NYU has offered to make Alumni Hall available to healthcare workers from other hospitals without charging rent, according to an email from NYU Senior Leadership circulated on Saturday, April 12.
Last week, NYU rendered Third Avenue North Residence Hall and Carlyle Court Residence Hall available for NYU Langone medical personnel. The email stated that these healthcare workers have begun using Third North.
“Dozens of front-line hospital personnel from NYU Langone Health began making use of rooms the University has made available in the Third Ave. North Residence Hall this past week,” the email read.
The city is still pending NYU’s offer of Alumni Hall — which housed 450 residents prior to dorm eviction — according to the email.
At the time of publication, there have been 104, 410 coronavirus cases in New York City alone. As this number surges, hospital space has become scarce. To accommodate the exponential rise in cases, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has directed officials to assemble overflow hospitals in each of the five boroughs.
These residence halls will join 20 New York City hotels and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in their conversions to hospital space.
The email to the NYU community added that summer sessions will be held remotely, but that the university anticipates hosting in-person courses for the fall 2020 semester as of now.
“For fall 2020, our plan is to resume regular, in-person classes on campus,” the email stated. “Of course, we are continuing to monitor developments closely.”
The email also stated that Wellfleet — NYU’s Student Health Insurance provider — will be waiving out of pocket fees incurred by COVID-19 related treatment and testing.
“In an effort to assist students who have financial need caused by COVID-19, in the last three weeks the University has provided approximately $4 million to some 8,500 students in the form of emergency aid and grants,” the email stated.
The email did not state how many students applied for emergency aid.
Another announcement in the email was that summer housing will not be made available through the end of June.
Citing resources such as Carebridge, the Student Health Center and the Wellness Exchange, NYU Senior Leadership stressed that the health of the NYU community was its main priority.
“Every community is susceptible to the reach of COVID-19; the NYU community has been and will surely continue to be touched by the illness for some time,” the email reads. “Your well-being is very much in our thoughts.”
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, April 13, 2020, e-print edition. Email Lisa Cochran at [email protected].
