NEW YORK (AP) — Students attending college at one of New York’s public universities in the spring will have to quarantine at home for a week first and be tested for COVID-19, at home or on campus.
The rules are part of new guidance for the spring semester issued by the State University of New York on Sunday.
"I feel like that is the right thing to do because you want to make sure all the students are safe and healthy to go about their lives," said Buffalo State College Freshman Ziare Gray.
Classes will start later than usual, on February 1, and there will be no spring break.
And with big gatherings still not allowed, graduation plans for the Class of 2021 are shaping up once again to be scaled-back or virtual ceremonies.
“With COVID-19 surging nationwide, and with increased cases in New York, SUNY has devised a comprehensive plan to keep this virus at bay throughout the flu season and through the spring semester,” said Chancellor Jim Malatras. “We’ve demonstrated this past fall that by implementing an aggressive strategy to manage COVID, students can safely return to campus. These additional efforts—testing all students upon return, ongoing testing throughout the semester, pushing out the start of the spring semester, and mandatory masks at all times, coupled with uniform enforcement and compliance—illustrates that SUNY is setting a nationwide standard for controlling COVID-19 in the weeks and months to come. I have talked with countless students since August who have made tremendous sacrifices so that they can stay on campus and learn. Our students have done a remarkable job given the circumstances. This aggressive strategy gives us the best chance to return our students once again to classrooms in early 2021. But as we know, this is a fluid situation so we will continue to adapt and be flexible as issues emerge.”
The complete guidance can be found here.
