'I want a graduation': At LI colleges, hope rises as spring semester nears

When Farmingdale State College senior Jasmine Brown recalls her freshman year, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic started, it glows like Technicolor — before the screen dims to gray.

"Ah, the first year was amazing — it was almost like you see in the movies, where you meet people and hang out with them all the time, making new memories and friendships," said Brown, 21, a mechanical engineering and technology major from Freeport, and a residence hall director who helped younger students through the toughest times of the pandemic.

Last fall, she said, the campus opened up a bit, the dorms were fuller, and the ghostly isolation of the prior year had been lifted.

"Compared to my freshman year as 100 percent of the college experience, I’d say fall 2021 was like 75 percent," she said. "I am still very nervous because we haven’t gotten any word about how the spring semester will be going, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed. … I want a graduation."

Administrators at colleges and universities on Long Island are keeping their fingers crossed, too, and are gamely planning a face-to-face spring semester, with guarded optimism that the current national wave of COVID-19 infections from the highly contagious omicron variant will soon ebb.

The schools said they will maintain — or step up — protocols that kept infection rates relatively low on campuses last fall. Most now mandate vaccinations with a booster, and will maintain or increase the pace of COVID-19 testing.

But spring breaks and athletic events are still on the calendar, clubs will meet both in-person and virtually, and spectators, initially banned from some indoor campus gyms, might soon be allowed to return.

Most campuses will cut in half the period spent in COVID-19 isolation or quarantine to five days, in accordance with new federal and state guidelines.

"We have had people inquire whether we are planning to move remote. We are not," said Farmingdale State President John S. Nader. "My sense is that students would very much like to be in-person to the extent that is possible. … We are hoping that omicron dies down quickly."

The college has had a contingency plan in place since the fall, to divide classes into alternating sections of in-person and remote instruction to keep class sizes low.

Adelphi University in Garden City announced Thursday it would reopen in-person on Jan. 25, with an option for faculty to pivot to short-term remote instruction at least through Feb. 7 and accommodations for students in isolation or quarantine.

The school also will maintain the 10-day isolation and quarantine period rather than abide by the new guidelines, and increase routine testing, including 10% of the student body each week in a surveillance program that had eased in the fall. Indoor capacity limits are back in place, and many employees will go remote.

"We’re doing everything we can to get back to our traditional on-ground experience, but do so in a way to offer the safest possible experience," said Dr. K.C. Rondello, clinical associate professor in the College of Nursing and Public Health at Adelphi. "Omicron has been a challenge to that."

But, he said, the picture could change quickly over the following weeks, and he expressed optimism that the spike in cases could fall rapidly, as it has in countries such as South Africa and Britain.

Decisions on how to respond to the latest surge are made campus by campus, with some routinely relying on a significant number of online courses.

Taking ‘wait-and-see’ approach

At Molloy College in Rockville Centre, where undergraduates already take 23% of classes online and 7% in hybrid — both in-person and remote — classes were delayed for a few days, and it will be "wait-and-see" for the foreseeable future, said Janine Biscari, vice president of student affairs. But the plan is to quickly return to a more open campus.

"The concept of COVID fatigue, Zoom fatigue is quite real," she said. "The plan is to return full swing to in-person classes and events in the spring."

Five Towns College in Dix Hills postponed its start to the semester from Jan. 10 to Jan. 31, when it expects all those on campus to be both vaccinated and boosted.

Hofstra University in Hempstead is planning for an in-person semester when most classes start Jan. 31, with a mask and booster mandate, surveillance testing and "constant advice from our partners at Northwell Health," said Melissa Connolly, vice president of university relations.

Stony Brook University will open with no additional remote instruction or curtailment of activities beyond some food safety measures and mask and booster mandates. Deans at the Renaissance School of Medicine rejected requests by students for remote instruction as positive cases spiked among employees at Stony Brook Medicine.

At Webb Institute in Glen Cove, a specialized school granting a dual degree in naval architecture and marine engineering, students must work together. With an enrollment of only 105, the school was COVID-19-free until three cases emerged after Thanksgiving in November.

There is no vaccine mandate, but 100% of students are vaccinated, said school President R. Keith Michel. "We have a strong honor code here, and the students generally abide by it," he said. "We ask them to limit off-campus travel, and as a result we’ve been in-person all this time."

He added, "The omicron strain has changed the equation. We recognize students will become infected," especially once they are on internships all over the world. Before returning on Feb. 28, they will get tested, isolate if positive, and take classes virtually for the first week. While masks and social distancing will be in place during the second week, after that, "We hope to be able to allow them to take their masks off in the classroom."

At St. Joseph’s College in Patchogue, where students commute to class, they have not been calling with concerns over returning, Executive Dean Eileen Jahn said. The first few days will be remote and resume in-person on Jan. 24.

"I have a feeling we’ll enter the spring semester with more caution than we’re going to leave it," she said, noting that spectators at sporting events are temporarily barred, but that she was hopeful conditions would improve. "I’m not getting a lot of letters from people nervous about coming back. I think people are developing a tolerance — they know they were safe in the fall."

More classes will be in-person this spring at New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, up to 75% to 80%, versus 62% remote or hybrid last fall, said Joseph Posillico, vice president for enrollment management.

"But we’re ready to switch at a moment’s notice if we have to. We’d just switch in-person classes to hybrid or remote if infection rates went up."

New York Tech Assistant Provost Tiffani Blake said some safety measures put in place during the pandemic would continue, such as options for virtual club meetings that made them more accessible and widely attended.

Meanwhile, John Lopes, 19, of Old Westbury, transferred as a sophomore last fall to LIU Post in Brookville after a year at home when his first school in Pennsylvania largely went remote. He was pleased with the experience and will be moving to a dorm for the spring semester, when he’ll be on the crew team and the school newspaper.

He did catch COVID-19 for a second time despite getting vaccinated, he said, but is not that worried about it now.

"People are going to get it or not going to get it, but school will still stay open," Lopes said.

By Carol Polsky

Carol.Polsky@newsday.com

Carol Polsky writes news and features on wide-ranging topics, from superstorm Sandy, 9/11 and presidential elections to health care and the economy.