Syracuse University students must submit negative coronavirus test results to SU within 10 days of arriving on campus, university officials announced Wednesday.

The university will not activate a student’s ID card until they have submitted a negative test, said Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie and Amanda Nicholson, interim deputy senior vice president for enrollment and the student experience, in a campus-wide email. Students will only be able to access university buildings by swiping a valid ID, they said.

SU announced earlier this week that it was partnering with a private testing company to provide all students with a $49 mail-in testing-kit upon request. Students who utilize the mail-in test will have their results communicated to the university automatically, while those who get tested elsewhere will have to upload their results through an online portal, Haynie and Nicholson said.

Returning students impacted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s travel advisory must receive testing during their self-quarantine. Cuomo’s order requires travelers from 34 hotspot states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in New York. Returning students from the hotspots must quarantine off campus at their own expense, while first-year and incoming transfer students can quarantine in SU housing for $1000.

First-year and transfer students who have opted to quarantine at SU have already received testing kits in the mail to complete before arriving on-campus, Haynie and Nicholson said in an email to those students. The $49 testing fee for the mail-in test is included in the $1,000 room and board fee for on-campus quarantine, though students are not required to use it.

Students quarantining at SU must verify their pre-arrival negative test Aug. 2 at a drive-thru check-in station at Manley Field House. Those who arrive without proof of a negative COVID-19 test will be tested and quarantined at the Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel & Conference Center until they test negative. 

Students should plan on arriving an hour before their move-in time to complete the check-in process, Haynie and Nicholson said.

Students who have tested positive for COVID-19 within the past eight weeks can submit documentation through the student portal at the Barnes Center at The Arch. The university previously said that students who have contracted the virus and recovered up to eight weeks before arriving on campus are exempt from both the self-quarantine requirement and the pre-arrival testing requirement. 

More information on how to request an at-home testing kit and upload results to the online portal will arrive soon, Haynie and Nicholson said. 

“We appreciate your ongoing patience as we continue to navigate these unprecedented times and prepare for our students’ quickly approaching arrival to campus,” they said.

Published on July 29, 2020 at 8:28 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu