SUNY Oneonta Goes Remote After Coronavirus Outbreak

NEW YORK — Confirmed coronavirus cases at SUNY Oneonta increased to 389 Thursday as state officials deployed a medical SWAT team to contain the virus cluster that developed among the student population. Confirmed cases increased sharply by more than 100 compared to Wednesday.

SUNY officials decided Thursday to send all on-campus students home and end all in-person classes and activities for the rest of the semester.

SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras previously announced a two-week suspension of in-person classes and the state set up free rapid resting sites Wednesday in Oneonta, which is about halfway between Albany and Binghamton.

As of Thursday, there are 54 students in quarantine on the Oneonta campus and 100 students in isolation. Quarantined students are suspected of having the virus; isolation means they are confirmed positive.

While announcing the pausing of in-person classes and activities, Oneonta President Barbara Jean Morris said the decision followed a directive from the governor regarding mitigation actions that colleges must take if their virus infection rate rises above a certain level.

She emphasized that the college wasn't closed. Residential students will be quarantined until Sept. 13. Nonessential employees won't work on campus for two weeks, and most employees will telecommute. All classes, including those with an in-person component, will be delivered online until Sept. 13.

Considering how many cases of the coronavirus New York had at its peak, it is remarkable how far the state has come in working to stop the spread of the disease. All regions came through the four phases of reopening — with a few fits and starts, such as indoor dining in New York City and movie theaters.

But when it came to the reopening of colleges, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Aug. 1 that it was up to the individual institutions to determine how and when to reopen. The state did, however, issue guidance that it expected schools to follow.

The prospect of students being away from home and living in dorms without parental supervision for the first time was something that gave Cuomo pause. During a news conference Monday, he called colleges "the canary in the coal mine."

The governor said when colleges open and students come back, they congregate and socialize and the infection rate goes up.

"Either the college administration is rigorous and disciplined in their administration of the precautions, or the viral transmission rate goes up and then the college has to close and go to remote learning," Cuomo said.

Marist College, a private college in Poughkeepsie, as of Wednesday was showing "a low prevalence of the virus with controlled transmission," according to its website. It recently had to lock down a freshman dormitory because a student became infected with the virus after attending an off-campus party.

Stony Brook University, a State University of New York school on Long Island, announced Friday that it had its first positive case of the coronavirus for the fall 2020 semester. The student was taking online courses while living on campus.

In Ulster County, SUNY New Paltz reported Wednesday four additional on-campus resident students tested positive for the new coronavirus. A total of seven students tested positive since the beginning of the fall 2020 semester. Fourteen students are in quarantine and three are in isolation.

New Paltz officials said that three of the infections were the result of a couple of pickup basketball games during which one student did not wear a mask, something that was contrary to the college's guidelines.

What is happening across the country could also be worrisome as more colleges and universities — not to mention public schools — begin reopening.

A growing number of institutions of higher learning are ramping up how they respond to student parties and other gatherings that don't follow health and safety protocols.

The University of Illinois saw more than 700 students test positive for the new coronavirus since Aug. 24; the school ordered students to limit in-person activities for two weeks, The New York Times reported.

Other schools around the nation with problems include the University of Missouri, which suspended 10 Greek houses and plans to discipline 330 students.

The University of South Carolina reported more than 1,000 students with confirmed cases of the coronavirus.

A spokeswoman for the SUNY system did not respond to a request from Patch for information about whether coronavirus cases on their campuses was being tracked.

On the SUNY website, though, Malatras issued a statement about 13 SUNY Fredonia students who were suspended for violating protocols.

He said it was a small number of students, but their actions have a broader impact on the entire college community.

"We will continue to send a collective message across SUNY that we will do everything in our power to stop a small fraction of students from ruining the fall semester for everyone else," Malatras said.

SUNY's fall 2020 reopening plans can be read in full here.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was changed from its original version to add that SUNY Oneonta students were being sent home for the rest of the semester. The decision was made Thursday to cease all in-person classes and activities for the rest of the fall semester.