Citing virus concerns, SU pushes back spring- semester start to Feb. 8

SYRACUSE — The spring semester at Syracuse University won’t begin until Feb. 8, following a two-week delay over concerns about the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

The semester will continue through May 21, the school announced Jan. 4. The move-in period for campus residence halls is set for the week of Feb. 1.

The university made its decision in consultation with the Onondaga County Health Department.

“Over the holiday break, we have been closely monitoring developments with COVID-19. It has become increasingly clear that the next several weeks will likely be among the most difficult our country and Central New York will experience since the onset of the pandemic,” Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud wrote in his update to students, families, faculty, and staff. 

Starting the semester two weeks later “best positions” Syracuse to resume residential instruction “in a manner that safeguards” the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and the Central New York community, per the Chancellor’s message. 

First, it provides some distance between the expected post-holiday surge of cases and the return to campus, Syverud wrote. Secondly, it “increases the possibility” that some of the university’s frontline workers will be vaccinated prior to the start of the semester. 

“This includes our health-care staff in the Barnes Center, who administer medical care to our students,” said Syverud. The delayed start also “gets us closer” to the time when vaccines will be more widely available across the country, he added. 

Syracuse University in the coming days and weeks will announce further information on move-in logistics, testing and quarantine requirements, and other details as students prepare to return to campus. 

Mask wearing, social distancing, reduced capacity, and other public-health precautions “will continue to be in place” when the semester begins next month.