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UPDATED: Dec. 22 at 2:43 p.m.

Syracuse University will delay the start of the spring 2022 semester by one week due to the surge of COVID-19 cases, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced in a campus-wide email Wednesday.

The decision was made given the sharp increase of positive COVID-19 cases, the rapid spread of the omicron variant and warnings from public health officials that the surge will be most severe in the first three weeks of January, Syverud said in the email.

Classes for the spring 2022 semester will start on Monday, Jan. 24, Syverud said in the email. The schedule for spring break will stay unchanged and last from March 13-20.

Classes will now end on Wednesday, May 4 and the last day of the semester will be Thursday, May 12. SU will hold the commencement ceremony for the Class of 2022 on Sunday, May 15. Mike Haynie, the vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation, said in a separate campus-wide email on Wednesday.

International students can begin moving into on-campus residence halls and South Campus apartments on Thursday, Jan. 20, said Haynie. All other students will move in on Friday, Jan. 21.

The change will also affect the vaccine requirements for the spring semester, according to Haynie’s email. The university amended its booster shot mandate, which now requires all eligible students, faculty and staff to submit their proof of vaccination by Monday, Jan. 24.

In addition to required testing upon arrival on campus — which will be delayed in accordance with the start of the semester — returning students will also be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test before returning to campus. The university recognizes that testing is still limited, Haynie said in the email, and is working to best support students with limited testing options.

The university has canceled the in-person components of certain off-campus January courses such as ACC 400, EEE 424, MAR 400 and RES 472, Whitman School Assistant Dean Lindsay Quilty wrote in an email to students enrolled in those courses. The courses will now be taught in an alternative format.

Quilty said anyone who had booked hotel reservations relating to these courses should cancel them.

Syverud said students should expect communications from university officials about move-in schedules in the coming days and weeks.

SU made a similar decision last year when the university announced it would delay the spring 2021 semester by two weeks.

“Each semester, we have made decisions based on science and the best public health guidance,” Syverud said in the email. “I am confident in our ability to do it again.”

This post has been updated with additional reporting.

Published on December 22, 2021 at 10:47 am

Contact Francis: btang05@syr.edu | @francis_towne