Syracuse University delays start of spring semester until Feb. 8

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University has decided to begin its spring semester and residential instruction on Feb. 8 and continue through May 21.

The new timeframe represents a two-week delay in the start of Syracuse’s spring semester. 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, per a news release posted Monday on its news website.

“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.