By Kurt Martone, Staff Writer
The COVID-19 task force has decided that visitors will be allowed to come on St. Bonaventure University’s campus starting on May 17.
Tom Missel, the co-chair of the COVID-19 task force and the university’s chief communications officer, said the university wanted the campus to remain active and open during the summer.
“We decided, because we wanted to start hosting events again,” said Missel.
Bonaventure plans on hosting summer camps and sports camps, among other events.
“The reality is that [these events] are revenue generators for us,” said Missel. “We already have events that we have scheduled for the new event center in Doyle and some summer and other sports camps have already signed on, [These will] all be within protocols and guidelines, set by the state and the county.”
The university plans to host anyone from across the country, due to the loosened restrictions that New York State has issued. Event guests will have access to amenities that a similar event would have had access to in the past.
“They will just have to abide by COVID-19 protocols,” said Missel.
Bonaventure has not allowed guests on campus since August of last year.
In a statement released Aug 11, 2020, Dr. Dennis DePerro, former university president, said, “These extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures, and protecting the health of the entire campus community is our top priority.”
The university has provided some exceptions to delivery personnel, prospective students, vendors and others.
The recent decision also allows the school to bring students to campus for freshmen orientation.
This summer, orientation students will be brought up in four different orientation sessions.
“What they did is they are trying to de-densify the groups,” Missel said. “It is pretty much going to run mostly like normal, they will still have to abide by safety protocols while they are here.”
This decision will be re-evaluated constantly.
“I am done assuming things in the middle of a pandemic,” said Missel. “We are pretty confident… [but] if for some reason there is a large spike in the region and we have to stop visitors from coming to campus, or there are more restrictions on hosting events, we will have to stop.”
University officials are hopeful that they will be able to host events all throughout the summer sessions.
The decision to allow guests on campus runs out on Aug. 7, when student athletes for fall sports begin moving into campus.
The university will evaluate what the impact hosting events during the summer had on campus and in the community. Any decision for the fall semester will be made during the weeks right before the semester starts.
martonkd18@bonaventure.edu
