Geneseo pauses administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Geneseo secured doses of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine for students at Livingston County Department of Health clinics days before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and New York State Department of Health paused administration of the vaccine.

Geneseo paused their administration of the J&J vaccine in accordance with this decision.

Before the decision was announced, SUNY was able to obtain 18,600 dosages of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be distributed across 34 SUNY campuses. These dosages would have been provided to residential students hoping to be vaccinated before returning home at the end of the semester.

Since the start of J&J administration, six inoculated women have reported blood clots.

With the discovery of potential health-related side effects arising in individuals who received the J&J vaccine, the administration of this vaccine has been paused across the country. SUNY thus paused their administration of the vaccine as well.

Megan Syfrett, principal student health administrator, addressed some of the concerns sparked by this decision in an interview via email.

"With J&J on pause, SUNY has had to pause the program, as well," Syfrett said. "We have always followed the guidance and recommendations from the CDC, NYS, and our local Livingston County Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic, and we will continue to do so."

Despite Geneseo's pause in providing vaccine doses, the college is continuing to encourage students to get vaccinated. Chancellor of the State University of New York Jim Malatras released a statement regarding the pause in J&J administration and SUNY's response to this announcement.

"We are working with New York State to locate and receive alternative COVID-19 vaccines for our students," Malatras said in his statement. "We urge all students with appointments for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to contact their campus or vaccination site because alternatives have already been found in some instances."

            Malatras additionally requested that any student experiencing headache, abdominal pain,  pain or shortness of breath within three weeks of receiving a dosage of the J&J vaccine should notify their campus or health provider. Malatras assured the SUNY community to continue to inform campuses as the situation with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine evolves.

Geneseo is not currently providing any clinics beyond the now-cancelled J&J vaccinations. However, the college hopes that individuals will be able to obtain dosages of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine until there are more accessible options available through the college and SUNY community.

"SUNY Geneseo continues to urge students to get vaccinated," Syfrett said. "We have shared information regarding local vaccine clinics and pharmacies where students can obtain the vaccine, such as Walmart, Wegmans, Walgreens and the Livingston County Dept of Health clinics."

Geneseo has sent out resources for students to register for the Moderna vaccine via email on April 14.

The college is encouraging students to get vaccinated in order to ensure the safety of all on-campus students, faculty and staff, and to make headway in establishing a safer campus community for the fall semester.

"Our ultimate goal is to have a safe and fully in-person college experience for our campus community for the fall semester," Syfrett said. "To have the safest campus environment, it would be ideal if every person who is eligible for the vaccine got vaccinated."

English Honor Society, Sigma Tau Delta, works to diversify Humanities requirements

On Monday, March 1, a petition to diversify the Humanities requirement was posted on Geneseo Speaks by Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honors Society. From its submission to its expiration date on March 31, the petition received 190 signatures, passing the 75 signatures required for the Student Association to look further into the petition.

The petition was put forth by Sigma Tau Delta's E-board with the ultimate goal of restructuring the Western Humanities courses, HUMN 220 and HUMN 221. The idea to draft up this petition came up over the summer, after viral demonstrations of police brutality against BIPOC sparked massive protests in the Black Lives Matter movement.

"A lot of students [wondered], what can we do?" said English literature and psychology double major senior Isabella Higgins, the Public Relations Chair of Sigma Tau Delta. "Especially being remote … what can we do to change our campus?"

Sigma Tau Delta looked to restructuring academics at Geneseo to affect change. This change was directed towards the Humanities requirement as it is one of the only General Education requirements that students are unable to opt-out of through credits earned outside of college.

"It's one course that everyone has to take, so it's an opportunity to really be able to reach a lot of people," Higgins said.

In diversifying the Humanities requirement, the representatives of Sigma Tau Delta hope to expand the perspectives of Geneseo's student body. Through offering readings that do not conform to traditional white male narratives, or through applying these readings to broader cultural communities and takeaways in modern society, students would be exposed to multiple perspectives.

Broadening the perspectives offered in the Western Humanities courses serves to challenge the academic standard of this white male narrative as a foundation of American learning.

"Our ways of learning, our ways of thinking, are all heavily influenced by the white majority," Higgins said. "It's evident that this institution was not built for perspectives outside of specifically white male perspectives."

While the college currently offers a Black Humanities course, HUMN 222, to fulfill the Humanities requirement, Sigma Tau Delta wishes to offer diversification within the Western Humanities course specifically to expose all students to varying perspectives, rather than only students who opt to take courses focusing on these perspectives.

"[HUMN 222] is a great model to kind of base the change we want off of," Higgins said. "Having labels in front of the Humanities courses could easily deter the people who don't want to take those courses. If you are someone who has no interest in hearing about the Black experience … you don't have to, because you can just see the [other] courses."

Sigma Tau Delta is additionally hoping to address the support of the faculty and staff who would be teaching these courses if the Western Humanities requirement were to be diversified.

