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Four days after at least 100 freshmen gathered on the Quad in violation of public health guidelines, Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie said he’s confident that the gathering will not result in an outbreak of coronavirus infections.

After videos circulated of the gathering on the Quad, Haynie called the students’ actions “selfish and unsettling” and warned that the event could lead to the closure of campus. But new test results from the students who attended the gathering have led university officials to believe that the event will not cause a COVID-19 outbreak on campus, he told The Daily Orange.

“In spite of what happened on the Quad, we’re doing pretty good,” said Haynie, head of SU’s COVID-19 response. “I don’t think we should be so hard on ourselves.”

The students living on campus at the time of the gathering, which largely consisted of freshmen, had either already completed an on-campus quarantine or had moved in since Aug. 17, Haynie said. The test results for the students who moved in days before the gathering have all come back negative, he said — something university officials didn’t know at the time.

“When that happened Wednesday night, we didn’t have the results,” Haynie said. “We had no idea on Wednesday night, of the group of students that gathered on the Quad, if there were COVID-positive students in that mix.” 

The university has continued to see encouraging test results throughout SU’s move-in period, which lasted until Aug 23. As of Saturday, the infection rate among students stood at 0.24%. All cases the university has identified have been isolated, Haynie said. Most of the infections are among students who came to the Syracuse area before receiving negative test results. 

Despite the promising data, Haynie said he could not rule out the possibility of a student spreading COVID-19 on the Quad. False negative test results remain a possibility, he said.

What happened on the Quad?

The gathering on the Quad began with a small group of students congregating around 9:45 p.m but had “grown considerably” by 10 p.m, according to Department of Public Safety Chief Bobby Maldonado. DPS dispatched officers to the Quad at 10:19 p.m., and the area had been cleared by 10:30 p.m. 

Videos show students on the Quad not practicing social distancing and some not wearing masks. 

syracuse university freshmen are never seeing heaven pic.twitter.com/FnoG4lwXYt

— carpet muncher ? (@lesfemmefataIe) August 20, 2020

The D.O. spoke with several students who were on the Quad on Wednesday night. Most said that the gathering came together largely informally as smaller groups arrived throughout the night, leading to the large crowd ultimately captured on video. 

The students agreed that the gathering exceeded 100 people, while some put the number as high as 200. One student described the gathering as a “mosh pit.” Another said it was “literally a mob.” 

“Some of the people there were probably caught up in the excitement of jumping into college life,” said one student who was on the Quad on Wednesday night. The student asked to remain anonymous out of fear of repercussions from SU.

SU mandates that gatherings must be limited to 25 people, with all attendees practicing social distancing. New York state guidelines limit nonessential gatherings to 50 people.

DPS personnel who were on the scene did not immediately break up the gathering, several students told The D.O. One student said they saw an officer watching the gathering from a squad car, while two others said they saw officers walking among the students trying to encourage social distancing before ultimately breaking up the gathering.

DPS is headquartered at Sims Hall, a short walk from the Quad. A spokesperson for DPS did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday. 

Video from a live feed shows a large group of students leaving the Quad last night. pic.twitter.com/Ifijgcpn7J

— The Daily Orange (@dailyorange) August 20, 2020

Breaking up student gatherings that violate New York state health guidelines is the combined responsibility of DPS and other university officials, Haynie said. 

DPS has launched an investigation into the gathering. Any students identified in security camera footage of the Quad will face disciplinary proceedings, Maldonado said in a campus-wide email.

Students told The D.O. that they went to the Quad hoping to meet new people. For many freshmen, Wednesday came a few days after the end of a two-week quarantine, during which students were largely confined to their dorms.

“If you quarantined, it was one of the first days actually being able to be outside,” said another student who attended the Quad gathering and also requested to remain anonymous. “People were itching to do something so it was going to happen now or later.”  

Moving forward

Two days after the gathering on the Quad, videos again circulated of a significantly smaller gathering of students outside Flint Hall. Many of the students were not practicing social distancing. At least four DPS cars later arrived at the Mount Olympus dorms to disperse the crowd.

Dozens of students gathered outside Flint Hall last night without social distancing, as seen in a video obtained by The Daily Orange. pic.twitter.com/wFIkHGfo12

— The Daily Orange (@dailyorange) August 22, 2020

While the university’s guidelines require students to practice social distancing, university officials, including Haynie, said the students did not behave inappropriately.

“We have asked our students to interact and socialize responsibly in small groups this semester, which, as far as we’re aware, is what they were doing this weekend outside of Flint Hall,” said Sarah Scalese, senior associate vice president for university communications, in a statement. 

Haynie agreed that the students’ actions outside Flint didn’t constitute an egregious violation of the university’s guidelines. The university should provide students with the opportunity to socialize in a safe manner, he said. 

“There were some examples of folks who weren’t social distanced… but they didn’t cross a line such that they were necessarily in violation of the law,” Haynie said. “If we want to go through and decompose every frame of every video, and say ‘Okay, this is wrong and this could be better,’ I don’t think that’s very useful.”

Despite the gatherings on campus, Haynie said most SU students are committed to preventing the spread of COVID-19 on campus. Moving forward, the university will continue to allow students to socialize in a safe manner, he said.

Students should pause to reconsider whether a situation is truly a violation of the law before calling DPS, Haynie said.

“It’s not that we’re trying — or even the state is trying — to create a situation where people can’t have social interaction,” Haynie said. “We have to balance compassion with an appropriate response to a given situation.”

Published on August 23, 2020 at 10:34 pm

Contact Chris: cjhippen@syr.edu