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Syracuse University has installed temporary outdoor teaching spaces on both Main and South Campus for the fall 2020 semester, a university official said Friday.

To retrofit shared campus spaces to increase social distancing, SU has installed three temporary classroom units on Main Campus and 21 outdoor teaching “tents” on both Main and South Campus, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie said in a campus-wide email. The university is considering keeping tents up on the Quad from the start of classes to early October, according to SU’s Fall 2020 Open website.

The temporary spaces are one of several safety measures the university has implemented in preparation for the fall semester.

SU has also installed 84 sheets of Plexiglass at all food service and dining hall locations and 245 barriers in high-traffic reception and retail areas to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Haynie said in the email.

“This is just a snapshot of the ongoing preparations and work underway, positioned to set the conditions to make it possible for all of us to return safely to campus in the fall,” Haynie said.

Students returning to campus will receive one of 21,000 “COVID Health Kits” SU purchased in the run-up to the semester. The kits include three reusable face masks, hand sanitizer, a door opener and a forehead thermometer, Haynie said. The university also purchased 2,500 “Instructor Health Kits” for faculty that include disposable face masks, alcohol wipes, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer.

The university has also purchased in total more than 3.5 million face coverings — including both disposable and reusable masks, KN95 and N95 masks and face shields — as well as 35,280 bottles of hand sanitizer, 3,000 hand sanitizer dispensers and 1,400 hand sanitizing floor stands, Haynie said.

SU is not requiring faculty and staff to receive testing for the coronavirus the same way it’s mandating testing for students, Haynie said at a virtual Q&A session Friday. Doing so would take testing away from students traveling to campus from COVID-19 hotspots, whereas a majority of SU’s faculty and staff live in the central New York region, he said.

Under New York state law, faculty and staff must continue to submit a daily health screening to the university before coming to campus. Faculty and staff with a university insurance card may receive free COVID-19 testing from the university’s drive-thru testing site, Haynie said.

Faculty, for the most part, should conduct office hours virtually, said Chris Johnson, associate provost for academic affairs. If face-to-face meetings are necessary, all participants must maintain social distancing, he said.

The university will encourage faculty and staff to call out students they see violating social distancing or face-covering requirements on campus, Dean of Students Marianne Thomson said.

“It is not a situation where we should be calling DPS every time you see a violation of the Stay Safe Pledge,” Thomson said. ‘We would expect anyone (faculty and staff) in our community to be able to address mask-wearing and social distancing.”

SU’s “Stay Safe Pledge” outlines the health behaviors the university expects students to follow this fall to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on campus. Under the pledge, students must avoid large social gatherings and wear face-coverings when in public. Resident advisers will receive training on how to handle violations of the pledge within residence halls, Thomson said.

Starting next week, SU will provide weekly updates regarding the spread of COVID-19 on campus through an online dashboard that will track any cases or potential exposures, Haynie said.

“If our students want to be here, they need to take this seriously,” Haynie said.

While SU works to finalize its reopening plans, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will have the final say in whether the university can reopen as expected or if it should cease operations mid-semester, Haynie said. Cuomo has not yet made a final decision.

SU has said that it will restrict students to dorms and move all classes online if more than 100 students contract COVID-19 at the same time. Haynie said at the forum that there is no “magic number” at which the university will shut down campus.

“Ultimately, it will be about our capacity to test and trace and track instances of COVID on our campus,” Haynie said. “It is our capacity to respond that is the metric that will drive that decision-point.”

Published on July 31, 2020 at 3:57 pm

Contact Sarah: scalessa@syr.edu | @sarahalessan