In a few short days, Syracuse University will reopen for classes, bringing students, staff, and

faculty back to campus for a full in-person experience. Classrooms, dorms, dining halls, gyms,
common areas, and hallways will be packed with people. Last Fall, as Covid-19 raged around the
country, Syracuse University pioneered and implemented a host of safety protocols to bring
students back to campus including extensive testing, rigorous mask mandates, classroom
capacity reductions, wastewater treatment testing, quarantine procedures, and teaching
modality flexibility. Now, as Covid rages much stronger than it did last Fall, the University has
nearly completely abandoned the safety measures it pioneered and pinned its hopes on its
vaccination requirement ignoring the science regarding the transmission of the Delta variant.
We call on the University to re-implement extensive testing, strict mask requirements indoors,
and more stringent social distancing procedures to protect students, employees, and their
members of household, loved ones and the greater community.

As the 2021 Spring semester came to a close, and vaccines became widely available, Syracuse
was among the first universities to issue a vaccine requirement for returning to campus in the
Fall. The hope, felt by students, staff, faculty, and administrators, was that vaccines would solve
all of our problems. But as the Delta variant gained hold, and a wave of Covid infections began
to reach upstate New York, it was clear that vaccines were not a panacea for infection and did
not fully prevent transmission by vaccinated individuals. In early August, faculty and staff with
unvaccinated loved ones (such as young children), underlying medical conditions, and others
began demanding increased safety protocols in the classroom. These pleas were met with
almost complete silence by an administration still relying on the logic of May 2021, before the
spread of the Delta variant.

In Onondaga County, where Syracuse University is, 40 percent of new Covid infections are
among vaccinated individuals (as of August 17, 2021). Despite clear, unambiguous, scientific
evidence that the Delta variant poses a threat to vaccinated people and their unvaccinated
loved ones, the University is not requiring vaccinated individuals to be tested at any point
during the semester. Vaccinated individuals are not tested when they arrive, there is no
surveillance testing, and it is unclear if vaccinated individuals ought to be tested even if they
display covid symptoms.

To date, the only safety protocols the University is implementing are testing of unvaccinated
individuals (4% percent of the campus population) and color-coded masking system, which
does not specify what specific case numbers will trigger which protocols. Even now, as the
Centers for Disease Control, the State of New York, and Onondaga County suggest and require
implementing mask mandates in indoor educational settings, Syracuse University still does not
require masks in all indoor spaces. Let us be crystal clear: under the University's current policy,
students in packed hallways, bathrooms, and other indoor areas outside of classrooms and
offices are not required to wear masks. Students are only required to wear masks inside the
classroom itself and a few other settings, and only because we are currently at a 'blue' level.
What happens if students, staff, and faculty suspect they have been exposed to covid or display
symptoms? We don't know. What should students, staff, and faculty do if a family member has
covid but they themselves have no symptoms? We don't know. What are the standards for
when the University will issue more strict mask mandates, or lift them? We don't know. How
will the University know if there is an outbreak on campus without testing? We don't know.
How could the University be so unprepared for a situation that they managed successfully just a
few short months ago? We have no idea.

We write this letter out of desperation. We have tried many other available avenues at our
disposal with no effect that we can tell. At the same time we hear the County Commissioner
lauding the University's testing protocols and masking efforts, despite zero evidence for this
praise (Tim Knauss reported in the post standard on 17 August that Ryan McMahon is expecting
test positivity rate to go down once SU starts testing ‘thousands of students’, but no university
communication has at any time informed us that thousands of students will be tested.) Right
now, tens of thousands of students are coming to campus from all over the world. Given
current infection rates among vaccinated individuals, dozens if not hundreds of those students
are currently infected. Infections will not be contained to campus; they will show up at county
testing sites and community hospitals. They will impact the lives of students, staff, faculty, and
their loved ones. They will impact the lives of community members with no association to the
University. We ask again for the University to implement the successful and rigorous safety
protocols it has the capability to so that we can all feel safe and protect others.

* This letter was circulated on Thursday August 27 before 3:50pm when the vice chancellor sent
a covid update via email. Many of our questions remain unanswered.

