After announcing on Friday morning that in-person classes would resume on Monday, Oct. 5, Oswego State President Deborah Stanley, alongside SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras, Oswego City Mayor Billy Barlow and Oswego County Administrator Phil Church, held a press conference at the Marano Campus Center.

There has been a large decrease in positive COVID-19 cases, with 82 positive cases last Friday—only one week into the two-week testing period set by New York state—down to 32 cases counting toward the New York State 100-case threshold as of 3:45 p.m.

Even with all of the continuing restrictions with dining and other student clubs and organizations, Stanley said going back to in-person classes is “very important” for students.

Echoed by Malatras, he said, “The most important thing to do is get classes going again. That is the most important thing for the education of our students.”

“This is what we feel is best for [students] moving forward in their curriculum,” Stanley said. “This is the best for our faculty in educating our students. We have found it to be an incredibly safe environment.”

Students and employees will be tested every three weeks. Stanley said that students can get tested more than every three weeks, but will have to request a test from the school for any particular reason. Students can get additional testing from the school’s health center if they have symptoms of COVID-19.

Stanley added that not many people have asked for additional tests, but they “will accommodate” students and employees as necessary if there is room for additional tests.

“We actually don’t want symptomatic individuals to go into the pool [testing] because you know then you are impacting an entire pool,” Malatras said. “You’ll want to get a diagnostic test right away.”

Some students have raised concerns about insurance companies charging them for taking COVID-19 tests administered on-campus after filling out insurance information on the test registration page for Upstate Medical.

Stanley said she did not think anyone was being charged by different insurance companies for the campus-administered tests. However, Wayne Westervelt, chief communications officer at Oswego State, said that if a student does notice they are charged, they should go directly to the dean of students at the school.

Leading up to the pause, it was noticed a lot of cases revolved around off-campus gatherings and parties. Barlow said that the Oswego Police Department had issued tickets and arrests to those violating social distancing and mass-gathering violations.

He added no tickets have been issued during the two-week pause set by Oswego State, but there was one party that the police had to breakup.

Said Church: “If you’d like a light-hearted testimonial, I happen to live across the street from a fraternity. This has been the most peaceful September I’ve had in 20 years.”

“That means 99.9999% of the students out here at SUNY did the right thing and did their job,” Barlow said. “They’re responsible for being able to reopen two weeks later. I commend them. … We have to keep going and keep doing the right things to ensure we can stay open the remainder of the semester.”

Church, who was representing the Oswego County Chairman, James Weatherup, and the Oswego County Public Health Director, Jiancheng Huang, said the health department supports Oswego State’s decision to return to in-person classes.

“I want to commend the students that are taking this seriously. To those that have, I want to encourage you to encourage your peers to continue,” Church said. “Just because the campus is reopening doesn’t mean we have to relax.”

Both Barlow and Malatras mentioned there are a lot of positives of returning to in-person classes. For Barlow, it re-energizes the campus and the community.

“As long as we keep the teamwork up and encourage the students to do the right thing, and they continue to do the right thing,” Barlow said, “I think we’ll have a successful rest of this semester and we’ll look forward to spring 2021.”