A couple weeks ago, I decided to look into something interesting: where does SUNY’s testing of COVID-19 stand among the country? SUNY has administered more than 200,000 tests, which is no small feat. 

SUNY’s number of administered tests has surpassed the states ­­­— I repeat, entire states — of Wyoming and Vermont. It is also nearing South Dakota’s testing numbers, with a gap of less than 40,000. If that is not impressive, quite honestly, I do not know what is. 

My tip of the hat goes to Upstate Medical and its incredible testing, which has the capacity of 120,000 weekly tests through its pooled saliva tests. In a state college and university system where there are over 400,000 students, not all of which are in-person, it is fair to say that the more tests there are, the better students and faculty are well off. SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras noted on Twitter Sunday that there are approximately 180,000 students who are on-campus and going to in-person classes.

Knowing these numbers leads to another point: SUNY and Malatras have been incredibly transparent since the beginning of the semester and this is a major asset for them. 

SUNY has an entire dashboard for all 64 campuses of the SUNY system, both as a collective unit and individually. One can look at every campus from SUNY Adirondack to Westchester Community College and see individual COVID-19 data. Malatras has also been very active on his personal Twitter account, stating facts and answering numerous questions and concerns from almost every account, whether it be a parent, media member or just someone who is curious. 

In a time and world where it seems like there are more questions than answers, having the leader of the entire SUNY system answering questions cannot be ignored. While former Chancellor Kristina Johnson dealt with the beginning of the pandemic, she resigned and became the president of Ohio State. Malatras has been the driving force behind all of this. Johnson never had this much of a public outreach. While Malatras has come to SUNY Oswego more because of the in-person classes pause at the end of September, Malatras, as well as President Deborah Stanley, answered numerous questions at every press conference.

While it is required by SUNY that every college or university has a public dashboard and report COVID-19 data everyday, SUNY Oswego officials have been open and always willing to talk as well. Never did I think I would have the school’s chief communications officer’s, Wayne Westervelt, phone number essentially on speed-dial. Any time I have called, emailed or found him at a press conference, Westervelt has been right there to answer a question or to clarify something.

Allow this to serve as a giant “thank you,” to the availability and transparency of personnel who typically are not hounded as much. While we definitely are not in the clear from COVID-19, we are all learning together on how to handle different situations. Being transparent helps everyone, including concerned parents, students, media members and even school officials because everyone’s voices are expressed and heard.

Hopefully this will bring forth the idea that being open and being available to the public is a necessity, even when the world is not in the middle of a pandemic. People want to hear from their officials, whether it be school or government. They want to hear what decisions are being made but more importantly why.

Photo by Ben Grieco | The Oswegonian