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Syracuse University is investigating whether or not the university distributed COVID-19 facemasks that did not meet Food and Drug Administration standards, Gretchen Ritter, SU’s vice chancellor and provost, said during the University Senate meeting Wednesday.

The FDA initiated the recall of the KN95 masks in July 2020, citing the masks’ inability to filter more than 95% of particulates.

Later in the meeting, Professor Robert Van Gulick asked Ritter if faculty members had the option to move their courses online given a surge in COVID-19 cases if they were concerned about the risk to their health.

“When you say that with omicron the rate of serious implications or illness is low, one has to look at different demographics,” Van Gulick said. “What about people like me? 73 years old, overweight — each issue raises the risk factors.”

Van Gulick asked Ritter under what circumstances and when faculty members can ask the chairs of their departments for approval to move classes online for a period of time. Ritter reiterated that the overall positivity rate on campus remains low and that the university is following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state on COVID-19 prevention.

“We can’t let everybody make the decision for themselves,” Ritter said. “We have to leave it to the folks who are looking at the data and have the expertise to make the decision.”

Ritter also said she appreciated the university’s Public Health Team, as well as faculty and staff who are working hard to keep the campus community safe amid the surge of omicron cases in New York.

“This university and community have much to be proud of our handling of the challenges that COVID has brought our way,” Ritter said. “While keeping people safe, we have consistently focused on our mission of advancing knowledge and understanding while providing superb educational opportunities to our students.”

Ritter said the university’s goal is to reach 100% compliance for all employees to submit proof of their vaccine and booster by Jan. 31. There will be a drop-in help desk available in Schine Student Center’s Goldstein Auditorium Friday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Biko Gray, an assistant professor of religion, expressed concern with the university’s data-oriented approach.

“Because I am a humanist, the most important number is one,” Gray said. “I’m struggling with the merely data-based methodology that’s grounding the university’s approach to public health.”

When asked about the campus-wide WiFi malfunction on Tuesday, Ritter said the university is still investigating the reason that caused the outage. Information Technology Services is working on ensuring such outages will not happen again, she said.

“It’s important to put this in a broader context,” Gretchen Ritter said. “Our ITS network services before yesterday had a 99.9% uptime record, meaning that over the course of 12 months, there was only about an hour of unplanned downtime.”

Ritter said SU received a record high of applications in regard to the university’s admissions. Nearly 41,000 prospective undergraduate students applied for the fall 2022 semester. However, the university saw a drop in Ph.D. program applications, partially because of the decreased number of international applicants from China. The applications for Ph.D. programs are down by about 11%, while those for master’s programs increased by 4%, she revealed.

Ritter concluded her remarks by speaking on the new Forever Orange Faculty Excellence Initiative that was announced by Chancellor Kent Syverud on Monday. Through the initiative, the university will leverage donations with up to $20 million university funds, she said.

Eric Kingson, a professor of social work, presented the Committee on Services to the Faculty and Staff’s annual report alongside Kristi Johnson, an administrative specialist for writing studies, rhetoric and composition. The committee proposed a motion to suspend planned increases in health insurance premiums for faculty and staff and gather additional data on the implication of the changes. The motion passed.

The special health premium increase was implemented on Jan. 1, Kingson said, while further increases are scheduled for 2023 and 2024.

Published on January 27, 2022 at 12:56 am

Contact Richard: [email protected] | @richardperrins2