City College Professor Dies After Contracting Coronavirus

NEW YORK, NY — The City College of New York lost two professors, one to complications after contracting coronavirus, in the past week, school officials announced.

Professors Michael Sorkin and David Nocera both died on March 26, City College President Vince Boudreau said. Sorkin, a renowned architect and architectural critic, taught at the college's Spitzer School of Architecture and recently contracted coronavirus. Nocera was a member of City College's media and communications arts department.

"These two sad deaths focus our attention on this new and dangerous moment in which we live. Professor Nocera had not contracted the coronavirus, and his death reminds us that a society struggling to cope with a pandemic is rife with dangers not confined to the disease itself. People in isolation are still vulnerable to the usual range of threats to their health, even as our system of care grows daily overburdened," Boudreau said in a statement.

City College executives canceled in-person classes, reduced on-camps staffing and moved studies online earlier this month as measures to curb the spread of coronavirus. Boudreau's statement said that moving forward students and faculty should "think how we can help one another by providing peer support, by devising ways to keep our spirits up, and by extending what material assistance we can to those in need."

"For now, let’s take a moment to mourn our lost friends and to remember the light they brought into our lives. I’m wishing you all a safe and secure weekend," Boudreau wrote.