Syracuse University in upstate New York arrested nearly two thousand students after a large social gathering on campus earlier this week.
Twenty-three students have so far been sentenced and officials searched for footage for surveillance to identify others who attended Wednesday’s meeting in the quad, which was a violation of the school’s school and mask rules, the said university Thursday.
The meetup – the latest example of college students defending school justice over the deadly virus – was met with a swift dismissal by a university official.
“We have one shot at doing this,” Vice-Chancellor J. Michael Haynie wrote in a letter to students about the school’s attempt to have personal classes during the pandemic. ‘The world sees, and they expect you to fail. Prove them wrong. ”
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Purdue University in Indiana expelled 36 students from attending a party last week and Virginia Tech, St. Olaf College in Minnesota and Radford University in Virginia have all exposed students to problems related to the virus, including attending parties.
Some colleges in the country have already been forced to move online at least temporarily after outbreaks of the virus on campus, including Notre Dame and Michigan State.
North Carolina State University abruptly terminated person classes for its undergraduate students last week after an increase in coronavirus cases was withdrawn to large, off-campus parties. More than 500 students were in self-isolation, the school said.
Northwestern University in Illinois on Friday sent letters to more than 100 students, touching on the “caution” of those who responded to “Hell Yeah” on Instagram to attend school parties amid the pandemic.
“Even if this post on social media was made shameful, you show your willingness to mock the well-being of our community, and the efforts made to protect it, a degree of carelessness that does not meet the values and principles we uphold, “it said.
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The school threatened to withdraw the permit from anyone who continues to violate the university’s rules on the virus.
Some say students were set up to take the blame. A UNC Chapel Hill student newspaper editorial said leadership there “should have expected students, many of whom are now living on their own for the first time, to be reckless.”
The Syracuse students received interim suspensions that can be appealed. They were asked to sign agreements on the rules of the university’s coronavirus when they first returned to campus after the summer break.
Fox News’ Daniella Genovese and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
