Binghamton University and Syracuse University announced Wednesday they would open in late August, but the state says in-person restrictions placed statewide apply to the schools and announcing an opening date is premature.
The reopening plans by some New York colleges have created a patchwork of uncertainty over how higher education will proceed in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has encouraged schools and universities to be prepared for the fall.
But he said it's still simply too soon to make a decision on whether students will be allowed to return to campus by then because it's impossible to know the virus' status across New York in a few months.
"My perspective is the situation changes so fast, and the facts change," Cuomo said May 13 in Watertown.
"Where are we going to be in September? I don’t know. I don’t know where we’re going to be in August. I’m trying to figure out June."
While Binghamton announced its own schedule, there has been no direction publicly from the State University of New York administration on when it might have a plan for its 64-campus system.
Asked Wednesday if Binghamton's announcement was reflective of the SUNY's plans, the system referred comment to Cuomo's office, which said any specific reopening date would be premature.
"Colleges and universities will be subject to the NY Forward reopening plans," Cuomo's office said in a statement, referring to the four-phase plan in each region of the state based on the virus' decline.
"Until then, the in-person restrictions placed statewide in NY on Pause still apply to these schools."
More: Coronavirus: Cuomo closes K-12 schools, colleges through June; calls for reopening plans
When can colleges in New York reopen?
In early March, Cuomo said all SUNY and CUNY campuses had to move to online learning starting March 19, and all colleges in New York soon followed suit.
On May 1, Cuomo officially announced that all colleges and K-12 schools would remain closed for the remainder of the academic year.
On Thursday, he announced there would be no in-person summer school.
Now the next question is whether schools and colleges will open in the fall. On Thursday, Cuomo said schools would need to submit plans to the state this summer on how they would reopen.
“The big question now is how about college in the fall. California has said they’re going to close colleges in the fall. I’m not there yet," Cuomo said May 14 on WAMC, a public radio station in Albany.
More: Is New York's population decline impacting college enrollment? SUNY says yes
But colleges said they need to start planning for the fall, even if the situation may change between now and then.
"We’re planning for the fall, as we have been encouraged to do," said Ryan Yarosh, a spokesman for Binghamton University. "Whether it begins as online or a mix of both online and in-person instruction, it will start Aug. 26."
Earlier this week, Ithaca College announced it was planning to reopen its campus to students Oct. 5.
Other colleges are taking more of a wait-and-see approach: planning for students to return in the fall, but also working on contingency plans.
Vassar College in Poughkeepsie "remains committed to providing excellent higher education while mitigating the spread of COVID-19 and reducing any potential health risks that it poses to members of our community," said spokesperson Amanita Duga-Carroll
"Difficult decisions must be made, and we are working tirelessly to strike the right balance."
More: Wells College in Aurora warns it may close if students can't return in fall 2020
Can college reopen safely, and will students show up?
The decisions that colleges and students will make this fall could be critical to whether some of the schools have the revenue to survive.
Wells College President Jonathan Gibralter wrote earlier this month that if students cannot return to campus this fall, the historic college in Aurora would have to shut down.
"If New York State continues its mandate that our campus remain closed through all or part of the fall semester, Wells simply will not receive enough revenue to continue operations," Gibralter said in the letter to the college community.
Small private colleges in New York and its SUNY system have already dealt with dwindling enrollment, higher tuition and growing costs.
SUNY schools saw a 4% enrollment drop between 2015 and 2018.
Community colleges have seen an even steeper drop: a 10% decline in enrollment since 2015. That has translated into 23,000 fewer students on community college campuses.
With job losses due to the pandemic, potential college students may not have the money or desire to return to SUNY schools, even community colleges, said SUNY Orange President Kristine Young.
“It’s in times of recession that community colleges tend to have increases in enrollment, but … all the readings I’m doing underscore that we’ve never had a recession coupled with a worldwide pandemic,” Young told Orange County’s legislators this week.
