Given the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, the fall semester has been very positive. The start of the semester saw an increase in COVID cases on campus, threatening to pull the campus off course just as classes were entering full swing. Fortunately, this uptick was brief, and the University was able to recover until we reached final exam week and were met with a significant increase in virus infections. Fortunately, the semester leading up to final exams was mostly normal, and we were able to conduct many of the usual rituals of academic life, highlighted by a well-attended Homecoming that featured the long-awaited Commencement ceremonies for the Class of We also have seen our research and scholarship return to their normal productivity, which has resulted in several important grants for the campus, as well as significant accolades for our faculty.
And serving as one of the strongest measures of a successful semester, the Health Sciences Campus in Johnson City held its official grand opening, with Gov. Kathy Hochul commending the University for bringing this years-long priority to fruition. We are now working on a plan for the spring semester. We know that testing for the virus and booster vaccinations will be an important part of that plan, and guidance on these issues will be communicated to our community in the early part of January.
This was one of the more successful Homecomings in recent years, with more than 2, registrants coming from across New York and the Northeast — as well as from farther corners of the nation. We were especially pleased with the turnout for the Wenzel 5K race in memory of Gregg Wenzel. But the highlight of the weekend was the long-awaited, in-person Commencement celebration for the Class of Originally scheduled for May , the pandemic forced us to postpone this event for more than a year, so we were delighted to have more than graduates and their families on hand to celebrate.
This was the case when, in early September, the University experienced a significant spike in students and staff testing positive for COVID, with the number of positive cases nearing during a rolling two-week period and more than during our final exam week. In the intervening months, the number of positive cases decreased dramatically, with only a handful of cases being reported for most of the semester. Unfortunately, the recent surge of Delta-variant cases nationally and locally has resulted in a second spike as the semester ends, with positive test results on Dec.
Required weekly surveillance testing of students with religious and medical exemptions and weekly testing of unvaccinated staff takes place every day at the Surveillance Testing Center in Old Union Hall in The Union.
