Syracuse University students will get a chance to collect merchandise commemorating this semester’s mumps outbreak on Tuesday as part of a student-organized health fair on the Quad.

T-shirts with “Bump the Mumps” lettering will be handed out, along with other promotional items such as plastic cups and stickers, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The T-shirts’ typeface is stylized like that of Netflix’s popular science fiction series, “Stranger Things.”

Students on the Quad will be asked to sign a pledge to practice good hygiene and help control the spread of mumps, a contagious disease, according to a Syracuse University News release.

The event is being organized by a group of public relations and marketing majors from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, SU’s Student Association and Health Services interns from the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

As of about 5 p.m. Monday, Health Services had confirmed 41 cases and 78 probable cases of people infected by the mumps among SU’s campus community.

The university has hosted multiple mumps vaccination clinics since October. The outbreak started in August. All SU students who have contracted the disease were properly vaccinated, officials have said.

Students with confirmed or probable cases of the mumps are isolated from campus for up to five days. Some of them have been housed in the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center.

Michele Wheatly, SU’s vice chancellor and provost, in mid-October asked faculty via email to extend assignment deadlines and provide make-up exams for students infected with the disease.

Published on November 13, 2017 at 11:03 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek