Students can transfer to another institution or must leave the country. 

Many of the universities going online only are in California where the coronavirus  cases continue to grow.

On July 8, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to stop the policy. 

More than 50 universities are filing either amicus briefs or lawsuits opposing the new ICE regulation, according to Ubadah Sabbagh, who voluntarily crowdsourced and fact-checked university announcements over his twitter account. His twitter thread amassed over 5,000 comments and retweets with university internal letters or official announcements.

Universities filing amicus briefs/lawsuits against new ICE regs by my count:

– Cornell
– Dartmouth
– Georgetown
– Harvard
– Hopkins (forthcoming)
– Michigan State
– MIT
– Northeastern
– Northwestern
– Penn
– Princeton
– Purdue
– Stanford
– U of California
– UMich
– USC
– Yale

— Ubadah Sabbagh (@neubadah) July 9, 2020

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, more than half of the universities are planning for in-person teaching for next semester. Around one fourth of the universities are proposing a hybrid model and about  9% of  are planning for a fully online model.

Data provided by the Department of Commerce shows that international students make up 5.5 percent of the total U.S. higher education population, contributing $44.7 billion to the U.S. economy in 2018. China is the largest source of international students in the U.S., followed by India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

 Incoming international students are also having difficulty  gaining access to  F-1 visas because of  U.S. embassy shutdowns.

Ke Li, an incoming NYU journalism graduate student said she decided to defer her offer till next year.

 “I have to take online courses from China if I accept the offer,” she said.“Students like me who are not in the states only get the choice of being fully online.” 

 Li did not feel the government’s response to contain and mitigate the public health crisis was adequate.

“It is safer to wait another year to see what is coming,” she said.

The post Lawsuits follow ICE policy barring international students who are taking online classes appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Employees at Brookyn’s New Lab could choose to wear a “proximity sensor” that buzzes whenever other colleagues get closer than 6 feet. Wearing a sensor is optional. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

Brooklyn’s New Lab employees can wear a proximity sensor, which is locked into a chest harness. It gives out a vibration feedback if participants get too close to each other. This could be escalated to auditory alerts if two people are walking within six feet of each other. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

At the front desk of New Lab in Brooklyn, the proximity sensors are separated into “clean” and “used”. Movement data is collected and analyzed by the company for future prevention. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

At New Lab in Brooklyn, face covering is required in common areas. Signs are set up for keeping people bearing “social distancing” in mind. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

New Lab, the Brooklyn-based tech hub also changes its bathroom capacity by only allowing three people entering at one time. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

Foodcellar, a local grocery store at Long Island City, requires cloth face coverings or masks for entry. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

Hygiene stations are set up in the common area at an apartment building called “Watermark” in Long Island City. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

A person sanitizes their hands at the hygiene station at the Watermark building in Long Island City. July 7. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

Long Island City’s Watermark apartment building posts social distancing guidelines. Photo by Joanna Lin Su

The post Proximity sensors and hygiene stations are the “new normal” appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

And things seem to be moving forward despite today’s announcement that indoor restaurant dining is postponed indefinitely.

According to more than 57,000 records in the 311 complaint record real-time dataset, Pavement Pieces found that the daily social distancing related complaint numbers were lower in the reopening, compared with the period of lockdown.

 Here’s a list of top ten locations where  social distancing violations were reported in 14 days of  Phase  One.

During the three-month lockdown, Brooklyn witnessed more social distancing complaints than the other four boroughs in the city. But with the city reopening its manufacturing, wholesale supply chain, and curbside pickup, Manhattan has more complaints  followed by Brooklyn and then Queens. Commercial places or stores see more social distancing violations, while people in playgrounds or parks tend to report less incidents.

Below is a list of the top ten locations with the most social distancing  violations reported in  14 days of  the Phase One reopening.

The post Despite a few bumps, NYC is social distancing more than not appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

 The U.S. press freedom tracker has been  collecting data since 2017. According to its report, in the past it took them over 1,000 days to reach  400  incidents. The data  below is from May 26 to June 10.

More than 400 aggression against press incidents reported so far at the national George Floyd protests; Source: U.S. press freedom tracker’s twitter updates and google spreadsheets; Note: the tracker did not count June 5, June 7, and June 9 separately

Based on the verified data, Pavement Pieces visualized aggression against press incidents during the national George Floyd protests. The following graph shows the breakdown of incidents, by types and locations. According to the data collected from May 26 to June 5 by the tracker, journalists covering stories in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., New York, Denver, Los Angeles, Louisville, Philadelphia, and Detroit reported more aggression incidents. Overall, journalists in the field reporting the protests are more likely to get assaulted or  detained  by police.

Incidents breakdown by types and locations. Source: U.S. press freedom tracker’s google spreadsheets, May 26 – June 5; Note: every reported incident is counted as one, and all the incidents are categorized into types; assault includes physical attacks, tear gassings, pepper sprayings, and rubber bullets or projectiles.

The post Press freedom under siege as protests rock the nation appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Results also showed that the total scheduled flights in March 2020 is similar to what in the same period last year, while the flight cancellation amount is about nine times higher. 

A spike in flight cancellations was seen on March 20, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the “New York State on PAUSE” order, advising all New Yorkers to stay home. Flight cancellations peaked at 590 on March 27. 

March 2020 witnessed a growing amount of cancellations on flights departing from New York State.

Among the 5,808 canceled flights, 86% of them were canceled for “security reasons”, which was unheard of just a year ago, Flights to Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, California, Texas, Georgia, and Massachusetts had the highest cancellations. According to the BTS, security cancellations are due to “evacuation of a terminal or concourse, re-boarding of aircraft because of security breach, inoperative screening equipment and/or long lines in excess of 29 minutes at screening areas.”

The following graph shows which states  flights were scheduled to fly to and reasons for their cancellations. 

Approximately 5808 flights departed from New York State were canceled in March.

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