BUFFALO (WBEN) - "Because of the health and safety measures we have in place, we anticipate that UB will be among the safest places in Western New York, as we were last year," said A. Scott Weber, University at Buffalo provost and vice president of academic affairs.
As students have been moving back to various local campuses throughout the week, school officials seem overwhelmingly excited and positive that this year will be much more emblematic of a normal college setting than last year.
On Thursday, UB officials held a press conference to clarify and highlight some of the protocols and mandates in place this year, including vaccine requirements for student who intend on taking in-person classes, as well as universal masking regardless of vaccination status.
"I am fully confident that we are going to be able to start this semester in an optimally safe environment," said Dr. Tom Russo, chief of Infectious Disease at the Jacobs School of Medicine. "We've put together really an extraordinary multi-pronged safety program that really has everything that I would like on it - it checks all the boxes of my wish list."
Thursday was move-in day for Buffalo State students, and President Kate Conway-Turner said the mood and atmosphere for this move-in day is certainly more positive than it was last August.
"It's particularly exciting today after being fully remote for so long and not being able to engage in some of the amazing in-person experiences that typify a Buffalo State education," said Conway-Turner. "This year, it really feels that we have made that significant change in how we're handling (the pandemic) as a country that can really afford people to have a rich and layered college experience."
Of course, Buffalo State and UB are both a part of the SUNY sytem, meaning they are governed by many of the same rules.
One notable change in the day-to-day operations is the elimination of the social distancing mandate from last year, which really narrowed in-person class opportunities.
"The distancing policies were eliminated when the emergency status went away in the State of New York, so there's no distancing that's required," said Conway-Turner. "The mask-wearing is the major in-classroom barrier."
According to Russo, while the various layers of protection will help mitigate the spread of COVID on campus, he pointed to the vaccination rate - 90% of UB students as Wednesday - as the main reason for his optimism.
"Most importantly, the backbone of our plan is our extraordinarily high vaccination rate," said Russo. "Vaccination is our secret out of this pandemic. We are lucky that we have a SUNY mandate for all of our students to be vaccinated and an extraordinarily high buy-in by our staff and faculty, but vaccines are not perfect, so there's additional other layers of protection that are in place in terms of mask usage, testing for unvaccinated individuals, our very creative and innovative wastewater surveillance program..."
"Our students, faculty, and staff are looking forward to returning to a fully in-person university environment and more active and vibrant campus experience this fall," added Weber. "We are excited to welcome more than 30,000 students back to our campus, and many are here already. Students will attend in-person classes, live in our residence halls, attend football games and other events."
