SU mandates testing twice a week for main campus students amid cluster
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Syracuse University has implemented several temporary safety measures in response to a cluster of COVID-19 cases in residence halls.
The university is tracking the current cluster emerging in Main Campus residence halls, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie announced Wednesday. He encouraged students living in DellPlain, Shaw and Booth halls to exercise “enhanced vigilance.”
“It is critically important that we act quickly and decisively to undercut further spread of the virus within our residence halls, and more broadly across our campus community,” Haynie said.
Students living in those halls and employees working there must adhere to a double-masking policy, Haynie said. Access to public lounges in each building is also suspended.
All in-person dining halls and centers on campus, including at the Schine Student Center, have transitioned to grab-and-go service only, Haynie said. Students living in Main Campus residence halls will now be required to receive a COVID-19 test twice a week. All students are currently required to get tested at least once a week.
Under SU’s new COVID-19 testing schedule, residents in Day, Flint, Brewster, Boland, Brockway, Shaw, Haven, Lyons and Walnut halls must get tested on Thursday and again on Monday. Those living in Booth, DellPlain, Marion, Lawrinson, Sadler, Watson, Kimmel, Ernie Davis and Washington Arms halls are required to get tested on Friday and Tuesday.
Colleges and universities in New York state are required to move all classes online and limit on-campus activities if the campus’s positivity rate exceeds 5%. For SU — which has an on-campus population of about 17,600 students, faculty and staff — 880 positive cases within two weeks would require the university to go on pause.
DellPlain Hall is one of three residence halls that the university has identified as having an emerging cluster of COVID-19 cases. Gavin Liddell | Staff Photographer
But university officials have said that SU would take action to prevent the spread of the virus far before that threshold.
Previously, the state required the university to move all classes online and limit on-campus activities if it reached 100 cases within a fixed two week reporting period. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the change shortly after the start of the spring semester.
In the fall, the university suspended operations twice to comply with the state’s requirement.
The university limited in-person activities in early October after a cluster of cases broke out after one SU student traveled to Binghamton, which New York state had deemed a coronavirus hotspot at the time. The infected student or students brought the virus back to SU, where it spread during at least one party at an apartment complex on Walnut Avenue.
After the first outbreak, the university also canceled all in-person activities, excluding classes and athletics. It also amended its public health guidelines to limit gatherings from a maximum of 25 students to five or fewer and closed the Barnes Center at The Arch and SU’s satellite gyms.
About a month later, SU moved all classes online nearly two weeks before the end of the semester. The university confirmed over 280 coronavirus cases as a result of the second outbreak, as cases across the county began to surge.
Haynie said he is optimistic that new guidelines will curb the spread of the virus, but that the university may take further action if cases continue to spike. As soon as the cluster appears to be under control, Haynie said the university will lift the temporary regulations.
“Please hold yourself and those around you accountable,” Haynie said. “We cannot stress enough the importance of compliance with public health guidelines.”