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After Syracuse University reported a peak of 163 active COVID-19 cases on campus this week, The Daily Orange spoke to students around campus to ask if there’s cause for concern.

One topic some students brought up was Saturday’s football game.

SU’s football team played Rutgers University at home, which was the first time students and fans could enter the Carrier Dome without social distancing restrictions since March 2020. Students who attended the game said that many people in the Dome did not follow COVID-19 protocols.

“I was wearing a mask, a good number of people around me were wearing a mask, but you go later, you look the next day online and what do you see? A whole bunch of pictures of the whole student section without their masks on,” said Samuel McCormick, a freshman in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “You just think, ‘I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, but there’s a lot of people that are not.’”

Drew Colosimo, a sophomore and resident adviser, said he isn’t necessarily concerned about the rise in cases, but he said that he sees students around campus not respecting the university’s COVID-19 protocols.

“People are not being safe. We’re in a red zone, but nobody’s following that. I’m an RA, so I try to make my residents follow it,” Colosimo said. “But I’m sure you’ve seen photos of parties this past weekend — college kids are gonna be college kids.”

Digital Design Director | Maya Goosmann

SU elevated its campus masking requirements to “RED” on Aug. 28 following an increase in COVID-19 cases reported in Onondaga County. The requirement has remained in place since.

Under the “RED” level, vaccinated and unvaccinated people are required to wear masks indoors at all times and outdoors when others are present. The only exceptions to wearing masks on campus at the “RED” level are when students are in their own dorm rooms and when vaccinated employees are alone in private spaces or working outdoors independently. 

Sophomore Valentina Diaz — a magazine, news and digital journalism major —  said that the “RED” level mask-wearing guidance has been ineffective.

“Since there is no way of telling who is vaccinated and who is not, the masking stages serve as recommendations to be ignored,” Diaz said. “The lack of enforcement lets people make their own decisions regardless of who is around them.”

Some students, such as freshman drama student Ragan Darmody-Latham, were not concerned about the rising cases due to the vaccine mandate and other requirements that SU has instituted.

Digital Design Director | Maya Goosmann

“Everyone’s doing their part to keep it at a minimum. I’ve seen people wearing their masks, so I’d say I feel pretty safe right now,” Darmody-Latham said. “I’m always a little concerned. I guess what I’m doing right now is mostly just trusting that my classmates are vaccinated.”

Dylan Fox, a sophomore in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said that he feels that the rise in cases won’t affect much of the day-to-day life and the social life students experience. 

“I am slightly worried we will go online, but my social life will probably remain the same,” Fox said. 

Another concern for students has been the absence of a hybrid option for many classes. SU’s Student Association announced plans to push for hybrid classes, but the university has not implemented the change.

Digital Design Director | Maya Goosmann

“I’m more than thrilled to have all in-person classes after a virtual first year,” Diaz said. “But if I need to miss class because of illness, I want the security of knowing I can take my own notes, participate and have a connection with my class. (The university has) the capability to offer virtual classes, so why is it not being implemented?”

Some students said they felt safer with the in-person campus experience this year compared to last year. Others expressed frustration.

“You can try your hardest to do the right thing,” McCormick said. “But if no one does it, you only wonder, ‘What’s the point?’”

Published on September 15, 2021 at 12:33 am