof will receive one or more WA grades.

I encourage you to remind your students about the importance of precisely following the specific instructions provided online and uploading their vaccination proof as soon as possible, so that they can prevent receiving a WA grade. All student inquiries should be emailed to healthcenter@csi.cuny.edu.

If you are uncertain regarding how your course section information was reported, please contact your department chair, or the Executive Associate to the Dean for your division or school.

By Kerri Gerson