Respectfully submitted,
1 Gwendolyn D. Pough, Professor, Women's and Gender Studies
2 Mike Gill, Associate Professor of Disability Studies, Cultural Foundations of Education
3 Dawn Johnson, Associate Professor, School of Education
4 Margaret Susan Thompson, Associate Professor, History
5 M. Gail Hamner, Professor, Religion Department, Syracuse University
6 Diane Grimes, Associate professor, CRS@SU
7 Marina Artuso, Professor of Physcs
8 Samantha Herrick, History / Maxwell
9 Tula Goenka, Professor, Newhouse School
10 Himika Bhattacharya, WGS
11 Robin Riley Women's and Gender Studies
12 Harriet Brown, Professor, Newhouse
13 mary karr, peck professor of literature, syracuse university
14 Evan Smith, Professor, Newhouse
15 Eunjung Kim, Associate Professor, Syracuse University
16 Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Professor of History, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
17 Soo Yeon Hong, Assistant Teaching Professor, Newhouse
18 Yüksel Sezgin, Associate Professor, Political Science
19 Eric Kingson, Professor, School of Social Work, Falk College
20 Nina Brown, Associate Professor, Newhouse School of Public Communications
21 Philip P Arnold, Associate Professor and Chair, Religion, A&S
22 Dan Pacheco, Professor of Practice and Peter A. Horvitz Endowed Chair in Journalism Innovation
23 Srivi Ramasubramanian, Newhouse Endowed Professor
24 Douglas Quin, Professor, Newhouse
25 Lamis Abdelaaty, Assistant Professor, Political Science
26 Margarita Estevez-Abe, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
27 Steven Cohan, Professor Emeritus, English
28 Chris Forster, Associate Professor of English
29 Charisse L'Pree Corsbie-Massay, Associate Prof. Newhouse
30 Albrecht Diem, Associate Professor, Dept. of History
31 Keith Giglio, Associate Professor, Newhouse
32 Roger Hallas, Associate Professor, English
33 Maraam Dwidar, Assistant Professor, Political Science
34 Dr. Mona Eikel-Pohen, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
35 Terrell A. Northrup, Associate Teaching Professor
36 Professor Christopher Kennedy, English Department
37 Jacob Bendix, Professor of Geography and the Environment
38 Crystal Bartolovich, Associate Professor, Arts and Sciences (English)
39 Beth Egan, Associate Professor, Newhouse
40 Dr. Kyla P Garrett Wagner, Assistant Professor, The Newhouse School
41 Audie Klotz, Professor, Political Science
42 Paula Nelson, Assistant Visiting Professor, Newhouse
43 Lars Willnat, Professor, Newhouse
44 Ken Harper, Associate Professor, Newhouse School
45 Yael Zeira, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
46 Rebecca Schewe, Associate Professor, Dept. of Sociology
47 Ken Frieden, Professor, English, LLL, Religion
48 J.M. Grygiel, Associate Professor, Newhouse
49 Susan-Sojourna Collier, Assistant Professor, Newhouse
50 Sarah Workman, Assistant Director, Research Development (Humanities), Office of Research & C
51 Consuelo Endrigo-Williams, Italian Instructor, College of Arts and Sciences
52 Susan Long, Associate Professor, Whitman Department of Finance, and Co-Director, TRAC
53 Mark Brockway, Faculty Fellow, Religion and Political Science
54 Catherine Nock, Assistant Teaching Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
55 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Distinguished Prof, WGS
56 Rawiya Kameir, Assistant Professor, Newhouse
57 Carrie Riby, Visiting Teaching Professor, Newhouse
58 Joseph Paulsen, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physics
59 Genevieve Waite, Assistant Teaching Professor of French, LLL
60 Prema Kurien, Professor, Sociology
61 Glyn Morgan, Associate professor psc
62 Aileen Gallagher, Associate Professor, Newhouse
63 Dennis Rasmussen, Professor, Political Science
64 Matt Huber, Professor, Geography and the Environment
65 Jack Laiho, Associate Professor, Department of Physics
66 Elizabeth Juarez-Cummings, Assistant Teaching Professor, LLL
67 Tripti Bhattacharya, Assistant Professor, College of Arts and Sciences
68 Gareth Fisher, Associate Professor, Religion
69 A. Peter Castro, Professor of Anthropology
70 Rafael Sorkin, Emeritus Professor of Physics
71 Michael Ebner, Associate Professor, History
72 Jeanette Jouili, Assoc. Professor, Dept. of Religion,
73 Ken Foster, Emeritus Professor, Physics
74 Lyndsay Gratch, Assistant Professor, CRS
75 Dana Spiotta, Associate Professor Creative Writing/ English
76 Lori A. Brown, Professor, Architecture
77 Juliette Rawda, Academic Coordinator, College of Arts and Sciences
78 Mona Awad, Assistant Professor, English Department
79 Yutaka Sho, Associate Professor, Architecture
