Question

Hi Deans,

As a fifth year Ph.D. student, physical education (PE) courses have been some of the high points of my time at Cornell; getting to do some fun exercise mid-day has consistently been a great mental health break. As such, I was hoping to register for a PE course this spring semester. But I’m not sure that I’d feel comfortable attending such a class during the first two weeks, when we have reason to think that there might be a lot more potential for omicron spread (thus motivating classes being online until people have been tested a few times). With that in mind, I wanted to ask what the plan is for PE courses in the spring — will the university policy mean that PE courses will not start until the third week?

Thanks so much for clarifying this for me.

Best wishes,

Phys-Ed Fan

Response

Dear Phys-Ed Fan,

I’m so glad to hear that you’ve found PE classes to be a source of much-needed stress relief and joy. I reached out to the PE team to pose your questions. They confirmed that most PE classes will start the third week of the semester as in-person instruction resumes. PE courses generally require 18 hours of class time, so they can lose the first two weeks and still get all the hours in necessary. Historically, PE didn’t start until the third week of classes so this change is less disruptive than it may seem at first. Skiing and a few other classes will start the first week of the semester because of weather so it’s important to check the details for any classes you’ve enrolled in.

I hope you have great spring semester and find another fun PE class to help enhance your well-being over the coming months!

Sincerely,

Jason

Jason Kahabka
Associate Dean for Administration