OSWEGO – SUNY Oswego President Deborah Stanley announced today that the college will be pausing face-to-face classes for two weeks in hopes to mitigate the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
The campus is not closed, operations are not shutting down, and the school will not be sending students home at this time. Stanley said the pause is a voluntary effort.
During the next two weeks, the college will re-test every student – on-campus, off-campus and commuter.
As of yesterday, the college reported 82 new on-campus COVID-19 cases that count toward the 100-threshold. If the number reaches 100 by September 25, and the college has not demonstrated that community spread of the virus has been contained, the New York State guidance says in-person learning may further be suspended.
“We are getting so close to the cap of 100 it seems inevitable we will pass it before September 25,” Stanley said in the announcement. “With 8 days to go, SUNY Oswego is reporting 82 positive cases. In that light, we determined that taking a pause in order to manage the virus with the goal of containing it on our campus is best for our entire college community.”
Stanley said if the college has demonstrated that community spread of COVID-19 has been effectively contained, she expects the college will be authorized to restart in-person learning Monday, October 5.
In the announcement, she said students living on-campus should stay on-campus. All students, whether on or off campus, are required to limit their movements to essential needs only, such as medical appointments, jobs or accessing food.
“As medical professionals warn, traveling home and back to campus can spread the disease in both locations. Further, we do not have the capacity to house or monitor precautionary quarantine for all students upon their return,” Stanley said in the announcement. “Therefore, any student who elects to leave campus during this time will have card access removed and will not be eligible to return to campus housing.”
In addition to the recent suspension of all athletics, Greek life activity, residential hall visitation and in-person dining at the dining halls, all extracurricular programs and other non-essential student activities have been suspended. Violations to those restrictions could result in severe penalties.
Pursuant to NYSDOH guidance if a campus reaches the 100 or five percent threshold within a two-week period the campus must implement the following:
- Convert all campus dining and food service options to takeout/delivery.
- Deliver all classes through remote learning, but may continue to conduct in-person activity such as clinical, laboratory, licensure, and research, in consultation with the local health department.
- Suspend in-person athletics, extracurricular programs, and non-essential services. Medical services, counseling and other services will continue.
- Keep all residential facilities open.
Currently, all but in-person classroom activity has been suspended until today.
“We deeply value the benefits to students of in-person learning and we know classes are monitored with students wearing masks and distancing, and the rooms and furniture are disinfected,” Stanley said in the announcement. “However, to give containment our very best efforts, we need to comply fully with the guidance and suspend in-person classes.”
Although in-person classes are temporarily suspended, students still have access to labs, studio work and research facilities. Non-essential college employees will continue to work as agreed on in their supervisor-approved work plans, and the college will work to reduce the density workforce to 50% or under.
“I want to thank every member of our campus community for your dedication and resiliency in this difficult time—the vast majority of our students who have been following the rules and have helped us bring our positive cases down in recent days—our faculty and professionals who apply all their energy and effort to teaching and mentoring our students and achieving our mission—our staff on the front lines of providing essential services and direct care,” Stanley said in the announcement. “This is our time to rebound and come out of this pause even stronger and healthier than before. Let’s encourage each other to take all precautions and do the right thing.”
SUNY Oswego students were required to test negative for COVID-19 before arriving on campus this semester. Since the semester began, the college has conducted 6,734 tests for COVID-19. The college will continue to partner with Upstate Medical to complete regular pooled surveillance testing. Today, SUNY Oswego sent an internal memo to students that details what to expect over the next two weeks in regard to testing, changes in dining services, and other amenities. The college will continue conducting wastewater testing twice per week at buildings and residence halls on campus.
“I applaud Chancellor Malatras and President Stanley’s decision to place a temporary pause on in-person classes and activities,” said Mayor Billy Barlow. “The pause offers a good chance to re-group and contain the virus. The City of Oswego and SUNY Oswego have worked well together, managing through the recent uptick in cases and doing our best to stop the spread and protect our community. I believe the Oswego community is in a good position, thanks to SUNY Oswego’s robust testing program, and our data will continue moving in a favorable direction. Today’s temporary pause is out of an abundance of caution and strategically makes sense as we battle back against the recent uptick.”
The full announcement can be found here.
The SUNY Oswego COVID-19 dashboard can be found here.
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