Nazareth College outside Rochester said it is planning to have on-campuses classes this fall.
"I have shifted from thinking about 'reopening' or 'going back' to thinking about how we will 'emerge,'" Elizabeth Paul, the college's incoming president, said in a statement Monday.
"We are full speed ahead with the mission and learning experience of Nazareth College, and we will make it work whatever way we have to make it work."
More: Binghamton University's 2020 fall semester to begin August 26
How college in the fall may be different
The challenge of reopening will be making sure students still feel connected to each other and their campus communities, said Gerianne Brusati, vice president for student services at SUNY Orange.
That task is complicated by a SUNY system reopening that’s sure to include more online courses, club meetings, activities, fewer students for in-person class meetings and staggered schedules, said Brusati and Donald Christian, president of SUNY New Paltz.
Will dorms, meanwhile, have students double- and even triple-bunked as in previous years?
It seems unlikely in a post-pandemic world, Hudson Valley college administrators say. And that, they add, is unfortunate.
“For most first-year students, coming onto a college campus, there’s socialization and building a campus community is much better when there’s an old-style college experience, where you have to go to the restroom, and you get to know more people as you pass them in the hall, compared with five commuters coming to campus,” Christian said.
But that closeness also comes with health risks amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nellie Brown, a certified industrial hygienist, biologist and chemist at Cornell University, said Thursday a return to on-campus settings can be dangerous from a communicable disease perspective.
Students who return will be coming from across the state and beyond and could be asymptomatic for the coronavirus or presymptomatic. If tested, the student could even fall below the test detection limit.
Classroom density, scheduling, lecture hall capacity, dining facilities, restrooms, locker rooms and university labs all need to be taken into account when planning, she said.
"As humans, though, we get clumsy and sloppy and careless," Brown said.
"I don't know if bowing or toe-tapping is going to catch on. People want to get close to each other."
More: New York's roadside attractions: Big ducks, giant gnomes, the fork in the road
Cuomo, meanwhile, has increasingly raised concern over a respiratory illness that appears tied to COVID-19 and is afflicting children and teenagers. He said that demonstrates the unpredictability of the virus — which has killed more than 23,000 New Yorkers so far
"As the facts keep changing, prudence dictates that you don't make a decision until it's timely so you have the most recent facts to make a decision," Cuomo said Thursday.
Syracuse University said while it plans to open in late August, "As we have done from the beginning, all decisions will be informed by guidance from state and public health officials and will prioritize the safety and well-being of our campus community."
More: New York coronavirus reopening: Why can't my region open up yet?
Colleges plan and wait
Schools and colleges would be part of the fourth phase of the state's region-by-region reopening plan.
All of upstate is now in phase one, and a move to any new phase would happen in two- week intervals, if the coronavirus' rate of infection continues to drop.
Colleges said they have to plan now for various scenarios in the fall.
"I know many of you are anxious to have a clear path forward for the fall, and I share that sentiment with you," Robert Nye, the president of Finger Lakes Community College, wrote to the campus May 13.
"Since we have more time to plan and our recent experiences to draw on, I am confident that we will be ready to face whatever the fall semester brings."
More: Memorial Day: New York to allow small ceremonies, vehicle parades despite coronavirus
Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger said it is important to move ahead with academic calendar as it was planned.
"It's going to be a big project," Stenger said in a livestreamed news conference Wednesday.
"We have to figure out how students are going to socially distance in bathrooms, how will we figure out what classrooms can have students learning face-to-face and what classes will continue remotely."
Stenger said the hardest thing might be controlling parties.
"Students like to have parties. How do we control that? I don't have an answer to that yet," he said.
More: Reopening: Most Americans fear second wave of coronavirus: Marist Poll
More: Small religious gatherings will be allowed in New York. Here are the new details
Ashley Biviano is a staff writer for the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton; Joseph Spector is the New York State Editor for the USA TODAY Network Network; Daniel Axelrod is a staff writer for the Times Herald-Record in Middletown.
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