80 Lauren Mintier, Graduate Program Manager, School of Architecture
81 Robert Weaver, Shop Technician, SOA
82 Wayne Franits, Distinguished Professor of Art History, College of Arts and Sciences
83 Sheldon Stone, Distinguished Prof. of Physics, A&S
84 Kristina Borrman, Assistant Teaching Professor, School of Architecture, Syracuse University
85 Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Associate Professor, Dept of Nutrition and Food Studies
86 Simon Catterall, Department of Physics
87 Alison Patteson, Assistant Professor, Arts and Sciences (Physics)
88 Molly Hunker, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
89 Amy Toensing, Assistant Professor, Newhouse School
90 Elizabeth Cohen, Professor, Department of Political Science
91 Cora True-Frost, Associate Professor, Bond Schoeneck & King Distinguished Professor, Law
92 William Robert, Associate Professor, Religion & LGBTQ studies
93 Danika Medak-Saltzman, Assistant Professor, Women's and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
94 Ted Bartlett, Adjunct, School of Architecture
95 Anne C Bellows, Professor, Food Studies
96 Bess Krietemeyer, Associate Professor, School of Architecture
 97 James Tsao, Professor, Newhouse School
98 Allen Miller, Emeritus Professor of Physics
99 Elizabeth Kamell, Associate Professor, Architecture
100 Joseph Sgambati III, Adjunct Professor, Newhouse
101 Greg Corso, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
102 Edward Russell, Associate Professor Advertising, Newhouse School
103 Tara Pearson, Adjunct Professor, School of Architecture & Newhouse
104 A.P.Balachandran, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Syracuse University
105 Erika Haber, Professor, LLL
106 Prema Kurien, Professor, Sociology
107 Junho Chun, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
108 Mark Rupert, Professor Emeritus
109 Mona Bhan Ford Maxwell Professor of South Asia and Associate Professor of Anthropology
110 John Bryant, Woodshop Technician, SU School of Architecture
111 Carol Liebler, Professor, Newhouse
112 Glenn Peers, Professor, Art&Music Histories
113 Jackie Orr, Associate Professor, Sociology
114 Kara Herold, Associate Professor, Transmedia
115 Romita Ray, Associate Professor of Art History, College of Arts and Sciences
116 Kathryn Clinton, Instructor of Spanish
117 Maria Rita Barbarino, Instructor, LLL
118 Rosa M. Benavides, Spanish Instructor LLL
119 Kaori LaClair, Japanese Instructor, College of Arts and Sciences
120 Erika Haber, Professor, LLL Department
121 Antonina Distefano Italian instructor snd SUPA Liaison
122 Biko Gray, Assistant professor, religion
123 Robert Dodds, Spanish Instructor and OEF Veteean
124 Robert Terrell, Assistant Professor, History Department
125 Alicia Rios, Associate Professor, LLL
126 Edecio Martinez, Executive Editor & Professor of Practice, Newhouse
127 Michal Downie, Instructor, LLL
128 Gregory Heisler, Distinguished Professor of Practice, Newhouse School
129 Karina von Tippelskirch, Associate Professor of German, LLL
130 Tom Sherman, Professor, Transmedia
131 Laura Heyman, Associate Professor, Department of Transmedia
132 Sam Johnson, Assistant Professor, Art & Music Histories
133 Gretchen Purser, Associate Professor of Sociology, Maxwell School
134 Scott Watson, Professor of Physics, Syracuse University
135 Theo Cateforis, Associate Professor, Art & Music Histories
136 Miryam Bar, LLL
137 Alex Mendez Giner, Associate Professor, Department of Transmedia, Film
138 Boryana Dragoeva (Rossa) Ph.D. Associate Professor, Transmedia, VPA
139 Magdelin Montenegro, LLL Instructor, College of Arts and Sciences
140 Anne Leone, Assistant Professor, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
141 Kelly Gallagher, Assistant Professor , Transmedia
142 Matilde Mateo, Associate Research Professor, Art and Music Histories
143 Baobao Zhang, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
144 Kennia Delafe, Adjunct Instructor, LLL Department, College of Arts and Sciences
145 Bhanu Sisodia
146 Lawrence Chua, Associate Professor, School of Architecture
147 Jill Ferguson, Director of Research Development, Maxwell School
148 Susan S. Wadley, Professor Emerita, teaching for Honors
149 Will Scheibel, Associate Professor, English
150 Daryl Olin, Computer Consultant, Maxwell
151 James Gordon Williams, Associate Professor, African American Studies
152 Kathryn Everly, Professor of Spanish, Dept. of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics
153 Susan Thomas, Assistant Professor, Cultural Foundations of Education
154 Gabrielle Demeestere, Assistant Teaching Professor, Film