Rochester NY

Monroe Community College Interim President Kate Douglas said she doesn’t like the term “reopening,” because she said the college never really closed. Classes moved online in mid-March due to the pandemic. 

Douglas said different work groups filled with more than 70 staffers are discussing how to safely bring students back in person this fall.

“One of them is called the facilities and operations work group and they have been going through every room on campus and revising what the room capacity would be,” Douglas said. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has directed that all local government workforces be reduced by 50 percent at any one time in an effort to slow the spread of novel coronavirus.

With that, local leaders are figuring out how to continue serving residents with far fewer people in their offices.

If delivered in the right way, sarcasm has a constructive purpose in the classroom, according to a recent study from the University of Rochester.

Joanne Larson, a professor and researcher at the Warner School of Education, noticed while observing an English class at East High that teacher Timothy Morris used sarcasm to build positive relationships with his students.

"He has these one-liners that he says all the time,” Larson said. “When students are talking when he's trying to give instruction or something, he'll say, 'I hope you enjoy summer school.' "