SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS)- Syracuse University will be back and bustling with students in less than a month. And as the Princeton Review’s Top ‘Party School’ in 2019, parties are to be expected at Syracuse. But with the coronavirus pandemic limiting the amount of people at social gatherings, the party atmosphere at Syracuse will be limited.
Liam Chambers is an International Relations major at Syracuse University. He admits that he is fearful to return to campus due to the large amount of parties that are held on campus regularly.
“I have a good group of friends who I know are going to social distance who aren’t going to frat parties and stuff like that,” said Chambers. But I also know that a majority of students aren’t.”
Chambers knows that the school has had a hard time handing outbreaks before, such as the mumps outbreak in on campus in 2017.
“But like, they were really nervous about containing that,” Chambers said. “So I don’t know how they’re planning on containing a virus that can spread so quickly and kill so efficiently.”
The University has put out a plan to test students for COVID-19 regularly. Students need to provide a negative test result to the school 10 days before they arrive on campus. Mail-in test kits will be provided for $49. Students who do not provide a negative test result, will have their SU I.D. cards “turned off” until results are provided, according to an email by the University.
According to an email sent to students today, the University “is also implementing its own on-campus capability to conduct rapid COVID-19 tests at the Barnes Center at The Arch.”
Even with the testing and social distancing protocols, Chambers believes the parties will be too much for the campus to handle.
“So I think it’s going to be a very interesting dilemma. And I don’t know how the school is really going to contain it,” Chambers said. “Like stop people from partying because at a certain point, they’re going to have to get the police involved.”
The parties at Syracuse are a huge attraction to prospective students, but now they are just adding to the stress of current ones.
“I’m like nervous about having to go to classrooms with like, people who might be going to those parties, and subsequently infecting everyone,” Chambers said. “Like you could be doing everything right but still have to go to class with people who don’t, and so I guess I am like pretty nervous to be honest.”
Students are returning to campus for classes that begin on August 24th, with new students beginning to arrive on August 17th. The move-in schedule can be found here.
