Syracuse University to suspend on-campus classes through at least March 30

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University plans to suspend on-campus, or what it calls “residential,” instruction, effective the end of the academic day on Friday, as students leave the campus for spring break.

“We will transition instruction to an online format or to some other alternative distance modality … through at least the 30th of March,” Michael Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation at Syracuse University, told reporters during a Tuesday news conference.

The campus will remain open for normal business, Haynie noted in his remarks. “Staff will continue to come to work.”

SU officials will continue to work over the course of the coming weeks to evaluate the coronavirus situation and make subsequent decisions about whether or not to resume residential instruction or continue in an online-learning format, Haynie said.

The school monitored guidance from New York State and federal authorities, including the Atlanta, Georgia–based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, and sought consultation with Onondaga County Health Department and faculty experts from Syracuse’s Falk public health program.

“Ultimately, we believe that this is the right and prudent decision on behalf of our students but also our faculty and staff and the Central New York community It’s the right thing to do from a public-health perspective,” said Haynie.

The timing of this announcement coincides with Syracuse’s spring break. According to the school’s data, almost 5,000 students could be returning home to locations in areas that include downstate New York, but also to Southern California, China, Florida, and Northern New Jersey.

“As a consequence, the idea of then returning immediately from spring break and the potential risk that that could pose to this community, we made this decision out of an abundance of caution on behalf of the community,” said Haynie.

SU officials will use the next several days to work with faculty in the transition to online learning. Haynie noted that Syracuse’s faculty has access to its “rapid online development tool kit” to help them and support them in their effort to move courses online. Syracuse is also asking its students to take with them all of the things that they need to continue their academic studies when they leave for spring break.

As Haynie continued, he noted that those belongings could include “textbooks, laptop devices, and certainly anything else that they’d want to have with them, given … there’s the potential that they may be away from campus for an extended period of time … longer than certainly spring break.”

As for athletic events, guidance “will be forthcoming” after consultation with the ACC and the NCAA and “those conversations are ongoing,” according to Haynie.

Haynie also noted that this decision creates a “host” of questions “that we just don’t have answers to yet.”     

Special website

Syracuse has launched a new website — Syracuse.edu/coronavirus — where the school will post updates and announcements pertaining to the situation.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com