coming up on mornings on the hill Governor Cuomo announces a new COVID
guideline colleges have to meet in order to stay open
for in-person classes. Testing at the Carrier Dome has expanded to meet the
increase in demand as students are tested weekly.
Former U.S. attorney loretta lynch released a report on monday
after a year-long review of the department of public safety.
All that plus your weather and orange sports coming up on this edition
of Mornings on the Hill. Good morning I’m Cyera Williams and
thanks for joining us here on Mornings on the Hill
and I’m James Corrigan here’s what you need to know first this morning.
Governor Cuomo’s new COVID-19 guidelines for colleges and universities
level the playing field between bigger and smaller schools when it comes to
staying open. Our own Ryan Clark is live with what
that means for Syracuse University, Ryan? Thanks James and good morning. Syracuse
University actually is one of the largest universities in all of New York
state with over 25,000 students. Now New York
governor Andrew Cuomo’s old plan for colleges and universities
was 100 positive cases in a two-week span.
his new plan a 5 percent positivity rate that means that 5 percent of the university
population must test positive in a 14 day window
for the classes to go virtual. Let’s take a look at the numbers for what that
means for SU. 880 cases in a 14-day span is the new
threshold provided by Governor Cuomo’s new rules.
That averages out to around 60 cases per day
for coronavirus positive cases now at the coronavirus dashboard
31 cases are active in central new york and we have only broken the central new
york coronavirus 100 person threshold once where fall semester went online
now students really have an aura of confidence that they plan on staying in
their desks in the classroom and not on zoom we will continue to
update you here on mornings on the hill with more coronavirus information
especially if we get close to the threshold reporting live in syracuse
for Mornings on the Hill I’m Ryan Clark now on top of those new guidelines
stricter testing requirements have been put in place on campus this semester
which with each student required to be tested at least
once a week the testing site at the carrier dome has been expanded and
reinforced to meet the increase in demand
the new requirements are a significant change from last semester
when students were only required to be tested on three occasions
including right before leaving campus those who forget or choose to not be
tested have been warned by the university
that their blackboard accounts may be shut down but most students say that
despite the distractions of school they recognize the importance of getting
tested personally i don’t really mind it
because like it will help our numbers like be more accurate
the first week i think everyone was a little distracted about like
new like new class and stuff like that so i think people forgot i mean i forgot
i had to get reminded but i just came quick and
it was not that big of a deal it’s a small price to pay to keep the campus
safe university plans on conducting as many
as 300,000 COVID tests in the spring semester roughly three times as many as were
conducted in the fall we still haven’t heard any more
developments after a student organization
zoom meeting was hacked by an unknown person last week
the hacker typed racist statements into the chat function
repeatedly and played offensive music the university sent an email to all
students and faculty on the best ways to secure zoom meetings
it is unclear if the hacker is affiliated with s-u
the incident is still under investigation stick with ncc news as
more developments come along after a year of construction and
renovations Schine student center has finally reopened and has already ignited
the su community our own Natalie Fahmy is live at shine to
tell us more about the revitalized campus center
thanks James right behind me at Schine center students have been filing
in and out all morning to eat grab some study and see what’s new but now
the su food director services says that with all the new features the volume of
people inside the building has increased significantly
Schine student center has been reopened for a few weeks now but that does not
come without challenges food services director Susan Bracy says
they are only allowed to be open at 50 percent capacity right now which means only 96
students can sit in the building at once the biggest challenge right now
is there’s nowhere really for people to eat
once we get to that 96. Bracy adds that they predicted their sales based off
what Kimmel dining hall did but Schine has already
far surpassed those projections we had a staff up we had to add more people we
had to add more shifts we had to train people
she says once they get enough employees trained they will be able to extend
their hours for all the restaurants and Schine
sophomore at syracuse university Brett Rooe says having a student center for
the first time since being on campus has been a lot of fun overall i like the
space and i think it’s just very dynamic Bracy says the crowds
have slowed down as students settle into their class schedule and she knows many
students have COVID fatigue but she is always reminding students to
