With students coming back to campus this year in the midst of the pandemic, Syracuse University implemented a four-tier color coded masking policy. The strictness of the masking requirements varies by level.

On Aug. 28,  the university switched from the second-strictest “BLUE” level to the strictest “RED” level. When in the “RED” level, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people must wear masks indoors and outdoors when in the presence of others. Due to the SU community’s success in combating the transmission of COVID-19 on campus, the university should lower the masking level.

SU’s decision to increase the masking level in August came after Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced an increase in cases in the county.  because cases in Onondaga County and the university were beginning to spike as students moved back to campus. Cases rose significantly on campus the following few weeks, reaching 163 active cases on Sept. 13.

In recent weeks, however, active cases have dropped significantly, staying stagnant around 35 to 45 daily active cases since Sept. 27. On a campus with a total enrollment north of 20,000 people, those numbers are miniscule. As of today, Oct. 18, there are 22 active cases on campus, the lowest number of cases this semester since Aug. 30.

The surveillance positivity rate has more than halved from earlier in the semester, dropping to 0.4% from its Sept. 21 level of 1%. With cases declining for a sustained period of time and now stagnating, this is the right time to reduce the masking level. 

Cases on campus will likely never reach zero. We have to accept that there will be COVID-19 cases on campus, and we can’t put guardrails around everything just because a very small portion of the population has it. 

Meanwhile, due to the university’s mandate of the COVID-19 vaccines, it is not surprising that vaccination rates on campus are through the roof. About  98% of SU students have been fully vaccinated. SU’s vaccination mandate has had an incredible effect on keeping case rates low on campus. The overwhelming majority of people on campus are vaccinated, case rates are low and declining, yet we still have highly strict masking requirements.

Furthermore, enforcement of these masking requirements is relatively nonexistent except for in classrooms or walking by the security guard in residence halls. With underclassmen congregating in dorms and off-campus parties raging, there isn’t exactly much social distancing happening on campus. 

In spite of this, cases on campus continue to remain low. Simply put, the amount of social interaction students are having renders masking mandates irrelevant anyways. This would be a problem if cases on campus were spiking, but they’re not — they’ve declined.

A good indicator of how trends in cases on campus are progressing was how active case rates were affected by Family Weekend on Oct. 8-10. Families from all over the country flocked to campus, which could have potentially led to a spike in COVID-19 transmission on campus. 

But there have been 47 or fewer daily cases since Oct. 8 for each of the days that the university has updated its dashboard. Case levels have continued to stagnate and even went down. If the masking level won’t be reduced after over a thousand families come to campus and cases don’t rise, when will it be? If not now, when? 

This is the perfect time to reduce the masking level on campus. If cases spike again, then by all means the stricter mandate is necessary and SU should revert back to level “RED.” But after the sustained success this campus has had in the fight against COVID-19, it’s time we reap the benefits of that success. 

John Hepp is a freshman sports analytics major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at jwhepp@syr.edu.

Published on October 18, 2021 at 10:58 pm