Cornell University Response to COVID-19 Pandemic: Cornell’s COVID-19 Response Strategy Using the Agent Based Approach (ABA)

To better understand how Cornell handled the COVID-19pandemic, I decided to map the university’s response and interactionwith the virus. I completed an economics course in undergrad atCornell on the economics of higher education which spurred myinterest in mapping Cornell’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alot of the mapping comes from prerequisite knowledge I acquired fromthe course. The backwards economics and administrative deadweightloss that occurs as a result of academic organizational madness is veryintriguing so I wanted to map how exactly Cornell was so effective intheir response strategy.

Initially, dealing with the ramifications of an unprecedented globalhealth crisis in the Spring 2020 proved to be a difficult and chaoticendeavor for university administration. University leadership had toprovide directions to stakeholders throughout the Ithaca community toensure that students returned home safely without causing an outbreakin the community. Additionally, given that the faculty and staff arepopulated with many older individuals, there was a genuine need toensure de-densifying of the Cornell campus. After the chaos, it wasdiscovered that Cornell’s handling of the pandemic was uniquelyeffective among large research universities. The university’s handlingof the pandemic was featured on various new outlets as a result. Inthe Fall 2020 semester, in-person and hybrid instructions resumed,bringing the campus back despite the presence of a life-threateningvirus. Despite this, the campus managed to remain open throughoutthe 2020-2021 school year which cannot be said for many other collegesand universities. Therefore, Cornell’s handling of the pandemicprovides the perfect opportunity for a map to better understand howthe university used channels to ensure safety while under semi-normaloperations.