SUNY Plattsburgh entrance. File photo: Brit Hanson

Aug 10, 2020

Students arriving to begin classes at SUNY-Potsdam will go through an unusual drive-thru when they arrive on campus to get tested for COVID-19.

On a call organized by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, President Kristin Esterberg said her school has asked the thousand-plus students attending classes in person to start self-isolating before the semester starts.

Self-quarantine at home for seven days, she said, and then as soon as they arrive on campus, there'll be drive-thru testing.

Students will need to self-quarantine in their residence halls until they get their test results back.

Students return to colleges and universities across the North Country this month. To ensure they do not bring the novel coronavirus with them, those schools say they plan to test and quarantine arriving students, working with labs that can provide timely testing results. They will continue with random testing to try and detect any outbreaks on campus later in the year.

Students from states considered COVID-19 hot-spots have already arrived at Clarkson University, also in Potsdam, for the fourteen-day quarantine required by New York State.

President Tony Collins said the Clarkson has also reconfigured spaces where students gather on campus.

We've been through every facility and we've laid out classrooms, dormitories, he said, de-densified the seating arrangements.

To isolate any students who become ill at SUNY Plattsburgh, student health center director Kathleen Camelo said the university has built structures outside the on-campus clinic where staff can test and treat any students suspected of COVID-19.

They have heating, electricity, air conditioning, she said. They're sturdy structures; they can be taken down when this pandemic is over, but they're here to last for the year.

Not all colleges in the North Country plan to bring most of their students back to campus.

North Country Community College has three locations in Essex and Franklin Counties. Since most students normally commute from home daily, the college has opted to go mostly online.

We couldn't see how we could contain the virus in a way that would help to ensure the safety and health of our campus community and the broader community, explained the college's president, Joe Keegan. Some students in hands-on fields like nursing will still receive in-person instruction.

University leaders across the region discussed troubled finances, stemming from a combination of state funding cuts, drops in enrollment and the loss of room and board fees. Thats before the added costs of COVID-19-related safety measures.

Kristine Duffy, President of SUNY Adirondack, also warned the impacts of the pandemic could most severely impact low-income and non-traditional students.

The college plans to open the library and computer labs to those who do not have the equipment or internet connection to follow lessons online. However, she noted, even for students with high-speed internet at home, If K through 12 remains primarily remote [and] more people are working from home, even folks that have access are finding that their environment just is not conducive.

Some students may decide to sit out the year, said SUNY Plattsburgh President Alexander Enyedi.

I worry that many of our most vulnerable students, the ones who are financially distressed at this point in time may never return to higher ed, he said.

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North Country universities will test students returning to campus for COVID-19 - North Country Public Radio