Our Reader: It’s not time to party

We all know Syracuse University is the #1 party school in the nation. And as many of us know, parties often do not have many serious implications after everyone goes home.

Parties are going to be different this fall.

The fact that we are the nation’s top party school is one of the main reasons myself and some of my peers are scared to go back to school in the fall. I have a few things I’d like to say relating to this and how I feel that everyone — not just students — should be careful and considerate of a few things.

Every major is different.

I am a music education major. This major is not one that functions easily under the distance learning model. Arguably, few majors do function well in this setting, but I know that music majors have exceptional challenges to navigate right now. I am a vocalist, and singing is one of the most dangerous things we could possibly do right now. But, what else are we going to do? That’s why we are at SU! Accommodations are being made, and we will just have to be careful. Singing, playing instruments and interacting with my peers in an educational setting are the elements that encapsulate my major, and distance learning last semester hardly did any of these things justice. I know there are several people in majors across the campus who can relate to this. And unfortunately, not all of us have the option to take a semester or year off. Just because one person’s major is one that functions fine over Zoom calls, that doesn’t mean everyone else’s major does. Therefore, I encourage us all to be considerate and aware of our socialization practices, as this virus can heavily impact the educational experiences of others.

Faculty and staff have put in effort to ensure we stay safe.

SU is determined to have in-person classes this fall. That being said, none of us students can even imagine what the faculty and staff have gone through to make the necessary accommodations for this year (once again, especially in schools like the Setnor School of Music, where we have to be extra careful because of the nature of what we do). I actually live with two faculty members who are helping to make these plans, and even after hearing about the countless meetings they have had over the last five months, I still probably can’t begin to fathom all they’ve been going through and dealing with. They and hundreds of others across campus have spent the entire summer working with their colleagues to make school as safe as possible. Imagine how much it would suck if all their hard work went to waste a month into the school year because someone was intentionally unsafe. I love socializing as much as the next person, but I can’t help but think about how all of this work would basically not even matter if that were to happen. When you think about going to that bar on Saturday, I hope you will consider how their efforts would be thrown away if any of us — students, faculty and staff — are not careful.

We all have different personal situations.

Not everyone is a young, healthy person living on their own or with two to three other young, healthy people. Some of us are immunocompromised or have diseases and medical situations that could greatly worsen the impact of COVID-19 on our bodies, doing long-term damage to us or killing us. Some of us live with people who are older or immunocompromised. These problems, among many others, could arise for other people based on the actions that you take when you socialize. Please be considerate of your peers, their families and their friends.

Remember the community.

If the pandemic spreads, you very well may get to just go home to your home state. But some of us will have to stay here in what would become a new COVID-19 hotspot in central New York, after CNY has done so well all summer with staying safe and keeping cases low. When you think about the community that surrounds our campus, those people who come to football games or donate to your programs, I encourage you to be considerate of doing all you can to avoid giving them a coronavirus-infested city.

Of course, this is not to say, “don’t hang out with people.” I am a social butterfly, and I cannot wait to see my friends in a month. However, I think we have heard about the necessary precautions enough times to know that they offer ways to socialize safely if they are all done properly (wearing masks, maintaining 6 feet of distance, not sharing food or drinks, etc.). I love the Setnor School of Music and I love SU, and it would devastate me to see anything bad happen to anyone on this campus just because someone had to go out.

I know partying is not the only way COVID-19 can be contracted. Not going out doesn’t guarantee that no one will catch it somehow. But if we are doing everything we can as individuals to be safe in our day-to-day lives, then we could greatly reduce the possibility of there being a COVID-19 outbreak on our campus.

There will be another time for us to hang out with our friends in those settings. There will be a day when you can be packed in basements again, dancing and screaming like crazy.

But we have to be smart, careful and considerate of the notion that that time isn’t now.

Julie Coggiola

B.M. Music Education, ‘21