follow the rules social distance and wear their masks
when i walk the lines and i tell people please stay apart you know they’re like
we know we know but you know it it matters it
matters every day so that we can keep the place open
Rooe says he has noticed the staff hard at work to keep things flowing smoothly
i’ve seen people in here helping to space people out
and kind of make sure everything’s safe right now
and Bracy says she is excited to see students enjoy Schine this year
and for many more to come it’s a great building i think the future of it is
great and we just got to get there
Bracy says they still have a few weeks left before new staff is trained and
ready to go but once that is set they plan on extending hours accordingly
reporting live on campus for mornings on the hill i’m Natalie Fahmy
former u.s attorney general Loretta Lynch released a report monday that
reviews syracuse university’s department of public safety
lynch and her team evaluated the department of public safety conducts and
performance with regards to bias-related incidents
the handling of protests on campus and including
issues including issues on the community with trust this
is not broken overnight you know there’s a number of incidents
that we were recounted to us in addition to the incident last year
that have definitely created a perception of the department
of public safety that it is not as supportive of the
campus community as it should be those other incidents including ones at
theta tau and ackerman avenue lynch says that her team has come up
with 20 recommendations for dps that will include improve investigations
and community engagement lynch also recommends 10 policy changes
that the department should make you can find the full hundred page
report at news.syr.edu with the help of cross campus partners
including the Barnes Center and stop bias identity week continued this year
and our Sierra Ryder is live to tell us how it all went down
Sierra? you may have noticed an event that was happening all last week and
that was identity week but what made this year’s event
different than years past was it was all student run by the
stop bias initiative where all the events and speakers were identity
focused the main goal of identity week this year
was to show the student body of syracuse that bias
impacts all students not just one subgroup organizers of the event say
they are particularly proud of the intersectionality
and mental health presentations where the dialogue and conversations
preceding the talk and film were especially meaningful
see but also the screening of the bias documentary that i think
that was um a great event as well because of kind of
the dialogue we had surrounding bias on this campus bias in
the world and um that was um a wonderful event to
be a part of stop bias says that they are encouraging
anyone who is even remotely interested in helping the organization to contact
them directly and if you missed out on the events that
happened last week don’t worry because they have a few events coming up
throughout the throughout the rest of the semester
so keep an eye out on the events page reporting live in syracuse
Sierra Ryder morning’s on the hill coming up on mornings on the hill
there’s a new dining option for students who want to send their
taste buds across the world also what’s your weather looking like
for today and the rest of the week Brendan Scanland has the answers after the
break we saw some snow this past weekend on
monday but some high temperatures are forecasted for today
Brendan Scanland live outside with the latest forecast is
the warm weather going to stick around Brendan
that’s right Cyera and James and good morning i wouldn’t necessarily call it a
heat wave right now but we definitely are going to see some warmer
temperatures this afternoon currently on campus it’s
about 41 degrees under partly sunny skies so look for some of
that sun coming in and trying to melt some of this snow away
this afternoon it’s we might have a chance for some precipitation later this
evening so if you’re heading to class or just heading out
make sure you bring a rain jacket and an umbrella for that possibility for rain
this evening as we move in and take a look at the current temperatures
it’s 31 in syracuse this morning it was 32 in oswego this morning 25 in
cortland as we move south into the lower tier about 30 degrees in
binghamton this morning as well if we take a look at the hourly forecast
for today like we said it’s about 40 41 degrees at
the top of the hour temperatures are going to be warming up
this afternoon and we’ll see a high of about 44
or 45 today before temps dip back down into the 30s this evening
and the chance for snow tomorrow we may have a
about a 24 chance for snow precipitation tomorrow afternoon
seneca falls about 24 as well seven percent chance in binghamton
and a four percent chance in oswego so we can expect some warmer weather in
the forecast are we well are we going to see more
warmer weather are we going to see more snow let’s take a look at the five-day
forecast and it turns out we might see a little bit
of both we might see some rain later today
like we said high of 45 partly sunny tomorrow with a high of 31.
