SUNY daze upstate
105 cases shutter campus
SUNY’s campus in upstate Oneonta is shutting down because more than 100 people there have tested positive for the coronavirus — after large parties were thrown during the first week of classes.
SUNY Oneonta’s hybrid schedule of online and in-person classes had started only last Monday when a significant number of its 3,000 students and teachers began showing symptoms of COVID-19 after “several large parties,” SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras said on Sunday.
At least 105 have since tested positive — or 3 percent of student and teacher population on campus, Malatras said.
The campus is now being closed for at least two weeks, and five students were suspended along with three student organizations, which were not identified.
“We’re going to be tough on those students not because we want to ruin their fun, but this is a different time,” Malatras said, referring to the “new normal.”
Local residents were also being offered three rapid-result tests.
“Many of the students live off campus. There’s a lot of interaction in the community,” Malatras said. “We want to manage any potential spread and address it immediately.”
Gov. Cuomo said the situation highlights fears that reopening schools could damage New York’s progress against the disease.
As of Sunday, 429 were hospitalized with the virus across the state — the lowest figure since March.
“Colleges to me are very much a canary in the coal mine,” Cuomo said, warning they showed “what happens when you bring back a concentration of people” amid the pandemic.
The development came as state officials told The Post that enrollment was down 5 percent at four-year SUNY colleges this year over 2019, continuing a downward trend.
SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis stressed that the figure was based on early estimates and didn’t include its community colleges.
The number of students at CUNY schools also has fallen this semester, dropping by 4.4 percent, according to early figures reported by many of its 25 campuses.
That contrasts with CUNY’s surging enrollment in previous years. Last fall, CUNY reported a record 2.8 percent increase in enrollment for its freshmen class.
But CUNY officials said more time was needed to get a fuller picture of enrollment and analyze the pandemic’s impact.
State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Queens), chair of the Senate’s higher-education committee, said she had no doubt that the pandemic had hurt college enrollment.
“Obviously, COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on all colleges and universities,” she said.