COBLESKILL, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Suny Cobleskill President Marion Terenzio handed out 12 suspensions for students hosting and attending parties over the weekend.
State University of New York Chancellor Jim Malatras and President Terenzio met on campus Tuesday to launch the immediate pooled saliva testing for the coronavirus after 12 students failed to comply with campus COVID-19 safety requirements.
“We had an on campus party which we find interesting in itself because it was in a major parking lot,” said President Terenzio.
Out of those 12 students, 10 students lived on campus and the other 2 students lived off campus. Before returning to campus all students were required to sign a pledge that they would follow social distancing guidelines on campus. President Terenzio says those students could have jeopardized the college experience for others.
“I am not angry, I am disappointed. I hope they learn that their actions could affect their fellow students,” said she.
Brittany VanDuzer is the Interim Student Government President for Suny Cobleskill. VanDuzer says she was disappointed hearing that her senior year back on campus could be taken away by the actions of others.
“We want to be able to move forward. We want to go to conferences and have club meetings in person,” said VanDuzer.
President Terenzio says all of those 12 students have been tested for the virus. They were all required to quarantine for 14 days. She says as of Wednesday none of their test results have come back yet.
However in the case of a future outbreak, she says they are prepared.
“If we do see an increase of positive cases, we will start contact tracing. If we do see a larger number at one, that could be the trigger that makes us go remote,” said she.
VanDuzer says she hopes all students will take this a less to continue to honor their pledges.
“This is important and we do need to keep doing our part. We need to make sure that everybody remains safe and healthy,” said she.
Now in its third week of on-campus instruction, only two SUNY Cobleskill students had tested positive for the coronavirus during that time and those cases were immediately addressed.
SUNY Cobleskill will utilize SUNY Upstate Medical’s pooled surveillance testing and its newly approved saliva diagnostic testing.
