The Daily Orange is a nonprofit newsroom that receives no funding from Syracuse University. Consider donating today to support our mission.

Despite momentary disappointment among students regarding the pushback of the spring semester, Syracuse University administrators made the right call in delaying the start of residential learning. The decision allows them extra time to monitor and react to the risks of COVID-19 to the Syracuse community. 

Chancellor Kent Syverud stated in an email to students on Monday that “it has become increasingly clear” that the coming weeks will most likely be some of the most difficult that central New York and the United States will experience since the pandemic began.

Bringing thousands of students and staff back to campus during this time will only put excess pressure on the SU community and the community of Onondaga County as a whole. This extra time before the second semester could help protect us from creating a large outbreak and inevitably closing campus early. 

Syverud also discussed in the same email that the biggest reasons for the delay are the likelihood of a surge in cases following the recent holiday season and the possibility of some campus frontline workers receiving vaccinations. SU’s administration is hoping that, over the next few weeks, medical staff at the Barnes Center at The Arch will be vaccinated and that COVID-19 cases in central New York will decline. 

As vaccines are beginning to be released all over the country, Onondaga County has a very optimistic plan for vaccinating its residents. The county plans to vaccinate 5,000 to 6,000 medical workers this upcoming week, County Executive Ryan McMahon said in a COVID-19 briefing on Monday. 

This is only the beginning. The county is planning to increase the number of vaccines given every week, McMahon said. The extra few weeks from SU’s delayed start will provide time for more vaccines to be given to Onondaga County residents and university staff before thousands of students travel to the area from all over the country.

In the scheme of this pandemic, delaying two weeks is not a very large sacrifice for the health and wellbeing of our community. Many students in the U.S. were not allowed to return to their campuses at all this fall. As a student body, we should be grateful for the hard work being done by SU faculty and staff to make it possible for us to come back at all.

Micaela Warren is a freshman communication and rhetorical studies major. Her column appears bi-weekly. She can be reached at mgwarren@syr.edu.

Published on January 6, 2021 at 4:29 pm