Syracuse University has been in COVID-19 alert level ‘RED’ since Aug. 28. That made sense when there were over 150 active cases on campus in September, but it’s ridiculous that the status hasn’t changed now that there is a total of 11 active cases as of Monday. In an email sent on Thursday, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie told students in no uncertain terms that the level ‘RED’ status is here to stay for the long haul. 

Haynie’s message explains that the student body, which is 98% fully vaccinated, must continue to wear masks at all times when inside buildings and when in the presence of others outdoors. This will continue to be the case despite an on-campus positivity rate of 0.2%. Out of every 1000 tests administered, roughly two students test positive for the virus. COVID-19 at SU is not as serious of an issue as it once was. 

In the email, Haynie wrote that, “there is no single metric or threshold that — by itself — would trigger a change to the COVID masking alert level.” He went on to explain that all three major levels of COVID-19 tracking on campus — campus surveillance testing, wastewater surveillance and contact tracing — are trending in a positive direction. 

Those three metrics track the COVID-19 situation on campus. What is trending in the opposite direction, however, is positivity rates across Onondaga County. At the time of Haynie’s email, the county had a 5.1% positivity rate during the last seven days. The prevalence of COVID-19 off campus is the main reason why students need to continue to wear masks on campus. The singular factor of transmission and infection rates within the county, rather than on campus, may be keeping the university from making a change. 

The reason why I wear a mask in a classroom of 20 fully vaccinated students and one fully vaccinated professor is the positivity rate of citizens in Onondaga County — who aren’t in the classroom with us. I’m no scientist, but that does not make sense to me. 

SU’s website lists the qualifications for being in level ‘RED’ as indicating, “a high level of transmission risk on campus” That’s right – on campus transmission risk. Yet, the only reason Haynie gave for remaining in the ‘RED’ level is off campus positivity rate and case numbers. It’s time to adapt the description of level ‘RED’ if off-campus transmission plays a large role in determining the campus masking level despite low case numbers on campus. 

Getting past Haynie’s explanation for not switching the levels, the enforcement behind the COVID-19 rules has been extraordinarily inconsistent. 

If you are one of the many students who exercise at the Barnes Center at The Arch, you may have noticed a switch being made back to last year’s procedures. In order to limit capacity in the free weight room, students must make reservations to use that facility. Once those reservations fill up, no one else can use that room. 

Maybe the university is doing so to enforce some semblance of social distancing between people. Yet, this is not the case for the 300-person lectures on campus. A class I’m currently taking has nearly every seat in HBC Gifford Auditorium filled with no distancing between people.

Does the virus understand the difference between a lecture hall and a weight room? Am I not able to transmit or contract COVID-19 in Gifford Auditorium, yet bound to do so in the Barnes Center? I don’t pretend to have the same wealth of knowledge on contagious diseases that public health officials have, but that doesn’t make sense to me. 

While Haynie plays a large role in communicating SU’s COVID-19 policy, this means multiple reminders to students via email that they are required to wear masks and do their part in a never-ending quest to curb the spread of COVID-19. His most recent email essentially indicates that the on-campus positivity rate could be at 0% and we could still be in level ‘RED.’

SU is not reflecting CDC guidelines for colleges when it comes to its rules about masks. The CDC states, “IHEs (institutions of higher education) where all students, faculty, and staff are fully vaccinated prior to the start of the semester can return to full capacity in-person learning, without requiring or recommending masking or physical distancing for people who are fully vaccinated in accordance with CDC’s Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People.”

Additionally, in Onondaga County, masks are recommended but not required. As long as nobody challenges Haynie’s decision-making, I’ll probably be required to wear a mask for the remaining 18 months until I graduate from SU.

John Dales, Syracuse University Class of 2023

Published on October 25, 2021 at 10:03 pm