The explosion of coronavirus cases in central New York has garnered the attention of New York public health officials and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who has called the region “a problem.” 

Since the beginning of November, Syracuse University has experienced a drastic increase in on-campus positive tests and students admitted to quarantine. As a result, the university has transitioned entirely to online learning. 

Although SU was forced to make an unfortunate decision, it’s important to understand that the university did everything in its power to avoid switching to virtual instruction. SU should not be held entirely responsible for the outbreak on campus.   

The extreme spike in cases can be attributed to three factors. First, students went against university guidelines and left central New York to visit other schools, which directly led to some of the largest outbreaks on campus when they returned. Second, the incoming cold weather has forced students to spend more time indoors, where COVID-19 transmission thrives, especially when cases are already rising. Finally, the rise in cases in Onondaga County has led to an uptick in infections on campus, which SU is not to blame for.

As students go out to popular restaurants such as Margaritas Mexican Cantina — where 19 staff members tested positive by Nov. 7 — the likelihood that just a handful of students could spread COVID-19 to the rest of the campus is high.

While SU remained vigilant in keeping COVID-19 cases on campus relatively low throughout the majority of the semester, infections have been on a concerning rise since late October. Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a campus-wide email Nov. 11 that SU is working to ensure students can safely leave campus early, and students are now scrambling to escape. The student body is seemingly more scared of contracting COVID-19 on campus than off. 

When looking back on the semester at SU, the unbelievable efforts that campus administrators, faculty and staff made to protect students and community members against COVID-19 cannot be looked at as anything but a success. While the last two weeks on campus will unfortunately leave a bad taste in students’ mouths, it’s still impressive that SU was able to keep positive tests under 100 in all but one two-week threshold mandated by New York state this semester.

 

Nathan Fenningdorf is a sophomore political science major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at nlfennin@syr.edu.

Published on November 22, 2020 at 7:07 pm

Contact Nathan: nlfennin@syr.edu