The 2020 Coronavirus pandemic has upended historical normalcy, with official estimates showing nearly five million lives taken globally, and almost 900,000 in the United States alone, as household economies crippled.

Public policy requires evidence based decision making to thwart the spread of the coronavirus across communities.  Institutions also play an influential role in enhancing official responses by limiting person-to-person contact. With the recent surge in cases across the United States, and New York in particular, SUNY ESF, located on Syracuse University campus, needs to prioritize the health of its stakeholders as nearly 66,000 students and faculty associated with three schools share the same land.  Especially as the seven day average for Infections in New York has reached an all time high of 68,000 per day, and Onondaga county witnessing a seven day average of 1,500 cases per day before students return, remote learning needs to become an option for students.

The pandemic has revealed that short term infection trends are ephemeral and not predictive of future outcomes, while co-citizens do not utilize all available information to make a rational calculus.  Therefore, it’s best that SUNY ESF return to a hybrid modality by requiring classroom based classes (ie, lectures and discussions) of 30 people or more to be disseminated remotely. In addition, smaller lectures need to have an online option considered, while all syllabi should institutionalize contingencies for when a student is forced to quarantine.  This includes making online office hours available as frequently as in-person office hours. These demands are not limited to lectures, but also labs, studios, and workshops.

SUNY ESF must act boldly and make it easy as possible to limit contact during this new pandemic height.