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Colleges readying for fall wave of COVID

 COVID-19 testing at UAlbany in 2020.
WAMC
COVID-19 testing at UAlbany in 2020.

Colleges in the Northeast are preparing to welcome back students as concerns mount over an anticipated autumn resurgence of COVID.

Officials say they have policies, procedures and protocols in place as students start to return. Stephen Conard is the University at Albany’s Continuity & Emergency Manager.

"It's a long-term response to this slow onset disaster that the pandemic has created," Conard said. "The SUNY system has mandated the vaccinations for students also providing for that exemption process for those that are validated, to have an exemption. There's mandatory testing that's to be done weekly for students. Currently, the system is not requiring any booster mandates for the students.”

Conard says voluntary testing is available for all faculty, staff and students, regardless of any mandatory testing requirements. Masks are available, but not required.

Public K-12 schools appear to be in the same boat. New York Governor Kathy Hochul says the state is already preparing for a spike in COVID-19 cases this fall. In New York City Wednesday, the Democrat says schools are already receiving thousands of COVID tests to stockpile before the start of the school year. Planning for the fall includes encouraging students and staff to test before returning. Hochul’s fall plan also includes boosting vaccination rates, providing PPE, and increasing access to COVID treatment. Hochul says masks will not be required in schools.

“But I'm going to reserve the right to return to this policy if the numbers change, the circumstances change and the severity of the illnesses changed," Hochul said. "So, God forbid there's a variant that affects kids more severely, you know, we've seen a lot through this crisis, like we've seen everything, but maybe we haven't. And that's we're preparing for.

Siena College President Chris Gibson is confident his community will remain safe.

“I have a COVID operations team," Gibson said. "It's cross-functional and collaborative, reaches across my campus, I have faculty, staff, administrators all on it. And they help review and manage our policy implementation on a daily basis. So you know, they're still in the throes of analyzing the current situation. So we haven't finalized our plans.”

Gibson says Siena has been "mask optional" for a year and a half, with a community vaccination rate of nearly 100%.

"We had a dance here during homecoming last year in November, we had just shy of 1,000 students in the gym," said Gibson. "Probably 95 to 98% of them elected not to wear a mask, and they were in very close contact with each other, had a wonderful, amazing time. And we had no outbreak pursuant to that."

On the job only a matter of days, SUNY New Paltz President Dr. Darrell Wheeler says his office hasn't yet decided if vaccine requirements will be set for this academic year.

"In our office, we've already met this summer," Wheeler said. "The prior president, leadership and the team that he amassed who focused on the COVID pandemic, have already been hard at work developing contingency plans. And so I will be working with that group to identify and incorporate new information, new data as it becomes available, including the governor's statements.”

After Wheeler's interview with WAMC, SUNY New Paltz clarified that the school is following all SUNY COVID-19 guidelines for its campus policies, including the system-wide vaccination requirement.

College of Saint Rose spokesperson Jennifer Gish says the school's approach to COVID is "stay ready at all times." St. Rose has a dedicated pandemic task force that continuously monitors the virus.

“Throughout the last couple of years masks requirements have gone on, gone off," Gish said. "They've been just for indoors, they've been for indoors and outdoors. It all depends on what's happening in the community. We continue to follow CDC guidance, state level guidance, local level guidance when it comes to these health issues. And again, you can't predict now what fall is going to be, so we just continue to meet as a community, discuss where we are and then plan accordingly.”

An RPI spokesperson says the Troy engineering school's protocols are currently under review as it continues to monitor the pandemic.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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  • New York Governor Kathy Hochul says the state is preparing for a possible new surge of COVID-19 this fall, but she says no new rules, like indoor masking, are anticipated right now. The governor also says she is commencing a long-promised study of the state’s past pandemic policies.