SUNY Oneonta COVID Control Room Meeting Shares Encouraging Info

Last evening, the City of Oneonta livestreamed a meeting of the SUNY Oneonta COVID Control Room. Mayor Gary Herzig formed the team last month in response to the COVID-19 outbreak at SUNY Oneonta using the model from another committee that he’s a member of. According to AllOTSEGO, the control room group consists of new interim SUNY Oneonta President Dennis Craig, SUNY Chief of Staff Colleen Brannan, SUNY’s Vice President for Student Development Franklin Chambers, Mayor Gary Herzig, Oneonta Health Director Dr. Diane Georgeson, Emma Sarnacki (SUNY student), Third Ward Common Council Alderman Dave Rissberger, Oneonta Police Chief Doug Brenner and Rachel Dobkin (SUNY student).

The live-streamed meetings will be held bi-weekly on the city's YouTube channel.

SUNY Oneonta's Interim President, Dennis Craig, said, the meeting was "very encouraging.” He added, “Having conversations like this is what makes it work. We discussed a lot of issues today and the collegiality and calm in light of everything is very refreshing.”

SUNY Oneonta student Rachel Dobkin shared that after the collaboration between college students and Downtown Oneonta business owners, creating scarecrows that can be seen on Oneonta's Main St., students are now working on a project to create signs to promote mask wearing that will be tailored to individual Downtown businesses.

Franklin Chambers, SUNY’s VP for student development, reported that college officials are working on a new COVID-specific incident report that specifically focuses on COVID-incidents like non-compliance with mask wearing or hosting large gatherings.

As far as SUNY Oneonta COVID-19 cases go, yesterday the college reported 4 cases of the virus last week with no one currently quarantining or in isolation. The total confirmed cases related to the college since the fall semester began is 716.

For more on this story provided in partnership with AllOTSEGO, click here.