On Monday, April 18, Syracuse University announced that campus would be returning to the “BLUE” COVID-19 alert level, making masks recommended inside and required for academic instruction. This development comes in light of the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases at SU, which accompanies new strains of the omicron variant. This is a regression from the more lenient level “YELLOW,” which had been in place since March 14. While this decision may frustrate students, especially with the semester coming to an end, it should come as little surprise that we are required to return to “BLUE”.

If you look at the chart of daily active cases among students since coming back from spring break, there has been a steady increase. With cases going from 17 the first day after the break to 145 currently, this rise mirrors that of Onondaga County as a whole. With no time to gauge outbreaks after the vacation, it seemed like SU jumped the gun in transitioning to “YELLOW” level — and these figures prove that to be true.

Given the high rates of vaccination on campus, the university had some flexibility to try out more relaxed policies, so it isn’t fair to penalize administration for wanting to eventually try the “YELLOW” level. But students who are displeased with the development have a right to call into question the timing. The choice to go maskless immediately following spring break was debatable from the start, and didn’t allow sufficient time to make a calculated decision. The March 14 date that the “YELLOW” level took effect coincided with many students’ departures from campus.

By making this switch directly before break, the university hindered its opportunity to make an informed decision about masking levels based on trends on campus and in the community after the travel-heavy vacation period. The “BLUE” level was holding its own for a bit, but bypassing this big test makes the choice to go even less strict one that is difficult to justify. The SU COVID-19 dashboard indicates that cases were already on the verge of rising again under code “BLUE,” yet after a week of students sprawling out across the country, that level was scrapped before we could even see if the influx of returning students would continue its upward trajectory.

SU let its ambition get the best of it by declaring level “YELLOW” when it did, as it put the ball in the students’ court despite encouraging-but-unproven COVID-19 patterns. The university can’t manage students when they’re going out or are off campus grounds, but within the facilities themselves, SU has the power to oversee them. The school let go of the only control it had at an unbelievably odd time, making this return to being masked feel more or less inevitable.

I want to be mask-free as much as every other student on campus, but doing so for only a month gave the students a sense of false hope, while also making SU seem naive in declaring code “YELLOW” so prematurely. After what seemed like a last-ditch effort to satisfy students while reported cases were low enough, we ended up at the same exact spot we would have been regardless — only with more cases to show for it, and an end-of-year celebration in masks.

Jonah Weintraub is a freshman broadcast and digital journalism major. His column appears biweekly. He can be reached at [email protected].