"You can't control the way that professors are going to teach their course and the perspectives that they're going to bring in," Higgins said. "It's tough … I would love for humanities to be diverse, but I would love for every single field at the college to be diversified—but there are certain professors who don't agree with that and who you probably don't want teaching that."

As the Student Association continues to look into the petition, it will likely be passed along to the Humanities Review Board, whose approval would be needed in order for the changes to go into effect. The Curriculum Design Working Group is additionally addressing this request in looking at Humanities requirements moving forward.

Beyond the goal of acknowledgment from SA, the petition was posted to inform the student body about the goals of Sigma Tau Delta.

"We just wanted a platform that all Geneseo students had access to," Higgins said.

Students protest violence towards Asian American in response to recent acts of discrimination

On Tuesday March 23, around 150 students gathered on Geneseo's College Green in a rally against Asian American violence. Participants listened to the words of organizers and students who felt inspired to speak about their experiences surrounding racism and diversity before they marched around campus and Main Street.

The primary organizers of this event were sociomedical sciences major sophomore Josephine Wu, music education and music performance major junior Elijah Reed, and communication major sophomore Brandy Manasilp.

Preparation for the event started the Sunday before the rally. Reed had sent the idea out to a GroupMe chat and interested students began to plan. The recent shootings in Atlanta, in which Asian women were targeted, was one major catalyst for the organization of this rally.

"We want to open up a conversation, open up a space for people to talk about what had happened," Wu said.

The Atlanta shootings were only a single consequence of the anti-Asian sentiment that the organizers hoped to address.

"There's a lot of xenophobic and inflammatory rhetoric and harassment on Asian culture and in Asian people," Manasilp said. "Looking back and reflecting through my experiences, I've been one of those victims too, and there's so many people who've been affected."

In calling attention to this discrimination, the organizers hoped to acknowledge the presence and significance of the Asian-American community on campus.

"We just wanted to take up some space," Wu said. "We're not protesting anything against the greater Genesee community, although we do see there are some divides there. We wanted to address these things, [and] we wanted to make people feel heard all."

Many of these goals were accomplished in the eyes of the organizers. With between 150 and 200 participants at the rally, the Geneseo community showed up in numbers.

"It was really nice to see everybody in a line going through and being so energetic," Reed said.

The organizers clarified that despite the enthusiasm shown in numbers and participation at the rally, the commitment to the Asian American community cannot stop here. In order to show up as consistent allies, this demonstration of dedication cannot be a one-time event.

"I hope people realize that showing up was a really, really good thing to do, but that is not the only thing that we need from people," Wu said. "But … it's not just about showing up to events—it's about making those little changes in your life, calling out racism and being an active supporter of anti-racism when you see it, and not propelling those ideals yourself."

While the Geneseo community responded rather positively to the rally, it was not as well-received by Livingston County as a whole. A recent article from the Livingston County News received significant resistance and was criticized severely over Facebook.

Much of the school community was shaken by this response, but the student body is continuing to commit to speaking out against AAPI violence. The organizers of last week's protest are currently planning a vigil to honor those lost in the Atlanta shootings.

"It's going to ruin your day [to read the comments]," Reed said. "But it's like, somebody has to see that it's not being received well with the rest of Livingston County.”

COVID-19 updates in regard to two-week pause, mask wearing, travel

On Feb. 17, President Denise Battles sent an email update regarding changes in COVID-19 safety regulations and policies. On Feb. 22, the campus community received another email informing the student body that the new threshold for a two-week pause is now 5 percent, or approximately 222 cases, of the campus population. The changes are in ordinance to The New York State Health Department guidelines.

Battles’ Feb. 17 email clarified that the COVID-19 dashboard indicates the “daily/current active cases count,” not the 14-day case count. In order to trigger a two-week pause, Geneseo must reach a certain threshold of active positive cases within a 14-day period. It also specified that if the college were to enter a two-week pause on operations, students would remain on campus throughout the pause rather than returning home.

Battles also announced a new guideline from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that all students, faculty and staff should wear two masks instead of one. Battles recommended that individuals on campus wear one surgical mask, which are freely distributed on campus, and one cloth mask in order to ensure maximum protection.

The first email concluded by issuing new travel updates for students on campus, stating that any student who travels away from Geneseo overnight or for more than 12 hours is required to inform the Dean of Students office, quarantine for seven days off-campus, provide a negative COVID-19 test within three days of returning and test at the first available pool test upon returning to campus.

Battle’s Feb. 22 email explained the conditions that would need to occur for the campus to enter a two-week pause on operations. These changes are a result of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Feb. 19 announcement. Now, a pause will only be triggered if “5% of the total on-campus population test positive using a 14-day rolling average.”

Battles explains that 5 percent of the on-campus population is anticipated to be approximately 222 cases, although confirmation is still pending. According to Battles, “this is favorable news for our community; however, we must not let down our guard.”