In a previous email, Vice-Chancellor Lehman stated that he would announce updates to the lockdown situation the week of March 21. As of the announcement yesterday, the Academic Building will remain closed, and classes will be remote until April 9th. The day after his announcement, students in Jinqiao residence halls were informed that the compound was in lockdown due to a Covid case in Tower 10. Students had various reactions to the new updates.

“I am not happy about continuing online class, especially because we are stuck inside for two days,” Catherine Ellison, a sophomore, said. “Going to school gives me a designated space to learn and gives me opportunities to socialize, but staying in dorms makes me feel lazy.”

“I personally would like to go back to in-person class as soon as possible, since I cannot learn much from just staring at my computer all day,” Rin Tanaka, a junior, said. He further expressed that remote learning is affecting his lab class because the professor is restricted to solely lectures.

“I feel like being remote does not really affect the quality of my class since the activities do not require being able to physically interact with one another,” Satya Tirtha, a sophomore, stated. “However, there are some classes which would benefit from having a more physical interaction between teachers and students.”

Regarding the Jinqiao lockdown, Catherine shared “I am definitely concerned about the recent case because I want to be able to go out of the building at least.”

Rin said that because he has been stuck indoors studying for midterms, he would like to go outside in the following days, so he hopes that we will not have to do the 48 hour lockdown.

Satya shared, “I am not very concerned regarding the recent case in tower 10 since I feel like whoever is in charge handled it efficiently.”

NYU Shanghai administration has been keeping up with the situation, and the next step for Jinqiao residents involves more Covid testing. Meanwhile, Jinyang residents have not been locked down, but the administration is prepared for the possibility.