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

In a recent change by NY state, 5% of the campus population must test positive to trigger a two week “pause”. (Photo Courtesy of Kara Burke)

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.” 

Campus update in response to the rise in COVID-19 case reporting

The entrance to the COVID-19 pooled testing site (pictured above) is outside of Sturges Hall. Every SUNY Geneseo student is required to participate in weekly pooled testing (Kara Burke/Editor-in-Chief).

On Friday Feb. 12, all Geneseo students received an email announcing that the number of COVID-19 cases had surpassed the 100 mark. In-person instruction on campus will continue, despite this.

Reaching this mark did not trigger many changes in operations on campus, as many of the changes that would have needed to be made were already announced and implemented in a prior email from Feb. 10. The changes made in this email were a switch to exclusively takeout dining and limited access to academic buildings.

The continuation of in-person instruction was made possible by a recent change, occurring just the day before Geneseo hit the 100 case mark, in the New York State Department of Health's guidelines for the Spring 2021 semester, indicating that positive test results from returning students would be excluded.

"We were just over the 100-case threshold, but a number of those tests did include the re-entry tests," President Denise Battles said. "That's why the fact that we surpassed 100 didn't trigger additional changes."

According to an email from Battles on Wednesday, Feb. 17, the 100 case threshold applies in two-week intervals. These intervals are set by SUNY and a new interval started on Feb. 13. Since then Geneseo has accumulated 55 active cases. If Geneseo passes the 100 case threshold in this two-week interval ending on Feb. 27th, it would result in a pause. This would mean all in-person activity, including classes, would be moved online for two weeks, pending re-evaluation, with Students being allowed to stay on campus during the pause.

As of now, in-person instruction will continue with limited access to academic buildings. "We needed to make sure that students could access instructional spaces … but we decided it was in everyone's interest to decrease the amount of time spent in the academic building," Battles said.

Safe learning environments are also a factor in determining whether or not in-person learning is a feasible goal. "We modified our instructional spaces so that they're low density," Battles said. "They're very safe spaces in which to engage in learning, and we've had absolutely no known records of cases emerging from the classroom."

"It is certainly our passionate intention and goal to maintain in-person instruction, but ultimately we will be attentive to state and local health experts' guidance as we continue to respond to very rapidly changing conditions," Battles added. 

Another key factor in continuing operations on campus is consistent pool testing. As 100 percent of students, faculty and staff continue to be tested weekly, Battles said access to testing is "among our most powerful tools."

"By engaging in very rigorous testing, we can identify cases rapidly and work with individual[s] to move them into isolation to stop the spread," Battles noted.

Consistent testing and contact tracing have shown that individuals interacting in large groups contribute to the vast majority of the current COVID cases. Issues with spreading the virus both on and off-campus are seen in "individuals who are active in large groups and organizations, whether they be Greek organizations or other clubs and organizations, [and] individuals who tend to live together or interact heavily with each other," Battles said.

Since socialization plays a large role in the spread of the virus "the very best thing that students can do is really to be attentive to the public health guidance and stick to it strictly," according to Battles.

"This is hard, and we know this is a big ask, but if everybody can just hunker down and abide by that guidance, very, very strictly those case numbers will come down is it will allow us to return to something that looks far more normal than the place we're at right now."

As the number of cases, the administration will continue to make adjustments for safety as needed.

"We continue to look at our status and we will modify our practices in consultation with our local County health departments, experts, as well as the SUNY system administration,” Battles said.

Students have felt anxious and confused in response to the case increases and recent policy changes. 

Bethany Liano, a senior childhood special education major, and Griffin Netti, a senior theatre major, both said they were unaware of the two-week interval policy relating to the 100 case pause. 

Liano said that when she learned of the 100 cases she felt “disappointed in the campus community. Especially off-campus students, because their actions of disrespect are impacting their other classmates that are doing the right thing”. 

Netti said that when he saw rising case numbers he thought “this is going to go downhill real quick, but the main concern was knowing that this was not going to be handled properly. And lo and behold, it was not because we are still not on that two-week pause.

Both students felt the Geneseo administration could have better handled the situation. 

Liano said “I felt that the administration wasn't prepared enough for this semester going in, they had an entire winter break to basically prepare for this semester.”

Netti explained that he felt academic responsibilities needed to be lessened for students. 

“In my opinion tests right now, tests, quizzes, any gauge of learning should not be a thing because students are not learning right now. Students are anxious, nervous, depressed, and just deprived of any interaction whatsoever... The professors are not regulating the workload they give.”