Hey everyone. I wanted to share the response I received from President Raab this morning about our petition:

"Please accept my apologies [for the late reply.] I had asked Student Services to reply to your petition. We also spoke to USG and committed to do whatever is in our power (as opposed to CUNY rules) to make appropriate changes in COVID regulations at the dorm. We are also planning to discuss CUNY rules with the Central Office. Please know that we are very much aware of your concerns and are working to address them. 
Student services will be in touch with you today. 
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. 
Jennifer Raab "

We know most of our rules are from Hunter since other CUNY dorms have more freedom, so we hope to see changes soon! While our petition does not ask for changes to the dorm's mask mandate, the Chancellor's lifting of the CUNY-wide mandate effective today further supports our goal (we started the petition before this announcement and are awaiting clarification on whether it applies to Brookdale.) After all, being in a dorm room with a few fully vaccinated, frequently tested friends is certainly no riskier than being in a full classroom of unmasked people (some of whom might not even be vaccinated) -- allowed as of today.