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Syracuse University’s COVID Project Management Office will halt operations effective May 23 and the university will not update the COVID-19 dashboard for the summer starting Friday, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie said Tuesday in a campus-wide email.

Student concerns and inquiries related to COVID-19 will now go through The Barnes Center at The Arch, the email stated. The office, which previously conducted COVID-19 contact tracing, will transition contact tracing to the self-disclosure method used throughout New York state, according to the email.

Haynie also detailed changes related to COVID-19 testing, masking, isolation and vaccination protocols on campus as well as changes in travel policy in the email.

Testing services that were available throughout the 2021-22 school year at both the Kimmel Dining Hall testing center and the Dome will not be available during the summer starting May 23, Haynie said. He encouraged students to seek COVID-19 testing at the Barnes Center if they display symptoms.

SU will also suspend its random surveillance testing for the summer months, but will continue its wastewater surveillance testing program. The email did not specify if or when testing at the Dome and Kimmel Dining Hall testing center, as well as random surveillance testing, will resume.

Only students living in university housing during the summer months will have access to quarantine housing over the summer, Haynie said. Students living off campus will be responsible for their own isolation arrangements, according to the email.

The university will allow travel for university purposes to freely resume on May 23, Haynie said. In July 2021, SU adopted an interim travel safety policy to allow non-essential domestic travel. International travel is currently subject to the university’s Travel Safety policy, he said.

SU will continue to use its four-tier masking framework over the summer, Haynie added. As of May 17, the university is at a “BLUE” level masking tier.

“I want to again express my gratitude for the cooperation and flexibility of our students, faculty and staff, who committed to the public health safeguards necessary to maintain a robust residential academic experience over the past year,” he said.

Published on May 17, 2022 at 7:54 pm

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