so we might see some of that melted snow from today starting to ice over a little
bit and we’re going to warm up a little bit
on friday high of 38 and then a bit of a winter mix on
saturday and then sunday sunday is going to be a high of
43 and partly sunny and Cyera and James i could tell you
guys that ice is definitely something to be concerned about this
morning i did take a nice little spill on my way to the studio
so be careful if you’re out and about walking today to watch for some of that
black ice and definitely into tomorrow morning as well as some of the snow that
melts today is going to be icing over so just make
sure you use some extra caution back to you guys yeah be careful on that
ice syracuse students have a new off-campus dining option
if you’re feeling adventurous and want to try something new
this may be the place for you and every time i’ve come here i’ve tried
something new so i think that everybody can end up partaking in that
the 22 million dollar salt city market in downtown syracuse
is all about encouraging people to try something new
12 vendors are scattered throughout one building the market offers tons of
global flavors that send syracuse’s taste buds across the world
syracuse student Lauren Connor said these choices help
everyone to feel welcome they just have like
food that everybody can eat you know like my sister is vegan and i’m not
and so we can both come together and like eat something that we both really
enjoy the market features food from jamaica
baghdad thailand and even the deep south just to
name a few Connors thinks all of these options
makes the market even more attractive for students who want to eat off campus
um i think that there’s just a lot of different
diverse options for people you know you could go with groups of people that want
to try a bunch of new things and i think it’s nice to just be able to
like have different groups of people come together and
enjoy like a common experience these vendors serve everything from empanadas
to cakes for only a five minute drive off campus
it seems like a good deal reporting live from the
salt city market this is Daniel Baldwin with mornings on
the hill governor Cuomo is allowing bars to stay
open until 11 pm citing a drop in infections and
hospitalization rates that’s an extra hour from november when
bars and restaurants were forced to close at 10 pm
our own Doug Cortese joins us now to tell us what this means
and doesn’t look doesn’t mean for local bars
thanks James for many bar owners in central New York this was welcome news
since late night is when they make most of their profit
but for other bar owners that extra hour didn’t mean so much in profit but it did
offer something else the extra hour makes no difference but
what it does do is it does make it a lot easier
to like show a normal customer experience drinks are still being poured
and food is still being served in bars across central new york
albeit at fifty percent capacity and now one hour later
for beer belly deli and pub manager Taylor Wollman closing at 9
55 meant there’s no last call we have to have the everyone locked uh
lights off closed up at 10. so now being able to be
open to 11 we’re closing at 10 with this last call
the bigger difference for local bars the start of a new semester the students
coming back to campuses helped us it’s helped it helps us stay in business
because the students are a big part of like our community
for now reporting live in syracuse Doug Cortese
mornings on the hill coming up fans will be back at the dome this week to support
the orange but our students quick to go back find
out when we return here on mornings on the hill
i’m Mat Mlodzinski with your orange sports update here on mornings on the
hill we open today with an update on tiger
woods the 15 time major winner was involved in a single car rollover crash
on tuesday morning in the los angeles area woods released
this statement late last night which said he underwent
significant orthopedic surgeries to his lower right leg
and he is currently awake and responsive and recovering in his hospital room
we wish tiger a speedy recovery but for now we move to college hoops where the
orange men’s basketball team had a slice of its ncaa tournament hopes
taken away su traveled to durham north carolina for a game against duke
both teams actually needed a win but it was the blue devils coming out on top
85-71 first half here that’s mark williams catching the alley-oop pass
duke led 28-12 just 10 minutes into the game
that’s the score there as kadari richmond
takes it to the basket two of his 15. the blue devils hit
10 threes in the first half though which got them an 18 point lead after the
first 20 and syracuse trying to get back into the game in half
too quincy guerrie with slam in transition and then on the very next play buddy
boeheim comes off the screen knocking down the three but in the end
duke comes out on top and governor cuomo announced that
starting yesterday new york state can allow fans in
into entertainment and sporting arenas that hold more than ten thousand people
sally walkup is live to tell us what this could mean for the carrier dome
that’s right matt governor cuomo said that these stadiums could open to 10
percent capacity for syracuse basketball that means about 3,500 fans
these fans would have to submit a negative COVID test within 72 hours to
be admitted into the dome and they’d also have to get their
temperature checked having fans in the carrier dome would be a big change from
what we’ve seen this year the carrier dome was home to sporting
events and a fan base so boisterous it got nicknamed the loud house
but the loud house has been very quiet this year while being used as a COVID
testing center and sporting events not allowing fans
syracuse athletics is working to possibly change that
this year syracuse athletics says they will work to safely reopen the stadium
public health permitting first to a small group of students
and eventually to more fans from the broader community syracuse still has to
submit a COVID 19 protocol plan and work with county health officials
before fans can stop watching games in their homes and start watching games
at the carrier dome so far fans have had mixed feelings
about returning to the loud house this year
me personally um i probably would say not um
yeah that’s just simply because my family has got affected with COVID and
like if they come up here i kind of really want to affect them um
yeah i’m not even that too but i i think it’s important to be cautious
during this pandemic and um and to have thousands of people in one
setting it’s just not going to be good in my opinion
i think it’s great because the freshman class hasn’t gotten to experience it yet
so i’m a freshman obviously and i’m really excited to like see what it’s
like with games and stuff even if there is
social distancing syracuse has not released any official
plans or statements about what games fans could be able to
go into this season but we’ll continue to update you as we learn more
information reporting live for mornings on the hill
i’m Sallie Walkup we’ll be right back here
good morning syracuse i’m so excited to be here right now telling you what’s
going on around campus and around the world today
first let’s start off with some orange after dark events if you’re into game
game of thrones orange after dark is hosting a game of thrones
themed escape room this friday in the shine center from 7 to 11
and if you love the office like me they’re also having an office trivia
night for you to win some cool prizes this saturday
and that’s going to be it for wednesday’s newscast thank you for
joining us the mornings on the hill i’m Cyera Williams
and i’m James Corrigan
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