Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington is planning to reopen their campus for the Fall 2020 semester despite the fact that the United States is still facing the brunt of the COVID-19 Pandemic. We, the Cornish Student Body, Alumni, and concerned Cornish Community Members are asking college leaders to close the campus and move to remote learning for Fall 2020 to protect the health of students, faculty, and staff.

Our Demands - Cornish Must:

1. Close for the Fall 2020 semester and move all classes and extracurricular activities to remote environments to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

2. Reduce the housing capacity of the Cornish Commons and make students who need essential housing a priority.

3. Work harder to provide appropriate accessibility services to students who have difficulties learning in an online setting.

4. Work harder to provide appropriate resources for students who may not be living in Seattle for the Fall 2020 semester.

5. Provide students with a system to safely checkout equipment, library materials, and use printing resources in the Main Campus Center to fulfill the needs of their classes.

6. Create a safe and functioning order and pick up system for students to get their meals from the Cornish Cafe.

7. Adopt emergency guidelines to the current excused absence policy to provide students who may contract COVID-19 the ability to make a full recovery without having to worry about their attendance impacting their grades.

8. Have a plan in place to protect International Students if the Trump Administration decides to go back on their July 14th repeal of deporting International Students taking a full online course load.

9. Have an open and honest dialogue with the Student Body regarding how the pandemic is affecting the Cornish Community and how Cornish plans to move forward to a full reopening.

Based on the CDC Guidelines for reopening institutions of higher learning, the continued growth of COVID-19 cases in Washington state, and the closures of major arts organizations across the United States it should be evident that closing is what the college must do.

COVID-19 will remain a threat until there is a vaccine to protect our communities. Cornish College of the Arts must close their doors for the Fall 2020 semester and adopt plans that will truly prevent the spread of the coronavirus to protect their students, faculty, and staff.