SUNY Oswego announced several points of the “Winter and Spring Forward 2021 Plan” in an email from President Deborah Stanley to the campus on Wednesday afternoon.

After SUNY released its overarching guidelines for the spring 2021 semester, SUNY Oswego officials stated that the school began working on its own plan for the upcoming semester to comply with SUNY’s comprehensive plan.

In its plan, some of the main points SUNY laid out included baseline testing for all 64 campuses, a seven-day quarantine upon arrival to campus, mandated mask wearing as well as the cancellation of spring break.

In lieu of spring break, SUNY stated that schools could put miscellaneous “reading days” throughout the semester to give students a break. SUNY Oswego, in the email from Wednesday, is “looking closely” at the semester to potentially schedule days off throughout the semester to provide a “stress buster.”

In the email, Stanley said the school’s plan for the spring semester is being submitted to SUNY this week for approval and will “strive to increase the engagement [the] students have with one another.”

“We look forward to offering enhanced dining, continued access to the well-received Oz-Spots, and providing mentoring and career development opportunities as part of the new Laker Success Package and the soon-to-launch Imagine 2021 program,” Stanley wrote. “We are also planning for opportunities for students to safely convene small group gatherings (currently restricted to 10 or less) this spring, which will allow various student organizations to meet and engage in face-to-face operations.”

Stanley included six highlights from the school’s plan to help students prepare for a return to campus in January. They include:

• Fourteen days prior to arrival at SUNY Oswego, all students and employees must pre-screen daily for travel history, COVID-19 history and COVID-19 symptoms.

• Students who live in residence halls on-campus will start to return on or before Jan. 20. The Office of Residence Life and Housing will contact students to determine specific return dates.

• All classes for the semester will begin on Feb. 1, compared to the original Jan. 24 start-date. Fifty percent of the school’s coursework will be in-person, with approximately 25% fully face-to-face and 25% being hybrid.

• Students must be tested upon arrival back to campus. Students who live on-campus must schedule a date and time, with the help of Residence Life, to get a campus baseline COVID-19 pooled saliva test before moving into their respective residence hall. Off-campus students and employees must also participate in the testing.

• For the first seven days on-campus, students must “restrict their activity” including remote learning and dining. This is consistent with the New York state guidance on “Limitations of On-Campus Activity.”

• Similar to the fall semester, all students and employees who come to campus must regularly participate in the COVID-19 surveillance testing protocols.

The school also announced it will have a new website with the Winter and Spring Forward 2021 plan and will also provide updates as soon as the plan is approved by SUNY.

The website will provide important details and instructions regarding your return to campus, health and safety guidelines, and testing protocols you – our students, faculty and staff – will be required to follow,” Stanley wrote.