All the Tea on Returning to Campus
Your all-encompassing guide to navigating SU in a pandemic.
by MYKENNA MANIECE ★ AUGUST 3, 2020
The amount of information flooding our inboxes daily is enough to make anyone crazy. Travel advisories, testing kits, quarantining… we get it, it’s a lot. Hopefully, this guide will help to ease your nerves and answer all your questions surrounding the topic of returning to ‘Cuse.
First thing’s first: we gotta get back to campus. But what exactly does that look like?
Currently, the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, has enacted a travel order affecting 34 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington D.C. The order requires individuals from these areas to quarantine for two weeks. As a result, Syracuse University students must either quarantine in New York or a state that was not listed in the order to be allowed on campus in the fall.
Credit: Instagram (@dailyorange)
First-year students and transfer students have been given the option to quarantine in on-campus housing for $1,000 starting on August 2. Meanwhile, other students were offered discounted hotel rates through the university. For a complete list of these hotels, click here. Whether you stay in a hotel, or with friends or family, the university is requiring documentation of your quarantine through a letter stating the address of where you’ll be isolating.
In addition to the required quarantine, students must also submit proof of a negative COVID-19 test result before being allowed to return. The university stated that students must be tested within 7-10 days of their arrival back on campus in order for the results to be valid.
How do you get tested, and how do you submit your results?
Students have the ability to be tested in their communities at urgent care facilities or local healthcare providers. However, the university understands that testing kits may be difficult to access, especially if someone is asymptomatic and has had no contact with a coronavirus patient. Therefore, Syracuse is offering at-home testing kits. These kits will enable students to self-administer the COVID-19 test and mail it to a lab for testing. The lab will return results via an online portal 24-48 hours after receiving your sample; they will also relay your results to the university. The cost of the at-home testing kit is $49, and students will be able to request one through an online portal (more information to come soon). Regardless of how you choose to obtain results, you’ll need to upload them to your Student Patient Portal which is accessible through MySlice.
Now, it’s worth noting that although the note-system for quarantine is entirely integrity-based, testing is not. Since students must be tested 7-10 days before returning, these results could not come from a “hot state” without showing that you failed to complete the quarantine in a “cold state.” Even if you plan on going to a local health center, the address of the testing agency could be required when submitting results. So, if you thought you could bypass the quarantine restriction and just stay home, you might want to rethink those plans before it’s too late. Additionally, if you were going to try to avoid getting tested, university officials decided that your SU I.D. card will be “turned off” until you submit proof of a negative result.
Ok, now what about moving in?
You’ve completed the quarantine, submitted your negative test result, and are finally ready to return to Syracuse! Students living in dorms are all required to select a move-in time slot through MySlice’s Housing Portal. Make sure to stagger your move-in time with your roommates to be safe, and alleviate the stress of having too much going on at once. Trust me, move-in day is hectic enough even without a pandemic on everyone’s minds. Also, keep in mind that this year you’ll only be allowed one guest to help you move in for two hours, and this guest can’t be swapped out. These same rules apply for moving into South Campus apartments.
What is the university doing to keep us safe?
In addition to the previous guidelines, Syracuse has invested in significant quantities of safety equipment. In an update released on July 31, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation J. Michael Haynie explained that the university has purchased “3,000 hand sanitizer dispensers; 3,476,150 disposable masks; 30,000 KN95 and N95 masks; 11,000 social distancing floor decals; 21,000 ‘COVID Health Kits;’ and 26,000 flu shots” among other things. Furthermore, they have installed “84 sheets of Plexiglass at all food service and dining hall locations, more than 100,000 public health reminder signs, and MERV 13 air filters in 160 air handling units in 40 buildings across campus,” just to name a few of the main projects. For the complete update, click here. The university will also be launching a COVID-19 Dashboard that will “report metrics, statistics, and trends associated with the presence and prevalence of COVID-19 health outcomes among and within the Syracuse University community.”
Credit: Facebook (Syracuse University)
How will campus life be different?
Classes: This fall, classes will be in person, online, and in hybrid formats depending on the course. All students are expected to wear masks and socially distance during instruction. You can check your schedule on MySlice to learn more about how each of your courses will be held.
Dorm Life: Unfortunately, students will not be allowed to sign in guests from other residence halls, so hopefully your squad is all in one dorm… The same is true for students living in South Campus apartments; no visitors.
Dining: As for the dining hall situation, Dean of Students Marianne Thomson told an online forum that the university will operate mostly on a grab-and-go basis.
Athletics: ESPN reported that Governor Cuomo will not allow any fans to attend sporting events this fall. Syracuse University’s athletic director, John Wildhack, has asked the state for more guidance. As for the athletes, the ACC recently announced their plans for the season with detailed testing guidelines for all students and staff members as well as a modified game schedule.
Parties: I think we all can understand that partying is a no-go. So picture more weekends cuddled up watching Netflix than frats and DJs. Assistant Provost and Dean of Student Success Amanda Nicholson told a University Senate forum last month that punishment for partying would be “swift and heavy,” and could include “immediate suspension.”
What will happen if you choose to stay home?
Students that elect to stay home this semester will complete their classes online unless they choose to take time off completely. Sophomore Madison Tyler lives in Los Angeles and explained that she’s “not entirely sure what an online semester is going to look like yet,” but expects it to be similar to how things were after the transition in March. She elaborated, “some of my professor[s] have told me they’ll have new cameras in the class...and ways that I can participate in class even when they’re in person. But other than that I don’t really know the specifics.” SU has asked all students choosing to stay home and complete their classes online fill out a questionnaire so that faculty may better plan their courses.
What happens if there’s an outbreak?
Syracuse University has established five outbreak levels with corresponding action plans.
Level 1 (10 or fewer exposed): campus life will proceed, with affected individuals placed in isolation or quarantine.
Level 2 (10 to 100 exposed): buildings and individual floors may be quarantined to stop the spread.
Level 3 (more than 100 exposed): a stay-at-home order will be enacted and all classes will be conducted online
Level 4 (more than 100 infections): students will be confined to their rooms, bathrooms, and floors. Classes will proceed with online instruction only.
Level 5 (virus has spread at a “significant rate”): the semester will be moved entirely online and students will be expected to move out immediately. Below is a breakdown of the move-out process.
Credit: Instagram (@dailyorange)
To be completely honest, this is unlike anything we have seen before and there are still so many questions that need answering. For instance, first-year international students are still faced with ICE’s announcement that they will not be permitted to enter the country if they’re completing an online-only course load this semester. Syracuse University has yet to provide a statement on how they will help students affected by this decision. If you’d like to continue learning more, or your specific question wasn’t answered in this guide, I encourage you to review the university’s frequently asked questions page for all things fall semester/COVID-related.
As we begin to navigate this new form of campus life, we need to be cautious of the slim margin of error. With approximately 15,000 undergraduate students and only 200 quarantine and isolation units, the odds do not appear to be in our favor. The only way that we can even attempt to have a complete semester is by following the guidelines presented, no matter how tedious they may seem. So grab your favorite Bath & Body Works hand sanitizers, your favorite masks, and get ready for a semester you’ll never forget.
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